Timing is Nothing

(Chpt 6) Marry Me

So my not drinking for a very long time didn't even last 24 hours but I was not doing it in excess so that must have counted for something....Sorry God. I'd make it up to you some how.
As I sat with my glass of wine I looked around adoringly at the people around me. I believe that there are four kinds of stories that define who you are and who your friends are. There are funny stories, tear jerker’s/heart melters, mean stories and embarrassing stories. I could tell all four of them about every single person here.  When you can tell each kind of story about them, over and over again and it's still funny, happy, sad or otherwise. I think that's when you really know someone and you know that you have a keeper. The people that surrounded me at that very minute, were all keepers. Out of the 6 of us there, four of us had been together since day one of grade 8 and the other two had been acquired in the later years of our education.
Ava, Stephanie, Kelly and myself had been together for what seemed like a life time. Every broken heart, every house arrest and every embarrasing moment, we'd been there for eachother. Our meeting wasn't exceptionally exciting, infact, I don't even really remember it but that's irrelivent. We could rely on eachother for anything, at any time, even if we didn't talk for awhile and that's all that mattered.
Once a teacher commented that we shared a brain. This probably meant that we were a little on the stupid side, we were only 16, but she explained later that we're all so different it's remarkable we've been friends this long. I don't think that we are that different from one another but we each offer something different. Stephanie is the smartest woman I've ever met. Ask her about anything and she has the correct answer in ten seconds or less with other usless facts about whatever you asked her with complete honesty.She's like the go-to girl when you need to be logical and rational. Kelly is an all star. That girl can run like the wind, play soccer with the best of them and bat a ball like no ones buisness. People let her short-ness fool them but she can hold her own! Once, she broke a guys nose. Kelly didn't mean to, or atleast she says that she didn't. She's the one that you go to when you need someone to threaten to kill someone else or if you need a good laugh. Ava is our little bit of sweetness. If you need to cry or just need to rant Ava is definatly your first choice, she's always happy. She's probably the shyest of the four of us but the most adventurious. Then there is me. I don't really know  how I got thrown in with such an incredible group of women but I never questioned it, I simply thank my lucky stars for it. I would crumble without them.
After high school graduation we went our seperate ways. Stephanie went to school up  north, Kelly and Ava stayed in the area and I kind of floated. I took classes by correspondence and travelled, always ending up back at the begining with them. Over those couple of years, keeping in touch was hard. We all had seperate lives, we were growing up without eachother and meeting new people. It was tough but when we eventually all got back in touch it was like nothing had ever changed.
Somewhere towards the end of high school we started seriously hanging out with Collin and Mark. We all knew that Mark and Ava were seeing eachother after the infamouse winter formal, but they kept it to themselves for a long time. Once word was out Mark and his best friend became apart of the girls. They preteneded to girl talk, watched out for us at all times and explained men to us on a regular basis.
When I moved back to Vancouver a year and a half ago, Mark and Collin invited Ava and I to move in with them. They told us that it was so we could do the cooking and cleaning for them, like women should...but they quickly learned that Ava and I can not cook and were kind of cleaning handi-capped.
Collin lived with us only for six months before his construction job, took him to greener pastures...meaning Alberta. I was mad and refused to say goodbye. That night was the first time in a year that I had seen him in person and he hadn't changed. He was in town  for a random visit and was staying at his parents place.
When we ordered our dinner Ava brought up the events of the night before.
"So Jo brought a boy home last night and doesn't know his name. Raise your hand if you think it's a good thing!" Every single person at our table raised their hand, including our waiter who was bringing another beer for Collin.
"What would any of you know?" I laughed
"I know you haven't had sex for like 8 months because you haven’t dated anyone for at least eight months" Stephanie chuckled to herself.
"I am perfectly capable of functioning without having sex for months. I'm a machine" I swigged my wine, this wasn't something I really felt like talking about. It wasn't an old enough event yet that it was funny, it might be in a week, but not yet.
"Was he hot?" questioned Kelly
"If I were a girl I might have been slightly attracted to him." Shut up Mark.
"Was it good?" asked Stephanie and Kelly in sync
"It must have been. Guess how many times they did it!"
"Ok Ava, that's enough. No one cares" I at least hoped they didn’t.
"How many times" Now everyone was involved.
"8"
"8 times?!" Collin almost choked on his beer.
I was even speechless. How did she know? I hadn't told her.
"Don't look so shocked and sweet" laughed Ava "We heard almost everything"
"It was pretty hot but Ava was so excited for you that she wasn't excited by me" Mark joked. I sat there silently with a little smirk on my face. What was there to say? Apparently, last night I was a wild sex goddess. Who knew?
Thankfully the subject was dropped and we broke off into our own little conversations with who ever was closest to us. For me, that was Collin and Ava, my two favorites. Well Mark is a favorite too but he was stuck talking with Kelly about something that was stuck between her teeth that no one told her about.
"So Collin, what's new with the construction world?" Ava asked in her 'smart' person voice.
"Nothing much" he said through a massive grin.
"...except" sometimes he needed a little encouragement.
"...that I'm taking an office job here." Both Ava and I were speechless. He's not an office job kind of guy. He doesn't like doing his hair so he wears a hat, he loves his ripped and worn jeans and he wouldn't suit suits. He likes physical stuff, not sitting on his ass all day long.
"Close your mouths. It's not your typical office job. I'm doing estimating for the branch out here. They're sending me off to various sites so I can tell them exactly what they'll need, approximately how many people and about how much they'll have to pay. Most of it will be for commercial business but I'll start out in residential for the practice. I can get in on any job I want if I don’t have to do an estimate, I get a company car, an office, lap top, cell phone and an expense card. It's like I'm a grown up." This was true, but that means that he is the first of us to 'grow up', meaning that eventually we would be following in his wake.
"That's great" and I hugged him. I was really excited that he was moving back, I'd missed his company.
"Thanks. I'm pretty excited. It's part of why I'm in town actually, to look for a place."
"Why don’t you move back in with us?"
"I can't Ava, I'm used to living on my own now"
"It's more appealing to the ladies" I teased. Ava and Collin looked at each other and then at me.
"What?" I smiled.
As our massive desserts arrived so did a cute little waitress.
"Is there an Ava South at this table?"
"Yes" she answered automatically.
"Thank you" and the little girl walked away.
"Ook then" she rolled her eyes. We all continued our little conversations as if nothing had happened. Five minutes later six dozen bouquets of mixed roses came to the table for Ava.
"Oh my god. What is this?" She stood up accepting the flowers from the various delivery people. She turned around with her arms full of flowers and looked at Mark down on one knee.
"O my god" she said, her face full of shock and her body frozen.
"O my god" I repeated with the biggest smile on my face.
"Ava South, we've been together for almost six years now. You fell flat off the red carpet and took my heart down with you. I've been in love with you since I was thirteen and there is no one else for me, just you. I know we don't believe in completling each other, you're a whole person before someone and all that, but you better me. You make me want to keep trying when things go wrong, you knock me down a notch when I get to cocky. You love me in spite of the fact that I'm a slob, you kiss me spite of the fact I only floss twice a week and you laugh at my jokes even though half of them aren’t funny. You are my best friend. You are the best part of my life. You're the love of my life. Will you marry me?" Ava tried to reply but she was smiling to big and crying so hard that all she could do was shake her head, yes.
"Will some take the flowers?” she mumbled. I stood up, took some and gave Collin some and sat down again.
"Mark, I'll marry you, you know I will." He put a large solitaire diamond ring on her finger and picked her up and kissed her.
Our table and the tables around us started clapping like mad people while Collin and I compensated with loud cheers due to arms full of flowers.
"AVA SOUTH IS GOING TO MARRY ME!" Mark yelled at the top of his lungs, sending the whole restaurant into a fit of giggles and claps. When he finally let Ava go I hugged her and checked out her ring. It was beautiful and simple. It was a white gold band with a large round diamond with their names engraved on the inside and the number 16 beside it. I can't imagine getting married to anyone I dated when I was 16, the thought made my skin crawl a little.
"I'm so happy for you" I hugged her again.
"Did you know?" she asked, still crying a little, her brown eyes shinning.
"I didn't have a clue" and this was the truth. I can't believe Mark didn't tell me! We tell each other everything.
"Aw guy! It's about time!" I hugged Mark hard.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" he whispered as if reading my mind "but I knew you would be really excited and might slip up and tell her. I just wanted to surprise her you know" He pulled away and smiled bashfully.
"Don't worry about a thing," I hugged him again. I wasn't really hurt about not knowing, I kind of get a kick out of it. "Don't make a habit of it" I couldn't stop smiling!
The next few hours were full of silly toasts, multiple bottles of champagne and stupid anecdotes about the two of them and our escapades throughout the years. I hadn't had that much fun in ages.