Forever & Always

“It’s almost time,” Percy thought as he paced back and forth on the lawn. “Today is the day that I’ll ask the one I love to marry me.”

Many students have an array of things on their mind on the day of their graduation; if they are going to continue for a higher degree, their friends, their family, parties, career. But not Percy. The only thing he was thinking about is how not to stumble over his words when he asked his childhood best friend and the boy of his dreams to spend the rest of his life with him. 

He had gone over the list of items he needed for his plan to work in his mind every chance he got. “Ring…,” he tapped his coat pocket, “check. Note…,” he took a small sheet of paper from his back left pocket, “check. Perfectly worded speech that isn’t too long, but isn’t too short…,” he thought for a moment of what the speech consisted of, “check.” He needed everything to be perfect for Finn because he deserved nothing less than the best. 

Percy was practicing what he would say to the love of his life until he heard a woman’s voice calling his name in the distance, “Percy? Percy! Come on, you’ll miss your own graduation if you don’t hurry!” 

“Right, I still have to make it through graduation with nothing going wrong,” he thought.

“Hey!” A hand started waving in front of his face.

“Amber?” Percy asked, confused about what was happening.

“GASP…” Amber said dramatically putting the back of her hand against her forehead. “You don’t even recognize your own sister’s voice? The same sister that raised you?” 

Percy sighed at his sisters’ dramatic comment, “Of course I know your voice. I'm just busy thinking about Finn to pay that much attention to it.”

“Double gasp!! Percy… how rude!” Amber laughed, “Of course you have him on your mind 24/7, what did I expect?” A faint blush painted the boys’ cheeks and nose. Percy smiled at the thought of the love of his life, talking about him, and even just thinking of him always seemed to brighten his day. Noticing her brother’s smile, Amber let out a low laugh, “Even though he occupies all your free time, I’m glad he found his way into your life, after everything that has happened at home he has always been there to cheer you up.” Amber’s volume lowered a bit, “even if it wasn’t necessarily always legal.” Even though she tried hiding what she said, Percy still heard her and chuckled, thinking of all the trouble they could have gotten into if anyone had ever caught them with spray paint tagging buildings or throwing eggs at strangers’ cars and houses. He was soon lost in thought once more about his best friend and all the time they spent together. If either one was ever going through a tough time, the other was never far from their side, especially when Finn’s mom died and he was entered in the system or when Percy’s father would come home a mess and Percy needed an escape.

Amber had continued talking to Percy until she realized he was in his own world, miles away, “Percy! Are you even listening to me” Amber punched his arm a few times, but after that didn’t seem to work, she yelled out “Oh no, Percy!” she paused for dramatic effect, “Finn just fell off the stage!” 

“WHAT! WHERE?” Percy snapped out of his earlier thoughts, “NO! THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING! THIS IS NOT PART OF THE PLAN!!” Percy yelled out in fear while spinning, trying to find the direction of the stage. 

“Plan?” Said a raspy voice, “What plan?” Percy looked over to where the statement came from. That’s when he noticed his boyfriend, walking over with his hands in his pockets with an eyebrow raised. “If you’re planning on ruining graduation, at least let me help.” Finn joked. 

“What? Plan? I...I didn’t say plan, I um…I…I said....plant.” 

“Plant?” Finn had a challenging grin on his face as he draped his arms around his flustered boyfriend’s neck, clasping his fingers together in the back. 

“Yes, plant,” Percy said with the slightest bit of confidence this time. “Amber asked if dirt was part of the plant over there, and I told her it wasn’t.” Finn chuckled knowing that Percy was a bad liar. 

“Well, you can continue your plant conversation later, the ceremony is starting,” Finn said, making air quotes around the word plant. He placed a light peck on Percy’s lips before grasping his hand and leading him to their seats. 

Throughout the entire ceremony, Finn noticed that Percy looked anxious, but he just passed it off as the stress of graduating.

After the ceremony had ended, Finn looked over to find that Percy had already run off. He was about to get up and call his lover when a small sheet of paper laying across the others’ seat caught his eye. The rectangular piece of paper had bold blue lettering that read, “Meet me where we shared our first kiss.” Finn processed the words on the paper, “The park” he whispered as he grabbed his coat and ran to where the note implied. 

“Oh, no,” Percy said as he frantically searched his pockets. 

“What is it, Perce?” Amber questioned. 

“I…I must have left the ring in my car,” Percy said as he sunk to the ground with his face in his palms. 

“Percy, calm down...” Amber got cut off.

“I CAN’T CALM DOWN!” Percy shot up looking at his sister. “FINN WILL BE HERE ANY MINUTE, AND I DON’T HAVE A RING!” At this point, Percy was having a full-blown panic attack which meant his sister had to come up with something…fast.

Finn was taking a little longer than he anticipated because he kept getting stopped by people saying congratulations and asking about his plans for the future, to which he responded that he didn’t know what his future had in store for him.

After about 10 minutes, Finn had finally gotten to his destination—a park bench under a tall pine tree. Sitting on the edge of the bench was a blonde boy wearing khakis and a dark blue button-down shirt with a red and black striped tie. He had his chin resting on his palms. 

“Percy?” the boy lifted his head when his name was called, “Why did you run off right after graduation ended?” Finn walked over and sat next to his small boyfriend placing his hand on his leg, which made Percy jump a bit from the sudden contact. 

“Nothing has been going as I planned,” Percy said looking Finn in the eyes. If you didn’t know Percy’s general appearance you would have missed that his eyes were a shade redder than they usually were. 

“Has… has he been crying?” Finn thought to himself. Percy was about to speak again but was stopped by Finn pulling him into a loving hug. “Whatever plan you had can still happen, you just have to let me help. I’m here for you, always.” Finn spoke lightly pulling away from the hug ever so slightly so he could see Percy’s beautiful golden flaked green eyes which were now holding small tears in the corners. 

“I…I love you,” Percy said, pulling Finn into a short, but loving kiss. A few seconds passed before Percy pulled away. He thought for a moment as he wiped his eyes dry. “Give me like five minutes,” Percy said as he stood up and ran behind a large rock pile that sat about twenty feet from the bench, leaving the latter confused and wondering what was happening. 

“Amber?” Percy whispered, trying to find his sister. “Amber!” Percy said louder when he saw her sitting against the boulders. 

“Percy? That was quick,” Amber said looking up at her brother. 

“What?” Percy was a little confused by his sister's statement, then it hit him. “No, no, no,” Percy said, waving his hands side to side. “If you’re still up for it I was thinking that maybe we could continue the plan?” he suggested looking at his sister’s astounded facial expression. 

“I’ll help, but isn’t Finn sitting over on the bench right now? And hasn’t almost all of the plan gone terribly wrong?” Amber questioned. 

“Well, yes, but…” Percy’s sentence was cut short. 

“So then I say we should scrap that plan and use what I’ve come up with.” Amber got up and looked over at the still very confused boy sitting on the bench mere feet away. “So, what do you think?” she asked again in hopes for a response from her younger sibling standing in front of her. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I trust you 100%.” 

Amber grinned at the hopeful boy, “Ok, so here’s the plan…”

“Did he die?” Finn thought, looking over where his boyfriend disappeared what seemed like ages ago. He had gotten up and was about to go look for Percy until he felt something pull him back down to the bench from behind. “What the…?” Finn was about to throw his hand back to smack the person pulling him down when he saw the small boyish figure of the one that he loved, jump over the bench and sit down on his lap. 

“I hope you didn’t miss me too much.” Percy smiled and kissed Finn on the cheek.  

“I was about to go looking for you ‘cuz I thought you died or something,” Finn said as he pulled the other closer to him. 

“Well, looked to me like I was about to a few seconds ago,” Percy smirked as he pointed to Finn's right hand which was still clenched. He looked at his hand, immediately opening it, and placing it on Percy’s hip, pulling the boy closer than he already was. Percy giggled, which made Finn smile. He leaned down to kiss the other, but instead of landing on his lips, he was met with a hand dividing them. 

“Not so fast lover boy,” Percy laughed, Finn's smile faded into a small pout. “You said that my plan could still work, but for that to happen, you have to close your eyes and not open them till I tell you, ok?”  In response, he got a small nod and a pair of closed eyes. Percy stood up from his boyfriend's lap. “So like I said before, nothing was going how I had planned. I had this whole extravagant thing set up for you, but somehow everything ended up going wrong.” He went silent for a moment, and all that Finn heard was what sounded like the crinkling of a wrapper. “You can open your eyes now.” Once he was given the ‘ok’ to look, Finn slowly opened his eyes to see Percy on one knee in front of him looking at what he was holding in his left hand.

“A ring pop?” Finn thought as he let a small laugh escape his lips. 

“I had this whole speech for you that wasn’t too long but wasn’t too short,” Percy started to explain. “It was going to be absolutely perfect, but that’s no longer part of the plan.” Percy finally looked up and smiled at the tall boy sitting in front of him. “Now I’m just going to be straight f…” he was cut off by someone yelling to him in the distance.

“It's a little late for you to be straight now, isn’t it, little bro?” Amber laughed. Percy glared over at his sister who was watching everything from the top of the rock pile while Finn started laughing hysterically. 

“She’s not wrong,” he laughed, earning himself a soft punch to the arm. 

“As I was saying,” Percy said loud enough for his sister to hear. He tried to sound annoyed, but failed and ended up laughing along with Finn. 

“Ok,” Finn took a deep breath trying to calm himself down, “please, continue.” 

“As I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted, I decided it was better to be forward with this instead of dragging it all out with a long speech and all the nerves that go along with it,” he said, taking a breath before he continued. “So, Finn Embery will you…,” he paused and looked up at Finn with a blank stare. “Well damn, I forgot what I was going to say. Hm, I’ll have to get back to you when I remember,” Percy shrugged, a smirk growing across his lips. 

Finn wasn’t having it and said, “Percy I swear! You're ruining the mood.” 

Percy laughed, “Ok, ok. Finn Embery, will you marry me?” He held up the red ring pop while maintaining eye contact. 

“Hmmm, I don’t know…,” Finn smirked evilly, then laughed. Percy pouted. “Of course I’ll marry you, Stupid!” 

Percy let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in, but he was still frozen where he sat. 

“Finn Embery, the absolute love of my life just agreed to marry me! I really hope I’m not dreaming!” He felt a swift hand hit the side of his face with a smack, “Ow, Finnnnnn, what was that for?” Percy whined as he looked at his fiance. 

“I was proving to you that this isn’t a dream,” Finn laughed at Percy’s new expression, his cheeks lightly dusted a rose color from the embarrassment. 

“I...I said that out loud??” Percy stuttered out, trying to hide his face with his free hand. 

“Yup!” Finn said, taking the ring pop out of his love’s hand, putting it on his finger, and admiring it for a second. “I don’t think this ring is going to last until the wedding though,” he joked as he took a lick of the pop. “Also is staying on the ground for the rest of eternity part of the new plan?” Finn asked. 

“Not originally, but as we know, plans tend to change,” Percy shrugged with a quiet chuckle. Before he knew what was happening, Finn pulled him up by his tie into a passionate kiss. When they pulled away to take a breath, Percy started to pepper sweet kisses on Finn's lips, and with each breath, he said one word, “I…will…love…you…always…and…forever.”