[Anima Sola]

(Fortsetzung von Kapitel 11)

Rory spent one of the best evenings of her entire life, partying with her friends and family – she enjoyed to have Lane around who she hadn’t seen for quite a while due to college work, she was even glad that her grandparents had come and even they seemed to have fun. She was happy about Paris’s and Doyle’s arrival and about the special appearance of more members of the Life and Death Brigade such as Colin, Robert, Stephanie, Rosemary and Juliet – and she even hugged Logan welcome when he showed up.
She was just sitting at one of the roulette tables and played Finn’s muse as he threw the dices over the table, kissing her whenever he won – or whenever he lost. Sipping on her drink – there were exactly 21 kinds of drinks created by her mother and Finn, Lorelai’s job had been to find funny names, Finn’s to pour the right alcohol together – Rory watched Finn and applauded as he rolled his lucky number. She then looked around and watched her guests, sighing happily.
“Hey, love”, she heard Finn whisper into her ear.
She turned her head and smiled at him.
“Come on, I’m bored. Let’s try something else”, he grinned.
“Your word, Master”, she laughed and dragged him along to the hall of mirrors, each mirror transforming their reflections into weird images. Rory giggled helplessly as Finn and she made a contest of who was better in making funny faces. He won – for Rory collapsed, holding her sides, laughing loudly. He laughed with her, grabbing her waist, pulling her back in front of a mirror that made them both very slim and very tall. He looked over her shoulder and grinned widely.
“Do we look silly”, Rory laughed.
“Yes, we do”, Finn confirmed.
Rory tilted her head, watching how her reflection did the same. Finn put his chin on her shoulder, his face suddenly very serious. Rory noticed his stern expression and pushed her lower lip forwards, mocking him by imitating him.
“Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills”, she said in a deep voice. “When life gets you down, you know what you got to do?”
Finn watched her.
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”, Rory sang and laughed. “Aww, I love that movie!”
“What movie?”
“What? You don’t know Finding Nemo? That movie is so – SO – cute. You got to see that!”
“Hmm.”
“We have to see it, yes, we’ll see it together. That’s going to be the first thing we do tomorrow!”, Rory giggled – before she noticed how he still looked rather serious. “Finn, what’s wrong?”
He let go of her and walked a little away, with Rory quickly catching up, grabbing his hand.
“Come on”, she then said and dragged him outside the house.
“Rory, it’s fine. Nothing’s wrong. Come on, let’s enjoy your party!”
“No! I can see that there’s something bothering you. You tried to overplay it, but I still know that something is wrong. Tell me, Finn, you know you can tell me”, she whispered, cupping his face as they stood on the porch.
“My parents are moving back to Australia”, he then said.
“What?”, she blurted out, staring at him.
“My parents are going back to Australia, my sisters are already there. And… they want me to go with them.”
“What?”, Rory cried, Finn’s words aching in her heart like burning arrows. “And – and what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know”, he whispered, avoiding her stare.
“Stay here, you still got your grandparents here! And me”, she added, barely audible.
“I know, Rory”, he replied and kissed her gently, wiping her silent tears away with his thumb. “But it’s my family. And my grandparents consider to move to Australia as well, they say they’re sick of the American Way of Life – so I would be the only one in this tremendously huge country. I could even graduate over there. There is nothing keeping me here…”
“But what about me? I am with you!”, Rory cried, her voice high-pitched.
“I know, Rory, and I am grateful you are”, he said, looking down. “But I don’t think we’ll be together forever…”
That caused Rory’s jaw to drop, her heart to miss a beat and her mind to completely loose it.
“Are you breaking up with me?”, she whined, letting go of him in shock.
“No!”, he replied, apparently surprised about her shock. “I would never dare to break up with you! I love you, Rory, I want to be with you!”
“Then why are you saying these things?”, Rory yelled.
“Because I don’t deserve you!”
“What?” Rory’s voice broke as she stared at him in utter disbelief.
“You deserve someone better than me, Rory.”
“Are you serious?”
“You know, these last months were the greatest of my entirely life. I had so much fun with you, I enjoyed every minute we spent together. You are an amazing girlfriend! But –“
“But?”
“But I don’t think I’m the best boyfriend…”
She stared at him with her mouth open, before she leapt at him, hitting his chest with her fists, crying agitatedly. He pulled her arms around her, holding her close, keeping her from hitting him.
“I am sorry, Rory…”
“You are such a coward”, he heard her whisper. “I cannot believe this! I cannot believe you!”
He let go of her and stared down at her.
Her face was red from crying and yelling, but when she spoke, there was ice streaming down Finn’s back.
“All of a sudden there is a problem in the perfect world and what do you do? Bolt. Run away from it, hide it, forget it. I cannot believe this is coming from you, Finn. Who are you? I thought you were Finn, the infamous Finn, the one that makes me laugh, that holds me when I’m sad, that I can talk to whenever I want, the one that’s not afraid of anything. I thought you were perfect. Apparently, you’re not. Now, just now, you butt out and leave me standing here all alone. The last months you killed all the doubts I had in you before. You were the perfect boyfriend, you’ve become so much more than the perfect boyfriend, you are my lover, my best friend, you were my dirty little secret, you are everything I always wanted. I never met someone like you, Finn. These last months I learned so much from you. The most important thing I learned, was that I need you. I need you, Finn, do not butt out right now. Do not leave me…”
He watched her frowning, a substantial melancholy welling up behind his eyes.
“Please don’t say I deserve better, Finn”, she continued, her voice almost breaking. “I don’t deserve better, I deserve you. I want to deserve you! I want you!”
He lowered his head, unable to reply anything.
“Don’t go, stay with me. If you really want to be with me, don’t go back to Australia!”, she said with finality, yet suddenly afraid that he’d told her she deserved better because he really wanted to back out of this relationship, seeing his moving back to his home-country as a good chance and excuse to leave her.
But it was then that Finn raised his head and met Rory’s gaze. His eyes were serious, yet she imagined to see something sparkle behind his sincerity. He took a step towards her and grabbed her hand, before he went down on one knee, looking up at her – with Rory’s heart already missing a beat.
“Rory, will you marry me?”
She stared at him with her mouth open, her head turning numb immediately. “What?”
“Will you _”
“Yes, I heard you, but – what?”, she blurted out, her voice nothing but a whisper.
“It’s the only way I can be sure that you really want me to stay.”
“What? I – I, yes, I want you to stay. But marriage? Aren’t we a little too young? I – I just turned 21 –“
“I know, love, I’m not that much older myself!”
“But why marriage?”
“Why not?”
“I’m too young to marry!”
“Last year, you were too young to drink Tequila either”, he smirked. “Life is about taking risks, darling. About adventures. We survived our first one – why not at least try to do another?”
“Marriage as adventure? Finn, getting married is a big deal! We can’t just get married because we ran out of Tequila or something.”
“I’m not saying that, love – besides, I would find other alternatives if we would run out of Tequila – so what I am saying is, that we should try it. You said so yourself, you want me – and I can say I want you. I love you, Rory, and these last months, this last year, showed me that I can be a commitment-guy, you taught me and I must say, I like it. As long as you are the one I commit myself to. I want to be with you – why not for the rest of my life?”
“Because the rest of your life is an awfully long time! What if we change our minds in the middle of that?”
“Then we change our minds – knowing that the time we spent together had been the best ever.”
“You make this sound so easy…”, she whispered down to him.
“You made commitment sound so easy too.”
“We can do this, right?”
“Yes, we can, love.”
“Oh my god”, Rory hissed. “We’re… we are…”
“Getting married?”, Finn asked, looking up at her with a smile.
Rory broke into a tearful smile. “Yes! Yes, we are!”
Finn grinned and got up, pulling her into a tight embrace. She replied his hug even tighter, crying happily into his shoulder.
“Oh my god, I have to tell Mom! And Lane and –“, Rory let go of him, walking towards the front door.
“Rory?”
“Hmm?”, she stopped and turned around.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”, he asked with a grin.
She laughed and ran back to him, leaping at him, pulling her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. He held her tightly, replying the kiss hungrily. She then kissed his nose chuckling, before leaning back a little, watching him, her legs wrapped around his waist.
“I’m getting married”, she whispered, locking eyes with him.
“Me too”, he replied, smirking.
“This is going to be fun”, she grinned and kissed him again, before she jumped to her feet again, grabbing his hand and pulling him inside the house after her.
The party was still going on wildly, the blackjack and roulette tables completely packed, the free space between all the activities used as dance floor occupied with laughing couples, the hall of mirrors filled with laughter, Rory’s favourite music still ringing through the rooms. As they passed Logan and Colin standing at one of the blackjack tables, they caused them to exchange knowing glances, with the girls of the Life and Death Brigade holding their mouths in order to keep their screams low.
When Rory and Finn approached Lorelai and Luke dancing between the tables, Rory’s mother just had to shoot a glance at her daughter, seeing both hers and Finn’s enormous smiles, before she squealed loudly, letting go of Luke and running towards her daughter, pulling her into a bone-breaking hug.
“Is it true?”, she called over the music, looking from Rory to Finn, who nodded with a huge smile. “OH MY GOD!”, Lorelai squealed and hugged Rory again, pulling Finn towards them.
Lane joined them, watching Rory for only a moment, before another squeal echoed through the room.
“What’s going on?”, Luke asked, observing the scene frowning.
Lorelai turned to him. “Rory, my Rory, is getting married – of course before me, so typical!”, she laughed and smiled at her daughter.
“Married?”, Luke asked, looking very surprised.
“Yes”, Finn replied. “This kind lady agreed to marry me!”, he said and pulled an arm around Rory, meeting her smiling gaze.
“But why?”
“Well, why not?”, Lorelai said, looking at Luke challenging.
“Life is about taking risks, Luke”, Rory said, kissing Finn’s cheek.
“Australia can more than wait”, Finn grinned and leant in closer to kiss Rory more passionately. She pulled her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.
Clapping sounds parted them again and they saw how Logan and Colin approached them with a large cake, decorated with both 21 candles and a wedding couple on top. Rory laughed at the sight of it and grabbed Finn’s hand for support.
“Congratulations, buddy”, Logan said and clapped Finn’s back.
“You finally did it!”, Colin joined them.
“Finally?”, Rory asked in surprise.
“Yes, he has been bugging me for ages, always asking himself if you would say yes. Yet I never thought he would actually do it!”, Colin said, grinning at Finn.
Rory looked up at Finn with a big smirk playing around her lips. “You always keep surprising me”, she whispered.
“That’s another part of my charm, love”, he grinned.
While everyone gathered around them, armed with a glass of pink champagne, Rory looked into Finn’s eyes, squeezing his hand slightly.
“I can’t believe I’m marrying my dirty little secret!”
“That’s just how it goes, darling”, Finn replied, winking at her.

The End