Be My World

You wouldn't believe how hard this was to write/publish! My Internet is being weird again, so I've written this mainly on my phone, which I hate doing. I try to avoid it at all costs but tonight I had to. Otherwise there wouldn't be an update. So, please excuse the errors.

Sarah xx

*-*-*

"I still maintain this is your fault," Charlotte grumbles from her side of the holding cell at the East Hamptons Police Department. Ever since we were all arrested, Charlotte has segregated herself from the rest of us, throwing insults and shade at anyone that tried to talk to her. Currently, Brogan was the target of all Charlotte's frustrations. "You just had to hit him, didn't you?"

Brogan, to his credit, didn't bite back at anything Charlotte said to him. Hugo, who had been the previous target of Charlotte's wrath, was sulking in the corner of our joint cell, having been well and truly told off for daring to fight back with Charlotte. Both men were in everyone's bad books; their attitude and egos had landed us all in trouble with the cops and at this rate, no one would come of of this whole situation as friends.

It all began yesterday morning when Jasmine announced that we were all going to spend the Fourth of July weekend at her father's East Hampton house. Having enlisted everyone's help in getting Hugo's spirits up, this weekend out of the city was an inspired idea. It also helped that Samuel was in town, and the Emma and Adam had finally come back from their three week long honeymoon. With enough of us up for a few days away from the Big Apple, all that was left to do was pack and jump into the cars and go.

The drive up hadn't been all that bad. Jasmine drove, with myself, Samuel and Hugo as passengers. In the second car, Brogan was brave enough to drive with Charlotte shotgun and Emma and Adam smooching in the backseat. For the entire drive, Hugo kept wailing about how... Lucia- Lucille-Lucie?... had left him completely broken hearted. I tried to calm him down and tell him that there was plenty more fish in the sea, but Hugo was adamant that he'd had his great love.

That attitude, of course, only lasted for however long Hugo was sober for. Once we arrived at Jasmine's father's house and the pre-drinks were flowing, Hugo's attitude to never falling in love again had totally changed and he was back to his playboy ways in minutes. The only question, however, was who would be on the receiving end of Hugo's advances. It wouldn't be me, on the account that Hugo knew better than to even try and flirt with me; our friendship had weathered many storms in the past but it would never withstand the whole from friends to more than friends thing. Emma was married now, so she was off limits all together. Jasmine was fair game, I suppose, but Jasmine would never ever go there with Hugo. That only left Charlotte.

Now, I would love to say that Charlotte wouldn't touch Hugo in a million years, especially if Brogan was around, but she and Hugo have history in only the way people with unfinished business ever could. Charlotte and Hugo were once a thing; they were far from officially dating but they spent a ridiculous amount of time together for people who weren't serious. It stems from the fact that Charlotte had always had a crush on Hugo and he loved being the centre of attention, but as they grew older, any hopes of them growing wiser were dashed.

After the fifth drink, Hugo was in full flirting mood and was throwing every chat-up line in Charlotte's direction. Most of them, naturally, were in French and sounded equally ridiculous and enticing and for the briefest of moments, it looked as if Charlotte might fall for it all. I wasn't the only one worried about my sister falling into Hugo's arms because the second Hugo leaned in and tried to plant a kiss on Charlotte's lips, Brogan charged up at the pair and landed a swift right upper cut onto Hugo's jawline.

From there, it all went to hell. The police turned up after a noise complaint from a neighbour and Brogan was arrested for assault. Seeing as Hugo had returned punch for punch, he was also arrested for assault. Jasmine and Samuel were arrested for public indecency, not that they were that indecent or in public. They were skinny dipping in the pool, which one of the neighbours thought was 'lewd.' Charlotte was detained for physically assaulting an officer of the law when she tried to grab one and stop them from detaining Brogan. Thinking it was time that I intervened, I tried to reason with the arresting officer, but when he refused outright to listen, I may have called him a 'twat.' In America, that's considered verbally assaulting a police officer. I'm not sure what Emma and Adam were arrested for, but they somehow wound up in the cell with us all.

"It's no one's fault," Emma tried to diplomatically calm the whole situation. She, like me, was sat in between Brogan and Hugo, along with everyone else bar Charlotte. Emma, the peacemaker in every family feud, was trying to keep the calm but when Charlotte levelled a glare on her, the youngest of us three sisters decided to shrink back slightly. "You know, if that's how you want to play it, we could easily lay the blame at your feet, Charlotte. I mean, you and Brogan are basically together but you didn't exactly tell Hugo, 'thanks, but no thanks.'"

"You're blaming me?" Charlotte huffed.

"Can you all just please, shut up?" I implored, finally tiring of the blame game. Spending a night in a jail cell, with these bunch of weirdos and having frozen for most of it, the entire situation had taken its toll on me. Not to mention the fact that we'd had to make the most embarrassing phone calls of our lives in a bid to have someone come and bail us out. "I swear to God, when we finally get out of here, I don't want to have to see any of you for a week."

Checking the clock that was above the door on the wall opposite the cell, I mentally calculated that the cavalry should be here soon. Charlotte and Emma had used their calls to phone our father and the family lawyer. Dad had the cash reserve to bail us out while Philip Grey had the smarts to help get the charges dropped and our names kept out of the press. Samuel phoned Evie because he knew that if I were to call Daniel, he would need someone on his side that wouldn't lecture him on how to behave in public and judge him for a silly mistake.

Daniel, I had a feeling, wouldn't be impressed at all with the fact that his brother and fiancée had both been incarcerated. His tone of voice last night hadn't been all that encouraging. And all this coming in the wake of my mid-week promise to make sure that Samuel didn't do anything stupid.

"Your brother is going to kill me," I grumbled lowly so that only Samuel could hear me.

"Yep," he unhelpfully confirmed. Knocking my shoulder with his, Samuel gave the classic Whitaker smirk. "But he's going to kill me too, so at least you'll have company in Hell."

"Speak for yourself," I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm going to Heaven."

Samuel matched my laughter but all the goodnatured humour was sucked out of the room when the door opened and Daniel strolled in, hand in his jean pockets and an unamused look written across all his features. His jaw was covered with days old stubble, his eyes were dark with circles underneath and his body looked weary. All in all, Daniel looked utterly furious with us all.

"Congratulations," the police officer that had accompanied Daniel spoke to us all. "You've all made bail and the charges have been dropped. In fact, no charges were brought against you, whatsoever. You're all free to leave."

Unlocking the cell door, the officer escorted Charlotte out first, quickly followed by Jasmine, Emma and Adam. Brogan and Hugo were next to leave, although there was some contention as to who would be the first to get out. After a little scuffle, Brogan took a step back and allowed Hugo to pass.

Samuel and I, meanwhile, decided that the cell didn't look all that bad. Actually, compared to the lecture that was awaiting us as soon as Daniel got us stuck in a car or in a house, the East Hampton Police Department holding cell seemed rather blissful.

"Samuel?" Daniel addressed his brother first. In all this time, Daniel had yet to look at me. "Evelyn is waiting for you outside. Go."

Thinking that maybe he was off the hook, Samuel was quick to ditch me and slink passed Daniel as he made his way out of the room. Unfortunately, that meant I was all alone in the firing line.

"Sophie," he finally addressed me.

"Daniel," I said, my voice small and weak.

"Are you going to come out of the cell any time soon?" Daniel asks, with only a fraction of amusement in his tone. Silently, I nod and stand, making my way to the cell door. When I was within touching distance, Daniel's hand encircled my wrist, pulling me to him so that he could wrap his arms around my shoulder. The move took me by surprise and instead of reciprocating his embrace, I stood there, limp. "Are you ok? Are you hurt? Sophie, did anything happen to you?"

I shake my head. "No."

"Thank God," Daniel sighs heavily. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Still feeling slightly bewildered by Daniel's reaction, I quietly followed him to the reception area, wondering if this was maybe some sort of delayed thing and that in a moment, Daniel would finally realise what was going on and he would blow a gasket. In the meantime, it looked as if Dad was doing enough shouting for everyone. I only caught half of what he was saying, but from the little that I understood, Charlotte was getting the brunt of the lecture. Emma was clearly loving the dressing down Charlotte was getting and couldn't help but smirk behind her hand.

"And you!" Dad bellowed at Hugo. Having been a family friend since we were kids, Dad had no qualms about giving Hugo a telling off either. Despite ranting at him in English most of the time, Hugo was clearly terrified of my father. When Dad turned his attention on him now, pointing a finger at him accusingly, Hugo winced and tried to make himself seem smaller, without much success. "Don't even get me started on you. You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

With those parting words, Dad stormed from the building, PG in his shadow. They both climbed into the awaiting car and as soon as the doors were closed, the car sped off into the distance.

"Right, shall we all go back to the house now?" Evie broke the awkward silence. She reached out a hand and motioned for Samuel to get up and follow her. "Daniel, we'll see you and Sophie later."

Frowning, I watched as everyone left followed Evie, until it was just Daniel and I left. He led me out to the car park at the side of the building and ushered me to a rental car. Opening the door, Daniel helped me climb inside before he rushed around to the driver's side and climbed in himself.

We drove around for a while, until we finally found ourselves pulling up outside my family's Hampton house. Using a remote to open the gate, Daniel navigated the driveway until he was parked outside the door and killed the engine.

"What are we doing here?" I ask as I get out of the car and meet Daniel at the front door of the house. When all I had in reply was a smirk, I rolled my eyes and walked into the house. "Fine, whatever, don't-"

I stopped short of finishing my thoughts as I swung the front door open onto the scene before me. Strew on the floor were hundreds of red flower petals, and dotted around the room in tens of vases were various flowers.

"They're all fake," Daniel assured me from behind. "They're silk flowers."

I nod. "Yeah... what's going on, Daniel?"

Spinning where I stood, I was half expecting to see Daniel stood in front of me with a smile on his face. Instead, he was on his knee on the floor in front of me, looking terrified. In his hands, he held a black velvet box that he nervously played with, while he exhaled deeply.

"Sophie Evangeline Clément Delaney," he says me name in its entirity. "I know we've only known each other for six months and many will say that we're rushing things, but I couldn't care less about what they say. You have completely changed my life, Soph, and I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like if I hadn't ever met you. I know we've had ups and downs and for a while, it seemed almost like we would never get together, but I am so glad that we persevered. Sophie, the day you told me that you were in love with me was the happiest of my life. Or so I thought. Then you asked me to marry you. Everything suddenly felt right. My world was complete because you were in it."

He pauses to open the velvet box, and as tempted as I am to look down, I can't tear my eyes away from Daniel's. My heart has been beating a million miles an hour and seeing Daniel so nervous has the butterflies in my stomach fluttering wildly. "Sophie, this isn't ideal, asking for your hand in marriage an hour after springing you out of jail, but I did say I wanted this proposal to be unique. Nothing about us is normal, Soph, and that's ok with me. I never wanted normal. I just want you. Be my world, Sophie. Be my wife."