It's been a year since Jack arrived back home.

We enjoyed our little vacation, and I helped jack sign up for some online therapy courses. His parents did kick him out, and he lost everything but his real family. Us. His grandma helped him while he worked and finished school. We finished school together, he helped teach me Spanish as time went on, and he took care of me every time I was done with my treatment. And, I've been cancer-free for 6 months. We graduated high school, got jobs, and Jack started living with my parents and me for a month. Then his mother shows up and tells him that they are sorry and want to talk to him. He said yes but only if I could come. So, we went to his house, and we talked. They said they were fine with him being gay, he corrected and said he was bisexual, not gay. They were still fine with it, but they wanted him to start taking a place in the world like them. They wanted him to go to a fancy expensive college, states over. He said no unless they would pay to move me into an apartment with him. They refused to pay for me to move into an apartment with him, so he said no to their offer. He made it clear he wouldn't leave me behind. 

Eventually, they agreed, so now he goes to college and I work. We live in Nevada, and he attends the University of Nevada, Reno. He studies Kinesiology, and he is going for a master's degree. His one exception to going to this college was that his parents let him choose the degree he goes for, and of course, he chose to do something with fitness. He also works as a lab assistant, so he's also getting a paycheck, along with myself. His parents pay for our apartment as part of the deal, but we pay for everything else and that's totally okay with us. We dont fight, but we have small little quarrels. Like him trying to stuff me up with sweets when I'm trying to diet, and when I get home from work and forget to put my shoes on the rack. Small things that we laugh about later on.

I've worn the ring every day since he made that promise to be my future husband. And whenever someone asks if I'm married I say yes. It feels like second nature, like we're already married but we aren't. I dont even take off the ring when I do physical therapy, I'm terrified to set it down anywhere because I feel like I'll lose it, so I always wear it no matter what. When I have to take it off for whatever reason, I put it on my necklace so I know it's around my neck instead. 

I'm still on medical because I still have pains, but it's gotten so much better since I've been cancer-free; now I just use it for physical therapy. I'm fully content with how I'm living now. I have a good job, I have a very nice apartment with my fiancé who I call my husband, and he goes to a nice university and has amazing grades and an income due to being a lab assistant. Everything is going amazing since he returned a year ago. It was a bumpy path at first, but we stayed together and helped each other. 

What he doesn't know is that I've been putting away some money in my savings, the money I'm saving to buy him a ring. I've always thought it's unfair I have a ring and he doesn't, so I'm going to be getting him a ring. And, this weekend we have a mall date. I figured I could stop by a shop and try on jewelry for the fun of it and get his ring size. 

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Three more months later I finally had the funds to get him the ring I wanted. So, I bought it using the ring size I got from him 3 months ago. It's a ring like mine, but it's got a circle diamond instead of a squared diamond. Giving it to him was amazing, I was so happy I could do something for him like he did for me a year ago. We then had a gift battle. Buying small things for the other that we knew each other loved. Until one day he took me out to eat at a nice restaurant and finally popped the question. The real question. I said yes. Of course I would say yes. I was over the moon for that yes. We told his parents, and we told my parents, and one was more excited than the other. His parents congratulated him and that was the end of that conversation. My parents traveled over to congratulate us. They bought us all dinner, and we watched some movies and played some games. 

When we told Jack's Nan, she said she already knew thanks to the call to his parents, but she was happy for us. We laughed it off, knowing she was always rooting for us and we were happy for her support. 

Then we told the group, and everyone was so ecstatic, more so than me. Pat also announced they were in a relationship with Nic. Tim and Gene had started moving in together, and Lucas and Rain were starting to live together. Deren had gotten a girlfriend who knew Sara, so Deren and his girlfriend, and Sara and Emilia were going to be getting a house and splitting rent 4 ways. Sara and Em were going stronger than ever, both in college back home, and sharing an apartment until they would move in with Deren and their friend. 

Everything was going great, and I knew it wouldn't stop. I was finally being blessed with happiness after my years of cancer. 

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Jack and I waited till we were financially stable enough to get married. He finished with his master's degree and got a good-paying job thanks to that degree. We bought our own house back home, we both worked and got our cars, and I was declared officially done with all of my physical therapies and mental therapies after my long cancer battle. We were finally ready to start planning the wedding. We invited his parents knowing there was a 70% chance they wouldn't come. Yet we still invited them. Jack let me lead in the planning, and I made sure to incorporate his likes into it as well. We paid for everything involving the design venue and decorations. My parents insisted on paying for the cake, so Jack and I reluctantly agreed. 

The day finally came for us to get married, and I was so excited I felt light-headed. I didnt get premarital jitters or the nervousness. I knew that I was his only one because he was my only one. When we finally got to do our vows I knew it was true. He read me one of the letters he sent me when his parents shipped him off to that boot camp. And I had a similar idea and incorporated a few things from my letters in my vows. We laughed about it on our honeymoon. We went to California, and we practically were on the beach all day and having fun all night. I was so happy. I was so happy that everything worked out in the end. 

We are 26 now, well I'm 26, and he's 27. We are going to be adopting our first children, a 6-year-old little girl, and her 4-year-old little brother. She didnt want them to be separated and I refused to separate them. Jack and I went through all the classes and counseling, and after 8 months we were allowed to foster the children. We had checked up with the adoption center about their well-being, and the children wanted to stay with us. We were so happy to finally have a family. Jack specifically. He was wonderful with kids, and I didn't have a single doubt in my mind about that. 

"Family wasn't a word for me," was what he said to me, until he also admitted "I love this new side", the new view of love and family.  I took a summer off to stay with the kids while they were enjoying the life of freedom from school. Then we put them in the local elementary school, and I could go back to work while they were in school. They thrived in school, and I was very happy about that. Every night we would have a family dinner then we would tell them stories as they went to bed. Then in the mornings, we'd have breakfast together, then Jack left for work, and I dropped off the kids and went to work myself. On the weekends we go to a park together as a family, then we run errands together as a family. 

Family was a word in Jack's vocabulary, he just had to break from his parents to do so. To keep his parents at peace he makes a phone call monthly about how he's successful at work, and their grandchildren are doing okay, and we are still happily married. My parents come by often to voluntarily babysit when Jack and I have date night twice a month. We often visit our friends and their kids, and go out to dinners and parties together when everyone can get a babysitter. There's been a few times when we'll go back to that old diner and eat lunch together like we did when we just got out of school. 

Life's looking up. Jack and I are more than happy, and everyone has their people now. We all have our families and our friendships. And I can't wait to see how life keeps developing around us.

End