HIS ROOMMATE

I CAN'T MARRY YOU!

CHAPTER 25

My stomach flips. Something’s up. Something he hasn’t said yet.

Before I can ask, the doors open again.

Valerie walks back in. And she’s glowing. Not from the chandeliers — from the inside. She’s trying to hide it, lips pressed together like she’s holding back a smile, but her eyes give her away. Bright. Electric. Like she just heard the best news of her life.

She slides back into the booth next to Adrian. Their knees touch. He doesn’t move away.

The air between them changes. Heavier. Expectant.

Ash catches my eye across the table and winks. Adrian keeps his hand on Valerie’s, thumb rubbing slow circles on her knuckles.

And I’m sitting here with popcorn-flavored lip gloss and a dress that suddenly feels too tight.

What did I just walk into?

“Hey.”

Nathan’s voice cuts through my head like a knife through fog. I blink and he’s just… there. Leaning against our table like he owns it, in a suit that looks like he borrowed it from his older brother.

“You look great,” he says, grin lazy.

I snap back, smile sharp. “Of course I look great.”

He rolls his eyes. “There she is. Thought prom killed your attitude.”

For half a second it works. The weight lifts. I forget about Adrian. Forget about Valerie. Forget about the ring box I know is in his pocket even though I’m pretending I don’t.

I laugh. Real. Loud.

Then the table goes quiet.

Not the normal kind of quiet. The kind that happens when everyone holds their breath at once.

I turn.

Adrian’s hand moves. Slow. Deliberate. Like he’s done this in his head a thousand times but his body still isn’t sure. His fingers slide into his jacket pocket — right over his heart — and pull out something small. Black. Velvet.

A ring box.

The DJ’s track fades. Someone’s fork clatters to the floor and nobody looks. Ash freezes mid-fry. Leo stops talking about after-parties. Mike and Rya both go still.

Adrian’s shoulders square. His breathing changes. Valerie’s eyes drop to his hand and she goes completely still, like she’s been turned to glass.

*Click.* The lid opens.

Chandelier light hits the diamond and throws it everywhere. Across the table. Across Valerie’s face. Across mine.

Valerie gasps. Both hands fly to her mouth. Tears well up instantly. She looks like she’s about to shatter or float away, I can’t tell which.

Adrian slides out of the booth and drops to one knee on the marble. Right there. In front of all of us. In front of the cameras already lifting.

“Valerie,” he says. Voice steady. Hand trembling anyway. “You’ve been my first everything. My first crush. My first love. I don’t want my last anything to be without you. You were there when my parents died. You never left my side. Not once. Now I want to be by your side forever. So… will you marry me?”

The room explodes. Ash whoops. Leo jumps up clapping. Phones flash. Cheers shake the chandeliers.

But Valerie… doesn’t move.

I wait for the smile. For the tears. For her to throw her arms around his neck like she did at the entrance.

Nothing.

She just stares at him. At the ring. At all of us watching. No excitement. No happiness. Just… stillness.

Slowly, she takes a step back. One. Then another. Shaking her head like she’s waking up from a dream she didn’t ask for.

“I’m sorry,” she says. Sharp. Too sharp.

The word slices through the noise and the whole room goes dead silent.

“I… I’m sorry, Adrian,” she whispers. “But… I can’t marry you.”

The color drains out of Adrian’s eyes like someone pulled a plug.

His hand with the ring box doesn’t move. He’s still on one knee. Still waiting for a yes that just died in the air between them.

And I’m sitting here, heart hammering, not sure if I should breathe or run or scream.

What the hell just happened?

“What… what are you saying?”

Adrian’s voice is barely a whisper, but it cuts through the silence like glass. He stands up slow, like his legs forgot how to work. Each step toward Valerie sounds heavier than the last, like he’s walking through water.

“I’m sorry, Adrian,” she says, and she won’t meet his eyes. “I wanted to tell you six months ago.”

He frowns. Confused. Still trying to fit this into the version of reality where she says yes. “Tell me what? That you love me? That you wanted us to get married, like you’ve always said you did? Right?”

His voice cracks on the last word. He sounds desperate. Like a kid trying to solve a math problem that keeps changing.

“No,” she whispers. “I wanted to… I wanted to tell you that my parents got me engaged six months ago.”

The words hit him like a punch. I see it — his whole body jerks back. The ring box still open in his hand, diamond catching light, suddenly ugly.

I’m frozen. I want to go to him. Want to wrap my arms around him and tell him this isn’t real, that it’s a nightmare and he’ll wake up back at our table with fries and bad jokes. But my feet are cement. My throat’s locked. Because I’m too shocked to move, too shocked to breathe.

“You’re joking, right?” Adrian laughs, but it’s broken. Wrong. “Did I do something wrong? If I did, tell me and I’ll fix it. I promise. I’ll fix anything.”

He reaches out, gentle, and cups her face like he’s done a thousand times before. Like he’s trying to remind her who they are. “Valerie, look at me. Talk to me. We can figure this out.”

His hands are trembling.

“Yeah, Valerie,” Ash cuts in, voice rough. He slams his glass down. “What are you saying? I’ve known you two since sophomore year. You love him. Everyone knows you love Adrian. So why are you saying this?”

Valerie finally looks up. And the tears are there, but they’re not the happy kind. They’re the guilty kind. The trapped kind.

“My parents arranged it,” she says, barely audible. “A family friend. From home. I didn’t want it. But they… they said it was already done. Six months ago. I was scared you would do something stupid, that was why I didn't tell you.”

The room tilts.

Six months. She’s been engaged for six months while Adrian was planning this. While he was saving for the ring. While he was rehearsing that speech in his head.

Adrian’s hands drop from her face like she burned him. He stares at her. Then at the ring. Then at all of us watching like this is some twisted reality show.

“Engaged,” he repeats. The word sounds foreign in his mouth. “For six months.”

He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t yell. He just… breaks. Quietly. Right there in front of everyone.

And I’m still sitting here, unable to move, watching the one person who always fixed everything fall apart in front of me.

“Why did you say yes?” Adrian’s voice breaks on the last word. He’s right in front of her now, close enough that she has to look up. Close enough that I can see his hands shaking at his sides. “When you were still with me. You love me, Valerie. So why did you say yes?”

He sounds wrecked. Like he’s begging for a reason that makes sense. For a reason that doesn’t destroy him.

“Because I…” Valerie’s lip trembles. She won’t meet his eyes. “I liked Marcus. I’ve always liked him.”

The name lands like a bomb.

Adrian goes still. Completely, deathly still. Like someone hit pause on him. His breathing stops. His eyes go blank for half a second too long.

Then he lets out a laugh. Bitter. Ugly. Nothing like him. He drags both hands through his hair, tugging hard at the roots like he can rip the pain out.

“Valerie…” he whispers, and it sounds like he’s bleeding.

Ash shoots to his feet so fast his chair screeches. He slams his hands on the table“You’re f*****g engaged to his cousin?”

“What?!... The Marcus guy is Adrian’s cousin?!” Nancy said shocked beside me.

What.

The world tilts sideways.

Marcus. Adrian’s older cousin. The one who came to campus last year in that expensive car and talked to me for five minutes before dismissing me as “the tomboy friend.” The one Adrian used to idolize growing up. The one he told stories about — the golden kid, the family favorite, the one who always got what he wanted.

TBC