Chapter 12

DROP DA BOMB

Monday at 6:15pm, Kel's cel phone rang. "Yo, Kel here..."

"Uh, Kel it's me. Cassy...I gotta see you! Where are you?" The urgency in her voice caused Kel to frown. "Um, are you okay, Cas?"

"I gotta see you A.S.A.P!" It sounded to Kel as though she was on the verge of panic.

"Okay, okay. Calm down...I'm over at Gwen's. Where are you?" Gwen looked concerned; something was up with Cassy.

" Belltown. Would it be okay if I come over?" Kel looked at Gwen and mouthed, "Cassy needs us." Gwen nodded. "Okay do you want me to come and get you hon?"

"S'okay, I got a cab here, see you in a few." her phone went dead.

"What's up?" Gwen asked. "I don't know, it's Cassy she said she needed to talk to us, she seemed quite...flighty. I hope she's okay..."

"Oh gods," Gwen said. "I hope she and Mike didn't get into a fight or something..." The two girls exchanged worried looks. A few minutes later came an urgent knocking at the door. They rushed to let Cassy in. She dashed to the middle of the living room in what looked like a highly agitated state, holding her paws nervously against her chest.

"Calm down Cassy, What is it?" Kel soothed as she and Gwen tried to comfort their friend.

"Oh-My-God-Oh-My-God-Oh-my-God! It's Mike...He, um..." Gwen and Kel braced for the worst, at least she showed no outward signs of violence.

"It's going to be okay, Cassy," Gwen clucked. "You're safe here. Now, what happened?"

Cassy shot out her right paw showing the ring.

"Mike asked me to marry him!" Cassy crowed.

"_ WHAT? _" the two shocked females exclaimed.

"It's true! He did, or actually his grandma did, but she's dead now, but it means the same thing..." Cassy said in one long breath.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa." Kel said, paws in the air trying to rein her in. "Slow down...start at the beginning." Cassy looked from Kel to Gwen and back, then threw her arms around Gwen. "Thank you-thank you-thank you for hooking us up!" Kel took charge unwrapping Gwen from Cassy's embrace and leading her to a seat at the table. Gwen got her a mug of iced tea.

"Okay, okay, okay--here's what happened." Cassy tried to center herself. "After that super cool dinner that we had, we went to one of the bedrooms and Oh-My-God!" Cassy's eyes positively glowed. "We talked and kissed and explored...oh-my god, the fireworks! Now I know what you were talking about! A sushi glow IS almost better than sex, almost...I don't remember much of Friday, I was too floaty...anyway, We set up a date for Sunday, ya know, lunch and stuff." Cassy looked at her two companions who nodded for her to continue.

"Okay, Okay, Well we met up at the fountain by the Space Needle, and I asked him to go steady...and he said YES!" Cassy nodded. " So we went and got these." She paused to show off her ring again. "At first they were just Promise Rings! Which is way cool, as I've never gone steady before..." Cassy paused to catch her breath and sip some tea.

"Anyway, we went for a romantic walk through the waterfront park, then he asked if he could please make dinner for me! Can you believe it? Who knew he could cook? So we go back to his place, A niceapartment in Belltown--did you know his family was from Sicily? Okay-okay, so there we are at his place and he makes these stuffed Manicotti thingies, turns out to be his granny's recipe. So he tells me about his family and stuff and when the stuffs in the oven he shows me around, and...and..."Cassy grows silent. Her chin quivering.

"Cas, What's wrong?" Gwen asks concerned as a tear slowly slides down Cassy's cheek.

"Cas honey, what is it?" Kel asks.

"I-I found out whyMike is such a cynic when it comes to love...A snow colored Marten BITCH ripped out his heart as a sick joke, it was a bet!To see if she could con him into proposing to her...and at their engagement party she told him it was off, and all an act! Then dumped a shredded pile of papers in front of him; all the love letters and poems he had written to her--then snapped a picture of the way he looked and ran off laughing and drove away with that bastard Zander. If I ever get my paws on that bitch I'm going to rip out her heart and give it to Mikey in a gift wrapped candy Box!" She growled. Kel and Gwen just looked at each other. Neither of them had ever seen sweet innocent Cassy this...bloodthirsty.

"It's okay Cassy, Calm down and drink your tea." Kel soothed.

"Sorry guys, it just really pissed me off...Anyway, dinner was fantastic! And we were sitting on the couch after, just cuddling and Mike was explaining the tradition of promise rings...then we started kissing...and that led to more kissing...and that led to a string of discarded clothes all the way down the hall to the bedroom." Cassy grinned.

"Cassy!" Kel exclaimed. "My God, you two really hit it off."

"Uh-huh, anyway after he brought me off six, or was it seven times, I cant quite remember now, anyway..."

"Six or seven Times?" Kel squawked, Cassy nodded.

"Or maybe it was eight...anyway I was a little fuzzy after five...so I fell asleep and had this weirddream. I'm walking in this olive grove see, and this little old ferret lady all dressed in black wearing glasses with a white stripe down her muzzle. She says I'm a keeper and I'm gonna give Mike lots of kids. so she slaps my hips and pats my boobs sayin' I'm made for making bambinos, Says her name's Straga Nona. . "

Gwen starts at the name, for she knows the meaning of Straga.

"...And I wake up this morning by telling Mike I wanted to have his kids."

"Dam Cassy, aren't you moving a bit quick?" Kel asks.

"I don't know, Mike told me he spent a lot of time with his granny when he visited Sicily after high school and that she died two years ago...Mike thinks it's her way of welcoming me into the family and he says she can be real stubborn when she wants to get her way. So this morning he said it was out of his hands and if I accept it, then we can consider these promise rings to be engagement rings! Isn't that COOL?" Cassy gushed.

"Wow, well congratulations hon!" Kel squeeled. "Now, let me see that ring..."

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