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The key is a promise of home, safety, comfort, and support. The ring is a promise of love and devotion, a bond that won’t break.
Will you say yes?
They’d all signed their names. The paper shook in my hands, sinking into my lap. It was as if that ring were squeezed around my heart, stopping my breath, aching and heavy in a way that felt too beautiful, too blissful for words.
“Jess...” There was unmistakable nervousness in Lucas’s tone. “If it’s too much all at once, you can tell us so. We’ll wait. Or we’ll figure out whatever arrangement works for you —”
I lifted my head. My makeup was ruined; I wasn’t crying pretty and perfect.
“Of course, I’m saying yes,” I choked out, and the smiles I was met with made me hiccup with a sob. “Of course I’ll move in with you, I – I don’t ever want to go back to living without you. Ever. The years we were apart, I — I wasn’t living. Not how I wanted to, not how I needed to. I needed —” I hiccupped again, and Vincent put his arm around me, holding me until I could compose myself.
“I needed you all,” I said, when my voice was finally steady enough to speak. “I love you...I love you all so much.”
It must have been quite a sight, all of them gathering around my chair as I tried to stop weeping — holding me, kissing me. But I genuinely didn’t care how we looked. I didn’t care if every single person stared, because with them, I was in my own little world.
Our world was what we needed it to be. No one else got to decide, no one’s judgment could determine how we felt. We had found our own way to surround ourselves with love. We had found safety and comfort, even when some had been determined to take it away.
Lucas held my hand as Manson slipped the ring on. Jason kissed my forehead as Vincent teased me and wiped away my tears. The only thing more distracting than those sparkling gems were the men they represented.
We’d fought for our love. Fought with ourselves, with each other, with those who wanted our love to not even exist. But this was our victory.
This was our forever.
Epilogue - Jessica
Halloween - One Year Later
The candy was gone, and the last of the trick-or-treaters had departed when I finally flicked off the porch light and locked the front door. It was a cold Halloween night in our little suburb, but the line of children eager to get to our door had been nearly constant all night.
We’d gone all-out for Halloween, naturally. It was a special holiday in our house. The yard was decorated to look like a haunted graveyard, with headstones and zombie hands protruding from the dirt. Fake cobwebs were strewn across our front porch, with orange and purple string lights coiled along the railing. We even had a fog machine.
My heels clicked loudly in the quiet house as I made my way down the hall and into the kitchen. It wasn’t a very original costume, but I was dressed as a cheerleader. The boys had been absolutely ravenous for it though, claiming it tapped into a fantasy they all shared.
A fantasy in which prissy Jessica the cheerleader got her comeuppance.
They’d disappeared about thirty minutes ago, while I distributed the last of the candy. They didn’t explain their absence, but I had a pretty good idea of what they were up to. After all, this costume had inspired an entire fantasy for them. They wanted to bring it to life before the night was over.
