Epilogue
Finn
The Becketts’ front door was littered with balloons and topped with an enormous banner that read, “Congratulations!” I had hung it there a few hours earlier, since Ry and I were part of the setup crew.
As I was pinning it to the siding, I had a sneaking suspicion I’d seen it at their kids’ several graduation parties.
That wasn’t the reason we gathered that day, however.
Spence, Lena’s boyfriend, had popped the question, and Lena asked to hold their engagement party at her parents’ house. I wasn’t there for that conversation, but I was there for many like it, and I’m sure the Becketts were overjoyed to host. They were fantastic at it.
It wasn't a surprise, but we wanted Lena and Spence to walk into the home already decorated.
The backyard was transformed with pop-up tents, tables, a bar tent, and a food tent, too.
The pool had floating Ls and Ss hot-glued to foam disks.
Everything looked great, or at least, like more work than it was.
Then again, there were a lot of people on the setup crew. Many hands, and all that.
It had the desired effect. Lena cried, and Spence looked dumbfounded. Both their moms cried, too.
When it was time for a drink, I approached Ryder and Lena, who were laughing in the bar tent. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
Lena’s face froze, then melted when she realized it was me. “No, I was just saying, this is going so much better than the last time my family gathered for an engagement party.”
“Not even close,” Ryder said. “But then again, you and Spence aren’t narcissistic bigots, so that’s a plus.”
“You know,” Lena whispered, leaning in, “She made a new account not too long ago, and someone immediately commented ‘I NEED TO PEE’ on her page. She deleted the whole account.”
I laughed hard, remembering the first time I saw that meme.
Rickie had reposted the video to her huge follower count, and it went viral.
The next day, Bree posted a video playing the victim and doubled down on her hatred.
I thought her trad brand might survive, especially if she leaned into the hate, but the internet's cruelty took over.
Someone made a duet video that turned her rant into a song, with the refrain “I need to PEE.” People copied, making their own, increasingly deranged versions.
My favorite was our new friend, Caressa Mae, doing a drag performance in her honor.
Two weeks after Miles left her at the altar, Bree deleted her entire digital presence.
“Good riddance to bad filth,” I said, still laughing.
Lena excused herself to welcome some guests who had just arrived, and Ryder went off to help his mom with something in the house. I joined Miles and his new girlfriend, Jade, in one of the other tents.
They were talking about moving in together, and I vouched for him being a good roommate.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Jade said with a laugh I found both endearing and infectious. “How long did Miles live with you guys?”
Jade was funny, kind, almost as tall as him, and so very worldly.
She was born in Senegal to an American college professor and a Senegalese doctor, then spent her childhood between New York, Paris, Dakar, and Taipei.
She spoke six languages, made art for fun, and didn’t have a single social media account.
“I never lived with them,” Miles said, rolling his eyes with a laugh.
Jade said, “You know what I mean.”
“I moved in with Ryder like a year and a half ago?” I said. “And you’ve been together almost a year, right?”
“Yup, next month.” Even her smile was infectious.
I smiled too and looked at my best friend. “So maybe six months then?”
Jade laughed and placed a hand on her boyfriend’s forearm. “Talk about crowding your style! How did you guys find time to go feral on each other?”
Two years ago, a few days after the wedding that wasn’t, Miles moved back in with his parents.
Bree refused to leave his apartment, and with only one month left on the lease, it made sense.
He went through a pretty rough patch, but spent most of his time with either Ryder or me or both of us.
I moved in with Ry about half a year later.
Once I did, it became kinda like a best friend bachelor pad for him.
So much so that we referred to the second bedroom as Miles’s room.
Ryder was gonna ask him to officially move in with us, but then he met Jade.
“I spent plenty of nights at home. Like, two or three a week,” Miles said.
After a while, we just saw him as a roommate and were thankful for thick walls and for the second room being clear on the other side of the apartment.
Jade laughed, moved her hand from his arm to the back of his head, and played with his hair. “Well, I hope you gave them time to go on dates and just be a couple. Like how my roommates do for us.”
“I did. Promise.”
That was what I liked most about Jade. She knew how to check Miles, who needed it from time to time, but was supportive of him.
And I could tell she loved him just the way she looked at him.
Not to mention, she always encouraged him to hang out with his family and friends and be himself.
So much so that Miles took up pottery, something no one in his life knew was a secret desire of his.
They looked like they were about to make out, or more likely, snuggle into each other and let the world disappear around them. I was about to get up and let them do it when Jade excused herself to the bathroom.
“Aren’t you basically living with her already?” I asked.
“Yeah, I spend most nights there, but we were talking about getting our own place.”
“Nice.” I sipped my beer. “Are you thinking she’s the one?”
“Oh, she’s for sure the one, man. Like when you told me Ryder was it for you because you felt it so deep inside that your life felt empty without him? I just know. Never felt this way before.”
We were alone, or at least out of earshot. “I wasn’t gonna mention it, but I’m too freaking excited.” I looked around and lowered my voice. “I’ve been looking at rings. I’m gonna ask him. Not yet, but soon. I wanted to ask you to be my best man, and maybe help me plan the proposal.”
Miles’s face paled. I said, “What?” When he said nothing, I said, “You’re worrying me, man. What the fuck?”
He laughed. “I uh… might be otherwise engaged, dude.”
“Huh?”
Miles rolled his eyes. “C’mon, man. Don’t make me say it.”
“Say what?”
“You might need to find another best man, or best woman, is all I’m saying. Or, I mean, I could be the best man. There doesn’t have to be two, right?”
“Oh… OH!” I laughed so hard I cried. That was perfect. And honestly, amazing.
Miles’s laugh was less enthusiastic. “Please don’t say anything, bro, he’ll kill me.”
“I won’t. My lips are sealed.” I zipped my lips, still laughing.
He shook his head. “I told him this could happen, but he wanted to wait until after Lena had her moment.”
“You know this just means you’re gonna help me make it a surprise double proposal, right?”
Miles smiled wide. “You fucking got it, bro. He’ll kill me, but the look on his face will be worth it.”
I didn’t have time to go over the details. Lena, Spence, Ryder, and his parents were welcoming mine to the party.
It was still weird seeing my parents at a Beckett family event.
After I came out to them, they realized how little they knew their son.
My mom cried, not that she wasn't supportive, but she had said, “They say mothers always know. I had no idea!” And since then, they’d made much more effort to have an active role in my life.
Which meant going there for dinner, or having them over once or twice a month.
After hosting both sets of parents for dinner one night, Mrs. Beckett started inviting them to everything I was invited to, and since I was Ryder’s boyfriend, that meant everything. They get together a lot, so I’d seen them more in the last two years than I had since leaving for college.
“We’ll talk about the best man thing later. You might have to do double duty. So get ready,” I said to Miles before getting up to greet my parents, too. Once I did, the eight of us chatted, my arm around Ryder’s waist, and his on my shoulders.
I never, in a million years, could have imagined that. The Becketts and my parents hanging out while I embraced Ryder, of all people. It was surreal in the best way. It always was. Even more so when we were all laughing and eating under the same tent.
Things were just so easy with Ryder and his family.
Or, well, my family too, one day soon. And then one day after that, Ryder and I would start our own.
If I thought having a boyfriend, that boy being my best friend’s older brother, and that his family and mine would be eating and joking together was impossible, the idea of having my own one day was even more so.
But it wasn’t and hadn't been for a while. I’d never known the peace that I had in the last two years.
Or myself. Sharing the parts of me I never looked at, and everything else, with another person was liberating in a way that I didn’t have words for.
Happiness is fleeting. The rainbow of joy and love only sticks around for so long.
What I had with Ryder, what he gave me, and what I gave him was a lasting peace, security, and a deep sense of belonging.
“You good?” Ryder said, low enough for only me to hear, placing his hand on mine.
“Yeah. Better than good. Perfect,” I said, flipping my hand over to lace our fingers.
He smiled at me. It still made my heart beat a little faster, and butterflies burst in my gut. A smile curled across his face, but his eyes lightened. I never imagined I’d be the one he looked at like that…
“Love you, babe.”
“Love you, too, Ry,” I said, meaning nothing more in my life.
The End.