Epilogue
Teddy
“Where do you keep the tongs?” Damon yells from the kitchen.
Our kitchen. We have an actual kitchen now with a full-sized fridge, oven, and dishwasher.
Our very own apartment. Well, Ant lives here too—we’re roommates.
It doesn’t matter though, he’s never here anyway what with all the work and college classes.
“They’re in the drawer to the left of the fridge,” Liam responds.
The whole gang’s here, and he’s been on edge the entire time.
Standing around, making sure no one wears shoes in the house and picks up after themselves.
He even told Damon to keep his filthy hands off our walls.
I laughed so hard, gasping for breath. He’s happy everyone's here at our housewarming party, but as far as he’s concerned, we’re a bunch of dirty heathens.
“Liam, why don’t you sit down and have a beer with me?” I ask, hoping to calm him down.
He glances at me distractedly. “Yeah, in a minute. Dame, what’s taking you so long in there?” He gets sidetracked and charges toward the kitchen.
“He could never live with us.” Ben chuckles. “He’d be in cardiac arrest on day one. Damon leaves his dirty socks and sweaty work shirt right by the door when he gets home every day.”
“The horror,” I gasp, and my eyes widen comically.
They come barreling from the kitchen with trays of food in hand.
I hop up and open the door to the back porch for them.
I watch as they load a variety of things onto the grill.
It’s perpetually hard to believe that I finally have a place to call home.
A place I look forward to everyday. I don’t have to fear that it will be taken from me or that I could end up sleeping on the street.
I don’t have to worry about having things I need because Liam and I work together to make it happen.
We even get things that we want now, like the shiny red vintage toaster I saw at the store the other day.
We still don’t have a car, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just another goal we can accomplish together, and in the meantime, we have an amazing group of friends around us who are always willing to help.
“Anyone know if Ant’s coming?” I ask.
“He said he’s studying at the library, and he’ll be here afterwards,” Ben says. “I wish he would slow down; he’s too hard on himself.” It’s true. He doesn’t give himself a break. It’s always inspired me, but at the same time, I can see how it burns him out.
Growing up, I never truly noticed how fucked up my life was until I got to see how Liam lived.
I had never spent the night at anyone’s house before that, and even though he lived in a hotel like me, it was an entirely different experience.
His place was clean, his mom cooked dinner and let him eat whenever he wanted, he had clean clothes folded nicely, and they talked.
They did things together. She was only ever gone for work or to run errands. Normal things.
It’s easy to become nose-blind to your surroundings when you don’t know any better.
Even though Liam had a normal childhood in most of the ways that count, he finally understood that he could do better.
He could have an apartment and his own furniture and not have to worry about weirdos causing issues.
He can be at peace. And I know that means so much to him.
I come up behind him and wrap my arms around his waist. “I’m so proud of you. Look at all this,” I whisper softly.
“Wouldn’t have ever done it if not for you, angel.” He spins around and hugs me to his chest.
“That’s not true,” I say and poke at the silvery scar on his shoulder. I don’t know why I like to mess with it, but he always lets me. “You can achieve anything you ever want to.”
With the way we live our lives now, it’s hard to believe we ever ended up in the middle of a shooting. We both work and I take online classes; we spend a lot more time with Damon and Ben because they’re likeminded.
Much to my surprise, Mad got out of jail pretty quickly after the incident, and one of the first things he did was check on us.
Liam was pissed off about the whole thing, but Mad explained it to us.
Apparently, after Liam left to check for cops, we went inside.
He thought it’d be better to get me away from all the people since I was tripping.
He didn’t think he had anything to worry about, things had been going so well all night.
The masked dudes came in through a side door as soon as they noticed he was inside—he didn’t know who they were.
Said it could be a multitude of people. But they were demanding money, I remember that much.
Things escalated because I started freaking out.
I couldn’t stay calm. The moment I saw the gun, I became hysterical, so the gunman turned his attention to me.
He demanded I shut up and get on the ground, but the problem was I lost control of rational thought by that point and froze up. That’s when the police stormed in.
It’s nice to have the rest of the pieces to the puzzle, but it doesn’t make the experience any less traumatic. I’ve sworn off partying of any sort and limit mine and Mad’s contact to text exchanges every once in a while, sadly. It’s better than nothing though.
Eventually, Damon starts doling out burgers and hot dogs to everyone and we all head back inside to sit down and eat. We don’t have enough chairs at our kitchen table for everyone yet, so Liam chooses to stand at the kitchen counter.
The front door opens abruptly and in walks Ant, backpack in hand. “What’d I miss? Mmm, it smells good in here.”
“Nothing really. Just Liam being a weird, clean freak,” Damon jokes, shooting Liam a wry grin.
“It’s not so bad.” He chuckles. “It’s like I still live with my mom.” I know his house was always spotless and we were never allowed to wear shoes inside there, either. So, it’s been a simple adjustment for him.
“Put the school stuff down and come eat!” I shout excitedly. Nothing ever makes me happier than having everyone together in one place.
We shovel food into our mouths for a while then decide to drink some beers and put on a movie.
I curl up next to Liam on the comfy couch I found at a thrift store.
None of our couches match, but I think it adds character.
I think a lot of people might take one look at us and say the same thing—we don’t match.
Not from the outside at least. But it’s simply not true.
Liam is my rock, and I’m his sunshine. I’ve come to accept that I inspire him in the same way he does me, and that’s something worth hanging on to.
I practically glue myself to him, but he doesn’t mind. It’s exactly where he wants me. “Love you, Angel,” he whispers, and I press a kiss to his neck.
“I love you so much.”
I glance around and all I can feel is a surge of proudness .
Proud of each one of my friends for making something out of our lives—lives that many people ignore.
Society ignores people like us as if we’re worthless or something.
Just because we grew up poor or our parents are drug addicts, doesn’t mean we’re destined for the same fate. We can do better, and we are .