I waited to see Erika yell at him, to tell him how his words hurt her, but instead she smiled. They exchanged glances and looks that only they understood, and she nodded once. “Fine. One song. One, Kellan.”
I’d never seen him smile so big. “One song!”
“Our song,” she ordered.
He hurried out of the room, leaving a very confused me, and slimy Logan standing there. Then he came out with two conga drums, and two rain sticks, handing one to me, and the other to Logan.
“What’s going on?” Logan asked. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”
Erika stared at Logan as if he was a complete baboon. She took the stick from his grasp, and turned it upside down, making the rain sound. She handed it back to him.
“Duh, Lo,” I mocked.
He flipped me off.
Butterflies formed.
That was nothing new.
Kellan sat in front of the conga drums and started playing them. It took me a second to pick up on the beat of the song, but when it clicked in my head, my heart melted for the type of love my sister and Kellan had. He was playing Ingrid Michaelson’s song, “The Way I Am.”
Their song.
Kellan sang the first verse to Erika as she smiled, swaying back and forth. Logan and I added in the rain sticks, and both began to dance with Erika, as Kellan pounded against the congas.
Erika sang the second verse, and the love between her and Kellan filled the house with light as the words of the song fell from her tongue. Words about loving one another no matter the pain, words about being there for each other even when walking through the flames of life.
It was beautiful.
When we reached the long musical moment with no lyrics, Logan took both Erika’s and my hands, and spun us around, still wearing his towel, still with green goop dripping off his hair. Then, the room grew quiet when Erika began to sing the final verse—the verse that made tears fill everyone’s eyes. She sang the words about loving him when he lost all his hair, as she ran her fingers through his locks, leaning her forehead against Kellan’s lips. He kissed her gently, and they finished singing the lyrics together, as one.
The last noise heard was Logan’s rain stick dying down.
“Wow,” he said, wrapping his hand over his mouth, staring at his brother and Erika. “You two are fucking perfect.”
Erika laughed lightly before looking at Kellan. “I don’t want to marry you.”
He sighed. “Yes you do.”
“No. Well, yeah, I do. But not until you’re better. Not until you’re healthy. We’ll wait. We’ll kick cancer’s ass. Then you’ll marry my ass.”
He pulled her close to him, kissing her hard. “I’m going to marry the hell out of you.”
“Heck yeah you are.”
“Oh my God. Get a room,” Logan moaned, rolling his eyes. “I’m going to go wash this crap out of my hair.”
“Speaking of…” Kellan cleared his throat and narrowed his
eyes. “Do you guys think you could do something for me?”
***
Logan shook his head back and forth with disgust. “This is a terrible idea.”
“For the first time ever, Logan and I agree on something,” Erika said, tossing her hands up in shock.
“I say just go for it.” The four of us were scrunched in the bathroom, a pair of hair clippers in my hand.