Infamous Like Us (Like Us 10)

Whoa.

His affection bursts inside me, nearly surfacing tears. “Fuck, if this is a distraction tactic—it’s not working.” It’s totally fucking working. I can’t stop staring at them.

“Hey, line up,” Akara tells me, positioning his hands on my shoulders and guiding me to the edge. I’m in the middle of them, my bare feet on the lip of the pool.

“This is for real?” I ask again, doubting, since I realize they’re not in swimsuits. Neither am I—just jean shorts and a striped tee—but who cares, right? I’d go in fully clothed. I think they would too.

Akara whips my dark-brown hair in my face. “What do you think?”

I laugh as the strands stick on my eyelashes. “I think you’re going down, Kits.”

“Swim your hardest, Sul.”

“You know I will.” My heart is soaring out of my body, and I ready myself, prepared to dive. Our audience of family and friends start cheering.

Banks and Akara ready themselves too, and I glance from Banks, to Akara, back to Banks. “You’re sealing your fate, you know.” They have to know this’ll be a fucking blowout.

“We know, mermaid.”

Okay.

My victory awaits. I’m in the fucking zone. Eyes on the pool.

“Swimmers take your mark,” my dad calls. More hearty applause resounds, and I’m grinning. Instead of my dad saying, beep—two different hands suddenly clasp my hands.

Banks takes my left one. Akara takes my right, and I stand up straighter with widened eyes, “What…?” On either side of me, they begin to kneel. On one knee.

They’re fucking kneeling with my hands in theirs, and everyone watching—every fucking person here—is cheering. Like the race is over and a gold medal has been won.

“Kits, Banks…” My voice shakes, tears glassing my vision until I blink. Is this happening right now? Tonight? I thought they’d take years…?

I inhale.

“Sul,” Akara begins, “my conscience, my heart, my beautiful foul-mouthed babe.” I smile with Kits, and his face wields pure affection as he says, “I’ve loved you for so long that every time I thought I’d lose you felt like a mortal wound. I can’t be without you. I never could. And I never want to be.” His gaze reddens, chest rises. “I hope I never have to be. That way, someday, you’ll finally make me believe in mermaids.”

I laugh through tears, and I hear laughter and sniffles around us.

“It might take forever,” Akara says.

“It won’t take that fucking long.”

He smiles, “Is that a bet or a promise?”

“A promise.”

He hooks his pinky finger to mine. “I still want to spend forever with you.”

I choke out, “Me too, Kits.”

He reclasps my hand, his gaze drifting to Banks, and I’m turning even before Banks says, “Sulli.”

I stare down at those comforting brown eyes. “Banks.” More tears build. Fuck. I have no hands to wipe my cheeks, so they cascade down my face.

He reaches up with his free hand to rub the wet tracks off my cheeks for me.

I swear there are audible swoons and awes.

Akara is smiling.

Once Banks has dried some of my tears, he squeezes my hand, then says, “You’re the most beautiful woman my heart did ever see and hold and love, and if I’m going to walk this earth for short or long, I want to walk alongside you. I’ll carry you or crawl with you and stumble with you and fight for you—and when it’s my time, I’ll be waiting for you in the sky.”

I’m fucking bawling.

Banks almost whispers, “For what it’s worth, I love you more than the air we’re breathing.”

“It’s worth a whole lot, Banks. It’s worth every fucking thing.”

And then Akara reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a wooden box. “Sullivan Meadows.”

Banks—Banks is pulling out a wooden box too.

Oh fuck.

This is happening.

This is really fucking happening.

And Akara smiles as he says, “Will you marry us?”

“Yes, fuck yes.”

Around me, more cheering escalates, and I see my mom smiling and hugging her sisters. To hear everyone happy for us makes me cry harder.

They pop the boxes, but I don’t see what’s inside. They’re both standing, and they tie thick braided thread onto my ring fingers.

“Nona made them,” Akara explains, knotting the turquoise thread.

My sister made my rings. “It’s fucking perfect.”

“I fudging love you, Sul.”

“I fucking love you, Kits.”

He kisses me, and I feel his smile before he deepens the kiss.

“Bow chicka wow wow!” I hear my mom.

I laugh as we part, then I turn to Banks. He knots the other ring onto my finger. Our eyes latch and his soft smile curves his mouth. “Looks beautiful on you, mermaid. But everything does.”

My heart swells. “I love you, Banks.”

He cups my cheek and kisses me, filling my lungs with things greater than the air we’re breathing. When we break, Akara and Banks share more than a smile. Love is in their eyes, a kind that not many will ever understand, but their bond is the foundation of what we all are together—what keeps us standing, and it’ll never crumble.