Page 153 of Ink Me Three Times
Freddie steps beside him. “And I’m here too.”
And then Timothy, quiet until now, shifts forward.
“I don’t have a speech,” he says. “Just… I’ve known for weeks what I wanted to say. I just didn’t think I’d get the chance.” His eyes burn into mine. “I’m all in, Ivy. Whatever this is. However it works. I’m not scared of the chaos.”
My hands tremble. My knees nearly give.
“But this doesn’t make sense,” I whisper. “This isn’t how real life works.”
Timothy tilts his head. “Since when has anything about us been normal?”
“We’re not promising this’ll be easy,” Freddie adds.
“Or tidy,” Mitchell says.
“Or even particularly functional,” Timothy finishes, one corner of his mouth twitching upward.
I laugh, a sharp, watery sound. “You’re all insane.”
“Probably,” Mitchell says. “But so are you. And we’re choosing you anyway.”
Freddie nods. “We don’t have all the answers. We don’t even have most of them.”
“But we do have a choice,” Timothy says. “And we’re making it.”
They’re all looking at me again, and this time it isn’t pressure, it beingseen. Chosen. Held.
Mitchell steps closer, voice softer now. “You can say no. You can tell us this isn’t what you want. We’ll deal with it. But if there’s a part of you that still wants us, even just a little, we’re not going anywhere.”
My heart stutters.
I look at them, really look, and feel something inside me shift. Not suddenly. Not like lightning.
But slowly, a sunrise.
I don’t have the words yet. Don’t even know what I can say.
So I do the only thing that makes sense.
I nod.
Just once.
And the relief that blooms across their faces nearly brings me to my knees.
No, this doesn’t fix everything. There are still a thousand conversations ahead. A thousand fears. A thousand ways this could go wrong.
But they’re still here.
They chose me.
And maybe, I can choose them back.
I don’t know who moves first.
Maybe it’s me.
Maybe it’s Mitchell, his eyes locked on mine like he’s waited years for this kind of clarity. Or Freddie, jaw tight as he’s trying not to bolt toward me. Or Timothy, still and quiet and absolutely burning.
