Below The Belt

Knockout (Epilogue)

DeAndre's POV

Life is insane, when you really think about it.

I was born a crack baby in a cold world with nothing but a mama who didn't want me and a grandmother who did want me but didn't have much time left to spend with me. I had a baby at sixteen with who I thought would be the love of my life but turned out to be just another fiend. I raised that baby basically on my own for thirteen years and somehow managed to keep him and myself alive through it all. I met a man and found out that I liked niggas. I almost lost that man several times due to my own fear of being perceived as gay.

And now I'm marrying that man.

It's been six months since I proposed to Tyreek. Which also makes it six months since he won his title. He now has fifteen combined fights under his belt with thirteen wins, three losses, and ten wins by knockout. He's had plenty of boxers challenge him for his title since receiving it, all of them assuming they'd be able to easily beat him.

They don't know my baby, though. He's a fighter. He's been fighting his whole life. Retaining that title is light work for him.

Being engaged has been weird as hell. I thought it wouldn't feel much different since in my head he was already my husband anyway, but waking up everyday knowing we were going to get married was an entirely new feeling.

I could only imagine how it'd feel to wake up and be married to him.

"Mr. Kingston, I can wear my headphones at your wedding, right? Like no one's gonna look at me weird?" Zavier asked from his place at the foot of my bed where he laid with Antwon. Honestly couldn't tell you why this kid is still here. I think he lives with us now. I stopped questioning it.

"Nah kid, ain't nobody gon' judge you. Ain't gon' be no strangers there or nothin'. It's just us and Tyreek's peoples."

It was funny how Tyreek was now one of the most beloved people in the world, yet we were still only inviting around ten people to our wedding. At the end of the day, Tyreek and I agreed that we wanted the people who were really there for us to be present.

I asked Marcus to be my best man, and Tyreek asked Quan to be his. Antwon is our grown ass ring bearer, and Zavier is our grown ass flower boy. The plan was always for Antwon to bring the ring, but then Zavier couldn't be left out and he requested to be the flower boy. And I hate telling that boy no as much as I hate telling Antwon no, so... Now we got a flower boy.

Our wedding is this week. We've done nothing but plan and prepare for the past few months. Really, since our wedding will be pretty small, we probably could've done it a lot sooner. But we didn't want to rush anything, and we... I wanted everything to be perfect.

He deserves a perfect day.

The sound of the front door opening and closing damn near made me fly out of the bed. I quickly got up, ignoring the kids' laughter as I ran down the stairs and straight into the arms of my fiancé.

"Damn baby, I've only been gone a few hou-" He started, but I cut him off with a kiss. He chuckled against my mouth, but didn't attempt to speak again as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

Ever since I proposed to him, it's like I just want to live in his skin. Anytime he leaves to go train with Quan I feel like he's taking my heart with him.

It's so hard to believe I was ready to dub this nigga almost two years ago, all because I wasn't sure I liked men... I very much like men. Especially this one.

I'm a lil fruit cup, and ain't nothing wrong with that.

"So..." I began as soon as the kiss ended, making him roll his eyes. I don't know why he's always acting like I just be saying wild shit all the time. "How about we send the kids over to they fuck ass grandmama so me and you can get nasty?"