Lie Like You Mean It

On the road, I was placed in the same car as my parents with Zero (he insisted, of course, not that my parents really objected) and Mina and Michael were seated in my uncle’s car.

The resort wasn’t too far away; I think my uncle said it was just twenty minutes from my house. But I still took the chance to sprawl out in the back seat and put my legs on Zero so that I could lay down awkwardly because of the seat belt.

“Nicolas?” My mom asked from the front seat.

“Hmm…?” I mumbled, half-asleep. I felt the fatigue setting in from the early morning I’d had (courtesy of Michael).

“You umm… you should…” My mom couldn’t seem to find the words for whatever she was going to say.

“Your mother’s trying to tell you to keep your hickey covered up.” Dad covered for her. “Not that we really care, but other people might.”

I felt my face heat up with a furious blush. I heard Zero chuckle slightly so I kicked him. “Sh-shut the fuck up Zero!” I yelled while pulling my hat down over my eyes out of embarrassment.

“Nicolas! Language!” My mom scolded. I growled in response and curled up in my seat. Zero started rubbing my calf sympathetically. “Anyways… You two would be okay with sharing a room right?”

I bit my lip and looked up at her in the mirror. “Wh-why wouldn’t we be?”

“Just making sure.” My dad answered for her. I swear, they were like mind readers to each other. “Now about Michael and Mina… do you care if they share a room with you two also?”

Both of us groaned. “Yeah, we mind.” I spoke for both of us.

My mom sighed before going on to explain. “Just… keep an eye on them? For me?” By now she was turned around in her seat so that I could see her face which was pleading for me to do the right thing
.
But then Zero burst out laughing. “You think that they’re doing that?” He asked, then he composed himself a bit more before shaking his head at her. “They may love each other but they are most certainly not doing that.”

“And what makes you so sure?” Dad asked, eyeing him in the mirror.

“We’re twins. I know everything about Mina whether she wants me to or not. As for Michael, I’ve known him since we were kids. He places way too much care into Mina to let their relationship be ruined by sex. So they’re waiting.” Zero spoke with so much maturity towards adults that it was unreal. I, for one, believed what he said; who was I to doubt it?

“Alright… I guess it’s fine.” Mom sighed. I suppose she believed Zero as much as I did. Then I held out my hand to Zero and looked away, blushing. But I could feel his haunting grin as he wrapped a hand around mine and laced our fingers together.

As soon as we arrived, my mom quickly tried to meet up with her brother and the first thing she asked was, “How did your trip go?”

“Hmm… it was, surprisingly, okay. Michael was quiet most of the time, really.” Zero and I scoffed at that and my uncle just rolled his eyes at us playfully. At the reception, my uncle handed over the tickets and gave Zero and I our key cards and told us our room was 206 and that my parents were in 211, he and Dominick were in 209 and Mina and Mina were just across the hall in 207.

He went on to tell us where the rental desk was (even though he knows I hate sports) and the hot tub (which I was most likely to be spending most of my time in because hot tubs are the best thing ever). And basically he just let us go our separate ways, leaving his and my parents’ cell phone numbers with us along with about thirty dollars.

Zero tried to carry me up the stairs to the second floor but when I objected, he gave up easily, not wanting to do anything I didn’t want him to.

The room was like a basic hotel room. But when I looked over at the bed, I bit my lip nervously and wondered what my mom meant when she asked if we’d share a room with Mina and Michael because there obviously wasn’t any room in the single queen-sized bed. I groaned and fell back on the bed.

“Hmm…?” Zero said as if to ask me what was wrong.

“I don’t wanna ski…” I explained as I rolled over onto my stomach and hid my face in my arms. I felt the bed depress next to me and the next thing I knew is I was being pushed over onto my back. Zero pressed his lips to mine in a chaste kiss. Then the same strange shock of sensation that pooled in my stomach happened again like the time he kissed me before we watched that movie with Michael and Mina.

“That’s okay… what about the hot tub? Or swimming? We could play pool or the arcade games.” He suggested, hovering just an inch away from my face.

I sighed. “Do you want to ski…? Or snowboard…?” He’s always doing what I want, so maybe, just this once, I can do what he wants.

“I’ve always… kinda wanted to try snowboarding…” He said quietly.

I bit down on my lip and turned my head to the side and shut my eyes. “Th-then we’ll go do that. After a nap, okay?”

He laughed a little and then nodded. “Right, wouldn’t want you falling asleep in the snow.”

I rolled my way out of his grip and crawled over to the pillows at the top of the bed. He sighed and then made his way over to me. The familiar warmth of his body enveloped me as his arms wrapped around me, squeezing me to him.

“Damn you for being so warm…” I mumbled, muffled against his chest. He snickered at that comment, but it was the truth. Either way, I found myself trying to burrow into him more so that I could be closer to that warmth. My arms found their own way around him, my hands gripping the fabric of his shirt.

“So you’re not cold?” He asked. I shook my head against his body, most likely messing up my hair but he smoothed it back and sighed. I just let myself fall asleep against him.

“You realize that we didn’t even unpack our bags, right?” Zero asked as I woke up. He was still in the same position as when I had fallen asleep.

“You better have slept.” I told him, groggily trying to sit up.

“I did.” He rolled his eyes before continuing. “I just slept a little less than you.”

“Alright, let’s go. Lessons first, right?” I asked warily. He nodded at me and the rolled himself off the bed to stand up.

I shivered in the cold; what I wouldn’t give to be in the hot tub… But anyways, Zero and I were the only ones who were getting lessons from the instructor. And then I remembered all those horrific romance movies where the husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend go off with the sporting instructor. Damn you, romance movies for putting negative ideas into my head.

“Does your… brother want to try too?” He asked. I couldn’t remember his name even though he told us. I think he was in his very early twenties or late teens, but I couldn’t be sure because I was only judging by his voice and the only part of him that wasn’t concealed by winter outerwear; his mouth.

“I’m not his brother.” The idea gave me chills just thinking about it. Well, because if we were brothers then we couldn’t go out (obviously) and I didn’t like that thought, not at all. Zero just laughed and gave me a hug; which surprised me. Too bad it felt like he was far away in the hug because of all the outerwear we were wearing. I didn’t feel like refusing his public affection because one: I was cold and two: he had called me Zero’s brother.

“Ah, okay.” He said, even though he looked a little confused.

I pulled the scarf around my neck tighter to my skin, groaning at the cold. “I’m sorry, do you want to leave?“ Zero asked. I shook my head rapidly, not wanting to ruin this for him.

“No… want I want is…” I took a quick glance around. “What I want is a kiss…” He looked surprised at my confession but it quickly faded into a smile – scratch that, it was more like a mischievous grin.

He leaned down, pressing his lips to mine but he didn’t move them until he spoke, “You’re getting very bold, you know.” He whispered against my lips and then he pressed harder against my mouth, wrapping his arms around me as he did so with one snaking up to my neck to rub the back of my head encouragingly. I wound my arms up over his neck and completely forgot about the cold. And it was nice… until that snowboarding instructor cleared his throat to get our attention. Mental note: snowboarding instructors suck. With that, we disentangled ourselves from one another and he made his way over to him to begin his lessons.

I just stood at the top of the hill and watched as Zero progressed in learning how to snowboard. By the time the sun was about to set, they had made their way back up to me.
Then the instructor huddled in closer and looked around to see if anyone was listening in, which they weren’t of course because the slope was rapidly emptying.

“Listen you two, you might not want to try skiing if you need an instructor; he’s one hell of a homophobe. And be careful at the lift one of his buddies works a shift there.” He explained in a hushed tone. He looked a little sympathetic and then he walked away.

I groaned as the wind hit my frozen cheeks again and said, “Let’s just go? I’m freezing.”

Zero laughed and leaned over to press his warm lips to my cold cheek, intertwining his gloved hand with
mine. “Of course. You want to go to the hot tub when we get back?”

I smiled up at him enthusiastically and nodded. “Yes! Hot tubs are the best!”