Lie Like You Mean It

“How are you going to hide those marks?” I asked, examining the bruises I had made on Zero’s neck not too long ago.

“Who cares?” He stated, rolling his eyes as if the answer he had given was he obvious one. “We don’t know any of these people.”

I sighed defeatedly and stood up from the bed and made my way over to the bathroom to change into swimming trunks. I stole the towels from the bathroom and walked back out into the main room.

“Ready?” He asked, grinning at me. Suddenly I felt very naked as a blush crept up my face.

“Wh-what?” I stuttered.

I will admit, I was looking at him too but not anymore because of how he was looking at me. Yes, I was checking him out. I could do that, couldn’t I? He was my, uh, boyfriend, after all; even if I have a hard time admitting to it.

“Nothing.” He said, chuckling lightly and opening the door, holding it open for me.

But as I stepped past the door, his arms snaked around my waist and pulled me back for a second so he could plant a quick kiss onto my neck and then on my cheek. Then there was a weird sensation in my stomach again.

“You’re still cold from earlier.” He stated, laughing a little.

“Yeah, so let’s hurry…” He pressed another kiss onto my neck. That gave me that unexplainable feeling in my chest and stomach again. “St-stop, you idiot.”

“Hmm…” He paused, exhaling. His warm breath blew over my neck and made me shiver. “Why should I?”
Without a shirt on, he was so much warmer than I had ever expected him to be. Not feverishly, like he was sick, just incredibly warm. Or maybe I was the one who was cold, which might have been true.

But his hands slipped around from my bare skin and I had to stop myself from vocalizing the fact that I didn’t want him to let go of me. I wanted that warmth to stay wrapped around me. Too bad a pitiful groan pushed its way past my lips because then he chuckled behind me at the noise that I’d made. I, however, blushed at it, embarrassed.

“You really suck, you know.” I told him.

“I’ve been told that.” He said. “So, do you still want to go?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course I do!” Then I pulled him out the door with me as it shut behind us.
The smell of chlorine hit my nose and I knew we were close to the pools. My steps quickened with the excited feeling I was getting. Did I mention I loved hot tubs? Because I do. A lot.

The place had two freaking hot tubs! Two! The main pool was in a crescent-shape and there was even a little pool for kids. But my heart sank as I read the sign over the empty hot tub. “No minors under 20.”

“What?!” I yelled, earning myself some surprised looks from the few people in the pool.

Okay, it wouldn’t have been such a bit deal if I didn’t look like I was two years younger than I really was so I couldn’t lie.

“Just say we’re married.” Zero whispered beside me. I looked up at him, giving him a funny look; what was he talking about. Then he pointed to the print right next to the rule I’d just read.
It said, ‘No minors under 20 (unless married and the spouse is present)’.

“They really have ridiculous rules like that?” I asked, baffled. What was the difference between married couples and regular people the same age?

He shook his head exasperatedly and said, “I suppose so… anyways…” He trailed off because the next thing I knew he was picking me up in his arms and throwing me into the pool of hot water with a splash.
I came back up and coughed because some of it had got in my mouth. “Ack… my lungs…” I groaned as he jumped in too, outstretching his arms to grab me.

“I’m sorry…” He whispered in my ear.

“Ugh… don’t be so serious.” I said, breaking out of his grip to wade around in the shallow pool. Then I let myself be submerged up to my chin so I could swim around.

The water was so warm that I didn’t care that Zero had thrown me in and got water in my mouth. I must have a strange fetish for warm things. I dunked my head under the water and stayed there for a few seconds and then when I came up, some middle-aged man was standing over us with an angry expression on his face.

“Hey, kid, can’t you read the sign? No minors in the hot tub!” He growled.

“What are you talking about? We’re married.” Zero said calmly.

“Yeah, I’m so fucking sure. First off, you’re both men and that’s wrong, and second, I’d need proof, which you don’t have.”

Okay, this guy was really pissing me off. Both because he was trying to get me out of the hot tub and because he said that me being with Zero was wrong. Though the latter pissed me off even more because I knew that wasn’t true.

“Nicolas, he thinks we don’t have proof.” Zero said, smirking at me.

My arms automatically wrapped around his neck when I was close enough and I settled both my knees on either side of his legs on the underwater ledge. I pulled him closer to me until I could feel his breath hitting my face. I leaned over and pressed my lips against his possessively, my hands falling from around his neck to his cheeks to pull him closer and rougher to me; it was like the high of the public kiss had compelled me to do so.

I felt him grin into the kiss. His arms, wet from the water snaked around my waist, and then his fingers raked against my ribs lightly to fall to my hips where he kept them stationary, gripping the sides.
My lips were used to moving with his so it was habitual for me to participate in the kiss. His tongue flitted over my bottom lip, but I was the one who broke the barrier of our lips to move my tongue into his mouth, massaging against his.

“Fucking faggots.” He hissed, hate and venom dripping from every word.

Zero paused the kiss, but kept his lips on mine. I felt his eyes open, so I opened mine too and then followed his gaze to glance in the man’s direction. One of Zero’s arms fell from its place on my hip as he raised it in front of us and flipped him off just before the guy spun around and walked off, anger in his stride. But it was hilarious, just the way we pulled that off so flawlessly. But I detached our lips so I could pull back and laugh.

“Hmm… think we convinced him?” He asked, giving a slight chuckle along with his own devious little smirk.

“I hope so.” I said, laughing and blushing (because I realized what a passionate kiss I’d given him in a public setting).

“And you said we’d never do something like that openly.” He said, giving me another quick hug.

“Yeah, well… I don’t know… It felt kind of… right…” I admitted. “Especially because that guy was a homophobic asshole.”

He laughed at that comment. “Right.”

I fell back into the water, freeing myself from Zero’s grasp as I sank back into the warm water. I swam around the circular concrete pool until I caught Zero grinning at me.

“Wh-what?” I choked out.

“Nothing… you’re just so… cute when you’re happy.” He stated, smirking as he did so.

“Huh?” It wasn’t like I hadn’t understood, I was just surprised.

“I’m… I can… think that, right?” Oh no, he was getting all shy school-girl on me again.

It was still kind of weird for me to call another guy cute, well, Zero anyways (he was the only guy I’d ever even consider classifying as cute); let alone be called cute by another guy.

“Y-yeah, sure…” I gave in, blushing. He smiled at this and pulled me into a hug. His arms constricted mine so that all I could do to return the hug was use my forearms to wrap around his waist.

“Hey Nicolas?” He asked, breathing into my ear, sending chills down my spine. He nuzzled into my neck, his wet hair dripping down my back.

“Hmm?”

“I like you.” He told me for what seemed to be the millionth time. Strangely enough, though, I never got tired of hearing it.

“Me too… I like you too.”

“Could you ever stand to love me?” His voice was scarily serious. But I didn’t know the answer. I think I could though. I mean, I should be able to what with liking him and kissing him and stuff like that.

“I… I think I could…” I whispered back, feeling my heartbeat speeding up, almost afraid of what he was going to say to me.

“N... Nicolas?” I swallowed at my name coming from his mouth. “I… love you. At least… I’m… pretty sure I do.”

I tried speaking, but my mouth felt like it was glued shut and my jaw was useless. I liked him, sure, but I didn’t know about love. I’d never loved anyone before, at least not romantically. Did I love him? Loving and liking were two different things but they were tied together so it was hard to differentiate between the two.

“I’ve already prepared myself for the scenario that you don’t love me back, but I want you to tell me exactly how you feel.” He told me, pressing a kiss into my neck.

“I don’t know. I-I mean I… I like you… I like you a lot but… I don’t know what… well… what love really is. I mean… I never…” I trailed off, not able to find words to explain it to him and also because I felt completely horrible that I couldn’t really say it back, at least, not yet.
“Hey… it’s okay…” He whispered into my skin. “I know it’ll take some time because it took you longer to like me than it did for me to like you. I can wait.”