Lie Like You Mean It

“Mina! We’re going to be late.” My mom shouted up the stairs, beckoning Mina to come to the front door.

Mina was in a school play tonight; she was playing Mrs. Lovett of Sweeny Todd.

To be honest, I never thought that schools would have plays anymore. My old one didn’t. But I guess here they had a drama club that Mina had joined at the beginning of our senior year and all the students of it decided that they could host a musical within the last week of school.

“Can Mina really sing?” I asked Zero, who was standing beside me with his hand wrapped around my own. By now, it had been like those two months without him had never existed.

“You’d be surprised, Love.” He said, pressing a soft kiss onto my head. I had gotten taller since my junior year and now my height more easily accommodated his, even though I was still small and short.He needs to stop growing so I can catch up…

As Mina rushed past us and outside she screamed, “Come on! Hurry, start the car!”

Zero sighed as he lifted me, bridal style, no less, to the car and put me in the back seat along with himself.

Michael had gone back to California since he wasn’t making very good money over the internet. But, before he left, he proposed to Mina. Which was really funny to watch, by the way, because he tried to do something romantic for her. He’d tried to make her a dinner, but everything ended up being burned beyond recognition. And then, he dropped the ring and it nearly fell down the sink. But after all of that, Mina cried and of course, she said yes.

By that time, they’d made plans for her to move to California with him after she graduated where she’d attend a university.

Over at the school, we sat in the front, just by the stage and waited for the curtains to rise.

By the end, I felt bad about ever doubting Mina’s singing talents.

After the curtains fell, my parents, Zero and I went to the backstage to visit Mina and congratulate her. Dad had bought her a bouquet.

“You did so well, Honey!” Mom said, pulling Mina into a hug. Mina and Zero had become like a son and daughter to my parents. Although saying that is awkward for me since I’m going out with him and thinking that my parents thought of him like a son was well, weird.

“Ugh, but I messed up on-” But then she was cut off by a new voice joining us. Michael’s.

“No you didn’t. It was perfect, all of it.” He said, handing her another bouquet and a little plastic tiara. “I see you guys’ve taken good care of my fiancée.” He grinned, grabbing the girl in front of us and leaning over to press a kiss to her mouth.

Then he turned his attention to us, Mina still in his arms. “What about you two? Still very much in love, I take it?”

Timidly, I nodded as Zero flashed him a tell-all smile.

“So, what are you guys planning to do once you get out of high school?”

I looked at Zero, smiling, before saying, “We’ll figure something out.”

*~*~*~*

Zero never went back to Australia and he never took up smoking again. He also kept his grades up and was able to find a good college. But he never went to it; he decided that he’d be better suited to go to the college I was going to attend in Massachusetts.

Of course, my parents cried at our graduation. My dad even asked if we were going to get married like Mina and Michael, who had taken off straight after graduation to California where their home had already been made.

Zero and I got the invites from them only a week later saying the wedding was in September. Of course we went; Mina and Michael were our best friends. But the ceremony was really endearing, to tell the truth. It was like Michael and Mina had been made for each other (fangirl mannerisms included). Mina had also hit me in the head with her bouquet, telling us to get married already, which had earned a grin I’ll never forget from Zero.

So after that, we moved to Massachusetts and started our college life. I went into a game creation field to fill my love for video games while Zero studied writing and screenplays so he could assist me in making games. Because for one, he never knew what profession he wanted and or two, he always wanted to be of some assistance to me and this just seemed convenient.

After we finished college, earning bachelor’s degrees in our majors, we left for New York to work for the same game creating company together. We were fairly open about our relationship in the workplace and most people accepted it, especially our boss, who was a woman and women, quite honestly, tend to be more accepting of that kind of relationship.

But then the marriage talk came up again around us when we were twenty-four (okay, I was twenty-four and it was a month before his twenty-four birthday). Zero actually proposed with a ring and everything. It took me a while to actually agree to it, but business at the company we were employed at was doing well so I couldn’t use that as an excuse. I mean, of course I loved him, more than life even (as cliché as that sounds) but it was still odd to think of him being my husband. That, and I wasn’t sure who was really the ‘wife’ in the relationship. But I had a growling suspicion that it was him since he was bottom, except for one time when I suggested a role-reversal. However, he felt bad about it in the end because it hurt me and said to never, ever suggest that again.

In the end, I said yes and we began the search for a church that would marry us. Which just happened to be in Massachusetts where we’d attended college.

It was an incredibly small wedding with only my parents and some co-workers we’d become friends with over the two years we’d worked at the company. And of course, Mina and Michael were there too.

It’s true that I’ve been in love with Zero since I was seventeen and most people say that high school couples never end up together. I honestly don’t think I could imagine my world without him in it.

Because Zero was my absolute, eternal love.