Chapter Three – The Wedding Night

At the end of the party, which really was fun despite being for a fake cause, Ethan and I shook hands at the exit while people filed out the door. "Thank you for coming," we would both say in slightly monotonous voices, and sometimes we would switch it up and say, "Thank you for making our special day so wonderful." It was contrived, but it did the job, just like this whole thing.

My mom and Ethan's parents were the last to leave. They were carting bags of wedding gifts with the promise that they'd bring them to our apartment, but they set them aside to give us hugs and kisses.

"We'll bring these over tomorrow. I know you'll have a busy night, and we don't want to bother you," Ethan's mom told us, and I swallowed. The insinuation, which wasn't so much as an insinuation but a given for most newlyweds, made me a bit uncomfortable, and even Ethan shuffled his feet awkwardly beside me.

"Oh, that's okay, Mom." Ethan laughed, but it was just as forced as everything else. "You can just drop them off right now if you want… stop on by."

She waved her hands frantically, and my mom nodded in agreement with that rather violent display. "No, no, we want you kids to go home and just… have fun. There's no use cluttering your apartment with all of this stuff tonight." When Ethan opened his mouth to protest again, his mom continued, "We'll see you tomorrow. Have a good time. Enjoy it."

I gritted my teeth as they picked up all of the presents again and headed off to their cars. We waved them off, and once they were out of sight and Ethan and I alone, I let my shoulders slump. Could that have been anymore awkward? What happened to the days when our parents were encouraging us to save ourselves? Suddenly they were like… sex-crazed.

Ugh. I shivered. The good thing about not having a father—one that I cared about or knew or was ever around—was that I didn't have to think about the possibility of my mom having sex all the time. I didn't doubt that she made it happen, but at least I didn't know it was going on. But this made me look at Ethan's parents in a whole other light.

"Well…" Ethan began, and I frowned at him. "That was… something." He sighed, but he reached out to me and pulled me against his chest, wrapping me up in his arms so much more warmly than any of the hundreds of hugs that came before. It would've been nice if his mom hadn't just been encouraging us to go have sex. "Thank you, Lyra. I probably will never be able to make this up to you, but it means so much more than you know."

I wanted to tell him that he would make it up to me, but the moment was too nice to ruin with a crack. So, I just hugged him back, burying my face in his chest and closing my eyes. We stood there for a minute, and I just breathed him in—the smell of his shirt, crisp and clean… the smell of his body, warm and a bit like soap.

Shit. Silver was right. I'd need to be careful. There was nothing stopping me from falling in love with Ethan—Ethan just couldn't fall in love with me. I was the one who had everything to lose and whose heart would break if I let that happen.

I pushed myself away from my friend—my husband—and grabbed a Poké Ball from my clutch. "Let's go home," I requested, and he nodded.

We flew back to his apartment, which was old and plain and creaked when you stepped into the landing. But there were, at least, two bedrooms off the living-room-kitchen-dining-room-combo, each with its own bathroom. It wasn't a bad deal for two people, even if it did kind of smell like mildew and sweaty feet.

I kicked off my shoes and jumped onto the couch, bouncing up and down as Ethan took off his shoes a bit more carefully than I had.

"The wedding night," I noted, and Ethan glanced up at me in horror. "I want to watch a movie. Do you prefer… a cliché chick flick or a predictable horror film?"

When Ethan sat down on the couch, I stopped jumping. "Predictable horror film. It'll make me feel better about how this day went."

"Best wedding night ever," I assured him, and I ran to my room, changed into my pajamas, and grabbed the most predictable hacker-slasher movie I could find in the collection of DVDs I brought over from my house. When I returned to the living room, Ethan had grabbed some blankets and had thrown one over himself.

"Going to use that to hide behind?" I teased, and he stuck out his tongue at me.

"Nah, but I know you will."

I stuck my tongue out, too, and we smiled at each other. I didn't let myself linger for too long, though, and turned to set up the DVD. When it was ready, I sat on the other end of the couch from Ethan, curling into a ball and leaning my face against the armrest. It was only when a blanket flew over my head that I looked back at him.

"Thanks," I muttered quickly, spreading the sheet out over my body before turning my attention back to the movie.

I was the first to scream at the early jump-scare, and Ethan laughed at my flailing reaction. Normally, I would have made an effort to poke fun at him, but I decided that retorting now wouldn't be worth it.

But when the movie reached its climax, with increased action and increased thrills, the two of us both shouted at the possessed girl jumping into the screen. I stared at Ethan, and he stared at me—and the two of us burst out laughing. I rolled over, leaning towards him and smacking him on the arm, and he messed up my hair.

It was this moment that made me remember that we were best friends. We could sit in the same room screaming at stupid scary movies, after all. And maybe I could do that with a boyfriend—or a husband—but there was no way that I could ever view Ethan as anything but my friend. How could I ever think the opposite was true earlier? I must've been on something…

"I think I shit my pants," he joked.

"It's your couch."

We both laughed again, this time so hard that we missed the conclusion of the movie—somehow, the main characters escaped from their hell and made it back to their Pokémon, but I couldn't tell how. I didn't care. It felt like, for the first time in days, that we were just two friends hanging out again, and it felt nice.

And when that moment ended, I leaned back against the armrest and snuggled into it. "You know, Ethan. This might be all right."

He didn't respond, and I didn't sit up to see his reaction. I let the quiet settle between us and closed my eyes.

I woke up several hours later, only to find that I was no longer on the couch. Instead, I had been tucked into my bed and was snuggling against my pillow. When it hit me that Ethan must've brought me here, or else I'd been sleepwalking, I sat up.

"How fucking cliché," I grumbled, kicking my legs out from the covers and waiting there for a minute.

I slumped out of my room, rubbing my eyes as the brightness of the living room hit me. Ethan came into focus on the couch, like he had never moved from last night, but he was holding a bowl of cereal instead of the hem of the blanket. As I entered further into the room, he glanced up at me and saluted.

"Hey. My mom called, said she and your mom were coming over with the stuff at noon."

I groaned, slumping face-first down on the couch. I could just crawl back into bed and die now—that would be better than my mom coming over and silently (or not) judging me by thinking that I had sex with Ethan. Of course, considering that, I wondered if she thought I was a virgin prior to the-wedding-night-that-didn't-actually-happen.

I wasn't. Just to put it out there.

"You should probably make your bed. Just so, you know, it kind of looks more like a guest room rather than your bedroom," Ethan suggested, but I didn't move. I just groaned into the sofa seat, and two seconds later I felt his feet on my butt. "Move. It's already eleven-thirty, and my parents are notorious for being early."

Scowling, I finally rose back to my feet and smacked his head as I walked by. "Thanks for the heads up," I growled sarcastically, but he laughed despite this.

Without much of a choice, I picked up my room and moved a couple of items to Ethan's room for show. By the time I finished, our intercom buzzed, which didn't leave me enough time for a shower, but I hopped in and out, anyway.

"Hello, hello!" I called, still practically pulling my pants on as I stumbled out of the bathroom. I quickly fastened them and presented myself, only to be hugged by all three adults—Ethan's parents and my mom—which I didn't exactly expect. How did I suddenly become a part of his family? They never would have done this before…

"Oh, Lyra, you look radiant—absolutely radiant," Ethan's mom told me, and I smiled awkwardly. Why were parents always so painfully unsubtle?

And yet still completely ignorant of reality? I wanted to scream, I did not sleep with your son last night! But I had a bit more tact than that. Barely. Besides, she would only be offended and ask why I didn't, I was sure.

To be honest, the fact that Ethan hadn't told his parents about the whole, you know, being gay thing bothered me. Were they the type of people who would disown him if he told them? Because if they were, then I'd disown them back. They loved him, and he loved them—I could tell that much. And if they would judge him because he happened to be attracted to guys, would all of that love seriously be revoked?

"We brought your gifts," his dad said, gesturing to the pile formed in the center of our living room. "We were hoping to bring you two out to lunch before you get to opening them, though."

"Oh." I continued to smile, but at this point it was practically a grimace in order to hide the intense psychological pain I was in. Torture. Absolute torture. "How lovely."

"Lyra, didn't you make plans with Silver?" Ethan asked pointedly.

When realization about Ethan's plan set in, I nodded, snapping my fingers a bit too dramatically. "Ah, you're right, honey. I did make plans with Silver—last night while we were at the party. You saw how he left early, right, Mom? We promised to hang out today because he forgot to give me his wedding gift."

My mom made no effort to hide her confusion and skepticism. "Really? I saw a gift addressed from him. The big one." She pointed to the largest of the bags in the back.

Damn you, Silver, I cursed in my head, for finally not being worthless. Why'd he have to fail me now?

"He has another one?" I said—so hesitantly that it came out more like a question.

The room went silent for a moment, and I smiled again, trying my best to come off as the innocent girl I wasn't.

"I understand," my mom finally breathed, as if everything was suddenly coming together. I wished it would come together for me, too, but… fuck it, this whole week was a disaster, anyway. "The two of them just want to be alone. I was like that when I got married, too. I barely saw my parents for a whole week!"

Oh no, oh no… I was going to vomit. I was absolutely going to vomit. I could feel it rising in my throat.

"Gosh, we were, too. Sorry, sorry, we'll get out of your way," Ethan's mom added.

Yep, it was coming up…

"But first," my mom started, a bit more quietly, and she walked closer to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "I've been meaning to ask you something, Lyra. Do you mind if I have a word with you in private before I leave?"

I swallowed whatever vile thing was rising from my stomach and nodded, and my mom tugged on my arm and pulled me to my bedroom—er, the guest room, whatever. Once she closed the door behind us, she glanced around the room and hummed her approval. Yeah, she better like it after all the effort it took to drag stuff to Ethan's room.

"Listen, Lyra…" My mom sighed, and when she looked up at me, I couldn't tell if her eyes were just shiny or if she had tears in them. "Honey, I'm so happy for you. But I can't help but wonder—as do Ethan's parents… are you pregnant, Lyra? Is that why you and Ethan wanted to elope? Are expecting a child together?"

And… there was the nausea again.

"Mom!" I practically shouted, running a hand over my face in horror. "I'm not pregnant!"

"Well, honey, it's so much more common than you think. You were conceived out of wedlock, but, of course, your father and I had already been engaged at that point—so there was plenty of time for the wedding, and I wasn't even showing," my mom rambled, and I wanted to block my ears. Everything I never wanted to know about my mother… "People can't help but be… curious. Elopement is most common when pregnancy is involved."

"No, no—no, a million times, no!" Holy crap, the things parents talked about behind their kids' backs. "Mom, I'm not pregnant, I swear."

She nodded, and I gestured to the door. "Okay, okay," she muttered, as though disappointed by the fact that I wasn't going to supply her with a grandchild to spoil, and I shook my head as she left the room.

I needed to get back to the gym. All this wedding hoopla was starting to take a toll on me…


Author's Note: I just started my first big-girl job today (yay!), so from this point forward, updates on my fics might get a tad slower. Probably not too much, though. In fact, I'm hoping that my updates will stay at about the same rate or so—I just figured I ought to warn you ahead of time in case they do take a bit longer.