Counseling: marriage

Hizashi and Elly were sitting on their couch discussing marriage venues and related things like caterers. Her head rested on his leg as she lay the full length of the couch. He was reading up about marriages and honeymoon ideas on his phone.

Elly shifted on his lap. "I don't know, sweetie. Marriage ceremonies are so overrated and overdone. They're expensive."

He bent to kiss her forehead, still flipping through an article. "Yeah, but, it's a special day. An' I want to give you one that makes you feel like a princess, princess."

She giggled, then snorted. "Maybe I'm just biased. We had this marriage thing my high school did, and it was another really bad moment for me."

"I'm starting to think it's a wonder you made it here with all the shit that happened to you in the past." He sighed. "You've neural divergent anyway, and then all this piled on top of it? People - especially teens -- suicide over far less. Especially today."

"I was ... am? Stubborn?" She flicked her ears. "I don't know. I just thought if I did that, 'they' would win. And I was <i>still</i> optimistic! I always thought things would get better for me. They did..."

He grinned. "Yep."

"But it took forever, from my point of view!" She smiled back and kissed him. "I'm thirty something, after all."

"Anyway, this was Health Class. They always had this senior end of the year thing to 'celebrate' where they threw a big party. Two kids from class got 'married' because that was the way sex education ended."

Hizashi chuckled. "Yeah, 'cause they're gonna marry everybody they have sex with. Great logic."

She rolled her eyes. "I know, right? Sex equals marriage is so ... bleargh. Old school, if you'll pardon the pun. Anyway, it was a big deal, kids looked forward to it from like, freshman year.

I don’t remember too much, just that I must have been absent for some of this but on the last day of choosing “jobs” there were only two left - bride and decorator."

He carefully set his phone aside, his face turning grim. He knew where this was headed from all of her stories she had ever told him about her childhood. 

Elly continued, staring ahead as she recalled the events that took place that day.

"I instantly picked the one people thought I should pick, the decorator. But then I thought, '<i>Hey - these kids are almost grown up now, right? Maybe this can be my After School Special story, a time where the girls rally around me, help me look pretty, teach me beauty tips and we all learn I’m not a horrible goat monster. That I’m a real person and I am beautiful!</i>'"

"You are," Hizashi murmured. "Beautiful, I mean. A real person with feelings."

"Yeah. I'm not sure any of them ever cared. See, I changed my mind. The girl that chose bride was taken aback but nice enough to say okay. Then one of the boys had to be the groom... and no one would do it.

"They all sat there with disgusted or ashamed looks on their faces. Someone suggested at one point a certain guy do it of my acquaintance, seeing as we had been seen together a lot lately." She shifted uncomfortably. "He had treated me so much better in private, like how I imagined I should be treated. I was attracted to him, so he used me. He had just been baiting the me for a quick fuck - and probably as a gag, 'look, I slept with the ugly chick' kinda thing -- and didn't care."

His grip tightened on the couch armrest, but he said nothing and let her continue.

"This ass fancied himself as an 'actor', so he stood up and claimed he’d 'rather die' in some dramatic little speech he made other than do it.

I got up, took my things from my desk and looked around once at everyone before leaving forever. I never went back to that class. I didn’t go to the 'final' and I didn’t participate at all."

"That makes me want a huge ceremony even more, babe," he said quietly. 

Elly shook her head. "Yeah, but don't you see? I don't need it. I have you, and that's better than anything else." She threw her arms around him.

"Aww, damn."