The First I Do

by Sarah N. Ham

  He quickly tangled his fingers through mine and pulled my hand up to kiss it.

  “I’m sorry. I should’ve never snuck into your room that night.” I muttered.

  “No, no… Maybelle, it’s alright; I just… I just wonder when it does come out that we’re married if your dad will accept it…”

  “Huh? Why would you say that?”

  “Your dad doesn’t seem to approve of me. He basically said that if we were dating, he’d make Dad and I move out.”

  “Michael, he would never do that!” I insisted.

  Michael sighed but nodded.

  “Let’s just go enjoy a good meal, and maybe, we could even go on our first real date.” I suggested.

  He nodded with a goofy grin and said, “I’d like that.”

  When we arrived at Suzuno’s, it felt different from the countless other times we’d went there together. As we sat down at our regular table, he reached across and took my hand in his own. It felt odd but also, so right to hold his hand. As we ate our hibachi and sushi, we joked around like always, and it just felt perfect.

  Suddenly, I saw Ms. Silicone Valley approaching and prepared for the sh*tstorm that was sure to occur. Just as I suspected, she recognized us and trotted up saying, “Hey, Thomas, look who’s here, Mikey-moo and his cow bride.”

  I was so sick of this, so I just said with a mouth full of—ironically—yakiniku beef, “Moo!”

  She made a face of disgust, so I added, “What’s up, Twin Peaks? Not had enough of my boyfriend beating yours up?”

  She looked at me shocked as Michael growled, “Maybelle, what are you saying?”

  “What difference is it gonna make. Everyone knows she’s the gossip queen of the school; you think anyone’s gonna believe her?” I pointed out.

  “When did this happen?” She asked.

  “That’s none of your business, Gwen.” Michael grumbled.

  “Oh, come on, you’ve been longing for her for like five years. I’m just curious when you finally popped her little cherry.” Gwen asked.

  I turned bright red and growled, “Nobody’s been popping anyone’s cherry.”

  “Jeez, don’t gotta get so defensive, but really, if you haven’t done it, then are you two really a thing?”

  “You don’t have to have sex with someone to be dating them!” I growled.

  She just laughed and said, “Sure, you keep thinking that, Maybelle.”

  “Gwen, come on. If Mom hears I’ve been stirring up trouble with Mickey-moo again, she’ll make Dad leave me home during the next hunting trip!” Thomas groaned.

  “Fine, but Maybelle, remember if you want to keep a man, you got to keep him interested. Michael’s gonna get tired of a virgin 34C who refuses to put out. Besides, you can start small. Start off with a blow—.”

  “That’s enough, Gwen. Go away! I’m perfectly fine with waiting, and I don’t need her to give me oral in the meantime!” Michael hissed in a low register.

  Gwen rolled her eyes, saying, “Suit yourself, but you keep that up, and everyone’s gonna think you’re a f**got.”

  He glowered at her, and angrily, I yanked Michael forward to snatch his lips in a strong French kiss. Michael couldn’t help but kiss back instinctively, and when we released, he just let out a husky, “Whoa…”

  “Would a gay man kiss me back like that!?” I growled.

  She shook her head, shocked and said, “Sorry to interrupt…”

  Finally, she left, and I let out a sigh of relief. Michael just sat there with a dorky grin on his face.

  ***

  After that, we went to the park. He got me an ice cream when the ice cream truck came by, reminding me of how childish we must’ve looked. Then, we just lied on the grass, curled up against each other.

  “I love you, Maybelle.” He whispered, kissing me lightly.

  “I love you, too, Michael.” I said.

  Suddenly, the sky opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. Within minutes, we were both drenched. We ran to his truck that he accidentally parked in the remote section of the park. Once we reached it, we all but dove into our seats before slamming our doors shut. We laughed at how much we looked like wet dogs until Michael’s expression changed.

  “What?” I asked.

  “D-did you wear a bra today?”

  “Yeah… well, the dress has a built-in bandeau anyway… Why?” I muttered before looking down at myself.

  My white sundress was now transparent, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. I shrieked and covered my exposed chest while Michael quickly yanked off his church jacket, slinging it over my shoulders.

  “Thank you, Michael. Gosh, that’s embarrassing! Imagine if those little kids saw—.”

  I was cut off though as Michael drew me in for a passionate kiss, making my whole body numb with raw sensations.

  “M-Michael…”

  “That’s not fair; it’s bad enough that I’ve been dreaming about it! I never thought I’d get to see you, let alone so soon.” He growled.

  I blushed, and he muttered, “D**mit, Michael, calm down. You said that you’d take things slow.”

  I saw how hard he was trying for my sake, and I couldn’t help but recall Gwen’s words about “keeping him interested”. As stupid as her logic was, I couldn’t help find some of it made sense. So, I took the initiative and pulled him down to kiss his lips just like he had done a few moments before. He protested slightly, so I muttered, “Michael, I love you, and you are my husband! How much slower do we need to go!?”

  He looked at me shocked but nodded, obviously wanting me as much as I wanted him.

  “Th-then, let’s stop by the drugstore and then, go home.”

  “Why the drugstore?” I muttered, obliviously.

  He blushed, and then, it clicked, causing me to turn bright red.

  We drove in awkward silence until we reached a local drugstore. He bought what he needed while I stayed in the car, and when he came out, he muttered, “Well, that was embarrassing.”

  “If you want… I can take a pill or something in the future.” I muttered, embarrassed.

  “No, you need a prescription for that, which our folks would find out about, and besides, it’ll mess with your hormones and maybe even your metabolism. I don’t want you to have to go through that if you don’t have to or want to.” He said.

  I was touched as I nodded, glad that my husband was such a gentleman.

  ***

  When we got home, he suggested we take a shower to warm up. I agreed, shyly. As we stepped into the bathroom we shared, he passed by me and turned on the water, getting it comfortable. Then, he turned to me and asked, “May I?”

  He was referring to my clothes, so I nodded through a visible blush. He stepped forward and removed his jacket. Then, he hesitantly reached behind my back to the zipper of my dress. Once it was down, he lowered my sleeves one at a time, allowing the dress to pool at the ground. He froze at the sight of my bare top-half, and I became suddenly very self-conscious, wondering if I looked okay. I stepped out of my heels leaving me only in a pair of panties. He bent down and slowly slid the band down until gravity took the rest of the responsibility. Then, there I stood, completely nude in front of Michael, my childhood friend, my first love, and my husband.

  “You’re so beautiful.” He whispered.

  I blushed and said, “L-let’s even the field.”

  I didn’t give him time to react before I loosened his tie and began unbuttoning his shirt. He stiffened, but let me have my way as I yanked it down his arms and let it fall. I pulled his undershirt up and over his head, causing him to chuckle out, “Eager much?”

  “I am butt naked in front of you; God forbid, I don’t want to be the only one.” I grumbled.

  He blushed but nodded as I got his help to remove the rest, and there he was in all of his glory. Let’s just say, he was a sight for sore eyes.

  We, then, stepped under the warm water, and man, it felt good. It soothed away the cold wetness f
rom the rain, and as he hugged me close, I blushed at the warmth of his skin against mine. We showered in silence using the forced closeness to become more accustom to each other, and then, he turned off the water, dried me off, and asked one last time, “Are you sure about this?”

  I nodded, and with the decision made, he lifted me up into his arms, princess-style and carried me to his room, locking it behind him and turning off the light. He laid me down on his bed and muttered to me, “I love you, Maybelle…”

  “I love you, too, Michael.” I whispered, kissing him deeply.

  Words cannot even begin to describe how amazing it felt to be one with him, and it’s a decision I swore I would never regret. It was by no means something you’d see in a movie. We were awkward and obviously inexperienced, but it was wonderful to share the intimacy. It was a tad uncomfortable at first, but he was so patient and loving throughout it. Afterwards, we were so exhausted that we fell asleep in each other’s arms. I dreamt of our future as husband and wife, and I even had a dream that we were having a wedding ceremony in our current ages.

  Chapter Fourteen – I Vow

  The next morning, I woke up slightly confused until I saw Maybelle asleep at my side, covered only by a sheet. I blushed, recalling the previous night and hoped that I’d made the right decision. Then, she opened her eyes, gazed up at me confused for a moment, before smiling a brilliant smile at me and whispering, “Hey…”

  I smiled and realized that I had made the right one. I muttered back, “Hey…”

  She groaned, stretching and then, whispered, “What time is it?”

  I leaned up to see the clock read, “8:40”. Once I recited it back, we both panicked. We were late for school. We dashed to get dressed, and we prayed that they wouldn’t call our folks, knowing the trouble it would cause. Once we got there around 9:30 am, we took our tardy slips and dashed to our third-period class, making it in about ten minutes late.

  “Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Lloyd, we were about to send out the search party.” Our chemistry teacher teased.

  “Sorry, our folks are out of town, and we overslept.” I muttered.

  “Both of you did!?”

  “Huh?” I mumbled, surprised by his outburst.

  “Well, I can picture Maybelle doing such a thing but you, Michael!? You’re always so punctual…”

  “Um, neither of us slept that well due to the storm.” I said, but that didn’t stop the other students—aside from that transfer student, Parker Drake or whatever—from hooting and hollering.

  “Okay, okay, quiet down! You all know it’s not like that. Let’s get back to class.” Mr. Churchill reprimanded.

  I grumbled at the irony, and of course, this was the class, we shared with Gwen and Thomas.

  “I don’t know; they seem pretty cozy. Maybelle Frenched Michael in Suzuno’s yesterday, right, Thomas?” Gwen pointed out much to my dissatisfaction.

  “Gwen, shut up! What did I tell you yesterday!?” Thomas warned.

  “Wait, then, she’s serious, Mr. Kendrick!?” Mr. Churchill asked, shocked.

  “Yes!” Gwen called.

  “Gwen, zip it!” Maybelle whined.

  “Yeah…” Thomas groaned, earning him a glare from my wife, “Oh, come on, Maybelle, we all saw you yesterday. You made it a clear point to prove that you two were together.”

  “Whoa, Maybelle, don’t tell me that you actually took my advice and gave him a little love!? Mikey-moo’s no longer a virgin boy!?” Gwen squealed in shock.

  “It’s none of any of your guys’ business!” Drake Parkens—or whatever—shot out to both Maybelle and my surprise.

  “I actually think it is, Mr. McCarthy…” Mr. Churchill mumbled.

  “Why? So, what if they’re together!? They’re childhood friends… it was bound to happen.” He pointed out, making me wonder what his motivation for standing up for us was.

  “That’s not the issue, Mr. McCarthy!” Mr. Churchill suddenly shouted but then, softened. “That’s not the issue… They live together, and their parents are all out of town. I cannot as a teacher, let alone a fellow member of their church condone this.”

  “That is none of your business! You are their teacher, not their parents. As long as they show up to class, nothing else is your business outside of this school!”

  “And did they do that, Mr. McCarthy!? Did they show up? No, they showed up late to third period!” Mr. Churchill reminded.

  “Look, I’m sorry that we’re late, Mr. Churchill. You know it was an accident that will never happen again!” I insisted as seriously as I could.

  “Well, do your parents at least know that you two are together?” He asked.

  We looked down embarrassed, and he sighed, so I spoke up, saying, “Can I speak to you about this after class… Can I just explain this to you?”

  “I don’t need to know your excuses…” Mr. Churchill sighed.

  “But—.” Maybelle tried before he cut her off with a stern, “Ms. Lloyd, enough.”

  Upset, I finally growled, “We’re not dating… We’re married!”

  At this, half the class laughed, and Mr. Churchill angrily told us to meet him outside that instance.

  Once outside and away from the students’ eavesdropping, he growled, “Okay, that’s not funny, Michael! This is serious! If you are engaging in certain acts, your parents have the right to know.” He said, evidently upset.

  “He was being serious. Mr. Churchill, we are married; that’s why we haven’t told our folks. They’ll make us annul it!” Maybelle explained.

  “Wait, but don’t you have to have your parents’ consent to be married underage… or at least a judge’s approval if the parents refuse.”

  “They… did sign off on it.” I muttered.

  “Then, how do they not know?”

  “B-because they didn’t realize what they were doing…”

  “Huh!? You tricked your parents into consenting you two to be married!? This isn’t a forged signature for a field trip; this is a lifetime decision!”

  “You don’t understand, Mr. Churchill. None of us knew what we were doing.”

  “You’re making no sense!” He complained. “When did this happen? You two didn’t look like you were together mere days ago, and now, you’re married!? When did this happen?”

  “Fourteen years come September…” I muttered.

  “Wh-what!? What!? That’s impossible! It’s illegal! You two were toddlers!?”

  “It was done in California… There’s no established minimum age limit with parental and judicial consent.”

  “But why!? Why would your folks ever do such a thing?”

  “For my mom…” I whispered.

  His expression instantly softened as he whispered, “Oh, Michael, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It was supposed to be a fake ceremonial thing for her last days, but somehow the paperwork was sent in. We only recently found out about it because it got lost in the mail and state government systems.”

  “No surprise there… but wow, then, your folks must know about it.”

  “They do, but they don’t know that we are aware of it. That’s why you can’t tell them. They’ll try to force us to annul it.” I explained.

  He rubbed his temple from the stress of it all and said, “You two want to remain married?”

  “It’s too late to go back now. We… consummated it yesterday…” I admitted through red cheeks.

  “I feared as much…”

  “Huh!? You could tell!?” I yelped.

  “No, but I suspected. Michael, you’re always so organized and punctual. I knew that you had to be exhausted and literally have been in the same place as Maybelle to oversleep in this way. Otherwise, one of you would’ve set an alarm. Besides, I can see a hickey on your neck, Maybelle.” He pointed out, causing her to squeak and raise the collar of her shirt. “Look… I don’t fully grasp what’s going on, but I get it. You’re going through a tough time in life, hormones, peer pressu
re, big life changes, choices, and so on, but marriage isn’t something to take lightly.”

  “Don’t you think we realize that!? I would’ve never made love to her if I weren’t serious about this.” I stated.

  “A-are you at least using protection?” He asked.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He sighed and said, “Fine, I will not tell anyone of what you’ve told me, but I’d really advise you to tell your parents. You can’t hide this forever, especially now that you’ve consummated it. Besides, can you even annul it, now that you’ve done that?”

  “Yes, because we weren’t ‘right of mind’ to truly consent to it. In other words, if our folks could get us to say that we were too young to understand what we were doing, it probably could be annulled without much argument. That’s why we’d rather wait until they tell us or we’re in a position to really say, ‘no’. They can’t annul it without our signatures; they already tried, but that wouldn’t stop them from punishing us or separating us if we refused to sign off on it. Once we’re 18, they legally can’t keep us from each other, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.” I explained.

  “I see… I’ll be praying for you two. This is a lot to go through so early in life…” He muttered. “And I’ll inform advisement that you were late because of the weather affecting your sleep. I may be able to convince them not to call your parents, but don’t be late again. If you two are married, I can’t stop you from enjoying said marriage in certain private aspects, but don’t drag it into here, okay?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Alright, go on in. If anyone asks, I’ll just say you two were joking around and that I was just giving you two a speech on responsibility to keep your earlier outburst under wraps. We don’t need half the junior class knowing about this…”

  We nodded and managed to dispense any suspicion due to the lack of people actually caring. Still, I noticed Mr. Alaska eyeballing us during class. I wondered why the boy cared so much about our affairs, but I suspected it had more to do with the feelings he was obviously harboring for my wife.

  ***

  That day, I had work, so I dropped Maybelle off at home, got dressed, and headed out. Once I reached work, I knew it was going to be a long day. Three other servers had called out, and no one was available to come in their place. On average nights, I would have 25 tables per shift, but that night I had almost 50. Sure, I made good tips, but I was exhausted. I thought about buying some dinner on the way home but decided against it, knowing we had food at home I could make.