Anonymous

Ten

So, here's the thing. I was planning on documenting bingo night, but as it turns out, dinner is much more insightful. Actually, dinner was quite boring, it was what followed that was so interesting. Eva's mom and Mare's dad are walking side by side, fingers interlocking, you know all that mushy romance stuff, and Eva and Mare are walking behind them, fingers barely brushing, you know all that forbidden love stuff.

"I've always hated this bridge," Mare whispered. "It feels like I'm going to fall through."

"Just look at the lights underneath," Eva whispered back.

Mare looked down, then glared at Eva.

"I hat you"

"You hat me?" Eva asked

"You know what I mean," Mare said.

"Girls," Dad said.

"Sorry," Mare murmured.

They were at the end of the bridge and Mare's dad stopped.

"Jane, wait a moment," he said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Jane, you are the love of my life. You are the first person I want to look at every morning when I wake up, and the only one I want to kiss goodnight. Because the first time I saw these hands, I couldn't imagine not being able to hold them. But mainly when you love someone as much as I love you, getting married is the only thing left to do. So, Christina Jane Lawson, will you marry me?"

"Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she said.

I won't go into all the details because as you've figured out by now, that is not my style. Anyway, they go back to Eva and her mom's house and the adults go do whatever newly engaged couples do while the teens are faced with ever growing anxiety.

"Why did he do that?" Mare paced back and forth in front of the bed in her and Eva's room. "Why the frick frack tic tac did he do that!"

"I take it you didn't know," Eva said. She lie on her bed looking exhausted.

"Of course I didn't know!" she said. "I would have told him not to do it! I would have come up with some reason not to or at least to wait!"

Eva rubbed at her eyes and rolled onto her back.

"What do we do?" she asked. "Do we tell them? Do we try to break them up?"

"They aren't even a good couple," Mare said. "They hardly ever talk, they don't even have that much in common. I think your mom spends more time with me than with my dad. Also, yesterday while you were at Amie's I found a picture on his phone, that kind of picture, and sent it to someone named Lucy, and it obviously wasn't a mistake."

"Shit," Eva said. "We are breaking them up. Should I tell her he's been cheating?"

"She wouldn't believe you," Mare said, plopping down on the bed next to Eva. "I've watched enough movies to know how that ends. Should I tell him I know?"

"He said he wants to get married this July, two months, it might buy us some time, but I would have to talk to him this week or the texts become circumstantial."

I know that's kind of a big deal, but there's another proposal going on. Jake's grandfather pulled out a ring and offered it to Jake's grandmother.

"Elizabeth Goodman, will you marry me?" he asked.

"Of course, you silly goose," she said, laughing as he attempted to swing her around like the first time they had gotten engaged.

Apparently, Jake's grandfather, Elizabeth Goodman's 'silly goose', proposes every night at the same time he did fifty-three years earlier and Jake's grandmother, Elizabeth Goodman, responds the same way she did fifty-three years ago. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

"Oh deer," his grandfather said. "Jake, who's Jake? Jake?"

"What is it?" Jake said, poking his head out of his room.

"What is going on with my sweet Elizabeth?"

Oh, no. I turn my head for one moment and this happens? 

*proceeds to hit head against the wall*