Our Grandfathers Were Right

I anxiously watched the clock across the set, zoning out on what the director was saying. In exactly 15 minutes, we’d be released from set and I’d head to a dinner party with my friends. At this dinner party, I’m going to propose to my partner.

My partner, Venus, and I have been together for over three years now. I’ve been madly in love with her from the second I met her our sophomore year. She was dating my best friend, Jacob, at the time and he had brought her to his birthday party at Red Robin. I sat right across from her while she said beside Jacob.

The other boys at the table seemed to ignore her, not likely on purpose. She was quiet, mostly scrolling through Tumblr on her phone. Her arm was lazily link with Jacob’s as Jacob waved his free hand while speaking with one of our other friends.

I felt bad nobody was talking directly to her, so I decided to strike up a conversation. “I like your makeup,” I told them. They were wearing purple eyeshadow with dramatic winged eyeliner.

Venus looked up from their phone. “Oh, thanks.”

I tried to think of another thing to say to keep the conversation rolling, but my mind was failing me.

“I like your shirt, do you listen to Pierce the Veil?” They asked, their head tilted slightly as they asked.

I gave her a smile. “Yeah, I do. Selfish Machines is my favorite album.”

Venus nodded before dropping their face back to their phone. Their hair fell just above their shoulders and lazily moved as she tilted her head down towards her phone.

I was never much for having crushes, but for some reason, something about them made my heart flutter. I can’t explain why, maybe it was the makeup or their aloofness, but I still found myself staring at her the rest of the night.

Near the end of the night, just as everyone was leaving, Venus came over to me.

“Hey, Zach, right?” she asked.

I felt a smile creep on my face. “Yeah, Martha, yeah?”

Venus suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Um, only my parents call me Martha, I mostly go by Venus.”

Venus

I had never heard someone with a name like that. It sounded mystical, intriguing.

“Oh, okay. So, Venus, then.”

Venus nodded. “Can your mom give me a ride home? Jacob is giving Luke a ride home and frankly, I would rather die than be trapped in a car with them.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, of course.”

Venus relaxed a bit. “Oh thank G-d,” she sighed. They stepped a bit closer to me so it was obvious we were a pair as we waited in the parking lot for my mom.

“You’re Jay Rossi’s cousin, right?” I asked, “him and my brother are inseparable.”

“Yeah, unfortunately. I hang out with Luka more than I do Jay, though.”

Just as she finished her sentence, I saw my mom’s car pull right up to us. I walked over to the passenger door and asked if we could give Venus a ride home.

“Oh, honey of course,” Mom said, leaning past me to smile at Venus, “go on ahead and get in.”

“Thank you Mrs. Atkinson,” Venus said gratefully, opening the back door.

“Oh sweetheart, call me Devorah!” Mom waved dimisselvy.

“Not Deborah though, she hates that name,” I warned, making Venus giggle. I went around the car and got into the opposite back door as Venus.

Venus told Mom where she lived and Mom happily drove her there. As she pulled into Venus’ driveway, Venus leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Something quick to show her appreciation.

“I’ll see you around,” Venus told me. She thanked Mom one more time and crawled out the car. Once she was far enough away to be out of earshot, Mom looked back at me and gave me a knowing smile.

Jacob and Venus broke up the summer between sophomore and junior year, and while I didn’t know at the time, Venus has since told me it’s because Jacob and her cousin Luka had secret “affair”. Or, as much of an affair you can have in high school.

Venus and I grew so much closer after the break up and as much as I hate to say it, I saw their break up as in. The two of us were best friends throughout junior year, even despite Venus going to a different school.

We made thing official in the fall of our senior year. Our schools were at the same marching band competition that year and we had managed to get away from our younger siblings and friends long enough to run to concession by ourselves.

“No, but what the hell were you doing on the field?” Venus laughed.

“I was trying to get to my dot without running into the freshman bass player with two left feet!” I shot back as we filed into line, “and you’re one to talk, it’s called a tempo, have you heard it?”

Venus rolled her eyes, still laughing. “Yeah well, I’m a drum major and you’re not. So suck it.”

The band on the field behind us began playing, causing us to take our taunting down a level.

“Do you think you’re gonna do this after high school?” I said in a low voice.

“Do what?” Venus asked, “band?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah. Maybe not necearilly marching, but band in general?”

Venus shrugged. “I don’t know. I won’t have enough time between screenwriting and producing.” Venus ran their hand through their hair. They had kept is significantly shorter these past two years and had a habit of trying out different crazy colors. This month’s color was dark blue.

I nodded knowingly. “Yeah, I get that.”

“What about you?”

I shrugged as well. “Depends on what you do.” That came out more softer than I intended, but Venus still heard me.

“Aw, you wanna copy me, I’m such a trend setter,” they exclaimed, grabbing my hands and dramatically tipping herself back.

I squeezed her hands in mine. “Hardly. I just meant that nothing is worth doing without you.” I tried to say this in a most sarcastic way I could, but it still managed to come out sounding sincere.

Venus pulled themselves forward again. “The feeling is mutual,” they giggled.

I honestly couldn’t tell if this was her ideal of flirting or her idea of joking. Either way, it made me mildly annoyed.

Finally, we reached the front of the concessions line. Venus order popcorn and I ordered a can of Coke. I reached into my pocket and paid for the both of us before stepping out of line with our food.

“Concession popcorn is the best,” Venus says, popping some into her mouth.

“Hey Vee, about what you said a second ago…” I began.

Venus looked over. “Hm? About the feeling being mutual?”

I nodded. “Yes. Did you mean that? Or were you-“

“Of course I meant it.”

I froze. “Hm?”

“I said of course I meant it. I genuinely think you’re the best part of everything you’re in, including my own life.” There was no hint of sarcasm or comedy, something so rare in our friendship.

I was at a lost for words. I couldn’t tell if she was indirectly hinting that she liked me or I was just her best friend. And, frankly, I was too scared to ask. However, one thing about seventeen year old me is I watched a lot of romance movies.

In a moment of recklessness, I leaned into Venus and pressed my lips on to hers. I could somehow feel their whole body tense up under my lips, but it was only for a moment. Once I pulled away, I watched as their eyes fluttered open. I half expected her to shove me away or for her to shove herself away, but she didn’t.

Venus let out a breathy laugh. “Jeez, finally. I’ve been waiting for you to do that for over a year.”

I copied her shock laugh. “Really?”

“Mhm. You’re not great at hiding emotions.”

I chuckled again. “Thanks.”

After that, it was history. A whole three years of whirlwind love and friendly bullying.

But, now the director was about to let us all leave, and once he did, it was up to me to navigate something far more scarier than simply confessing love for someone.

“Alright, that does it for today, enjoy the rest of your night you guys.”

The second those words left his lips, I immediately began packing away my camera. As I began my frenzy, I saw the director walk towards me.

“Jacob, I don’t have time for notes, the party starts in-“

“Shut up, jeez. I was just going to tell you that I’ll be a tiny bit late to the party, I left my outfit at home,” Jacob told me.

I relaxed. “Oh, thanks. Sorry man, I’m just stressed about tonight.”

“They’re going to say yes, man. Don’t worry about it,” Jacob said flippantly.

I closed the case of my camera and hoisted off the ground. “What what if she doesn’t? What then? I don’t care if they don’t want to get married, but what happens to the relationship after a rejected proposal?”

“I assume you just don’t get married.”

“Okay, dude, I don’t need this right now.” I took off to the storage room to place my camera up.

I stepped into the room, propping the door open to avoid having to mess with the lock on my way out. However, the second I was fully in the room, the prop was kicked out from under the and the door closed behind me.

“No!” I shouted, rushing over while trying to catch it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t nearly fast enough, and I heard the click of the lock as it shut.

I grabbed the handle and started giggling. I slammed my hand again the door as I could and called out to Jacob. My first thought was that this was a mistake, there’s no way someone would purposefully lock me in here. But I propped the door opened, is it possible that it couldn’t slid out of the way?

“Jacob if you’re messing with me, this isn’t funny!” I shouted. I stepped back from the door and reached for my phone in my pocket, but found it wasn’t there. But that was impossible, I had placed it in my back pocket before packing my camera.

My heart was racing. I had no way of checking the time, no way of letting Venus know I’d be late, or letting anyone know anything for that matter. I was supposed to drive Venus to the party, she’s going to think I stood them up!

I went back over to the door and continued to vigorously giggle. I could hear the shuffle of feet, so I knew people were still there. I started pounding on the door, desperately hoping anyone would hear me and let me out.

I turned around and scanned the room to see if there was anything I could use to make noise. But there only seemed to fragile equitment.

I took a deep breath in. “Okay Zach, you used to play percussion, you know how to make noise.”

However, before I resorted to not so rhythmically banging on cases, the door clicked. I rushed over to the door and swung it open. However, when I did, I was met with a complete dark studio. Since there were no windows, I was stuck in complete darkness.

Just before I chocked this experience up to ghostly activities, there was suddenly music blasting over the speakers. The song was a marching band arrangment, but the name of the song was lost to me. It was a gentle ballad featuring predominately flutes and clarinets.

A few spotlights switched on, all pointing in the same direction. Underneath the lights stood Venus, wearing my old Pierce the Veil shirt I wore when we first met. I had to stop myself from chuckling at the fact that it was worn by fifteen year old me, it’s slightly big on twenty year old Venus. She was holding a bouquet of violets that matches the shade of purple in their hair.

I slowly stepped forward, a bit cautious on what this all meant. “Hi,” I sqeuaked out.

“Do you recognize this song?” they asked, their voice slightly shaking.

“Vaugely,” I answered.

“This is the song the marching band was playing when you kissed me for the first time,” she explained, “I listen to it every day.”

The song went from new to familiar in an instant. I remembered this exact melody playing as we kissed. “Yeah, of course I remember this song.”

Venus cleared their throat. “Zach, I don’t like being sappy, but I need to say all of this. I’m so in love with you. You have shown me a level of kindness and tenderness I thought only existed in books. My family adores you, I love yours, I feel like this is only right at this point.”

Venus slowly lowered themselves on to one knee. Without having a moment to stop myself, I yelled.

“Wait!”

Venus froze, looking up at me with a mix of anger and nerves. “What?”

“I, um,” I frantically looked around, “Oh jeez.” I fell unceremoniously on to one knee as well. “Venus, you are the most amazing human being I’ve ever met, and-“

“Oh no, do not steal my spotlight with this. I’m proposing to you,” she stated, “Zachary, I don’t think I’ll ever find a man like you-“

“No no no, I’ve had this planned for weeks. Venus, I think everybody could learn something from the way you float through life-“

“Stop! Zachary, will-“

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Venus Kitagawa. Will-“

“-you-“

“-marry-“

“-me?”

The two of us stared at one another for a moment, waiting for the other to falter first. Instead, however, we both began laughing. The two of us pressed our foreheads together, still laughing.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” Venus said gently, placing their hand on the nape of my neck.

“The feeling’s mutual,” I replied back.

The two of us shared a kiss before standing back up. “Does this mean I can have my phone back?”

Venus smirked. “Sure,” Venus reached in her back pocket and handed me my phone, “I had my sister take it from your back pocket while Jacob distracted you.”

“Oh, so it’s an inside job?”

“Yup.”

I reached forward and pulled Venus into the tightest hug I could mange. “I love you so much.”

Venus return the hug, nuzzling her face into my neck. “I love you too.”