Chapter 26: Age of Consent

The following year when all the boys had reached 16 they had decided they had better tell their parents, it would allow them to talk and meet without having to hide.

Each pair of parents was invited by their son or daughter to a thank you barbeque to be held at the cabin, they were each given a map to follow to the cabin and each given a specific time to arrive. None was told that anyone else was coming so the fact that each was being given a different time did not seem odd.

As each pair of parents arrived, their son or daughter met them and took them round the side of the cabin to the lakeside. As the clearing in front of the cabin where the road ended filled up with cars, the later arrivals were more than a little confused at the number of cars there.

By the lake, the four guys were working over the grills and the girls were making sure everyone had plenty to eat and drink. Planning for this had been meticulous, all had borrowed pictures of their parents and these had been passed between all the groups so all the team could recognize each, this seemed to confuse many of the parents even more, to be greeted by strangers who seemed to know each of them by name and who their son or daughter was.

To make it easier for the parents each of the group were wearing nametags so that they were easy to identify. All of the parents knew a part of the group, each of the boys' parents knew all the other boys and the same for the girls. A few of the parents knew each other but most did not.

When the last parents had arrived and had time to eat and drink, Mike called for everyone's attention and said, 'I think we had better explain why we are all here, we hope everyone will understand why we are doing this in this way and, when you fully understand, why we have waited until now to tell even you. Please understand none of our respective school or in the case of the girls, college friends knows any of the details of this and at present, we do not want them to, so please respect our joint wishes and keep this within this group.

'Since I started this whole thing off, I will explain first. Mum, do you remember back last year you took a phone call for me, and joked that it sounded like a girl and asked was I hiding a girlfriend. Well you were right, I was, Kelli, ' he held out a hand to Kelli who joined him, wrapping an arm around him and kissing briefly. 'Mum, dad, you remember Kelli she used to baby sit my sister.'

Kelli looked to her parents and continued, 'mum, dad, do you remember at one point last year I was very depressed for a time, well I had been forced to do something that nearly destroyed me, until Mike stepped into my life and saved me. This is Mike.

Chet move over to them and continued, 'mum, dad last year Mike introduced me to Kelli and some of her friends, one in particular I would like to introduce to you, Becky.'

She moved to hug him and then, 'mum, dad last year Kelli introduced me to Mike and a number of his friends, this is Chet.'

Mark joined the group saying, 'mum, dad last year Mike also introduced me to Kelli and some of her friends, the one I would like to introduce you to is Suzanne.'

Suzanne quickly joined him, hugging and kissing him, then turning to her parents, 'Kelli also introduced me to Mike and his friends this is Mark.'

Finally, Billy joined the group, 'mum, dad I was also introduced to Kelli and her friends last year, and would like you to meet Julie.'

Julie ran to him, hugging and kissing him before looking to her parents, 'Kelli also introduced me to Mike and his friends, this is Billy.'

All the parents had been practically silent during the introductions, mainly due to surprise, and were just starting to talk again when Mike held up a hand, 'before you all start asking questions we have one final part to do, although our beautiful partners don't know about this. Shall we gentlemen?'

At that each boy put a hand in their pocket, pulled out a jewellery ring box, and removed an identical ring from each and turning to their partner saying in unison, 'I have been waiting a year to do this.' Each slipped the ring onto the girls finger, all of who were very surprised, saying, 'I now publicly and officially ask you to marry me.'

All the girls hugged and kissed the boys crying, and each answered, 'yes.'

When the girls had finally calmed down, Mike's father asked, 'you said you have been waiting a year, is that how long you have known each other.'

Mike kissed Kelli again, 'not quite, that was how long ago we all agreed to marry, Kelli has been my fiancée since then but until now we have been too young to officially announce it. We all agreed to wait until now to tell anybody, including you all in case anyone caused trouble.'

Mike's mother said, 'who are these other girls, I don't recognize any of them, I know your friends Mike, and Kelli has become a beautiful young woman but I cannot remember ever seeing any of the others or their parents in town.'

Kelli's mother chipped in, 'I have the same question about the boys, there is something strange going on.'

Mike answered, 'it is quite simple really, all the guys come from one town and all the girls from another that's why neither set of parents recognize the other.'

'We always meet here at the cabin so that no-one knows about us.'

Mike father said, 'hold on there are only four beds and they are all in one room. If you are all meeting here it is more than just friends.'

'Come on dad, we told you we agreed to marry a year ago, these are more than just casual friends Kelli is my fiancée and lover, the same goes for the others. And yes we are careful; none of us wants kids yet.'

Kelli's mother asked, 'what do you mean too young, Kelli and her friends are all nineteen and at college, so it must be the boys who are young. How old are you.'

Mike replied, acting a spokesman for all, 'We all became sixteen this year and before anyone asks yes we all agreed to marry when we were fifteen and became lovers at that time.'

'We knew at the time this was wrong according to law but we decided to ignore it, which is why even you are only learning the truth now. At the start of our relationship Kelli was hurt very badly, and something I think she hid from her parents, was very close to suicide.' Kelli's parent gasped in shock, she had shown no sign of it.

Kelli added, 'it was because Mike stepped in, saved me and turned my life around by loving me that I am still here today.'

Mike continued, 'I brought my friends into it because Kelli was hurt in a group of people and therefore I needed a group to help her heal, we did the same with her friends to both help Kelli and payback for their support. It was only because all of them are like Kelli and me that they all ended up falling for each other, I think they would agree they each found someone that normally they would not have even considered who made their lives better.'

We decided to tell all of you so we don't have to hide it from you anymore, whether you approve or not is up to you, it will not change anything between us, we have been through too much and together too long to worry about it. In a few years we will be marrying, and give notice now it will be one joint ceremony with all eight of us, so you had better get to know each other ready.'

Mark added, 'we are very close as a group and plan to stay that way, after a year together we are very happy with our relationships.'

His mother picked up the relationships plural, asking, 'is there more than just you each as pairs, you said relationships.'

'Well we were going to keep quiet about it but all of us love each other, at least each of the guys loves all the girls, although we prefer to call them our angels, and each angel loves all the guys.We all support each other and are all pledged to help and protect each other.'

'You may have noticed we gave each girl an engagement ring, they are all identical and each is engraved with all four guys and girls names, I must say the jeweler was intrigued why we needed four rings with eight names.'

All four angels looked surprised and each looked in detail at the ring each had, they had not noticed the engraving. All hugged their partner kissing them many times. Becky asked Chet, 'who came up with that?'

'Mike suggested it after you all left that first week we had together, we have all been waiting for this day to show you, he arranged the rings and the engraving.'

Mike's father exclaimed, 'so that was what you needed the loan for, I understand now why it was so important.'

All four angels clustered round Mike in their special group hug and each kissed him, thanking him for such a wonderful idea to complete this special day. Then they all returned to their own special partner.