The Boy on the Other Side

 Laney's society has never fallen in love for over thousands of years, so long that love almost seemed like a myth. Of course, that didn't mean the Conquerors had lifted the ban of love. The ban was still there of course as forbidden as ever. If anyone had even the slightest sign of falling in love they would be sent to prison immediately and executed. Although that wasn't necessary because it was absolutely impossible to fall in love because two thousand years ago when the Conqueror took over the land they made sure her people would never overthrow them by injecting drugs into her people's blood to make them lose the sense of romantic attraction ensuring that they won't have the chance to mass reproduce and form a revolting army. To further protect their rule they also separated male and female with a big fence making them live separate lives to make it even more impossible to reproduce without the permission of the government. Although with all these careful precautions somehow something had managed to slip past the Conquerors, and that was Laney. Laney had no idea how it even happened but she knew it did. Surviving all the odds and obstacles Laney had somehow fallen in love. 

It all started with a paper airplane. Laney, who was seven at that time, was walking by herself when suddenly a paper airplane flew directly into her head, poking her eye. Laney screamed in pain and clutched her eye. “Who the heck did that!” Laney yelled, looking around with one eye. 

                “Oops”

Laney spotted a boy peeking through the humongous fence that separated female from male. This was the first time Laney had ever seen a male up close. Of course, she had seen men from afar on top of her house but she had never seen one up so close. Laney looked at the boy who was clinging to the fence, he was slightly taller than her, with sandy brown hair and big brown eyes that had the longest lashes ever. He stood there in his brown clothes and tilted his head and gave her a sheepish smile.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t look where I was aiming.” 

Laney continued to stare at him and then scowled. “You’re not allowed to be this close to the fence. You are breaking the law.”

The boy laughed, “Well, you aren’t supposed to be here either right?” Laney didn’t smile back, just continued to cross her arms, “Well, it doesn’t count for me.”

The boy tilted his head, “And why not?”

 Laney stopped frowning and looked down.          

“Well…um..I’m lost.” Laney said, tears welling up in her eyes.

 “Oh”, he replied, noticing Laney’s eyes watering.

“Hey, it’s ok. It’s ok to be lost. I was lost once too, it’s not as scary as it seems.”

Laney sniffed and looked up, “It’s not?”

The boy smiled warmly and put his hand on the fence.

“No, it’s not. It’s ok, I can stay with you though if you're scared. I’m sure your parent will find you. I’m Zane by the way.” Zane gave Laney a cheeky smile which caused her to laugh. 

“Thanks. My name is Laney,” Laney said, and then put her hand on the fence touching Zane’s hand. Back then maybe that was just for comfort, touching someone to feel safer while being lost, but the hours that they spent laughing later on was not. Zane and Laney talked for hours, sharing stories about their sides. Zane taught Laney how to make a paper airplane which fascinated her and Laney taught Zane how to make a crown out of daisy’s which didn’t seem much use to Zane although he promised Laney he would wear it until it wilted. Soon the sun started to set and voices calling Laney’s name could be heard through the distance. 

“See, I told you they would find you.” Zane said, winking, his brown eyes twinkling in the dim light.

“Oh yeah!” Laney said excitedly and got up to head to the direction of the voices but turned back and stared at the boy on the other side. Laney looked uncomfortably down. “Will we ever see each other again?” Zane looked thoughtful.

“Maybe we can.” Zane shrugged but then seeing Laney’s sad face he thought for another moment.

“Hey, don't cry. How about we come to this spot everyday and if I can meet you I will put a paper airplane with the time to meet tomorrow and if you can come we can both meet each other again.” 

Laney nodded, smiling from ear to ear. “Yeah, that is a good idea. Ok now bye!”

The next day Laney headed over to the fence again early in the afternoon and was ecstatic to see a paper airplane among the grass and flowers. Laney opened the airplane and on it written was, 'Today 2-3?'. Laney grinned ear to ear and eagerly wrote on the airplane, 'Yes'. Later that day Laney arrived to find Zane already waiting by a rock.

"Hey," Zane said, smiling. Laney dashed up to the fence, so fast that she almost fell which caused Zane to laugh.

"Hey!" Laney said, laughing and they started talking again like they've known each other for years.

Back then eight year old Laney had never thought much of it. Zane was just a friend who told the funniest stories and came up with the most creative games.

As eight years pasted with their secret meetings together, both of them grew up. Laney was no longer the scared little girl but had grown into a mature, beautiful girl with long dark hair and bright elegant facial features. Zane had also changed a lot, he was not the mischievous boy Laney had met on the other side of the fence. He had grown taller, almost a head taller than Laney, and had lots of muscles from hard labor. However, no matter how rough his hands were, he never lost the spark in his eyes and was always gentle and patient with Laney. As they spent their years growing up together both of them soon realized what had happened. Although both of them didn’t speak of it, knowing what they had would be ruined if spoken out loud. So after years Laney continued to meet the boy on the other side and their love for each other grew stronger and stronger each passing day.