This closet's a little cramped

For all of her life, Janice had always tried to make her father proud. 

It was a tall order, considering he was never proud of anything. He was hate-filled and it showed in every aspect of his life. His job, his marriage, his child, where all treaded civilly and without love. 

Janice often wondered if he ever felt anything at all, or was he just an emotionless bag floating through the wind. 

And, as she grew older, her father's opinion felt less and less important. At 20, she didn't quite think highly of his opinions in general. 

So, when she met the love of her life at college, the thought never crossed her mind that she should get her father's approval. She probably should have expected this sort of thing, he was awfully by the book, and when he found out he never got to 'give' her away, he was pretty upset. 

Her mother was a different story, always open and up for most radical conversations. Janice had always had her mother's love, but her father didn't.

From a young age, Janice new her mother and father weren't the typical married couple, they acted more like colleagues than anything else. And that makes sense since, they both dived head-first into their respective careers, the love they once shared is now long gone. 

So, when she found her significant other and best friends in college, her mother was the first to know of her major crush. And, Janice even brought them to the house when her father was away on business. 

Janice, her crush and best friend became three peas in a pod. They were always together and it was only due to her family's wealth that the three didn't have any lasting criminal records, who knew walking around drunk could be such a bad idea?

As the years wore on, her crush became more and more serious. Now, her wedding day is coming up fast, and she can't wait to spend the rest of her life with the one she loves.

"You have to be kidding me?" Janice screams as she looks at the two traitors kissing in her dressing room. Her mother and soon-to-be husband break apart as she stomps in.

"What would you have done if it wasn't me coming in here, don't you realize how bad this could have been?" Janice says exasperated, the other two look slightly miffed at the interruption.

"No one's going to walk in on the bride's room without knocking, it's why we came in here." The husband says, or Janice's best friend Reg, while the elder, Martha, looks at what her daughter is wearing.

"Now I know this wedding isn't for real, but at least try to make it look like you care about how you look Janny!" Martha says while smiling, it seems she and her daughter's weddings were both shames.

'Just think about all the good things that will come out of this; divorcing and running away with the maid of honor, a little cottage on the shore,' thought Janice in her head as she tried to keep cool.

They had planned this after her father, Rick, had asked when she and her boyfriend were going to tie the knot and make everything official. After that, it was all about making arrangements to leave each other as fast as possible without raising suspicion.

Reg and Martha had met when Janice brought him over to study, they had much in common. He was studying to go into the same field as her, and she offered him a job out of college. After that, they kept meeting, going on coffee dates, and such until they had asked Janice if she would be okay if they started dating.

"Have fun, don't get caught or dad would probably go against his faith to get a divorce." Janice's reply had been startling supportive, especially considering who was asking. 

They did have to set some ground rules like Janice picking sides if they ever fell out, or that she didn't want to hear anything inappropriate. 

They had come up with the agreement that after all was said and done, they would all get what they wanted, without anyone else they knew knowing anything.

Now, Janice was just trying to stop these two idiots from ruining the whole thing. It's bad enough she has to kiss her best friend in front of a crowd of people, but know they keep sending each other disturbing glances.

"This was part of the terms pf conditions of your relationship, you said you wouldn't look at each other like that in my presence!" Janice reminded, a little enthusiastically but she really did not need to see this.

The two in question gave her a sheepish look before they decided that they needed to get the wedding on the road. 

The wedding was just that, a boring wedding that she really tried to be apart of but couldn't really feel it. Mary, her girlfriend was beside her the whole time looking concerned. 

But the only thing Janice saw was her father sitting at his designated table, he had asked to bring a friend so they had placed them together with her mom, who was talking to the groom. The two older men had been talking for a while and her father seemed a little out of it. 

When the friend spotted her staring he gave a kind wave, he seemed friendly enough, but she had never seen the man at her father's work and she didn't know anything about her father doing stuff outside of it.

After the kiss and first dance, Reg was cheekily calling her darling the whole time. When it was time to throw the bouquet, Mary was the one who caught it, she smiled adorably at her and Janice knew that she would do anything for her. 

She could see her dad and his friend talking again, her dad looked far more destressed then he had earlier. So, she decided to confront them.

She learned that the friend was named Leandro, they had met at a support group for older lgbt+ who have been hiding for ages. They weren't dating, not yet, they wanted Martha to know before that.

So, the only thing Janice knew to do was to bring them both to her little dressing room and tell them the whole story. The friend she always talked about had been Reg and her significant other had been Mary. She told them how the entire wedding was a set-up so that mom and Reg could run away together and she and Mary could do the same.

Leandro had smiled and left to give her and her father space, Janice suspected he was trying not to laugh at the whole situation. Lying did seem to run in the family at this point.

"I'm sorry that I was so afraid of my own feelings that I made you think you had to hide them from me. I hope we can start a better relationship, one where I can try to show you how much I care for you." Her father said after a pause. The apology was stiff and practiced, but Janice knew that he was trying. Trying to get out of the mindset he had been raised to believe. 

Years later, she would tell everyone she had married her best friend while drunk and had just never wanted to deal with the hassle of getting a divorce. She loved to joke about how she came out of the closet.

"It took a while, but my dad was in there keeping me company!" she said, looking happy at how many drunk people laughed. She could see Mary a little ways away, watching her have her fun before they left to meet up with the others.