Then, just to tease him, I pretended not to understand.
His face fell.
For approximately two seconds.
Then he held out his pinkie.
And suddenly the memory came rushing back.
The raisins.
The dinosaur arguments.
The cruel boy in our class.
The promise made between two six-year-olds who barely understood what prom was.
“Prom?” I asked.
“Prom.”
I hooked my pinkie around his.
Then he smiled proudly.
“I already bought the bow tie.”
“When?”
“November.”
I stared at him.
“Noah, prom is months away.”
“Stores run out of things.”
“They were not going to run out of bow ties.”
He gave me a serious look.
“You don’t know that.”
And just like that, a twelve-year-old promise became real.
The Rosemary Corsage
On prom night, Noah arrived at our house carrying a corsage.
I was halfway down the stairs when Mom opened the front door.
I watched her expression change.
