Twelve Years Ago
ELLIE
“You look so pretty, honey!” My mom swooped in before I could stop her, readjusting one of my bobby pins. “Your first dance, how exciting.”
“Mom, I went to Homecoming last year, too. “I tried to inch closer to our front door to escape her, but she followed me. “With Natalie and her friends.”
“Right.” She waved the thought away. “I remember thinking it was so nice that you’d found some nice girls after everything that had happened in middle school—”
“You mean just not having friends?”
“I mean, well, you…had friends.”
I snorted.
I didn’t. No one was mean to me, but no one was nice, either. I could have tried harder, though. Tried not to have my head in the clouds all the time or stuck in a project. Which was why I’d been so determined to walk across the street and introduce myself to the Londons when we’d moved in.
And luckily, I’d met someone who liked to stick his head in the clouds with me.
“But you have a date this year.” My mom gave me a little elbow nudge.
“Sully and I are just friends,” I tried to reason, even though there had been butterflies in my stomach for weeks, thinking about tonight.
“Mm,” my mom hummed. “I don’t know about that. Let me get some pictures of you two before you leave.”
I groaned, but my mom followed me across the street to the Londons’ house. Sully had said he was going to come get me at seven, but that was almost twenty minutes ago, so maybe I’d misunderstood.
He burst out the front door in a flurry of movement and curses before I could even knock.
“Fuck, sorry, I lost track of ti—oh, shit, hi, Mrs. Summers. I didn’t mean to swear. I promise I—”
“Oh, honey, that is one thing I do not care about. And it’s just Ms.”
“Wow.” Sully tried to tame his hair, which looked like it was still a little damp. “Can you tell my mom that? About the swearing.” His eyes darted to me and then did a double take. “Holy shit, El—”
“Sullivan!”
Anne London pushed the screen door open, camera in hand.
“Mom, listen—”
“How about some pictures?” my mom intervened, flashing a megawatt smile at the Londons that seemed to do the trick. Anne refocused her attention on positioning Sully and me in front of the porch, her prized rosebushes on either side.
“Oh, look at them,” she cooed, glancing over to my mom for affirmation that we were, in fact, adorable.
“Such a cute pair,” my mom agreed. “They’re going to have the best time.”
“I like how they’re talking about us like we aren’t right here,” Sully muttered, leaning close enough that I could smell the woodsiness of his shampoo. His arm circled my waist casually, pulling me into his side, and I pretended like I wasn’t internally panicking. “You look beautiful, by the way.”
“Thank you.” I glanced over at him and his black suit, a stark contrast to his nearly white-blond hair. “So do you.”
He grinned. “Thanks.”
“You know, I thought you were joking at first,” I said. “About Homecoming.”
“I know.” He shrugged. “People think I’m joking about a lot of stuff.”
Something about the way he said it made my chest ache.
“From now on, I’ll take you seriously,” I promised.
“I mean, not, like…too seriously, right?”
“No,” I laughed. “Not too seriously.”
“Smile, you two!” my mom yelled.
And we both smiled so hard our cheeks hurt.