Page 4 of Forever Writing You

Pulling it off the shelf, she flipped through the pages.

“Oh, my wow.” She fanned herself. “You’ve always been handsome.”

“That’s why he was voted Mr. Popular.” Carmen showed her the page that featured the homecoming court.

I was donning a crown in the front seat of a cherry-coated convertible.

My best friend since kindergarten, Leo, was playfully holding my “ruling staff,” and Dahlia was smiling at my side while holding a lush lily bouquet.

I didn't need to look at the page to remember how her raven-black hair fell past her shoulders in perfectly coifed waves, how her coffee-colored irises shone under the field’s bright lights.

I still recalled how stunned she was that everyone voted for her to be Queen. How she never truly realized just how fucking stunning she was.

“Who is this girl?” Mrs. Reese pointed to Dahlia. “Let me guess, Miss Popular?”

“No, she didn’t win that one,” I said. “She got Most Likely to Bite Your Head Off, though.”

“Her name is Dahlia Foster.” Carmen smiled. “She was his first true love until she abandoned him for someone else.”

“Oh.” Her mother clucked her teeth and slammed the book shut. “Well, shame on her for cheating, but I’m glad she fucked up, so you could find him.”

“Come,” she said. “Show me the rest of this amazing penthouse you’re leaving behind for farmland and donkeys.”

Carmen laughed, and I followed them out of the room, locking the door behind me.

I didn’t want them to find anything else.

Later that night, I pulled a blanket over Carmen as she slept on the couch. I adjusted her mother’s pillow and ensured my pilot was still on track for our upcoming flight.

Shutting myself inside my office, I took out the yearbook and carried it to my desk.

I peeled back the cover, finding folded pages I’d once torn out in a rage, ones that Leo had prevented me from setting afire.

Unsurprisingly, they were the other superlatives that featured Dahlia and me: Cutest Couple, Most Likely to Get Married, Most Likely to Live in Eads River for Life.

On her own, she’d won “Most Likely to Stab Someone,” and “Most Creative.”

I flipped to the last page, where the inscription she wrote me on graduation day stood alongside floral stickers.

Dear Everett,

I don’t care what anyone says about “young love” and how it never lasts.YOU are UNDOUBTEDLY the love of my life.

As my mother would say, you’re my “evergreen,” and I’m yours, too. <3

Whether you stay here for college or go to the same one as me, I won’t go more than a day without talking to you. Or maybe we could keep writing since my mom makes us do all the calligraphy for her top bouquet customers?

(Yes, let’s do that :-) )

Forever Writing You,

Dahlia

Ishut it before the unresolved pain could swell and swallow me whole.

She taught me everything I knew about gardening, and we were far from evergreens.

We were limited perennials.

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