Page 30 of Every Broken Promise
She pondered over my suggestion but ultimately smiled at me.
“Even if I move away, we can always look forward to our birthdays. It will be better than Christmas.”
If she ended up moving, I figured that whenever I saw her again, it would definitely be better than Christmas.
“Come on,” I told her, pulling away from our embrace. “We need to find the others, or else they will be mad.”
At this, she giggled, and we both ran outside.
With Astrid at my side, we quickly found the rest of our classmates. They complained that we took forever, but as soon as Mrs. Hart began to hand us giant bubble sticks, everyone forgot about it.
When Astrid blew out the candles on her cake, I already knew what she wished for because it was the same thing I would have prayed for.
She couldn’t move away.
I don’t know how I would survive without her.
THIRTEEN
My loveforpan dulcewas the only thing getting me through the weeks.Life in Oakhill Creek was quiet because I was being a coward.
There, I said it.
All I did was work, work, and no play. That would be changing today. It was Friday night, and I had nothing better to do with my night. This made me miss my college life. There was always something to do on the weekends.
Not that I was much of a party animal, but sometimes you needed a little socialization.
There was also another reason I wanted to get out of the house, but I didn’t want to think about it too much. This day was nothing special—or so I told myself like I did for the last four years.
The weather had been nice for late spring, but I knew the night would start to get colder. I threw on a dark jean skirt and a cream long-sleeve shirt so I wouldn’t get too cold later. My hair was curled at the ends, and I didn’t have much makeup on other than my mascara. I put on my favorite pair of white sneakers and went outside my room.
My parents were lying down on the sectional about to watch a movie.
“You’re not staying for movie night, June bug?” my father asked me.
He looked a bit disappointed.
That made me feel even more lame. I had been spending so much time with my parents that they now expected me for movie night.
“Not tonight. I’m sorry,” I said, not sounding very sorry at all.
“We were going to watchThe Haunting.”
“Aw, I haven’t seen that one in so long,” I said, feeling a bit sad that I would miss it.
The Hauntingwas as scary as Dad went with his movies. On the other hand, I loved them. Mom only liked the paranormal ones. My partner in crime for all things gore and horror used to be Tyler.
His only flaw was that he wasn’t aHarry Potterfan, but we bingedThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy together. Then high school came, and everything slowly began to change, and before I knew it, things that made us dorky and quirky were stuff he no longer had an interest in doing.
I shook my head to rid myself of thoughts of the past.
“Where are you going?” my mom asked.
“Zeke’s,” I said as I waggled my brows at them.
This made both of them smile.
“Well, at least you won’t get kicked out now.” My dad chuckled.
