Page 29 of Every Broken Promise
I hated birthday parties.
Before my mom passed away, I loved them. I loved running around with the other kids and eating cake. Now that she was gone, it was annoying to have people over.
My perfect birthday was celebrating with Astrid. As long as I had her, there was no need for anyone else.
We were playing hide-and-seek. I was the seeker, and I could care less about my classmates. I was going to focus on finding Astrid first. If I found her first, at least she could help me find the others, and this wouldn’t seem like a chore.
I looked at the table Mrs. Hart had decorated for Astrid today.
There were many flowers, mushrooms, and butterflies everywhere. Astrid’s birthday theme was fairies. I scrunched my nose, remembering Mrs. Hart trying to hand everyone wings. Astrid did look very cute with hers on. She looked like a princess today. Her hair was down in ringlets with a sparkly crown at the top, and she was wearing a light green poufy dress.
Even Adam had noticed she looked cute.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about his comment yet.
Once I was done counting, I was ready to start looking for everyone else, even if I only wanted to find one person and the rest could just suck it.
I found Astrid right away. In all honesty, she didn’t even try to hide. She was standing in the hallway, peeping into the kitchen. The rules were the seeker counted inside, and everyone else just hid around the house. There were plenty of hiding spots, I knew that from all the times Astrid and I had hidden from her parents when they wanted us to come inside.
“I found?—”
“Shh.” Astrid quickly cut me off with her index finger in front of her mouth.
Following her lead, I leaned in and started to listen to what her parents were saying.
“We might lose this sense of community if we end up leaving,” Mrs. Hart told Mr. Hart as she leaned her head into his shoulder.
My stomach sank as I heard those words. The last thing I wanted was to lose my best friend. I turned to look at Astrid, and we both had the same panicked look in our eyes.
Without another word, we headed to her room.
“Y-y-you’re leaving me?”
Tears were threatening to spill as I choked out the question. Astrid couldn’t leave, she belonged here in this town with me.
Astrid looked as sad as I did.
“I don’t want to leave,” she whispered.
She was seconds away from crying, and although I felt like doing the same, this was also her birthday, and I didn’t want it to be ruined. She had been so excited when most of our classmates were able to make it to celebrate with her.
“We’ll be okay,” I told her, even if I didn’t believe it myself.
I took a step toward her and wrapped my arms around her. Astrid was usually the one doing the hugging whenever thoughts of my mom brought me down, but now I couldn’t help but think how nice this felt.
It was nice to be the one to comfort her for a change, even if my own heart was breaking as well.
Change was something me and my brothers struggled with, especially since losing Mom. We weren’t fans of it because we knew that not all change was good, but all change did make you grow.
Dad said that as long as we were alive and healthy, everything else we could make happen.
“How about we make a promise?”
Astrid peered up from where I was hugging her. We were so close I could make out the teardrops that clung to her lashes. I had never noticed things like this before, and for some reason, that bothered me.
“W-w-what kind of promise?”
“That we will spend all of our birthdays together no matter what.”
