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Another unwritten rule.
A rule, Adam warned very seriously, that could get me hurt if I broke it.
The day after I spoke with Adam, my teacher didn’t show up for class. In fact, she never came back.
Given that he was the only one who knew what happened, I suspect he was behind it. I suspect he’s behind a lot of the weird things that have been happening lately…
He, a boy only two years older than me, somehow holds that kind of power.
“Are you even listening to me?” Evie whines, her voice reaching an octave that’s completely unnatural for her.
Evie usually isn’t a whiner, she’s just being dramatic to get my attention.
“Huh?” I ask, tearing my eyes away from the rain-speckled window for a moment to look at her.
Now Evie’s legs are thrown over the side of the chair without a care that her skirt is riding up to her waist.
Nose still buried in her phone, her lips form a sly smirk that reminds me of her father’s. “Staring out the window like a love-sick puppy won’t make him come quicker.”
My cheeks flush with heat even though my relationship with Adam is well established and well known. The family’s little inside joke. We’ve informally been an item since I was in preschool. Before I even knew what we were feeling was real.
Again, back then, it all felt like a fantasy. Like pretend. He was the handsome Prince Charming and I was the princess he’d chosen. After he gave me a promise ring, I believed we’d grow up, get married, and live in a big house like our parents.
Then, one day, out of the blue it suddenly became real.
A few weeks ago, he grabbed my hand to hold it like he’s done a million times before, but this time I swear I felt a spark when our skin touched.
It came out of nowhere and was so surprising I gasped.
When I glanced up at his face, he was wearing the strangest expression. An expression of relief mixed with… anticipation.
My heart started to race at that look and hasn’t stopped. Whenever I just think his name now, butterflies take flight in my stomach.
The whole thing has thrown me for a complete loop.
It’s one thing to have the silly beliefs and fantasies of a little girl and quite another to actually live them.
To want them.
Now that I’m learning that everything I’ve ever known isn’t what it appears to be, it all feels too good to be true.
But it doesn’t stop my heart from longing for it…
I’m tempted to stick my nose in the air, to act the snobby princess and deny I’m waiting for Adam, but Evie knows me too well. She’d probably make some awful joke and tease me for the rest of the night if I tried.
“Where is he?” I ask instead and reach up to rub at the promise ring I wear on a chain around my neck. “He’s never late…”
Adam has never been like the rest of us, and I can’t remember him ever being treated the same way either. Even the adults recognize he’s different. Mature for his years is what most would say when they first met him or had to explain his actions.
But now that he is growing into a man, that’s being said less and less.
Evie shrugs her shoulders and taps on her phone. “Don’t know, don’t care. Probably dealing with his business.”
She wrinkles her nose when she says the word business, as if the idea disgusts her.
Turning back to the window, I stare into the gloomy evening, a ball of dread beginning to form in my stomach. My fingers rub and worry over the little ring Adam gave me when I was only five years old.
Something is definitely wrong.
