Page 115

He shoved my shoulder a little and smiled. “Have fun.”

“I like the elf!” Harris said.

“Harris!” I chided. I knew he liked Will, but he didn’t have to say that to Ryan. “Be nice.”

“That is nice,” Harris said.

Mom put her arm around Harris’s shoulder and steered him away.

“Thanks, Harris!” Ryan called after him.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“No, really, it’s fine.” He chuckled a little. “He’s cute.”

I didn’t find it cute at all, but I was glad Ryan had a good sense of humor. We turned onto our street.

Ryan draped his arm around my neck and gave me a quick kiss on my lips. “I’m also sorry for how things happened during and after the ball. About what my friends did,” he said.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I don’t know if they’re my friends anymore.”

“Did they…” What was it called when you were no longer friends with someone? “… break up with you?”

“No, I broke up with them.”

My eyes shot to his. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I did,” he assured me. “They’ve always done things that I don’t agree with. I should’ve been brave enough to do this a long time ago. To stand up for myself, for other people.”

“I’m sorry, that’s still hard.”

I was looking up at him instead of where we were going, trying to make sure he was okay. He seemed good. Happy, even. When I turned my attention back to the street, I was surprised by a large decoration in the yard we were about to pass. It was a huge snow globe. Twice the size mine had been. Snow was swirling around inside, and it took me too long to see that inside the snow globe was a house that looked like my house. On the roof of that house in little lights it read: R+J.

My eyes shot to the house we were standing in front of. My house.

“Did you—how did you—when did—” I couldn’t even finish a single thought. “There aren’t cookies inside my house, are there?”

I realized my family had already seen this snow globe. That’s why they told me I needed to come back here. That’s why they’d hugged Ryan before we left.

“I had some help,” Ryan said, glancing over at his house. His mom was standing on his lawn next door. She waved at me.

“I love it,” I whispered.

“And that’s the elf Harris was talking about.”

Inside the snow globe, next to the house, was a stick elf. The one from Mr. Lenny’s shed. It still looked a little beat-up but much better than it did when I’d seen it last.

“Ryan, you didn’t break any of these things,” I said, squeezing his hand. “You didn’t have to fix them.”

“When you love someone, sometimes you need to fix what other people broke.”

I swallowed down a lump rising up my throat, and then I was crying. I didn’t mean to be, but I was.

“Don’t cry,” he said.

“I’m just so happy, and you’re so amazing, and I love you too.”