I Won't Forget
Prologue
There I was, in
my lacy pink sundress. I turned red from laughing so hard as he
chased me around his backyard. I could feel my silky brown curls
whooshing against my head. I’ve always loved that feeling.
I looked over my shoulder at him and squinted from the bright
sun. He was wearing a bright green t-shirt and khaki shorts. His
soft, black hair was as matted and messy as it was adorable. As I
saw him approaching me from behind, I screamed and I ran straight
to the swings, our favorite spot. I jumped on and started
swinging. He got on right next to me and gave me a serious look
which I was sure meant “stop swinging.” I slowed down
on my swing. "What?” I asked, confused.
“Can you promise me something, Alisha?” he asked,
nervously. But I noticed he was looking straight into my green
eyes.
“Yea… Sure… What is it, Adam?” I said,
slowly.
“Um… Can you promise me that you’ll always be
mine?” Suddenly, the sun felt really hot on my skin. I was
8, I wasn’t used to this kind of conversation. I nervously
looked up at him.
“H- Huh?” I stammered, unsure of what to
say.
“Listen,” he said sternly,
“I know we’re only 8, but I need you to promise me
that no matter what happens in the future, it’ll always be
me and you. I know that my feelings about you will never change.
I wanna grow up together. I wanna graduate elementary school
together. I wanna go to middle school with you and graduate 8th
grade together. I wanna go to high school with you, and take you
to every homecoming dance there is. I wanna dance with you at the
prom. I wanna graduate high school and go to college with you. I
want to graduate college with you and then propose to you. I want
to marry you. Then move in with you. Then I wanna have a family.
I want 3 boys and 1 girl. But if you want more girls,
that’s fine too, I guess. But… But I just wanna be
with you forever, Alisha.”
I stared at him for a long time, which I could
tell was making him nervous. I really didn’t know what to
say. I was shocked, hearing that come out of a 3rd
grader’s mouth. It was really unexpected. Don’t get
me wrong though, I loved Adam, I really did. I loved him for as
long as I could remember. We were born together. My mom and his
mom are best friends. And we were next-door neighbors. When they
were both 20, they moved here to Chicago from India. Then they
got married. My mom married a Greek guy and Adam’s mom
married an Arab guy. Then they had us. I guess they knew at that
moment that Adam and I were meant to be. They used to tease us
about it a lot. Adam would just laugh, but I would pretend to get
really annoyed. Adam and I loved to fight. We were like best
friends, but everyone knew that eventually, we’d me more
than just best friends. Secretly, I loved the thought of being
with Adam forever. He was adorable. He was 4’3” which
was tall for his age. He had these perfect chocolate brown eyes.
His black hair was pretty short. His light but somewhat tan skin
contrasted amazingly with his perfectly white smile. He was
perfect for me, I knew he was.
“Earth to Alisha…,” he joked, as he waved your
hand in front of my face. I laughed nervously, thinking about
what I should say next.
“I promise.” I said, sweetly.
“What?” he asked, distracted by the butterfly that
was flying near him. Jeez, he had a short attention span back
then.
“I promise that I’ll always be
yours.”
“Forever?” he asked as he held out his pinky. I
linked my pinky through his.
“Forever.” I repeated after him, with a huge grin on
my face. Little did we both know that “forever” was
never guaranteed.
