A Promise is a Promise

The wind brushes against her cheeks, hair gently whipping behind her. The tassel of her extravagant cap swings back and forth. Her heels lightly click against the brick path as she walks away from everything she’s ever known. The setting sun shines its heavenly rays on the schoolyard.

His eyes trail her movements, his stomach in knots. She stops in front of the fountain, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. The sound of his footsteps replaces hers, as he approaches her still figure.

“Amber,” he mutters, announcing his presence. She slightly turns her head towards him. Her eyes halfway open, studying his face before looking away again. He refocuses his gaze on the fountain, letting the familiar silence be filled with the sound of the running water. He breathes in and out, relishing in the peaceful moment. “How are you doing?”

A calm smile dances across her face, her eyes near to tears. With a shaky voice, she replies, “I’m… I’m trying. But, hey, we graduated. How awesome is that?” The false enthusiasm in her quiet voice is heartbreaking. “Right, Dames?”

He wraps an arm around her shoulders, no words necessary. She lays her head against his in return. She listens to his heartbeat, comforting her as a single tear runs down her face. He lays his head against hers, savoring the warmth it brought them both.

“Hey lovebirds! You finally confess your secret love for each other or something?” They both shoot up at the sudden, but familiar voice. They laugh as a sudden weight is forced upon them. Their friend dives onto them, wrapping them in an inescapable group hug. “Congrats, D! I never thought you had the guts!”

“Oh, shut up!” Damian retaliated, pushing them both away.

The boy lets out a hearty laugh, throwing his arm over Damian’s shoulder. “Relax, I’m kidding,” he chuckles. “We both know you only have the hots for me anyways.” Amber lets out a breathy laugh as Damian rolls his eyes.

He takes a step back, spinning around showing them the back of his gown. “So how do you like my bling?” he asks. The back of his graduation gown is bedazzled. It reads ‘CARTER’ in little plastic jewels.

Damian releases a deep laugh. Amber stares at the boy in thought, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. “Were you… Were you even allowed to do that?”

Carter spins around, a wide smile plastered across his beaming face. “Nope! But what are they gonna do? Give me detention?”

Amber rolled her eyes, exasperated from Carter’s constant antics. She let a gentle smile grace her features, glancing around for one of their missing pieces. “So where’s Bree? Aren’t you two dorks always attached at the hip?”

With those words, it’s like a lightbulb turned on in his brain. He spins around, screaming, “Yo, B! I found them!”

Hearing Carter’s calls, a short girl pops out of the bustling crowd. Her dark brown hair is ratted and she somehow managed to get popcorn tangled in it. Nearly bouncing up and down, she dashes over to the group, wrapping Amber in a large hug.

“Happy freaking graduation day!” Bree exclaims, hugging Amber even tighter.

“Bree, love ya, but I can’t breathe,” Amber huffs out, pretending to be dizzy. Bree releases her, spinning around in circles.

“We’re free! We’re free!” Bree sings. Carter jumps in next to her, copying her actions. Damian chuckles at his friends, sneakily recording the moment on his phone.

As they stop spinning, Carter places his elbow atop her head, smiling wide.

“Hey, B, guess what?” Carter loudly whispered. She lifts her head, acknowledging his question. “These two were over here finally confessing their undying love for each other,” he sings, mockingly fainting.

Bree gasps, a mocking smile dancing across her features. “Finally!” she gasps, attempting to mask her laughter. Amber tears off her cap before throwing it at her giggling friend. It hits her lightly in the face, causing her to erupt with even louder laughter. Bree tosses it back to her, Amber barely catching it.

As their laughter dies out, a tension-filled silence fills the atmosphere. Damian glances over at Amber’s flowers lying on the fountain’s rim. He turns to Carter and Bree, a grim look on all of their faces. “Do you have your flowers?”

They both glance at each other before nodding. “We left them on the hood of your car,” Carter informs him, pointing at Amber. “We thought we were meeting over there.”

Damian nods, his stomach feeling like it’s tied in knots.

“Where’s yours?”

He turns around, gently grabbing his backpack from a nearby bench. As he pulls it over his shoulder, Amber throws him a curious glance.

“Why’d you bring your backpack to graduation?”

Damian shrugs, not meeting her eyes. “Why not?”

A silent beat echoes through their small crowd. Amber looks like she’s almost to tears. Bree is fanning her face, attempting to not ruin her makeup. Carter looks like he’s about to throw up, his hands clutching onto his gown. Damian tightens his hand around the strap of his backpack, eyes starting to burn.

“We should go,” Amber mutters, voice cracking. “It’s getting late.”

“Yeah- yeah. We should, we should…” Carter mumbles.

They all glance up looking at each other in sorrow. Damian nods his head to the side, motioning towards the car. They all make their way to the parking lot, no one saying a single word. Amber hits the button on her keys, her car lights flaring. Bree and Carter snatch their respective bouquets off the hood of the red SUV. Amber grips the door handle, nervously licking her lips before opening the vehicle. She climbs into her seat, catching visions of Carter and Bree climbing into the backseat through her mirrors. She turns her head to the side, watching Damian clumsily get into the passenger seat. They all glance at each other one last time before Amber turns on the car.

The ride was quiet, the not-so-gentle humming of the engine filling the tension-filled silence. They were all lost in their own heads, barely noticing when they pulled through the horridly familiar gate. The hundreds of stones were proportionally placed across the acres upon acres of grass. The car slows, the humming of the engine dying down.

They pause for a moment, almost as if they moved that would make it real. Amber grips onto the steering wheel. Tighter. Tighter. Then she slams her head against the center of it, accidentally setting off the horn. The sudden sound snaps Bree out of her daze. Tears stain her face, the makeup long forgotten. “Sorry,” Amber breathes.

Slowly climbing out of the car, they all approach a single stone resting in the grass. Damian kneels, brushing a leaf off the top.

They stare at the stone, reading the eternal words.

‘HERE LIES EDWARD PARKINSON, LIVED EACH DAY TO THE FULLEST, BUT GONE TOO SOON. 2003-2021 MAY HE FOREVER REST IN PEACE.’

“Hey, Eddie,” Amber mutters. She glances at the bouquet in her hands, the one made of flowers people gave her throughout the afternoon. She gently rests it against the ground, the petals landing in the grass-covered soil. “We graduated today.”

Damian follows in her example, taking the reins. “It was a beautiful ceremony. Although the principal’s speech went on a little too long.” He sets down his flowers before stepping back.

“Someone broke a vase,” Carter starts, a sad smirk resting across his features. He gently rests his mismatched bouquet by the headstone. “After getting their diploma, they decided to use their cap as a frisbee.”

Bree stoops down, arranging her bouquet of daisies. “For the record, that was Carter. They didn’t have a valedictorian speech though. They tried to get Amber to do it, but she refused. Everyone else followed in her footsteps.”

“You should’ve been the one to give the speech. You should’ve been there.” Amber whispers, staring at the ash-colored stone. “You were always the smartest person at that stupid school.”

A beat of silence echoes before Carter lets out a strained laugh. “Damian, over here, had a go-pro on top of his cap the whole time.”

“Well, Carter bedazzled the back of his gown. As if everyone didn’t already know his name.”

“Bree was eating a bag of Cheetos the entire time,” Carter deflects.

“And Amber almost missed her turn because she was reading!” Bree pipes up.

“Bree fell on stage!” Amber defends, a joking glare on her face.

“Damian fell off the stage!”

They all pause, trying to hide their smiles before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter. Almost as if remembering where they were, their laughter died down and a grim tension filled the atmosphere.

“We miss you, Eddie.” Amber gently pulls off her cap, carefully resting it atop the headstone.

That moment felt like a lifetime. A lifetime of promises fulfilled… broken…

“I wish we could stay here forever,” Damian mumbles.

“I wish we could stay like this forever,” Amber offers in return.

They all knew what she meant.

The four of them… the five of them… together like this…

It’s been a long time since it’s been like this…

But it didn’t last forever. They walked away after that. Four separate paths. Four separate lives.

Their promise was fulfilled. They all met up one last time. The five of them. Afterall, why would they stay together? The term ‘friend’ hadn’t really been used between them in a long, long time.

A moment doesn’t last forever, no matter how much you wish for it to.