PROMISE
CHAPTER 1: DEAD END
“Max,” I said and flickering the light against his sky blue wall. The light flowed around the room like water making it bright. I stared at the messy bed, then the closest. He isn’t here.
“Max,” I called his name again. “I’m not going to play hide and seek with you anymore. go to bed.”
I bent down and looked under his bed. Vacant. Then I went to the bathroom and behind the cushion, but he wasn’t there.
“Max!” I yelled opening the front door of our apartment and yelled his name several times more. My heart started to pound hard against my chest. Finally I heard barking outside of the apartment building, Max’s dog, Lulu. He is in trouble. I ran down the stairs skipping two stairs at a time. In every beat of my heart, it was yelling Max! Max! Max! Max! I twist the doorknob and burst outside the snowy streets. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lulu’s shadow. I ran again, not caring about the cold or my socks getting wet from the snow on the cement. Then out of nowhere, I saw drips of blood on the white snow trailing a seven year old boy’s body.
“Max...” I whispered.
Max is lying on the ground with blood spattered around him. I inhaled and felt drips of tears forming into my eyes. I collapsed and took him from the ground, hugging him around my white sweater.
“Max please. Please open your eyes.”
He tilted his head a little to see my face. He gave me a small smile and opens his eyes at me.
“It’s okay,” He breathed and fell his head to one side. I put two fingers against his neck feeling his pulse. He's not breathing. His dead.
“Max!”
I woke up catching my breath. The door opened with the light on. Jake ran into me and immediately hugged me, like a little boy getting a puppy in Christmas but his expression wasn’t happy. It’s sad with a mixture of apprehensive.
“Shh...It’s okay,” Jake said in my ear and stroked my hair. Max’s last words.
I cried on his shoulder while he comforted me. No, it’s not okay. It’s been two years now since the police hadn’t caught my brother’s killer. How can that be okay? I made a promise to Max and myself that I would find the killer and if I do, he/she better wish he/she never met me. A few moments later, I pulled away from him to whip my tears away from my eyes using the back palm of my hand.
“Sorry,” I whispered. It’s the fifth time now of this month that I’ve done this and still have nightmares about it.
“You sure you're okay?” he asked whipping another of the tear that betrayed me.
“Definitely,” I said my voice breaking.
He chuckled. “You don’t have to be tough to hide your crying away from me. I know how you feel.”
Of course you do. Your dad and brother died at the same day in a car accident. But I didn’t say that, instead I said, “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” he said changing the subject because usually he hates admitting sad parts about his life and that he has to see me suffer. “I’ll make you hot coco.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?” he asked not leaving my side yet.
“For everything.”
He smiled at me and gave me a warm kiss against my lips. I kissed him back, but he pulled away too fast. “How about that hot coco?”
I gave him a return smile. He took my hand and guides me to the door into the kitchen. I sat on the cushion of what he was sleeping on. As I sat there, I wrapped his blankets around me and shivered a little by the feeling of his warmness. I remembered when I moved into his place. We argued about stupid things like whose going to sleep at his bed, dishes, the bill and pretty much it never stopped. As I watch him add water in two mugs, I couldn’t imagine his face when his dad and older brother died. That must’ve been very hard for him. Maybe he ran away like I did because our mothers were drunk or gone psycho and couldn’t accept that they were gone. After he put the mugs in the microwave and pressed start, he looked at me in surprise.
“What?” he asked.
I looked away and shook my head. I can’t let him see my face like that. I can’t let him take care of me like I’m the little girl here and his the adult. I closed my eyes to stop the tears away. Why are our lives so mess up? What did we do to get this? Loving a person too much? I don’t think so. Jake is an important person to me right now and I don’t want to lose him. Ever. Suddenly I felt a warm kiss on my forehead. I jumped to see him so close to me.
“Don’t you ever do that to me,” I said.
“Do what?” he asks.
“Scare me when I have my eyes close.”
“I always do that.”
I smiled, “I know you do.”
He took another blanket and wrapped it around him. Why doesn’t he want to share with me? He handed me my coco trying not to brush my fingers.
“Thanks,” I said blowing it and took a long sip. “This is sweet.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t like it.”
“I never said that.”
“So tell me,” he said as I put my coco on the little table in front of us. “What were you think earlier?”
“Before or after when you asked me if I wanted coco?”
He pursed his lips thinking if he wanted both, but then changed his head. “While you were staring at me.”
“Um,” I said trying not to lie because I hate lying to him. “About what you said.”
“What did I say?”
“About the ‘I know how you feel,’ part.” I said making the quotations with my fingers.
“Oh,” he said.
“I was wondering how you felt that day when your brother and dad died. It must’ve been harder for you to go to school, seeing your mom feel the pain of how…” I trailed off when I saw his face harden.
Finally he looked up and said, “Yes it was harder for me.”
He took a deep breathe. “And I don’t want you to suffer too, so can we not talk about this?”
I nodded. “I have another question though…if you want to hear it.”
He sighs, “What is it?”
“When you asked what I thought earlier and you said ‘oh’ what did you expect to hear from me?”
“Nothing.”
“You sure?”
He hesitated, “yes.”
I examine his face for a moment. “Tell me,” I insisted.
He looked into my eyes and saw in his lips a smile was about to form. “You’re going to regret it that I told you.”
“No,” I said lying, but at least this makes him happy.
“I’m not going to tell you something, I’m going to ask you.”
“Okay goes ahead.”
He smiled and put away his coco. Then turned his whole body in front of me as he crisscrossed applesauce on the couch. Oh god! This is bad! I’m starting to regret this. Please stop right there! I wanted to scream.
“Jean,” he asked looking straight into my eyes. “Will you want to go to prom with me?”
I bit the inside of my cheek.
