Promise // Mullette

prologue

- 2002 -
- 3rd Person POV -

"Mommy, can we pleeeeease go to the park? I haven't seen Laf in like three days and I miss him!" Hercules, age 5 begged his mom. She simply laughed and nodded.

"I'll call his mother, sure. But he might not be able to, so don't whine if he's not." She said, dialing Lafs Mom on her flip phone. A few minutes later, she walked back into Hercs room and nodded at him.

"Get ready to go to the park." She said, and laughed at him as he cheered and rushed around to look for clothes to wear in the early spring weather.

Soon enough, both moms and kids were at the park, the moms on the bench talking and Herc and Laf on the swings, flying higher and higher. They had been at the park for about forty minutes by now, and had spent a lot of energy running all around and finally settled on the swings for the rest of the play date.

"Hercules, I need to tell you something important." Laf said, swinging slightly less vigorously to tell his best friend the news.

"What is it Laffy?" Herc asked, childish innocence causing him to tilt his head in concern at Lafs tone.

"You know how I moved here when I was 2 from France?" Laf said, slowing down even more. Hercules nodded in confusion, slowing down as well.

"Well, my mommy said that we have to go back. And we have to stay there permanently. She said permanently means forever." Laf said, his lip trembling as he stopped swinging altogether. Hercules jumped off his swing and ran to the steps for the slide, tears running down his face when he realized what was going on.

"Hercules!" Laf ran over to him and put his tiny hand on Hercs shoulder, trying to show him that he was sorry. Hercules turned away from Lafayette until he heard sniffling, then realized his best friend was crying too.

"Laffy, I don't want you to move to France! You'll forget about me and we'll never see each other again!" His eyes welled up with tears as he hugged his friend.

"I'll never forget about you. I don't want to forget. We're best friends, how could that happen?" Laf asked with shock in his voice, surprised that Hercules would bring up the idea of them forgetting each other.

"Then promise me. Promise me that someday we'll see each other again and we'll meet up and be best friends forever." Hercules said, wiping his tears off his face. Laf nodded, his ponytailed curls bouncing as he did so.

"Boys! It's time to go!"Herc's Mom called. The boys embraced one last time and ran over to their moms, not realizing that this would in fact, be the last time they saw each other before Laf had to move earlier than previously planned.

And the last words Herc heard from Laf were:

"I promise."

Before they were ushered into to their respective cars, not to see each other for 16 more years.