Promises

Chapter Thirteen

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1184

May 8th, 1997

You hastily scrambled off the end of the slide and planted your feet firmly on the bark chips below you. Next to you, Tyler was doing the same, just seconds after you had touched the ground.

"I won!" you smiled cheerily, throwing your hands into the air.

Tyler pouted and kicked at the bark chips a bit, "You got a head start."

"I did not!" you argued, knowing full well that you had won fairly.

"Yes you did!" Tyler huffed. "I watched you start sliding before I said 'Go'!"

"You're being a meanie and a liar," you said before stomping over to where your moms were sitting in the grass. You plopped yourself down next to your mom and crossed your arms.

"What's wrong, Y/N?" your mom asked.

"Tyler is being a meanie and saying I got a headstart when I didn't! He's just angry because he lost the race."

"Is he not listening again?" Mrs. Joseph asked you. You nodded, causing her to sigh. "I'm going to go talk to him."

"Are you hungry?" your mom asked as she dug around in her bag.

"Do we have any grapes?" you asked.

"They're in here somewhere..."

She pulled out a small bag of grapes and handed them to you. You ate them as you watched Tyler's mom talk sternly to Tyler, who was still kicking around in the bark chips. Eventually, she walked over to where you and your mom were sitting and took a seat on the blanket. Tyler, on the other hand, walked over and took a seat on the swings.

"He's just mad because he lost. I told him that he needed to apologize, but he didn't want to so now he's pouting on the swings."

"Kids, right?" your mom scoffed.

"Hey!" you said.

"Not you, of course," your mom said, pulling you into a half hug.

Once you had finished your grapes, you began to play idly with the edge of the blanket. You were bored without Tyler to play with and the swings were out of the question since he was over there, but you wanted to make a point by not playing with him until he apologized.

Tyler suddenly hopped off the swings and went walking down the other side of the hill. You seized your opportunity to use the swings and took off at a run towards the other side of the playground. It took you a second to get yourself situated on the highest, and therefore best, swing, but eventually you were gliding through the air over the bark chips.

You had only been swinging for a few minutes when someone called your name. On the other side of the swingset, Tyler was standing with something clenched tightly in his fist.

"Did you catch a bug?" you asked gleefully, momentarily forgetting your anger towards him.

Bark chips flew threw the air as you dragged your heels to slow yourself down and hopped off the swing. Tyler was still standing on the other side of the swingset, so you ran over to see what it is he had. As you got closer, you realized the object clutched in his hand was actually a small arrangement of flowers.

"I'm sorry that I called you a liar," he said. "I got you some flowers to make up for it."

"Really?" you grinned widely, taking the flowers from him. You brought the flowers up to your nose and smelled them, a decision which you immediately came to regret as you sneezed loudly. "They smell nice, but they make me sneezy," you sighed.

"Do you accept my apology?"

You nodded, "Do you want to roll down the hill?"

"Won't that make your nose itchy?"

"It's already itchy, so I might as well make the most of it."

"Ok," Tyler grinned, taking off for the hill.

"I'm going to give the flowers to my mom; I'll be there in a second."

You ran over to where your mom was sitting in a grass. She seemed a bit confused to see you running over to her with flowers, but she quickly understood when you explained that Tyler had given them to you as an apology. Tyler's mom seemed pleased that he had apologized.

Tyler was already at the bottom of the hill, covered in grass and dirt, when you arrived at the top. He waved wildly at you and motioned for you to roll down the hill, which you quickly obliged to. By the time you reached the bottom of the hill, the two of you were laughing so hard that you had to sit down.

"Want to go again?" Tyler asked.

"I'll race you down!"

"Yes!" Tyler cheered as the two of you made your way up the hill.

The two of you positioned yourselves in the grass and crossed your arms over your chest. You counted down from three and took off down the hill. Unfortunately, Tyler seemed to have a better rolling technique and made it to the bottom of the hill seconds before you did.

"I finally won!" Tyler smiled, jumping around in the grass.

"Good job," you said, giving him a congratulatory high five.

"I like hanging out with you, Y/N. You're a lot cooler than my friends from school. And nicer."

"Really?" you asked, brushing some grass clumps away from your knees.

"Yeah."

"I like hanging out with you too," you smiled. "All my friends at school like dolls and I don't want to play with dolls," you wrinkled your nose.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Are-are you still going to be friends with me in middle school? Or are you going to think I'm a gross boy and not like me anymore?"

"Of course we're going to be friends in middle school! Tyler, we're going to be friends forever, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Tyler smiled. "We pinky promised!"

"Exactly!"

"Ok, I just wanted to make sure." Tyler pulled nervously at the end of his shirt.

"There's nothing to worry about," you smiled, walking over and linking arms with Tyler. "Now why don't we roll down the hill some more?"

"You think you can beat me?"

"Think? I know I can beat you."

"Yeah right."

You took off running up the hill, already formulating just how you were going to increase your rolling speed enough to beat Tyler.

After a few more races and only beating Tyler a small handful of times, the two of you decided you were tired and wanted to go sit back down on the blanket. You walked over and linked your arm with Tyler again, just to show him how much you cared.

"Well aren't you two all friendly again," your mom said.

"We're going to be friends forever," you smiled proudly.

"I'm glad to hear that," Mrs. Joseph said.

You unlinked your arm from Tyler's and took a seat on the blanket next to your mom. She handed you the bag of grapes that you had previously been eating, which you happily took.

"Today is a good day," you announced. "I hope I have more days like this."