Ten years ago

Part 1 - Time Jump

*9 and a half years later*

"Are you sure Allie is fine with a double date?", I keep asking Eli. We're on the phone, talking about going out for dinner as a quartet.

"For heavens sake NeyNey..", I can hear his smile in his voice. His use of my childhood nickname feels so familiar, I can't help myself but to think back to the old days and how much easier life was back then. Just us two, being the bestest of friends with no worries in the world whatsoever. "I see, that's something you haven't lost after all this time!", he says.

We've been a bit out of touch for a while, with everything going on, like work, family drama and serious relationships, we're both very busy. Eli is constantly travelling around the U.S. for his job as a management consultant. Sometimes he's even travelling abroad to Europe or Asia for weeks. Then there's me, voluntarily working with disabled people while teaching young children mathematics. Fulltime, of course. I love it, but to be honest, it's actually really stressful sometimes.

"I haven't lost what?", I ask.

"The reconsideration. You still do that all the time", he snickers. "Anyway. Get your boy toy and be ready at 5, wear something nice! We're gonna pick you up and go out for dinner. Allie is totally fine with it and is actually looking forward to seeing you!"

"Hey!", I exclaim. "No boy toy jokes. We've been together for a while now, definitely not a toy!", I giggle. "Alright, I'll see you at 5 then!" And with that I hang up to get ready.

×

Jesse and I are ready by 4:30 PM, which is way too early.

"I feel uncomfortable about intruding on their date night!", I tell him while I take another look at myself in the mirror. He steps behind me to look at me through the mirror. He raises his eyebrow.

"We're not intruding. He invited us because we haven't seen each other in a while. Just be happy to see him again, love", he says and puts his arms around me. I let myself fall into his chest and relax, my head resting on his shoulder. "Also, you're looking great, no need to keep looking for anything to fix!", he kisses my cheek and drags me away from the mirror. We head out of our apartment and wait for Elijah and Allie in the warm summer breeze.

×

"Wait, you did what?", both Allie and Jesse seem flabbergasted but also amused by the story's from our youth. Eli and I did some really weird stuff back in the days, now that we're looking back at it.

"Yeah, I know", Eli says with a smirk on his face. "But it was nothing compared to the agreement we both made when we were 17!" I look at him confused, trying to figure out what he's talking about. "We agreed to marry each other in ten years if we're both still single. Well, look at us now, eh?", he says, winking at me.

I feel my heart dropping as he says it out loud. After that evening, I kept thinking about the agreement for days on end. Even after a few weeks it still crossed my mind. Every few months it would come up again, but it became a distant memory with each passing day until I forgot about it. And here we are now, almost ten years later. I can't believe he remembered it, even though he's in a serious relationship with a lovely woman.

Allie and Jesse stare at each other before erupting in laughter. "Well, good thing I found you then", Jesse says and kisses the back of my hand, which is intertwined with his. I give him a weak smile and shoot Eli a look. He's looking and smiling at Allie though.

"It was fun catching up with you two, but I'm exhausted and would like to go home. Is that ok for you? I'm really sorry!", I say. "We definitely have to repeat this though!", I smile at them, sympathetically.

"It's pretty late anyway. We're gonna give you a lift!", Eli says while looking at his watch.

"Oh, no. You really don't have to. We intruded enough already!", I could barely finish my sentence before Eli chimed in again.

"NeyNey!", he snaps. "You are NOT intruding. We'll drive you home!", he insists and I give in.

"Thank you, we appreciate it", Jesse says as we head to the car.

After arriving back home and getting into bed, I take my phone and send Eli a message.

"Sorry for always overthinking everything. And thanks for the nice evening, I loved it. Tell Allie goodnight. Looking forward to the next time! Love you x"

After a few minutes I get a text back.

"No worries, I've known you my whole life and know that that's just what you do, NeyNey. :P Goodnight, sleep well. Love you too!"

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Hey you! This is my bad attempt at finally writing something again. Haven't done so in AGES! If you enjoyed this a little bit, please like and/or comment, or whatever!
I know this is pretty short, but I think as a beginning this will do. I probably will keep the chapters this short though, we will see about that.
Also, excuse any grammatical errors or other mistakes. English isn't my native language, I'm trying my best though. Thanks for reading until here. Appreciate you! 🙌🏻💓