Promises

I remember it like it was yesterday. I had been so young, just entering adolescence, and I had already met the man of my dreams. Jackson had no white horse and no shining armor but he always saved my day. That night when he snuck into his sister's room and caught me crying myself to sleep we saw each other in a new light. I was no longer his annoying little sister's friend and he was no longer the one who made my best friend's life annoying. That night he and I became a we and he became a different sort of best friend.

As soon as he entered I did my best to quiet my snuffling. But tears were difficult to hide, and the catch in each breath gave me away.

"Sereigha, are you crying?"

I tried not responding, closing my eyes and holding my breath until he went away. He wouldn't care about me, no one did. I learned that the hard way. I do everything around here Sera, you're useless. What else could you expect from a grief stricken mother?

"Sereigha, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He had left the door slightly open and a small stream of light snuck in through the hall. I watched him slowly move away from where his sister slept deeply on the other side of me to sit at my feet. His blue eyes, gentle and somber, washed over me in a way I had never experienced. He looked at me with no ridiculous expectations, no check list I had to pass. He saw me for me and whispered, "I'm always here for you" and that was good enough for me.

In the years after that he started talking to us more, pranking his sister less, until she started pranking him back in which it was only natural for a sibling war to start between them, and slowly becoming closer to me. We became a bit if a trio, though Amelia was always the social butterfly and drifted through social circles easily. At birthday parties, she would make a new friend so Jackson and I would laugh at the ridiculousness of the theme. She was always the one who wanted to go, and Jackson and I loved her too much to say no.

Eventually I stopped calling him Jackson, and he just became Jack to me. He never pressured me about why I cried at night when I stayed over with them, he would just sit at the end of my feet and hum to me quietly until I fell asleep. That's when he told me to call him Jack.

I was crying again. My mother had stormed off on me as I left the house that day, complaining because I hadn't told her we were out of milk and now she would have to make a special trip for it. She was having her ladies group over for tea and how could you have tea without milk? Then the door inched open and Jackson popped his head in. This had become quite the tradition. Every night he would pop in an hour or two after we went to bed and catch me crying. Like every other night I tried to hide it, to conceal my roughened breathing, but he always caught me, then sat at my feet.

"Oh Sereigha,"

"I'm okay, Jackson. You don't have to come in here every time I sleep here you know."

"I want to Reigh, you're important to me. And if this is what you need, someone here to let you know it's safe to sleep, then I'll gladly do it."

I closed my eyes trying to calm my breathing and settle in for the night. I couldn't help but secretly admit he was right. It was calming to know I mattered to someone.

"And Reigh?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me Jack."

I never knew how long he would stay but he was always gone when I woke up and as time went on I discovered how disappointed I was. Perhaps it was that first time when we went out just us two, when Amelia found herself a date. The one night when I fell asleep and woke up to him. When I realized how much I needed him.