Falling For Elizabeth by M. J. Padgett

Author:M. J. Padgett [M. J. Padgett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Secret Author Publications
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Graduation Promises

“What the heck were we thinking?” My mother looked around the backyard of Elizabeth’s home. She and my aunts had spent hours meticulously placing every decoration in preparation for Elizabeth’s graduation party, but it was all for naught. Ten minutes into the party it was practically destroyed.

“I tried to remind you how mine went, but you wouldn’t listen to me,” I said.

“Look, mister, just because you’re in college now doesn’t mean you know better than me,” she replied.

My tiny mother, oh how I loved her. I propped my elbow on her head and leaned on her, something my father did all the time. She tolerated it from him, but from me, she simply side-stepped and let me fall on my butt.

Elizabeth saw the whole thing and was laughing her butt off when she approached. “Hey, you have a minute for me?” she asked through her laughter.

She looked beautiful. All grown up and heading to college in the fall. We’d be hours apart from one another for the first time in our entire lives.

“Sure, I do,” I said, and she dragged me up from the ground.

“Let’s go to the third floor. Surely, it’s not so loud up there,” she said, speaking of the floor her parents had recently begun renovating.

I followed her up the stairs, down the hall and up the second flight of stairs into the creepy section of the home. I remembered a tale Aunt Conor told us about her grandmother scaring the crap out of them on Halloween many years ago, and I briefly wondered which of the dozen rooms it had happened in.

She opened one of the doors, and it creaked loudly. I coughed as a plume of dust fell on us. She coughed a few times beside me and brushed the dust from her hair. I had no idea why we had to be that far from everyone, but I didn’t particularly care. If she wanted time alone with me, she got time alone with me. I wouldn’t have cared if the room was filled with snakes and alligators, I’d have followed her in.

“So, I’ve been thinking a lot about things and, well, you’re my best friend in the world, Tristan.”

I waited, but she said nothing else. “Elizabeth, that’s really sweet and all, but we’ve had this talk before. You’re my best friend, too, and I know when you’re keeping something from me, so what is it?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “Okay, I’m just going to tell you because beating around the bush just makes it more difficult. I decided to go to UC Berkeley instead of NYU.”

When she opened her eyes, she was met with the supportive smile of her best friend and a present. I extended my hand with the small box in it, offering it to her before she started crying because I knew she would.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Lizbeth, I already knew you’d change your mind. I’ve made peace with it because I know you’ll be here for every holiday and for summer break.

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