Promise to Keep Read online

  “We’re so proud of you, Jackson!” Mrs. Pierce gave Jackson a hug and kiss. Then she turned to me with a bright smile. “Congratulations to you too, Chloe! It’s a wonderful accomplishment,” Mrs. Pierce exclaimed as she gave me a quick hug.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Pierce.” I flashed her a wide smile. “That means a lot coming from you.” Mrs. Pierce worked so many hours as a partner at her law firm that I’d never really seen too much of her. I was glad that she made time to be here to see Jackson graduate and give his valedictorian speech. I knew Jackson would have been disappointed if she hadn’t made it.

  “Definitely a great accomplishment you should be proud of, Chloe,” Mr. Pierce said as he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Penn is lucky to have you.”

  I gave a friendly smile as I took a step back. “Thanks, Mr. Pierce. I really appreciate all your help with my college application to Penn.” No matter how many times Jackson’s father insisted that I call him by his first name, I always felt more comfortable addressing him as Mr. Pierce. It was what felt more natural to me. So when I heard myself call him by Mr. Pierce, I waited for his inevitable “Call me John” correction.

  But to my surprise, he didn’t correct me this time.

  “Kim and I are always more than happy to help Jackson’s friends whenever we can.” I watched him slip his hand around Mrs. Pierce’s waist and kissed her gently on the cheeks.

  “Thank you. That’s so nice of you guys.” I smiled at them politely.

  “College can be a bit daunting sometimes, Chloe. Don’t forget I’m a professor at Penn. So if you ever need any help or advice on anything, or you just need someone to talk to, my door is always open for you, okay?”

  “Sure. Thanks, Mr. Pierce. That’s too generous of you.” I smiled at him with gratitude. I didn’t know why, but something told me that this was an offer I wouldn’t take him up on.

  ***

  About an hour later, I met Jackson at “our spot”—the park with the small lake that was close to our houses.

  I found him sitting on the lush, green grass looking out onto the lake when I arrived.

  I quietly tiptoed over to him and covered his eyes with my hands from behind.

  “Guess who?”

  “Mmm, this is hard. I don’t seem to recognize this voice at all,” he responded thoughtfully.

  I didn’t need to see the boyish grin on his face to know he was teasing.

  “Ass,” I teased.

  “Fine. Fine. Fine. You win.” He threw his hands up in the air like he was finally giving in after some pressure. “It’s Pippi Longstocking, isn’t it?” He grabbed my hands with his and pulled them off his eyes before spinning around to face me.

  When he saw the pout on my face, he started to laugh uncontrollably.

  “Yes!” he whooped in excitement. “I guessed right!”

  “Har, har, har. Very funny.” I rolled my eyes. “I look nothing like Pippi Longstocking.”

  “Really?” He sounded like he wasn’t convinced as he cocked his head and studied me. “Hmm. Okay, maybe you’re right. You are a little cuter than Pippi.” He paused. “Plus, your hair’s not braided in pigtails at the moment.”

  I scoffed at his comment, but I felt my heart skip a beat when he said I was cuter.

  “So why did you ask me to meet you here?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Come on, let’s walk around the park. It’s so nice out today. I’m really going to miss coming here with you.”

  When he got up from the grass, he bent his arm to the side and offered it to me. I smiled and curled my arm around his, letting him lead us through the grass toward the paved pathway that went along the lake.

  I looked around the park and drew in a deep breath of air through my nose and shut my eyes. “You’re right, Jax. I’m really going to miss it here.”

  “Me too.”

  The mood between us seemed to turn melancholy as we walked down the path arm-in-arm, taking in the familiar surroundings in silence.

  “You know what I’ll really miss?” Jackson asked, breaking the sober stillness. I could tell by the tone in his voice that he wanted to brighten things up.

  “What?” I looked over at him expectantly.

  He grinned. “I’m really going to miss Aunt Betty.”

  “Oh.” I frowned, not expecting him to say that. “Who else are you going to miss?” I asked with a smile, playfully fishing for the answer I wanted to hear.

  I watched his face twist as he thought about it. “Hmm. I can’t think of anyone else, actually.”

  “Jerk.” I glared at him and slapped him across his hard chest with my free hand.

  “What?” He gave me an innocent look of confusion. “It’s true. I feel like I’ve been spoiled by her cooking. I’m really going to miss her.” He paused to let out an exaggerated sigh. “You know? She’s the added perk in being your friend.” He stifled a chuckle as he looked away briefly. I could tell that he was only half-joking.

  I snorted and tried to respond in a serious tone. “Well, I must have gotten the short end of the stick then, because there’s no added perk in being your friend.”

  “Ouch!” Jackson gripped his chest like he was in physical pain. But within seconds, he exploded in laughter, causing me to lose my own composure and I joined him in a fit of laughter.

  After several minutes, we finally calmed down from the outburst. Then I remembered something I’d wanted to try. I turned to Jackson without saying a word.

  I could tell he was confused by my actions but he didn’t question me at first.

  I looked into his eyes and held his gaze in silence. For some reason, I suddenly felt my skin prickle with nerves, which wasn’t something I’d expected or planned for.

  He studied me, his lips curled into boyish grin. “What?” His eyes darted to his left and then to his right before returning back to my gaze. I could tell he was a little nervous.

  “Nothing,” I whispered and flashed him a coy smile. I held back the urge to laugh. He looked so cute right then, squirming and feeling uneasy.

  “Okay….” He paused and frowned. “T—then why are you staring me like that?”

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I started to giggle. “You know you can be so adorable when you get nervous.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re an ass, you know that?” he teased. “Pippi Longstocking.”

  “Hey!” I punched him playfully on the chest. “You know I don’t like to be called that. Be nice!”

  He laughed. “Only if you will.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay. Okay. Okay. You’re so sensitive.” I huffed sarcastically.

  “So why were you staring at me without blinking?”

  I giggled. “Fine, I’ll tell you. So I read this science article this morning—”

  “Nerd,” he cut me off with a snicker before I could finish.

  “Takes one to know one,” I shot back. “Hater.”

  “I just speak the truth.” His boyish grin returned on his face. “Nerd.”

  I pushed him playfully. “For your information, you’re not automatically a nerd if you read.” Jackson loved to tease me for how much I enjoyed reading.

  “That’s what nerds like you say to try to convince people they’re not one.” He chuckled.

  “You’re annoying.” I began to pout, feeling a little agitated by his persistent teasing.

  As if sensing my growing impatience, his expression softened. “Come on, don’t be like that. You know I was just teasing.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Well, sometimes you go too far and it can get annoying.”

  “You’re right. Sometimes I get carried away in the back and forth teasing that I don’t know when to stop.” He shrugged innocently. “I’m sorry.”

  It was hard to be upset with Jax for too long. I knew he had a good heart and never meant to make me upset. “It’s all right.”

  “So what did you read in the science article?”
r />   “Oh, right.” For a moment there, I had forgotten all about the article. “Well the article said that people who love each other can sync up their heart rates by staring into each other’s eyes. I thought that was pretty cool and wanted to try it.” When I heard my explanation out loud, I realized how stupid it must have sounded.

  “Oh.” Jackson looked taken aback by my comments. There was an expression on his face that I couldn’t read, and I immediately felt a wave of panic prickle down my spine.

  “Yeah,” I hastily added, “so I wanted to see if it’d work for people who didn’t love each other.” I wasn’t sure why I blurted out my last comment, but somehow, I couldn’t help myself.

  “Right.” That was all he said in response before we fell into another period of silence as we continued to walk along the path.

  As I began to get lost in my own thoughts, I was hit with a powerful sense of nostalgia.

  “Jax?” My voice was close to a whisper.

  He turned his head to look at me. “Yeah?”

  “Promise me we’ll stay in touch.” I turned to meet his warm gaze.

  “Don’t be silly, Clo. Of course we’ll stay in touch.”

  “Just promise me,” I insisted.

  He smiled. “Okay. I promise you that not only will we stay in touch, but we’ll stay best friends. Don’t be a worry-wart, Clo. Why would you even think that we wouldn’t?” I could detect a hint of concern in his voice.

  I looked away, pretending I had some dust in my eyes as I wiped away the tears that had collected there.

  It took me a few moments before I was able to respond without fear of losing it in front of him. “It’s just that the people who are the most important to me—or should be the most important to me—either were never in my life, or they end up leaving me behind and never returning.” I was thinking of my dad and mom.

  “Come on, Clo. You know I won’t leave you behind.”

  “Yeah.” I looked away again, trying to work through my feelings. I knew I was being melodramatic and silly, and maybe a tad morbid, but it felt like an end of an era for Jackson and me. I was worried that when we both actually left for college, things would change—we would change—and everything about our friendship would just be memories, intangible parts of ourselves, figments of our past that we might be able to recall, but could never return back to.

  “Don’t think like that, Clo.” Jackson squeezed my hand as he slowed to a stop. He smiled down at me when our eyes met.

  “Why did we stop here?” I asked as I looked around. We had walked up one of the small metal bridges that arched across a narrow section of the lake.

  Instead of answering me, he grinned and followed my question with a question of his own.

  “Do you remember the first day you were nice to me?”

  “You mean the first day you were nice to me?” I corrected him, knowing he was referring to my first day of school during first grade.

  “Let’s agree to disagree on that point.” He laughed. “Well, that was the first day you took my hand when I helped you up from the cafeteria floor.”

  “So?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with his question.

  “Well, when you took my hand, it meant you trusted me, and I somehow knew that from that day forward we’d be best friends.”

  I raised an eyebrow and looked at him dubiously. “You knew all that from just me taking your hand?”

  “Well, the way I see it, the moment you decided to take my hand was the moment I knew you trusted me.” He then paused and gazed into my eyes. “I know you’re worried about the future, Clo. I am, too. So I’m asking you now to close your eyes and take my hand again.”

  I looked at him suspiciously, unsure what he had planned.

  “Come on, Clo. Show me you trust me. Close your eyes and take my hand.”

  “Okay, Jax, but no funny business. Don’t you dare push me in the lake,” I warned before I closed my eyes.

  He chuckled. “That wasn’t what I was thinking…but thanks for putting that thought in my head.” The playfulness in his voice eased my nerves as I kept my eyes closed and reached my hands out in front of me.

  I felt his warm hands touch mine and an intense sensation rushed through me. Before I could figure out what the feeling meant, Jackson turned my hands around and positioned my opened palms together so that my hands formed a bowl shape. Seconds later I felt him place a cool, metal object in between my hands.

  “This is the surprise I had for you.” From the sound of his low, hushed voice, I could sense how surprisingly close he was to me.

  “This is what you got for me?” I asked in confusion. It feels like a lock—maybe a padlock, but why would he be getting me a lock?

  “Open your eyes.”

  I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me with a twinkle of eager excitement in his eyes. I forced myself to pull my gaze from his warm emerald eyes and looked down at the object in my palms.

  To my surprise, I was right. It was a padlock.

  But it wasn’t like the padlock I’d used for my locker in school. This lock was painted red and was in the shape of a heart.

  “What is it?” I looked back at Jackson expectantly.

  He beamed at me. “It’s a love lock.”

  “A love lock?” My stomach flipped when I heard his words.

  “Do you remember that pact we made when we were thirteen?”

  My eyes grew wide. I was too surprised to respond verbally, so I just nodded.

  Of course I remembered the night we made the pact. I remembered it perfectly like it’d happened just yesterday. I could still see the glow of the soft, colorful lights that moved across my bedroom ceiling that Jackson had created to mimic the Northern Lights. I remembered the things he’d said to me, the promises he’d made me, and the unforgettable kiss we’d shared. But for some reason, after that night, we’d never talked about the pact again—or that kiss we’d shared. After a while, I’d convinced myself that Jackson had forgotten about the pact and the kiss—or worse, he had regretted it and wanted me to forget about them.

  So to hear him bring up the pact we’d made that night five years ago paralyzed me with shock.

  “Well,” he continued, “I know you’ve been nervous about going to different colleges and how that’d affect our friendship. I know you’re scared about being alone. I just want to let you know that I have those same feelings. And that is why I had this made for you—for us. I wanted to remind you of our pact and my promise to you. Even though we haven’t talked about it since we first agreed to it five years ago, I meant every word I said. If we’re both single by the time we’re thirty, I promise to marry you.”

  Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked into his eyes. “Oh, Jax. I meant it, too,” I whispered. “You’re my best friend, and I can’t imagine being happier than when I’m with you.”

  “I feel the same way. So I heard about this tradition with love locks recently where two people will lock a padlock against the railing of a bridge or gate and then throw away the keys. It’s supposed to symbolize unbreakable love.” He moved closer to me, leaving only a few inches between us. “I got this love lock for us because I wanted to let you know that I’ll always be here for you, and you don’t ever need to worry about being lonely.”

  He reached for the red heart-shaped lock in my hands and turned it over. “I had it inscribed for us. Take a look.”

  Completely blown away by his touching gesture, I was speechless as I looked down at the lock and saw the inscription etched on the back:

  Jax & Clo

  June 2003

  Unbreakable Friendship & Love.

  Promise to Marry in 2014.

  “Jax, this is the sweetest thing anyone’s ever given me.” Tears blinded me as I threw my arms around him, burying my face into his neck and inhaling his inviting scent.

  “Clo,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m so happy that you like it.”

  I pulled away to look up at him and smiled. “Like it? J
ax, I love it. I’ve been so worried about how things will change with our friendship when college starts. This is exactly the type of reassurance I needed.”

  He beamed at me. “So does that mean you still agree to the pact?” He looked at me hopefully.

  I giggled, surprised that he’d even think that I could possibly say no. “Of course, silly.” I looked down at the love lock. “So what exactly are we supposed to do?”

  He took the lock from me and we walked up to the edge of the bridge where the railing was. Then he held my hands with his and looked into my eyes.

  “Clo, you’ve been my best friend for the past eleven years, and I know you’ll be my best friend for the rest of my life. I don’t know where life will take us, but I know that we will always be by each other’s sides. We made a pact when we were thirteen to marry each other if we are both single when we turn thirty. Today, we’re going to seal that pact with this love lock, which will symbolize our unbreakable friendship, love, and promise to marry each other.”

  He handed me the love lock. “Do you want to do the honors?”

  I nodded and took the lock and latched it against the railing.

  “Promise?” I looked into his rich, emerald eyes—those eyes that always had a way of making me feel at home.

  “Promise.” He beamed at me and placed his hands on top of mine as we both secured the love lock onto the bridge railing and locked it in place.

  I removed the key from the lock. We both looked at the tiny key and then at each other and smiled. He gave me a nod before I threw the key over the railing and watched it disappeared into the lake without a sound.

  “Looks like you’ll be stuck with me if we’re both single in twelve years,” I joked.

  Instead of laughing along, he surprised me as he pulled me into his arms and whispered in my ear, “You’re my best friend, Clo. You won’t ever have to worry about being alone. I’ll always be here for you when you need me.”

  He pulled back a little so he could face me, leaving only a few inches between us as we gazed into each other’s eyes. As his hand gently pushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear, I felt an exquisite tingle run down my body from where his fingers grazed my skin. He kissed me sweetly on my forehead, causing my body to buzz with emotions. As his face lingered near mine, I thought he was about to kiss me.