Her head rested against my shoulder, dark hair falling in waves down her back. I lightly twirled a loose strand through my fingers and smiled at her.
When I thought about the future, all I saw was Kira and me, living together, growing old together. I wanted to ask her to marry me, I just hadn’t worked up the courage yet.
“Hmm?”
“Can we go outside for a minute?” She looked up at me and something in her eyes made me pause.
I nodded and led her through the crowd, our fingers intertwined. The spring air hit us like a wake-up call, fresh and cool after the stuffy gym.
Kira led me to the old oak tree where we’d shared our first kiss in our freshman year.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing how she wouldn’t quite meet my eyes.
She took both my hands in hers. “I didn’t want to tell you earlier. I wanted tonight to be perfect.”
“Tell me what?”
“We’re moving.” Her voice cracked. “To Germany. My father’s company… they’re transferring him. We leave tomorrow.”
“I know.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, catching the moonlight. “I begged them to wait, just so I could have prom with you. But Daddy has to report on Monday.”
All my dreams of our future together shattered like crystal. But no, I wouldn’t give up on Kira so easily. We could still make this work.
“We can write… call each other. I’ll visit when I get a job…”
Kira shook her head and wiped her eyes. “Howard, you know long distance never works. You might meet someone at college, and I don’t want to hold you back.”
“Never!” I took her hands in mine. “You’re the love of my life, Kira. I’ll wait for you, as long as it takes. I… I want to marry you.”
She put her hands over her mouth and broke down then. I pulled her close, trying to memorize everything about this moment as I muttered promises to her and begged her to keep in touch.
We stood there under that oak tree until the last song faded away, holding each other like we could stop time if we just held on tight enough.
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