Someday

“You know, you cheated.” Aaron said as we walked home after the battle to get ready for lunch. We were in the back of our group of families, merged so easily after the years spent across the street.
“I know.” I smiled at him, resisting the urge to wrap my arms around him. Instead I gently pushed him toward the edge of the sidewalk. He did some fancy footwork and dodged around the snow, pushing me into a snow bank, his balance being better than mine. I stood back up and just bumped him with my shoulder. I leaned over and whispered, “But you love me anyway.”
“I know,” he said as we turned the corner onto our street. “I’ll see you later.” I smiled and nodded before crossing the street. I went inside, shedding my coat, boots, and other winter wear inside the front door, and went up to my room, surprised to see my sister, Angel, sitting on my chair.
“What’s up, Angel?” I asked, taking off my jeans in favor of a comfy pair of sweatpants.
“What’s up with you and Aaron? Don’t lie to me, Mars.”
“I don’t know. It’s nice to see him again, joke around.” I shrugged as I pulled my pocket stuff out of my jeans, making sure the ring was behind my phone so she wouldn’t see it. She gave me a stern look. “Look, Ang, I don’t know what’s happening anymore. It’s just nice to get to see him. He’s…a breath of fresh air. He’s making me feel better, just saying hi and smiling at me. It helps. And it hurts so freaking much sometimes when I get overwhelmed with the memories, and then I look across the street and see his light turn on, see his face through the window and it’s all better again.”
“I either want to say way to go or I’m sorry. Either way, Mars, I’m glad it’s helping.”
“Good. Now get downstairs and see if mom needs help with lunch.”
“Fine. What are you going to do?”
“Work. I have a Euro lit project due basically as soon as school starts again.”
“Ew.”
“That was my thought. Now get out.” She sighed and left my room. I fell back on my bed, thinking to myself. This was getting harder to keep from my family. We need to tell them. I grabbed my phone and ring out of my pocket.
Hey. I texted Aaron, just to see if he could tell something was wrong.
Hey, what’s up? I’d ask what was wrong, but you just get mad when I do.
True true. This isn’t working.
This us or…?
This us kinda. More this us not telling my family. :P
Why?
cuz they’re so freaking suspicious. Mom was acting weird earlier and Ang just came in and asked specifically about you.
then we tell them. It’s that simple.
I know. It’s hard tho.
What’s hard about it?
They’re determined that if I let you back in you’ll hurt me again. They’re set on this.
then we show them they’re wrong.
how?
just show them how happy we are. They know you’ve been miserable.
and they know it wouldn’t take much for me to go back to that place.
then we convince them im not leaving you again.
how? Without telling them about the whole proposal thing?
I’ll do what I have to to gain their trust again.
really?
yeah. Really. I love you.
love you too. Hey, do have an extra seat to go to church, all our vehicles are full and there’s still one left
I can take my car and we can go together. Cuz we’re two over without my car. So you me and annie?
that works. I’ll take to my parents about it.
“Mariah!” Angel’s voice drifted up the stairs, telling me that lunch was ready.
“Coming!” I yelled back, standing up and putting the ring from Aaron in my pocket.
k. ttyl. Lunch is ready I read the text from Aaron.
ha. Me too. I put my phone in my pocket and shook my head as I headed downstairs for lunch.

you ready? I texted Aaron, standing just inside my door, ready to walk out and across the street to go to church with him.
yeah. Just getting my coat I walked out of the house, yelling back to my parents that I was leaving, I’d see them at church. I walked across the street and stood resting against Aaron’s little white car.
“Hey, Riah.” He said as we walked over to his car and unlocked my door, giving my hand a quick squeeze before walking around to the driver’s side.
“Hey.” I breathed as he climbed in and sat down, starting the car. He pulled out onto the road, free of traffic as his family had left for church earlier, and my family not having left yet, and grabbed my hand, our fingers entwining automatically.
“What was earlier about?” I turned my head and gave him an inquisitory glance. “About the us not working thing?”
“I just realized it was getting really hard to be able to do this, this time of the year, without them knowing. “
“All we have to do is tell them. It’s not that hard.”
“I know. I just have a bad feeling about it.”
“Why?”
“They’re so skeptical of everything. Especially you. You hurt me so bad when you said goodbye. And they watched me go from perfectly happy to so depressed they didn’t know what to do.” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, seeing him wince slightly.
“I know. And it’ll be hard to rebuild that trust. But I think it can be done. They just have to see you happy again. And if it’s with me, they’ll be more accepting of it again.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You know, I think this is backwards.”
“How so?” I asked as we pulled into the church parking lot.
“Last time we had this conversation it was you telling me it would be ok.”
“I remember that. Isn’t it funny how the roles switch sometimes?”
“Yeah. Funny isn’t the word I’d use.” He said half sarcastically as we climbed out of the car and locked our doors. “I think I’d use…not bad, necessarily, not strange, but just a little, off.”
“I know. But funny was the word that came to me.” I said, taking his hand, not caring who saw. We were early enough the only people here were his family and the ushers for the service. “But you know, I trust you. You said you’ll figure out how to get them to accept and trust it, and you will. I trust you, and that will help them trust you again.”
“That’s a good place to start. And if you didn’t trust me, and I wouldn’t blame you, you have reason not to trust me, we’d have to start again. And that just doesn’t sound fun.”
“Not really, no. And for the record, I never stopped trusting you. You made me immensely happy and made me do a full 180 and go the complete opposite direction as far past sad as I had been past happy, but I still trusted you. I knew you had your reasons for leaving, no matter what they were, I could tell it wasn’t because you didn’t care. It was something beyond that, something more.”
“I’m sorry I broke the promise of—“
“No. We’ve crossed that bridge. No more. No more apologies for it, ok?”
“I’ll try.”
“Hey, be happy. Christmas is tomorrow. No more sad talk today, ok?”
“Fine.” He said as we hung up our coats.
“Good. I gotta go downstairs and find my choir and piano music. So I’ll see you later.” I smiled gently at him, giving him a quick kiss before I walked carefully down the steep stairs in my heels.