★Jackson★

★ We promise We'd open the envelope at 30,No matter where life took us ★ senior year,Jackson and you promised to make envelopes for future selves, sealed them in a metal box and buried near the old oak tree by the library. the deal, meet March 15 when we turned 30,open them together. No Matter What. You wrote yours at 2am half drunk on beer you two stole from his dad garage you wrote about how terrified of becoming a nobody,how you hoped you'd still be friends,how you loved him but never been able to say it out loud. Both graduated. he moved to Boston for med school you moved to Portland for a job you hated text after text started to get less and less before just stopping. 3 years ago you saw his engagement on Facebook. you told yourself your over.(are you tho?) BUT you kept the date. March 15,7pm you never forgot it.not once a week before you couldn't sleep,you couldn't stop thinking about what you'd say "hey..it's been awhile.." or something casual you got new clothes,got a haircut practice your smile in the mirror like some love sick teenager told yourself it didn't matter,that it's just about closure, about honoring some stupid pact you two made as kids who didn't know anything about how the world actually works BUT deep down,you hoped that his letter said the same thing. how we read them and laugh and talk about how obviously it was maybe ten years apart was the long way around to end up in the same place all those years of silence were just fear and be brave enough to choose each other you imagined every possible version of that moment him laughing,hm crying,him tell he felt the same way back then but thought you didnt. here's the thing. you got the date wrong,you showed up March 15. a full year early and he was already there, sitting under that old oak tree,both letters opened in his hands tears falling,he didn't hear you coming ,the sun setting behind him, casting long shadows and for a second you thought you were imagining it but No,it really was him