“I hate going to school.”
It sounds so dumb when someone says it out loud.
“Who doesn’t?” he adds, snorting as he picks up another one. “I wish my parents would notice me.”
I close my eyes from the shame.
“Don’t they?” Liam asks.
I snatch the paper from his hand. “It was a silly wish I wrote down when I was eight.”
“So you’ve been doing this for a while, huh?”
I nod.
“When? After something happens?”
I tuck my hair behind my ear. It’s hard to talk about this.
“I told you they’re my secrets.”
When I open my eyes, I can’t even look at him. I’m expecting him to laugh, so when he smiles, it makes my heart jump.
“I guess we all have our way of coping with our life,” he replies.
He holds up his note so I can read it out loud. “If our parents force us to marry, we’ll be kind to each other.”
I’m momentarily at a loss of words. I haven’t thought about it in ages, but now it brings back all the memories I fought hard to forget.
“You think they will?” I ask, tears welling up in my eyes.
“Why else would our families spend so much time together?” He looks at the note like it’s a promise he made not just to himself but also to me. And something about that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“They haven’t talked about it in ages, but I know they’re still thinking about it,” he mutters. “I know them. And I know what they’re capable of.”
He turns to me and gently grabs my hand, squeezing tight. The feel of his touch makes me forget all the words I wanted to say. His eyes alone have the power to shut me up, but his hands … his hands make me feel free.
“Don’t keep secrets as a burden. Turn them into a promise,” he says.
And he stuffs the note inside the box and closes it.
I gasp. “What are you doing?”
“Now it’ll be a box of promises,” he says, taking out the key and holding it out to me. “What do you say? Wanna fill it up together?”
I don’t know why I ever thought he’d laugh at me or make fun of me. Liam is the only boy who ever put a smile on my face. So I nod with delight and fish the other tiny key from my nightstand and hold it out to him.
“Here,” I say, stuffing it into his hand. “This is yours now.”
“Are you sure?” he asks.
I look up into his eyes, wondering if I can ever live up to the promises we make. But something about making promises together is far more exciting than keeping secrets alone.
“As long as you don’t tell anyone else,” I say.
He makes a fist, clutching the key tight with a beaming smile on his face. “I won’t. Promise.”
I grab the pen and flick it back and forth between my fingers, daring him. “Write it down.”