On prom night, Noah arrived carrying a corsage.
I was halfway down the stairs when I saw Mom open the front door.
Her expression changed the second she looked at him.
Noah stood there smiling in his navy suit, his ridiculous bow tie perfectly straight.
In one hand was the corsage.
“What kind of flower is that?” I asked.
“Rosemary,” Noah said proudly.
“Why rosemary?”
“The florist said it means remembering.”
He grinned.
“And I remember promises.”
Behind me, Mom made a strange sound.
When I turned around, her eyes were wet.
“Mom?”
“Come upstairs.”
“What? Noah’s waiting.”
“I know.”
Once we entered my bedroom, she closed the door.
Then locked it.
“You’re scaring me.”
“You can go with Noah,” she said. “But I need one promise first.”
I immediately became angry.
“If this has anything to do with Noah having Down syndrome—”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then what?”
Mom sat on my bed.
“Do you remember when your father left?”
I frowned.
“What does that have to do with tonight?”
“You were twelve.”
Then she said something that caught me completely off guard.
“You stopped eating lunch.”
My arms fell to my sides.
“How do you know?”
“Noah told me.”
I stared at her.
She explained that during the worst part of the divorce, Noah once found her crying alone in her car in the school parking lot.
She thought nobody had seen her.
But Noah had.
“He asked me if you were broken,” Mom whispered.
My throat tightened.
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