As we walked down the sidewalk, my stomach fluttered in anticipation. Michael said what he was showing me was really important. I could hardly wait to find out what it was.
As we came closer, I knew exactly what it was that Michael wanted to show me. I could see the park ahead. Soon, trees surrounded me and before I knew it, we were standing by a huge pond.
"Why are we here?" I asked, as if I didn't know.
"I know you love animals, and they just opened the duck pond." Michael looked over at me, with an ear-to-ear smile. "I wanted to see the look on your face the first time you saw it."
The magnificent pond was huge, and there were at least 30 ducks swimming around in it. It may seem stupid that Michael wanted to show me a lousy duck pond, but it meant the world to me. I was speechless. My mouth formed a small smile and my eyes got very big.
"Yeah. That's the face I wanted to see." Michael couldn't stop smiling.
We fed the ducks with some bread crumbs a nice old man gave us, which didn't last long. After we ran out, we found a bench to sit on. For the first few minutes, we just sat there in silence. Eventually, Michael spoke up.
"So the ducks aren't the only reason I brought you here, Chloe."
"Why else did you bring me here?" I had no idea what he was going to say next.
"Because," Michael reached into his backpack. "I wanted to give you this."
I looked at Michael's hands, which held an old, beaten up, paint-chipped, Magic 8 Ball. He placed it carefully in my hands, which were quite a bit smaller than his.
"But Mi-" I started, but was interrupted.
"I want you to have it." He said looking at the ground. Then he turned and looked into my blue eyes. "It's just . . ." He sighed. "I want you to have it."
I felt selfish, almost guilty, taking the Magic 8 Ball. I knew how much it meant to Michael, since his dad gave it to him right before he went off to war; a war that he never came back from, but I took it anyway. I knew it would make Michael happy.
"Thanks Michael." I looked at the Magic 8 Ball, then back up at him. "I'll keep it forever."
The walk back home was pretty quiet. We were both thinking about the same thing, and we knew it too, yet neither of us wanted to talk about it. Instead, we let the words unspoken do the talking, and they spoke pretty strong.
We finally reached my front yard. I turned to Michael and looked up into his blue-green eyes. All I saw was sadness. The feeling spread through every nerve in my body like an extremely contagious disease. I couldn't believe that our days together were over. I didn't want to believe it.
"So I guess this is it." I was fighting back tears, but the pinch behind my eyes wouldn't die down.
"I guess so. I mean I don't know how we could see each other anymore." He stared down at me. Just the look on his face felt like a thousand bullets, so the words didn't help at all. "There's the whole different school thing, my dad's gonna be having me practice football 24/7, and you'll be busy with drama. There's just no time."
I sighed. "Being thirteen sucks."
Michael nodded in agreement then stared at a nearby tree. I wanted so badly to take his pain away, even if that meant that I would have to endure it.
"Michael, you're gonna make tons of new friends." I managed.
"You really think so?" He asked, looking straight into my eyes.
"I'd say, 'I know so,' but that's SO cliche."
Michael laughed. I always could make him laugh. "Well, there's only one way to find out." He tapped the Magic 8 Ball in my hands.
I smiled up at him, then looked down at the black ball. "Magic 8 Ball, will Michael make tons of new friends at school?"
I shook the ball with all my might and stared into the small circle on the bottom. Finally, the answer appeared . . .
"Better not tell you now." Michael read out loud. He looked at me. "What do you think that means?"
"I think it means that Magic 8 Ball wants all your new friends to be a surprise. Trust me Michael. You'll meet a bunch of new people."
"But I don't wanna meet new people." Michael sighed. "I wanna keep the old ones; the ones who've been there all along. The ones who know me better than I know myself. The ones who remind me everyday that there's no such thing as growing up and that you're never too old to believe in magic."
I felt a single tear roll down my cheek.
"I wanna keep you, Chloe."
He wiped the tear off my face, leaned down, and kissed me.
