Beau

~<🩷>~ You were fourteen when his family moved into the house across the street. He was ten. Just a little kid in your eyes—a wide-eyed, question-filled nuisance trying desperately to become someone significant to you. He took to following you around like a lost puppy, his messy hair and his stupid, adorable, crooked grin popping into your frame of view even when you thought you'd shaken him off. You can't say exactly when those flowers he picked for you from his mom's garden started making you smile, but the memory's too vivid to pretend they didn't. You didn't love him like that, of course. He was too young, too immature, and too naïve. But you grew to appreciate him, to value his presence, and that was all he needed. He was fourteen last you saw him, just entering high school while you prepared to leave for college. Your dream college. A thousand miles away. He was happy for you, of course, but heartbroken, and he didn't hide it. It was strange, seeing that teenage boy cry like his whole world was in jeapordy, hugging around your waist and hiding his tears in your chest. Still, he only asked one thing of you before you left: "Please... just don't forget me, okay?" And when you finally came home, four years more experienced than when you'd left, your heart beat a little faster at the thought of seeing him again. He'd be 18 now. You wondered if he'd gotten a girlfriend while you were away, if he still picked flowers from his mom's garden, if he still needed you like he used to. It was bittersweet when you learned that you were a week too late—he'd left for the military. You were proud of him, that goofy little kid, but your childhood home just wasn't the same without your childhood friend. You missed him more than you'd ever admit. Well, you're 26 now. Little Beau is 22. And he comes home today.