Some love can last a lifetime-their love was destined to last longer.
Angel's first words to Kel were "I'm going to marry you." She was seven at the time. He was eight.
And he didn't laugh when she spoke the words. Best friends as children, lovers...
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Age 8
"I'm gonna marry you."
Kelvin Saunders blushed beet-red as all his friends started to laugh. It was the kiss of death for an eight-year-old boy, having some girl come up and say something like that in front of his friends.
Part of him, that embarrassed part, jeered at him to say something to her, make fun of her, anything to get the kids around them laughing at her—instead of him.
But Kel couldn't. He wasn't even really sure why. But he just couldn't.
He knew who she was—her name was Angelica something or other. She was new in town, had moved into a house not too far from where he lived. A thin strip of trees separated their neighborhoods—that, and a lot of money, according to Jill Baker, the fifteen-year-old that watched him on Friday nights when his parents had date night.
Angelica gazed at him with eyes the same pretty blue as the September sky, her hair pulled back into two neatly braided pigtails. She wore a pink T-shirt with a pair of spotless white shorts. Man, Kel couldn't wear anything white without getting dirt all over it. The new girl, though, she looked all shiny, neat and clean. Even her tennis shoes looked brand new. She smiled at him, showing perfectly straight teeth, and her nose crinkled.
Denny Mayhue punched Kel's arm. "You got a girlfriend, Kel?"
Defensively, Kel snapped, "No." But then he looked back at the girl. She was embarrassing him, big time, but as much as he wanted to retaliate, he couldn't do it.
He couldn't do something that would hurt her feelings.
She gave him a secretive smile, a smile that said she knew something nobody else did, and maybe, just maybe, she wanted to tell him. "My name's Angel..." She rolled her eyes and made a face. "Actually, it's Angelica, after my dad's mom. She died before I was born. I really hate being called Angelica and she did, too, or that's what my dad says. So he calls me Angel. And Mom hates it."
She prattled on, ignoring the boys who were still grinning at both her and Kel, and the girls who had been behind her when she announced she was going to marry him. They'd started giggling but now, as she ignored them, they wandered off. Kel's friends lost interest, heading for the basketball court, leaving him alone with Angel/Angelica as she talked.
And man, did she talk. She talked fast, she talked about everything, and she didn't even seem to care that he wasn't talking back. Scuffing his feet in the dirt, Kel told himself he needed to just go find his friends and maybe play basketball for a few more minutes. Recess didn't last forever and after this, he still had two and half hours before school let out.
But he realized he couldn't quite pull himself away.
Even when Mrs. Gumble blew her whistle, announcing the end of recess, Kel didn't want to walk away. It wasn't until she grinned at him and said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow," that he could even move.
He was still puzzling the girl over in his mind as he lined up to go back into school. She lined up in Mrs. Romero's line and gave him a sweet smile.
Denny nudged him from behind. "You got a girlfriend," he said again.
But Kel just ignored him.
Age 14
"You've got to learn to ignore people, Kel," Angel said, sighing and shaking her head as she touched her fingers to his swollen black eye.
He batted her hand away. "Stop it, Angel. That hurts."
"Why did you get into a fight this time?"
Shrugging, he turned away and went to study his face in the mirror hanging over the back of the couch. They'd gone to Angel's house—her parents both worked pretty late—and he'd hoped he could have a few minutes to think up some believable line for his mom.
So far, no luck. And there was no way she wasn't going to notice his shiner, either. Still fuming, he glared at his reflection.
The mirror showed a tall, lanky boy with dark brown hair that curled if he didn't keep it cut close, green eyes surrounded by long, thick lashes that he hated. Days spent in the sun had turned his skin a deep, golden tan and streaked his dark hair with lighter strands. If he wasn't so damn pissed about the fight—and worrying about how his mother was going to freak—he might have taken a minute to admire the black eye. His face had gotten him called pretty boy more than once.
Much as he hated that, he could ignore it easy enough.
If he could have ignored it when Denny started making fun of Angel, he wouldn't be in this mess. But...
"Kel." Angel's voice, soft and patient, jerked him back to attention.
Man, he hated when she talked like that, all grown up and polite and persistent. Scowling, he turned around and stared at her with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. "That jerk-off Denny said you were weird. I told him to shut up. He got in my face. I hit him."
"Kel...I am weird."
"No, you're not," he snapped, his hands clenching into fists. He hated when people talked about her like that—hated when she did it herself. Angel wasn't weird—she just wasn't... She just wasn't like everybody else.
She wasn't like anybody else.
Angel grinned at him and said, "Just because you say it doesn't make it true, Kel." Then she shrugged. "Kel, I don't want you getting into fights over me. You keep it up and you'll get in trouble with your folks. Or worse." Her lip poked out a little and she murmured, "I don't want you getting in trouble."
Man...
She climbed off the couch and walked over to stand in front of him, near enough that he could smell the cherry lip gloss she wore, close enough that he could just barely see the shadow of her bra strap through her T-shirt. Angel was tall for a girl, almost as tall as he was, and Kel wasn't short. She leaned and kissed him, quick and soft. Blood rushed to his face but before she could move away, he reached out and caught her hand, tugged her close.
It was scary, the way he felt about Angel. It had been like this ever since he'd met her. I'm gonna marry you. He hadn't ever forgotten those words. And even though she hadn't ever said them again, Kel had a feeling she was right. It was almost creepy even thinking about it.
He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled against him with a happy sigh. "I don't like people talking about you," he said, his voice cracking a little.
"Ignore them, Kel. I don't care what people say. I really don't."
