At 6, I Promised My Best Friend with Down Syndrome We’d Go to Prom Together – 12 Years Later, Mom Said I Could Go with Him Only on One Condition

“It should.”

I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my ice cream.

Noah still tells that story.

I still threaten him every time.

“I told you he was an idiot.”

***

So when senior prom came around, there was never really a question about who I wanted to go with.

But Noah apparently believed there was.

One afternoon in February, he found me by my locker.

“Chrissy.”

“Yes?”

“Do you remember first grade?”

I pretended to think.

“No.”

His face dropped.

“Seriously?”

“Do you remember first grade?”

“Noah, I’m kidding.”

He glared at me.

“That’s not funny.”

“It was a little funny.”

“No.”

Then he held out his pinkie.

And suddenly I was six again.

Raisins.

Dinosaurs.

A cruel little boy.

A promise I had forgotten that afternoon and somehow spent 12 years keeping anyway.

And suddenly I was six again.

I hooked my pinkie around his.

“Prom?”

Noah nodded.