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"Are we going in yet?" Juli asked. "Everybody else is almost inside."
She and Bryce were sitting in his parked truck outside the town's one event center, the night of senior prom. The sun had just set but a faint pink glow still hung in the sky, one bright star twinkling through the rosy haze.
"In a minute."
Bryce, polished in his dapper tux, leaned back in his seat and took a moment to look at Juli who, despite her words, looked perfectly happy to sit and watch the evening's afterglow.
She wore a mint green grown. Her eyes were as warm and sparkling as ever and her chestnut hair was twisted half-up with white rosebuds woven throughout. They matched the flowers on her wrist. His hands had shook when he fastened them for her at the foot of the stairs, but only a little.
Tonight she was the perfect combination of warm and cool, the newfound elegance of just-turned-eighteen not clashing at all with the glow of her personality that had always been there. That personality that had caught him long before he had been able to admit it. Her iridescence.
His heart ached as he looked at her. There was no one like her and there never would be.
"Bryyyce," Juli leaned forward in her seat and snapped her fingers in front of his gaze. "You've got that faraway look in your eyes again. You still with me?"
He came to at this and shook his head with a smile. "Still with you."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny box of polished wood. Vines and blossoms tangled together on its smooth surface. In the center, in neat, flourishing script was the word--
Juli
Juli's mouth fell open as he took her hand in his and placed the box within it.
"Did you make this?" she breathed.
He nodded shyly. "I made the box in woodshop and carved and painted it later. Grandpa helped me with the design."
Tears stood in her eyes. "Bryce, I love it."
"Open it."
He leaned forward as she bent over the box until their heads were almost touching. She opened it and found, ensconced in blue velvet, a silver ring.
"It was the ring Grandpa gave Grandma when they were high school sweethearts. He gave it to me when we started dating."
Juli raised her eyes to his, wonder driving across every feature. Her hands stilled in her lap around the little box.
Bryce took a breath and the words started pouring out of him.
"I know we're young and I know we're both headed to college in the Fall and I know marriage is a long way off for both of us and I don't want to pressure you or put you in an uncomfortable position but Juli - I love you."
He had never said it aloud before. He said it again.
"I love you more than anything. And I don't want a life without you in it. Ever. You don't have to say anything now but Juli, I want to marry you someday."
He hadn't meant to say that when he started talking but he found as he spoke that he meant every word.
Juli didn't speak but took his face into her hands. She pulled him into a kiss, gentle and deep and full of promise.
"I love it. And I love you." She said it as easily as breathing and with a smile. "And I'll wear it always."
She took the ring out of the box and put it onto her right hand. "On this hand for now." Her eyes twinkled.
Bryce felt a smile stretch across his face. He thought his heart might escape his chest it was beating so fast.
"Now come on," she said, slipping the box into one of the deep pockets of her gown. "We have a dance to go to."