“This is how much you matter to me, Mikey.” I look up in his eyes. The day is hot, the crowd around us getting bigger, louder, that damn music still parping out from the eleventh-grade brass band. Henna and Mel watching us. Even Nathan finally coming through the now quite uncontrollable crowd. My mom and sister out there somewhere. The future swirling in. Suddenly a little less worrying. “That’s all I ever really wanted to know,” I say, realizing right that second that it’s absolutely true.
