Junes Good Little Elf

Transcript

My shoes clacked on the sidewalk as I not-so-gracefully walked to June's house. I can't believe she convinced me to do this. There goes the be-your-own-person, don't-just-follow-along that I had swore by just a few days earlier.

Prior in the week, as my eyes glassed over in poetry class, I came to the conclusion that everything I ever did was with June. Movies, homework, football games, family holiday parties. It's like we were each other's shadows.

One of us always stepping behind the other, submitting to whoever was more committed to the idea of the week. This week, it was dressing up in an elf costume for the winter not-so-formal dance. June's idea.

My throat started to tighten as soon as I hit the steps to June's house. Not because I just jingled my way down the street looking like an overgrown lawn ornament, but because I just realized that June would see me like this, all dressed up for them, and they would love me for it. That love, that shot of pure sunshine beaming directly at me, peeling away any dark brooding exterior, penetrating deep in my bones.

That joy, that joy they would feel due to me dressing up like an elf for them. Oh, I can barely take it. At that moment, the front door swung open.

There stood June in a reindeer costume, smiling as big as the sky, smiling at me.