My sister was different in a way the world would punish her for.
They teased her until she cried.
I would stand in front of her like a tiny wall, my fists balled at my sides.
Ben, my best friend, was the one boy who never flinched.
“Rosie, you’ll always have Ben and me,” I told her.
I said it again and again, until she believed it.
He picked her for kickball when the other captains rolled their eyes.
In fourth grade, he crouched in front of her and made a promise I never forgot.
They teased her until she cried.
“Rosie, when we’re older, I’m taking you to prom. That’s a promise.”
Rosie clapped her hands and beamed at him.
“You heard him,” she said to me, breathless. “Ben said it.”
I nodded, my chest warm with something I could not yet name.
***
The years folded into each other the way happy years do.
Ben rode his bike to our house nearly every afternoon.
