"Promise me we'll be together forever, Jack? Best friends for always?" she raised her eyes to meet his, brimming with courage and with strength, just waiting on his word. He looked at her sadly. "Kate, can't we just..." he gestured wordlessly to the game of cards laid at her feet, hardly visible now in the twilight. She caught one of his hands, forcing him to look back into those emerald orbs. "Jack, I need you to promise me you won't leave me." she said, and he thought there was a flicker of sadness, of regret, behind those eyes. He looked down, thinking. She could tell that by the little creases in his forehead, the slight tapping of his other hand on his thigh. She didn't understand what there could be to think about. It was a question she hadn't even considered there being a negative answer to, until now. A question that hadn't even been a question in her mind.

They knew each other so well. They always had. Kate couldn't remember back to a time when she hadn't known and loved Jack. Skipping in the fields together, not caring that they weren't playing catch in the school playground with the other kids. Jack teaching her to ride a bike, and putting the band-aid on himself when she fell. Skipping school out the back under the old oaktree, trying cigarettes and bottles of cider, sat few inches away from the real rebels, pretending that they didn't notice each other. Then there was the summer of Andrea, the long legged blonde teen model, and the summer of Chad, the nineteen year old biker who dropped out of college. There was the week of Sophia-Marie, a quiet, bookish girl Jack met in the library, and the month of Kyle, the sweet boy who worked nights down at the diner with her Mom. There was the year, back when they were at middle school, when Sam Austin had helped them build the tree house in the woods, and the summer Jack taught Kate to drive in his old, off-white Mustang. That was the same year Kate taught him to ride bareback, and the year Jack's dog, Perry died and they buried him just off the Austin's land, by the river.

That was the same year Kate lost her virginity to Aston Rivers from the football team, and the year her Mom met Wayne.
The year Jack didn't talk to her for two whole weeks because she stood him up when they were supposed to be going to the movies, and the year Jack first caught his dad blind drunk at his desk.
That was the first year Kate saw Jack cry, and the first time Jack couldn't do anything to make Kate feel better.
That was the year the madness begun, and they both changed.
That year was nearly over now.

"Jack?" Kate said, her voice wavering now. He turned to her, a false smile plastered all over his face. "Sure, Kate." he said, "It goes without saying. I promise we'll be together forever"
She smiled, and buried her head in his chest. On a crazy, spur of the moment, slightly intoxicated thought, he tilted her chin up towards him and kissed her gently. She closed her eyes and leant in to the kiss. Then, without allowing it to progress, he moved away, and held her close to him, leaning up against the tree.

That was the year he moved away to medical school, the year he broke his promise.