Two Years From Today

Five

I have always admired my siblings. Kate has always been confident and easy going. She seemed almost worry-free all the time. My older brother Jordan is five years older than me, but he has always been a good guy. Ever since he was a young boy, he was sensitive but funny, and nice to everyone he met. He grew up to serve a mission in Venezuela, and leave all his family to head out to college at Brigham Young University, across the country in Utah. 

He had his flaws, obviously, but he had a lot of great qualities that outweighed them. He was twenty three now, and was doing well in school. He had been calling a lot lately, telling us about school and a new friend he had made. My parents seemed suspicious about his new friend, and when November rolled around, my mom made an announcement at dinnertime.

"Well girls, I have good news!" She said, obviously trying not to burst into squeals.

Kate looked up from her dinner and smiled. "What is it?"

I looked at my mother expectantly and she nearly exclaimed, "Jordan is coming at Thanksgiving!"

Kate and I looked at each other in confusion. "So?" I asked her.

My mom laughed and finally spilled it. "He has a girlfriend and he wants to bring her to meet us!"

I could tell my parents were even more thrilled than they were letting on. My mom and dad had been wondering when he was going to settle down. In our faith, it wasn't abnormal for someone his age to be engages, or even married by now. Some people even had children already. 

Kate, who had always been a hopeless romantic seemed almost as excited as my mom. "Has he told you anything about her? Oh, this is so exciting!"

My mom shook her head. "All he told us is that her name is Jade and is we are going to love her."

Kate looked into the distance dreamily. "What if they get married? I could be in the wedding and--"

My dad chuckled. "Slow down Kate. Let's focus on meeting her before condoning her into marriage to our son."

I spoke finally. "She's willing to fly all the way down here just for this? She must be great."

The rest of us clamored and talked about the mysterious Jade, and after dinner, I went upstairs to finish my homework, but I texted Jenna before I did anything.

---

As I explained the Jordan-Jade thing to Johnson on the way to school the next day, he seemed interested. 

"That's cool, are you excited?" He asked me.

I nodded. "Definitely. I just have a feeling that this girl must be pretty special to him. He's dated a couple girls since he left for BYU, and none of them have come out to see us."

"Makes sense to me. I wouldn't bring a girl to meet my family unless I felt like I could marry her." He told me with a half smile. 

My heart fluttered a little. "You think he might want to marry her?" I asked him.

Johnson shrugged. "Probably. I'm guessing they have been together for a while."

I bit my lip. "I don't know. He has been talking about 'his new friend' since May. I suppose that might have been her." I let out a sigh. "I'm just nervous to meet her. I mean, I love my brother and I don't want him to get stuck with any old girl, and if she doesn't like me she might feel like she can't be with him anymore, and--"

He cut me off. "Don't stress so much. When is she coming?"

I sighed. "Three weeks." Then I had an idea. "Do you think you'd be willing to come to the dinner? I know it might be weird, and don't feel obligated to come, but I just thought it might make me feel calmer if I had someone I really knew was there."

"Sure," Johnson said. "I would love to."

"Thanks, Johnson. It means a lot to me." I thanked him.

We pulled into the school parking lot. "It's not a problem."

Johnson had easily become one of my closest friends. He was in a lot of my regular classes, and he was understanding. Every time we were together I felt calmer. It had been a while since I had someone who had that effect on me. He was the first person I would text when I was sad or needed someone to go to the temple with. 

That's not to say nobody else noticed this special light Johnson had to him. Since moving here, he'd gone out on at least five dates, all with different girls. Being LDS, we are encouraged to date many different youth of our same faith. Johnson had done just that. But with Connor on the back of my mind, I hadn't dated anyone since he left. I knew I should be, but no one had asked me in seminary, because they all knew I was waiting for Connor.

But even Connor had asked me to date other people. He had asked me not to wait for him if someone better came along, and that he would not be angry with me if I did this. Of course, I still assured him I would wait for him to get back from his mission and when he got back we would get married. 

As I thought about this, Johnson was next to me at my locker. "Reagan Margaret Summerline," He said, trying to sound official. "I was wondering if you would do me the honor of going on a date with me Saturday night?"

I laughed a little at his sillyness. "First of all, my middle name isn't Margaret, but I would love to go on a date with you Johnson."

He chuckled. "Alright, what do you say? How about I pick you up at ten?"

I looked at him, confused. "At night?"

He nodded.

"What are we doing?" I asked him.

"I can't tell you." He informed me. "It's a surprise."