finnseggo:

when the time for the snowball comes, mike is obviously heartbroken and refuses to get out of el’s fort, but what surprises him is that the other boys weren’t planning to anyway, and they all sit in the wheeler’s basement and talk about pink dresses and nose bleeds and things that could’ve (should’ve) been. yet little do they know that el is silently watching them from inside her fort as well, knees drawn to her chest and her arms hugging her knees, smiling fondly at their remembrance of her.

‘promise,’ she whispers silently, leaning her head on mike’s shoulder. in that same moment in the real world, mike could swear he felt the ghost of a being and a whisper of a promise in the stale air.