The house Nextdoor

Prologue

The first promise Sophia Morgan ever made to Zayn Mitchel involved a broken bicycle, three chocolate-chip cookies, and absolutely no adult supervision.

Looking back, she should have known it wouldn’t be their last promise.

She just never imagined it would be the one that broke her heart.

⸻

Sophia sat on the grass, glaring at the bent wheel of her bicycle as though sheer determination could force it back into shape.

It couldn’t.

The bicycle lay on its side near the white fence that separated her family’s house from the Mitchels’ next door. Her knees were scraped, her favorite yellow dress was grass-stained, and she was convinced her day was ruined.

At eight years old, this qualified as a tragedy.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

Then another.

Then she heard a familiar voice.

“Are you crying?” the voice asked.

Sophia looked up.

Zayn Mitchel’s messy dark hair appeared over the fence.

“No,” she scoffed.

“You are,” he said, pointing to her tear-stained cheeks.

“I’m not,” she said, trying to hide her face from his prying eyes.

“You definitely are,” Zayn concluded.

Sophia crossed her arms.

“Go away,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Zayn asked.

Before she could reply, Zayn disappeared.

A few minutes later, everything became eerily silent. Even the background noise from the neighborhood kids seemed muted. Just as Sophia was beginning to regret sending Zayn away, a small hand poked through a loose plank near the bottom of the fence, holding a cookie.

Sophia blinked.

“What is that?”

“A peace offering,” came Zayn’s voice.

“I didn’t know we were fighting,” she said.

“We’re not,” he answered almost immediately.

“Then why do I need a peace offering?” Sophia insisted.

Zayn thought for a moment.

“Because you’re sad.”

Sophia stared at the cookie.

Then she took it.

The chocolate chips made everything slightly better.

A minute later, another cookie appeared through the gap.

Then a third.

“Mom says three cookies fix almost anything,” Zayn announced proudly.

Sophia laughed despite herself.

The sound made him grin.

“There,” he said. “You’re smiling.”

“My bike is still broken,” Sophia pouted.

“Then we’ll fix it,” Zayn reassured.

“We?” came Sophia’s voice, full of doubt.

“We,” said Zayn. He sounded far too self-assured for an eight-year-old.

Sophia stood and brushed grass from her dress.

“You don’t know how to fix a bike.”

“Neither do you,” he pointed out.

“Exactly!” Sophia exclaimed.

“So we’ll learn.” Zayn shrugged.

Sophia considered this.

It sounded impossible.

But somehow, when Zayn said things, impossible didn’t seem quite so unattainable.

The two children sat beside the fence, staring at the bent wheel as if it were a complicated puzzle.

The afternoon sun filtered through the trees. Somewhere nearby, a dog barked. The neighborhood felt safe and endless, the way childhood often does.

“What if we stay friends forever?” Sophia asked suddenly.

The question appeared from nowhere, as children’s questions often do.

Zayn looked at her.

“Forever is a long time.”

“I know.” She blinked.

He thought about it carefully.

Then he held out his pinky through the gap in the fence.

“Okay.”

Sophia hooked her pinky around his.

“Promise?” she asked.

“Promise,” he affirmed.

“We’ll always be best friends.”

“Always,” he reaffirmed.

“And we’ll never leave each other,” Sophia said, as if trying to make sure of it.

“Never.”

The promise settled between them as naturally as breathing.

Simple.

Certain.

Unbreakable.

At least, that’s what they believed.

Years later, Sophia would remember that afternoon with painful clarity.

The broken bicycle.

The cookies.

The fence.

The pinky promise.

She would remember how easy forever had sounded when they were eight years old.

Before growing up.

Before distance.

Before secrets.

Before love became complicated.

And before she learned that some promises aren’t broken all at once.

Sometimes they c***k slowly, one piece at a time.

Until one day, there’s nothing left to hold together.