By BRITTANY LEWIS
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Not long into a conversation with Erica Zerkelbach and Michael McCarly, you can understand that their friendship is something special.
It could be that they sometimes finish each other’s sentences, and it’s definitely in the way they talk about each other.
Michael McCarly and Erica Zerkelbach have been best friends for three years, and this year’s prom marks their third they’ve attended together. (Photo provided by WISH-TV)
“I just love my Erica so much, she’s like a sister to me,” said McCarly about Zerkelbach.
“Every person that he meets he loves them and cares about them, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t see anything bad in anyone,” said Zerkelbach about McCarly.
The two met through the Best Buddies program at Carmel High School three years ago.
“Students with disabilities are matched one-on-one with a peer buddy and when you’re matched with a buddy, you have responsibilities to hang outside of school just to promote that friendship, it was a match made in heaven for sure, we just became instant best friends and were obsessed with each other from day one,” said Zerkelbach.
They’ve gone to concerts together, dressed up for Halloween, and when McCarly was granted a trip to Disney through the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund, he brought Zerkelbach.
Little did he know that she would prompose to him with the help of some Disney princesses.
“Princesses came out and said is Prince Michael here and then some princesses escorted him on stage and then I had a poster that said ‘Every princess needs a prince, be mine at prom.'”
Zerkelbach promposed again the next year. This time at a Mr. Carmel event.
“He really loves being on stage and being recognized, this is a dude destined for fame and I thought doing it in front of our friends would be really cool,” Zerkelbach said.
But this year, with Zerkelbach now attending Butler, it was McCarly’s turn to ask Zerkelbach to prom. He did it with some help from her sorority sisters.
“The way I did this, I had to go to the Delta Gamma house, whoop whoop,” McCarly said.
McCarly was surrounded by Zerkelbach’s sorority sisters when she walked down the stairs.
“She walked into the room, and I popped out of nowhere,” said McCarly.
“And I was like Michael?” said Zerkelbach.
Michael sang and then popped the question.
“Would you go to p-r-o-m-e, prom with me?” McCarly asked.
Zerkelbach said “Yes,” with her sorority sisters cheering in the background.
A promposal fitting for a very special friendship.