Page 13 of Poetry of Flowers

“I’ll go and see if I can find Marie,” Faith told us as she walked into school, dragging her feet as if she didn’t really want to set foot into the building.

“Kayden, are you okay?” I asked him as we walked around the building to the back where the vending machines were.

“Yeah, why?” he didn’t look at me when he replied. I studied his side profile while we walked towards the bench where my cousin and our friend were chatting.

His nose was a bit crooked after he had broken it in seventh grade. It was the only imperfection in his face, but I never saw it as that.

“Is everything really okay with Patrick?” I knew they always got into little fights about everything, but Kayden didn’t talk much about it.

Still, every time it happened, I thought of the little boy that one Halloween who sobbed his heart out because his daddy hated him.

“Everything is okay, nothing to worry about,” he answered.

I didn’t ask again.

“Tillie!” Autumn jumped up from the bench and pulled me into a tight hug, her bright red hair slapping into my face, she kissed my cheek.

“I missed you so much, little cousin,” she said, smiling as she pulled back.

Autumn was the jewel in the crown of our family. We shared the same eye color, but that was where the similarity ended, she had the girl next door face. The face I always wanted when we were both children. I was a jealous child, I always wanted what I couldn’t have until everything was pulled away from me.

At least we shared the same taste in clothes. We were both a bit extra.

Autumn was only my older cousin by six months, but she liked to make sure I knew I was the younger one because she was the youngest in her family and she hated it.

She had two older sisters who already left for college.

I didn’t have much to do with them because the twins were five years older. Her mother was my mother’s older sister. Aunt Cecily had been there for us after the accident, but now we don’t see her often because she lives at the other end of the city.

My parents both had French ancestors, and my mother was fully French, she came to America as a little child with her parents and her sister, but my grandparents moved back to France a few years after I was born.

They preferred their home. America wasn’t the right place for them, and they had been homesick.

Mom had once told me she would have gone back too, but love had other plans for her and also for her sister.

I grew up bilingual, with both English and French, which made French classes pretty easy for me.

“We saw each other last week,” I chuckled and sat down next to Theo on the bench.

“That might be, but I still missed you, you didn’t answer my calls or messages,” she told me as she sat down beside me and laid her arm around my shoulders.

“I’m sorry, I had to take Remy shopping for new school supplies, and I needed to-”

“Stop finding excuses Matilda, it’s alright, I’m not mad,” Autumn whispered with a soft smile.

My cousin was another one of my favorite people on earth. She always listened and forced me to shop with her even when I didn’t want to go, at the end of the day, I felt thankful for it because it was good for me to leave the house.

“And you think this year will be our year? A year full of fun activities, good grades, maybe a teen romance.” She grinned from ear to ear as she shot Theo a meaningful look. But he was deep in conversation with Kayden about their guitars.

They’d wanted to start a band last year, but their drummer left after two days, too frustrated with the two fighting idiots.

“When will you tell him?” I asked her.

“Probably never, I mean after what happened during summer, I don’t think there will ever be something,” my cousin mumbled and brushed her red hair behind her ears.

She’s had a crush on Theo since high school started, Autumn always kept it a secret, but you don’t have to be a genius to figure out her feelings. The way she looked at him when they talked or passed each other in the hallway.

They hated each other and only spent time together because Autumn was my friend and Theo was Kayden’s. We didn’t force them to interact with one another, but somehow, they always did. Just because Autumn was crushing on him didn’t mean that she was nice to him or showed him any affection. No, she enjoyed insulting him, making him trip over his own feet or making jokes at his expense.

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