Page 24 of Poetry of Flowers

“He got my mother and his wife pregnant around the same time.” I finished his sentence, I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high, he still cheated on his wife.

“Look, she has Chicago in her bio,” Theo pointed out.

I went back to Clark’s profile and found a pic of his wife standing in front of their house, next to a road sign. This was too easy. I zoomed in.

“Write that down,” I told my friend, who had his notes open on his phone.

I knew exactly where he lived.

Ride or Die - September 1, 2022

We all know the phrase,

“If he jumped off a cliff, would you?”

Parents ask you this at least a dozen times a day.

The answer is, yes.

If my best friend told me he wanted to jump off a cliff to dive in the water, I would follow.

Even if the fear was suffocating.

My best friend is like oxygen,

I can’t live without him.

My first steps, my laughter, my first tears,

All of these things I did with him by my side.

So, if he asked me to jump with him,

The answer is yes,

He’s my ride or die.

ChapterSeven

MATILDA

Autumn and I were sitting on the old couch in my living room, scrolling through the channels, but couldn’t decide what to watch.

After my cousin had comforted me, we went up to my room, and she had wiped my smudged makeup off for me.

I wasn’t in the right mind to do it myself, now almost an hour later I function again, but sometimes it just didn’t work.

There were moments when every move I made felt like I was underwater, like something was slowing me down. Some mornings I couldn’t get out of bed, but it’s getting better, it’s getting better because I finally wanted to get better.

The words my father had said hurt, but were they true? I didn’t want them to be true, but I couldn’t decide that, I didn’t see myself how other people saw me.

“Oh Tillie!” Autumn threw her head back laughing, she had changed into one of my pajamas because Aunt Cecily allowed her to sleep over. Her mother wasn’t really strict. Autumn was the youngest and the baby of her family. All her life she got what she wanted except for Theo, that was why she hated him.

She was a bit spoiled, but I didn’t mind; it made me happy she was happy.

“Can we watch a Barbie movie? You still have DVDs, don’t you?” Autumn looked at me with a big grin and made puppy dog eyes.

“Didn’t you want to tell me about your night with Theo?” I asked her. After all, this was why I had invited her.

---