Page 48 of Poetry of Flowers

Both of them weren’t there when I woke up, which I was glad for because I would have probably fallen face-first into their crotches.

“Autumn needed to take a walk after the whole thing with Theo, and he has a tiny bladder.”

“Calling her by her first name wasn’t okay.”

He shook his head, “No, it wasn’t.”

Only now I noticed that he had some girl’s Instagram site open on his phone.

The girl was pretty.

Did he like her, did I miss something?

He didn’t have a girlfriend, did he?

Of course, it was none of my business, but I still wanted to know.

The thought of him with a girlfriend made me a little sad. We would spend less time together, but I guessed that was ok because we would build our own lives someday. Still, there was a sharp pain in my chest.

“Could you tell him not to do that again?”

“Why don’t you tell him that, he’s our friend, not only mine,” He gazed at me briefly, before looking down at his phone again. Was she much more interesting to look at?

It was Kayden who always insisted on eye contact when he was talking to me.

“Theo and I... we don’t talk much. I don’t want to hurt his feelings or something like that, he is sensitive.”

Kayden scoffed, and his phone screen went black before he let it drop into his backpack between his thighs.

“He’s not sensitive, and there he comes, just tell it to him right away.”

“I can’t do th-.”

He slapped me on my back and smiled at Theo, who sat down in front of us, his smile too sweet for his personality.

“Tillie wants to tell you something.”

“Connard,” I mumbled under my breath and looked over at Theo, who already looking at me expectantly. His blue eyes looked so innocent. I hated Kayden.

“What’s going on, Tillie?” he smiled sweetly at me. Theodore was always nice to me, like a brother, even though we didn’t talk that much.

Get it together, for Autumn.

“Yeah, uhm, could you quit calling my cousin Kennedy? She doesn’t like that. In fact, she hates it with a passion.”

He just shrugged his shoulders.

“Why should I care, she does stuff I hate too. It’s our way of communicating.”

I shook my head, “No, that’s different. Behind that name is a story that hurts her.”

“What story?”

Oh no, I couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t my story to tell. I looked over at Kayden for help, but he was focused on his phone again. Since when had he been so obsessed with Instagram?

“Well... I won’t tell you because I can’t, but it’s really bad so just quit it.”

Theo scratches his neck, “Did I hurt her again?”

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