Page 58 of Poetry of Flowers

“The one about the path of desire?”

“Yeah, my friends decided to write about their desires and their paths for the future. I don’t know my path, so why not write about you, then?”

“You want to write about me?”

Nash laughed, “Am I speaking a foreign language?”

“Oh no, I did just not expect that.” She chuckled nervously.

“Well, you’re already my tutor for literature. Turning you into my muse won’t be that hard, Lettie.”

“We will see, challenge accepted, Sunny.” She lifted her head a bit and grinned.

Were they a couple?

I didn’t know I had missed that much.

“Are you stalking them?” I let out a scream when suddenly a head popped up beside me and fell straight through the many clothes, pulling the coat stander right with me.

This was the second time someone had startled me today. Kayden laughed when he saw me on the floor covered in all colors of coats.

He offered me his hand, but instead of standing up, I pulled him down to me on the floor.

That’s called Karma.

“Are you two eavesdropping on us?” Kayden’s older brother asked when he picked up the coats from us.

“No, only Tillie was listening to you two. I just got here.”

“Who needs enemies with a best friend like this? … What happened to your eye?!”

Under his right eye was a bloody cut and a bruise that stretched over his eye like a map.

“I tripped on the way down and hit my cheek on the stairway,” he told me, but looked at his brother when we both stood up.

“I told you to stop running down the stairs” Nash sounded like a parent.

“And I told you that I didn’t care if I ran down the stairs.” Kayden bit back.

His brother grabbed him on the chin and tilted his head to the side so that he could inspect the cut and bruising.

Kayden slapped his hand away, “Stop it, Nash, I’m not a baby.”

“But you’re my baby brother, stop being stupid, Kayden.”

Nash never talked to his brother like this. It sounded like Kayden was his responsibility.

“Little Tillie?!” Violett smiled, cupping my cheeks when she sees me.

“Dios mio, you have grown into a beautiful young woman” she smiled at me.

A compliment from a girl as beautiful as Violett meant a lot to me, but at the same time, getting older and changing made me sad.

I didn’t want to grow up.

“Thank you.” I answered her with a small voice, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. The last time, I was here with Mom to pick out a birthday gift for Aunt Cecily. I had never set foot in this store without my mom.

The last weeks had been so good, I had been so happy, and nothing had triggered my sadness. Why today and here? I had been so excited to search for costumes with my best friend, and now I felt as though I couldn’t move.

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