Stars in our Hearts

Twenty Two

Her dark brown hair flowed down all the way to her lower back. Crius watched her in fascination, she was smiling brightly as her dad gave her the flowers.

Crius cleared his throat, "Happy birthday." He handed her the box of chocolates his dad picked up from another small shop. The smell of chocolates was heavenly, especially since they were freshly made.

She hid behind her dad and looked shocked at the two strangers in her house. Out of all the Friday's her dad gave flowers, it happened to be the day of her birthday. She walked over to the strangers, one who was bigger than her. Not just in height but physically as well. He was cute. She bit her lip, who were these people? She didn't know them, but her dad did. He was smiling at them like they were long lost brothers.

"Thank you," she took the box from his hands. She smiled as wide as she could. She was pretty sure he could see all of her teeth. Before he could reply, she noticed a small flower on his shoulder. Ranunculus bulbosus, also known as bulbosus buttercup.

Alida bursted out laughing, picking the flower from his shoulder. "I'm gonna call you buttercup." He stared at her confused, what the heck was she talking about? She's weird.

"This flower," she indicated. Crius looked at it, it was yellow. Very yellow. How did he not notice it himself? "It's known as buttercup, or well there's another name but I think it suits you."

"The name?" He asked.

She nodded eagerly, "Yep."

"That gives me the right to give you a name, then."

"You don't want to know my real name?" She asked, looking back at her father. He and Crius's father were deeply conversing with each other.

Crius shook his head, "Do you?"

After thinking about it for a minute, she shook her head. A little game for both of them. It would seem that they were two kids, not sixteen year olds, but he needed this and so did she. An opportunity to be a stranger to someone who wasn't a stranger.

"Bean," he said proudly.

She grimaced, "Out of all the names you could think of, you thought of bean?"

He chuckled, "You smell like vanilla beans, that's why."

"We've named each other after first impressions." She opened the box of chocolates, offering one to Crius before plopping one in her mouth. "That makes us better than everyone."

"We're so weird," Crius admitted.

She offered him one more chocolate but he shook his head, "I'm sort of on a diet."

"Why?" She scrunched her nose.

He looked down at himself. His tummy was overwhelming, or at least it was to him. He had six months to lose everything, to become the model he wanted to become. "I'm planning on becoming a model."

"So why do you need to go on a diet?" She didn't get it. There was no need for him to lose weight, he was cute. His face stole all the attention anyway.

"Because models are skinny," he sighed.

"They don't have to be," she replied.

"But they're attractive when they are."

"You're attractive right now."

She bit her tongue and blushed. Crius blushed too, "You think I'm attractive?"

"You know you are, shut up." She shied away from him, turning towards the adults.

"We gave each other names," she said proudly. "We'd like you two to call us by those names so we can never know each other." Their dads looked at them confused. Crius's dad spoke up first, "You don't want to know each other's names?"

Crius nodded, "It's fun."

It was Alida's dad who laughed, "Alright. We won't, now tell us your names."

"Hi," Alida reached out her hand to shake it with her dads. "My name is bean."

Crius followed her, shaking his dad's hand. "And I'm buttercup."

The two older men began laughing. "Some would think you're kids rather than teens."

"Everyone's a child on the inside, let us be." Alida retorted, laughing along with their dads.

...

"When are you guys planning to go back home?" Crius stopped throwing stones in the water. "Do you want us to leave?"

He could feel her shaking her head, "I don't want you to leave."

"I have to leave eventually."

"Because of modelling?" She asked and he nodded. "It's in six months, but my mom hired a professional instructor to help me lose weight."

"It was fun having you around," Alida looked at his messed up hair. It had only been a week since she met buttercup and her thoughts had been consumed by him.

He was so sweet, kind, and filled with humility. He made her laugh in a way no one else had. Maybe it was because she was now seventeen and all she could think about was falling in love with people, falling in love with a specific person.

But she could only see herself falling for him and no one else.

It was normal though, crushes happened.

All this was, was a crush.

And he probably didn't feel the same, how could he?

He was so much better than her in every way.

First love made a person feel that way, or so she had assumed.

She was everything he wanted in his life.

It was odd to think that she was seventeen already and he still had eight months until he would change the world.

She was older.

He liked older women if all of them were her.

Her small hips, her long hair, her bright eyes.

This is what first love was, even if it happened in a week.

He loved her.

Her little snorts.

Her impulsiveness, he loved it all.

He would always love her, he thought to himself.