The Boy in Blue

Chapter 16

"Hanahaki....It's Hanahaki"

"Eden, did you say something?"

Mr Kelly gazed at her expectantly, the entire class humming as usual while their eyes drew to the back. Eden was startled, staring uncomfortably at the eyes peering at her until she broke the stupor and shook her head.

She tightened her grip around the dainty red petals in her hand.

"Alright then, although I'm expecting you to hand in a full draft by midnight today." Mr Kelly turned his attention back to the students at the front of class and the rest of the eyes left with him, returning to looking at other things that caught their fancy.

She untightened her hand and glanced at the blood spotted petals, before tightening it again.

Although she had her suspicions she had chosen to ignore it, wishing it away as if it were a bad dream and nothing more. But as the petals grew in quantity and colour, so did the pain in her body. And after almost coughing up a storm in front of one of her friends, she

had gathered the wits to search it up and learn once and for all what she had seemingly developed.

She had read the definition for the umpteenth time that hour. Yet the girl's mind was still clouded with the image of rose petals falling from her bed stained lips, of which she had hidden with a mask she had in her pocket.

Now, for all means she refused to believe it, the cold walk to her next class rendering her mind with various excuses, explanations, anything that could explain whatever was happening to her.

But nothing matched up with what she was feeling.

Pain. The pain in her heart and the pain in her lungs. The feeling of wanting to throw up every second and feeling of flowers blooming in her chest. She felt as if she should be panicking and screaming with the situation she was in. But with what she had read, and now knew about Hanahaki, all she could do was to remain as emotionless as possible.

Anything to not let anybody know.

As she neared her classroom, she blinked her eyes a few times and stared blankly at the door. There was nobody else there early, so she trained her eye at a misaligned brick near the doorway. She stuffed the crimson petals she was holding into her pocket as she spotted her friends heading up to the lab.

Despite the circumstances, Eden was beginning to quite like biology. Although she was never any good at it, she liked learning about it. Not to mention that their assignment was a group project in which she and Lei were doing it together.

London walked into class later than the others, walking into the second row of seats and choosing an isolated one towards the left of the class. Eden smiled at him, which he replicated although with less enthusiasm. As the teacher briefed them of the lesson, Eden realised that he had nobody to group.

She turned to Lei, and whispered over the teacher.

"Oi, you wanna include that kid in our group? He's new and I don't think he has a group"

"Who...?"

Eden motioned to the side where he was with her head and Lei followed on. She glanced to where he was, before turning back to Eden.

"What's his name?"

"London. I met him at lunch."

"I mean, sure. That's a pretty interesting name."

"I know right, apparently it's because he was meant to be British or something. He's a nice person though, I'm sure you'll be friends."

As the teacher stopped giving instructions, the class let loose. As per usual, Lei ran over to secure them a lab table while Eden caught the attention of the tall boy, who looked on aimlessly. She nodded over to the table Lei had secured, and he nodded back, picking up his stuff and heading over.