The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

While Reed was fortunate enough to easily be able to help the one he loved, Landon was not as lucky. Though Landon wanted to tell Jared that he could always seek comfort from him, he didn't have the courage to do such a thing. If Jared chose his latest fling's meaningless comfort over Landon's, then Landon wouldn't be able to hold himself together.

    "You think Jared would want my comfort, Mocha?" He questioned the brown cat in his lap.

The cat offered a light swat to Landon in reply. He laughed at her as the thought of Jared came to his mind. This was the first gift Jared had ever given him. Well, more specifically, this was the first gift Jared had ever given him that he actually liked. Last year, Jared had the bright idea of gifting Landon a box of condoms for Landon's sixteenth birthday. That, obviously, was thrown deep into his closet, never to be unearthed again. A slight smile fell over his lips as he remembered this, and that smile only grew wider when there was a knock at his door.

Immediately, he scooped up Mocha, carefully placing her on his shoulder before rushing to the door. His heart sank when he opened the door to someone other than the one he had hoped for. Standing awkwardly before him was a human girl, Ezra, who had tight auburn curls resting at her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes peered up at him with a bit of fear. That fear vanished when she saw Mocha resting on top of Landon's shoulder.

"U-um...um, hello," She greeted him with a stutter that caused her tanned face to flush a deep red. "Sorry to bother you. I...I just have something to talk to you about. It's important. Well, it's important to me, but I was hoping you could hear me out. Please?"

"Just email me or something," He said, not too interested in talking with her, especially when he had to start doing the finishing touches on his art project soon.

Just as he was about to close the door in her face, she pulled out a white envelope from her back pocket, frantically sputtering out, "Wait, wait! Please, just take this! I'm begging you!"

Hesitantly, he took the envelope from her. As he turned it over in his hands, he asked her, "Is this for me?"

"Jared," She whispered, "It's for Jared."

Almost instantly after Landon heard that name, his attitude changed entirely. When something involving Jared came his way, everything else became insignificant, especially when another girl was also involved. He looked from the envelope, then to Ezra. Although Landon wanted to throw the envelope in her face and slam the door shut, he forced himself to pull her inside his dorm.

    "That envelope...it has a sort of, um, confession in it. Um, I've liked Jared for a year now," She began explaining herself as Landon distracted himself from the rising jealousy inside of him by playing with Mocha on his bed. "I know that I should be giving this to him myself, but I can't approach him. He's too intimidating, and if I try to talk to him, I'll just end up making a fool of myself. So, I figured that you could give him the love le—...uh, note instead since you two are so close."

    The only word in that sentence that stuck to Landon was 'close'. We're close? Such a small thing caused Landon's cheeks to blaze red. He dug his teeth into his bottom lip as he tried to stop a smile from forming on his face. He shouldn't get so happy over such a thing, but he couldn't help it. A complete stranger had recognized that Jared and him were close. It felt good, though that feeling eventually vanished. Although they were close, they weren't close in the way Landon wished they were. His hands balled into fists as he struggled not to let his emotions show through.

    "Please don't crush it!" Ezra begged him, grabbing his hand that was holding the envelope, "I..."  For a moment, she lost her voice when he looked up at her with what she mistook to be annoyance in his eyes, "I'll give you something in return if you do this! Um...I'll, I'll give you my blood. That's okay, right?"