A Trip To Remember

Gardenias

   "So do you guys think your getting dorms or an apartment for college?" Tyler asked as Rianna painted his nails with clear polish.
    "I'll probably get an apartment." I said weighing my head side to side.
   "Y'all realize you have to live in your dorms for the first year right?" Alysa spoke up.
   "Fuck."
    "Oh. Yeah, what school are you guys choosing?" Rianna asked.
    "I don't know...all of them are good." Alysa contemplated, filing her nails.
    "I love Colorado....and it's been my dream for so long so I'm going there." I said as Sophia painted my nails a light pastel yellow, using gel.
    "I'm choosing Oregon. Michigan is too far from home." Nathan said.
    "I think I'm choosing Princeton." Tyler said.
    "Brown. Definitely. I had to go to Damien to get in so that's what I'm going to do because it's my dream." Rianna said looking Tyler in the eyes and grabbing hold of his hand. He smiled and kissed her forehead.
     "That's a great school. Ivy League." I said, winking.
     "Honestly I don't really want to talk about this guys. Sorry, can we change the subject?" Sophia said, not looking up from my nails.
     "Oh. Uh, yeah sure."
     "How's your guys nails looking?" Alysa asked as she blew on her fingers.
     I looked down at the job Sophia did on my hands and toes. "Pretty."
    "GODDAMMIT  RIANNA I SAID CLEAR NOT FUCKING PINK." Nathan yelled, looking at his light pink nails, as I started laughing with everyone else.
     "Why would you let Rianna paint your nails?" I laughed.
     "Because he's stupid." Sophia said laughing. Nathan rolled his eyes and ran his hands over his eyes.
     I looked back at my nails and took out my phone. I took a picture and posted it to my story.

   I slid my phone back in my pocket and stood up. "Ok are you guys all done?" I asked walking like a duck to protect my toes.
    "Yeah I guess. Is it supposed to take long to dry?" Alysa asked
    "Not long."
    "Ok then what's next, Princess?" Sophia asked tiredly.
    I looked around trying to remember. I smiled and turned back.
    "Flower crowns. We are gonna make flower crowns." I said smiling brightly.

     "Am I expected to know how to do this?" Jo whined.
     "Just pick the goddamn flowers Hyde." I replied in annoyance.
"Just pick the flowers Hyde." He mocked silently. I glared and kicked the back of his knee, making him collapse.
"YOU WANNA GO?" He tried sounding tough, standing up.
"Bring it bitch." I said getting in his face.
"Sorry. I can't hear you up here." He mocked with a glare as he towered over me.
I glared and punched his arm. I turned back around and went back to picking flowers.
I placed some flowers in my basket, breathing heavily out of my nose. I actually didn't like when people hit me. Even playfully, I didn't really like it because it gave me PTSD. I didn't like hitting other people too, but I guess I felt I joked about it too much sometimes.
I moved a branch out of the way and found a hidden bush of white flowers.

*flashback*
I walked through the yard of my dads broken down house, with Hana, my Belgian Malinois, behind me. He was walking in front of me, shielding his face from the low hanging branches.
"Here we go." He said slowly approaching a bush of beautiful white flowers. It was a bush that really stood out compared to the rest of his house. The yard was mostly dirt with a single mango and avocado tree, but if you walked around to the side of the house, it got worse with a huge bundle of overgrown weeds. But that was all cut back for this single bush.
His ocean blue eyes looked back at me and he held out his hand. I took it and jumped down from the uneven ground.
"These, my dear, are Gardenias. I've been growing a bush for you." He said, gently touching one of the petals. He took out his knife, cut the flower from its stem, and held it out to me.
"They were your mom's favorite. She loved their scent."
I looked up at him then looked down at the flower and smelled it, and I felt blessed with a sweet, floral aroma that smelled heavenly.
I gently tucked it behind my ear and looked back at the bush as my dad wrapped an arm around 8 year old me.
"I miss mom." I said.
The breeze picked up, Hanagirl nudged my hand with her nose, and I smiled down at her.
*flashback over*

"Ashlyn." Caleb said, shaking my shoulder.
I shook my head and looked up at him with wide eyes.
"You okay?" He said with a little nervous chuckle. "You look...upset, or something."
"Y-yeah. I just um..." I looked back down at the bush. "Found these really pretty flowers. They're called Gardenias. They're...beautiful." I said gently picking a flower and tucking it behind my ear.
"Uh...ok yeah they're very nice, I guess." He said slowly, confused.
I plastered on a smile. "Well let's get to work on those crowns." I said patting his bicep.
He gave me a look, turned, and walked ahead.
I turned back, picked a few more from the bush, then followed Caleb.
"Ok you guys got a lot." I said with a smile. Everyones baskets had a significant amount of flowers of all colors. They didn't even look real, they were so bright and vibrant.
"Okay. Well lets get started." Rianna said, clapping her hands together.

"These are looking awesome." Alysa with a big grin.
Everyone had pretty much finished someone else's crown after about an hour of threading and stringing and yada yada. We'd decided that we'd make a crown for another person to show how much we know about each other, so I made one for Alysa.
     Everyone's crown had different varieties of colorful flowers.
We handed out a crown to each person. Tyler and Rianna made crowns for each other obviously.
"I made this for you because your my favorite girl friend." Jo said sarcastically, giving Nathan a crown. We laughed and they did some weird head locking thing.
"Me and Nathan made yours." Alysa said handing me a crown laced with white Gardenias, light purple lavender flowers, and blue wildflowers.
"Gardenias." I said, my smile growing.
"I remember you said it was your favorite. Alysa pretty much did the rest." Nathan said, waving his hand. I looked up at them to see Alysa smirking.
I laughed. "What're you smirking at?"
She just shrugged and I handed her a crown with yellow, orange, and white wildflowers and these really pretty green vines I found.
"Ahhhh! It's so pretty! Thank you!" She squealed happily.
"Ok calm down my daughter. I made one for Caleb." Sophia said, holding it up.
He made a look like she'd gone mad. "Why?"
"Well I felt a bit of...mmm...empathy that no one would want to make you a crown because you're stupid." She laughed.
"Well thank you." He said sarcastically, glaring.
"You better be. Took all my energy to make that. You guys do whatever the hell you want. Imma go take a nap." She said, walking back up to the house.
"Now she's got the right idea." Jo said rolling his eyes.
I smiled and looked down at my crown, still in my hands. I touched the petal and brought it up to my nose. I buried my nose in it and smiled to myself.