Dandelions

Chapter 5

I looked behind me to where the voice came from.

"Woah! What happened?" Marcel asked coming into the stall with me. I didn't have enough time to close the stall door before the flowers and the blood came pouring out.

Marcel grabbed some paper towels and used them to clean my mouth. "What the hell...where did the-" Marcel paused and stared down at the single yellow daffodil amongst all the pink daffodils.

"Who?" Marcel spoke in a stern tone frightening me. "Wha-" I coughed. "Smitty, you have to tell me who." "I don't get what you're asking me!" I said louder than I wanted to. "Who do you like, dammit!" I froze as the feeling came back.

"Evan." Marcel's eyes grew wide. "No...Smitty, please...anyone but him." Before I could even reply I was hunched over the toilet vomiting up the flowers and the petals and the- the blood. Oh god, there was so much blood. "It's Evan." He whispered seeing as the yellow daffodils overpowered the pink ones.

He picked up one daffodil that somehow had no blood. It was a clean white flower. The only thing that made it different was the black at the bottom. "Do you know what this means?" I shook my head and let my legs fall under me. "Hey, hey! Don't pass out on me!" Marcel exclaimed pulling me back up and letting me use him as support. Carefully, he sat me down on the bathroom counter. He pulled out his phone. "What class do you have right now?" "Algebra..."

"Okay. There are only about 7 minutes left of class and Mr.Waters won't care if you're gone for 7 minutes." "You- you said anyone but him...what did you mean by that?" "Evan is," Marcel paused to think over his sentence, "he's extremely in love with Delirious. Delirious can hurt him as many times as he wants and Evan will stay with him because he loves him."

I watched as he placed the yellow and black daffodil next to me. It was sickening to look at. He typed something into his phone and quickly read what he saw. "Hanahaki." "What?" "Hanahaki," he repeated as if I knew what it was. "What is that?" "You don't know?" I shook my head. He sighed. "Hanahaki is a disease where people cough up flowers. It is- life threatening depending on how bad the hanahaki is." "Is- is there a cure?" "Either you fall out of love or you have a surgery done that will make you feel numb."

I couldn't move. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I so desperately wanted to believe he was lying. That this was just a sick joke. But It seemed too real. I didn't know what to do. I mean- what could I do? 30 minutes ago I was talking to Simone and now I'm being told that coughing up flowers can be life threatening?

"Marcel, please tell me you're joking." I wanted to be sure he wasn't joking or lying to me. He looked me dead in the eyes, "I may be mean but I wouldn't lie about something like this. You just coughed up flowers and blood, how can that not be life threatening?" I stayed quiet not knowing how to answer. "Why daffodils?" Marcel paused and looked over the daffodil as I asked that question.

"Daffodils are Evan's favorite and, coincidentally, they also mean unrequited love."

Marcel let me sit and relax for the last few minutes of class. Once we heard the bell ring, we started heading to English. We walked through the halls before we stopped in front of a green door. He opened the door and held it open for me.

Most people were already in the room and my heart sank when I saw Delirious sitting in the back with David. "Just don't talk to him. Is it okay if I let David know what happened?" I took a deep breath and nodded as we walked towards the back of the class. Delirious heard our footsteps and looked up at us. He looked at Marcel and then at me, giving me a death stare. He pulled Marcel close to him as he whispered something to him.

Marcel pushed him away and shook his head. Delirious took the seat in the far right corner, David in front of him. Marcel moved to sit in front of David so I sat in front of Marcel. Marcel motioned for David to get closer to him.

I could only make out one sentence,

"he has hanahaki like Evan..."