Lavender Monarch has Exactly Thirteen Fears

18. ladybug

Patty and I are sitting on the faded grass of his front lawn, eating cheese crackers. It's a nice day today.

I pull a blade of grass out and twirl it around my finger, "I'm sorry for ignoring you." I say. Patty smiles at me with his mouth full of crackers.

"It's fine. Let's just make the most of the time we have now." He makes it sound so foreboding. It's not like he's flying across the world or something.

After I found out he was moving, I was so annoyed I didn't talk to him for a whole week. I'd spent the meandering days sulking in the park with June, working on the treehouse.

He met me early in the morning and while I was busy complaining about how cold I was, he was up there in the boughs working. I'd eventually come up to help, but it took a lot of cajoling on his part. We'd spent the good part of each morning nailing and hammering away. June kept making fun of me because it seemed that every time I'd try to hit a nail, I'd end up missing the mark entirely.

It was after school on Thursday. We were up in the tree again playing would you rather for about the four hundredth time that week. I'd been in the middle of answering the question, 'what makes you more afraid being a deep-sea diver or a skydiver?' To which I was obviously about to choose skydiver because of my crippling fear of deep water. I mean, as much as I'd love to talk to some fish and see the sunken city of Atlantis, falling through the sky at a hundred and twenty miles per hour sounds much safer. At least to me. But I didn't get to explain all this to June, as it was at that moment that I heard a familiar voice calling my name.

"What's up girl!" Jade had cried. I'd glanced down to see her standing at the base of the tree waving. To my delight, Indigo was with her. June and I had climbed down and I'd given both of them massive hugs. As soon as I introduced June, I saw Indigo watching him carefully.

"Hi June," she'd said, rolling her eyes. June gave me a confused look and Jade elbowed her. It was then I realised, the only time Indigo had heard about him, was from my complaining at the sleepover and that certainly hadn't cast him in the best light.

The two of them had assisted us in finishing off the last few details and it was a major help. It seemed that the two of them had warmed up to each other by the end of it and I let out a sigh of relief. We all walked around the top of the planks, testing how safe it was. It felt precarious to me, I was half expecting a plank to collapse underneath my feet at any second.

Every time I heard a creak, I'd jump over to the closest person and grab their arm for balance. June had thought this was hilarious. Nothing broke though and it seemed quite stable. A lot sturdier than I was expecting, I'd even thought that I'd be willing to let June's brothers play on it.

We then went and painted some flowers and bugs along the wood for decoration. June found some waterproof paint in his shed as we were putting the tools away and I'd had the bright idea. I was quite frustrated when it turned out June was a better painter than me. Even after all the work I did on the set, all his years of drawing gave him an advantage. It definitely should've been him helping me out with the set instead of Patty but oh well.

The four of us had celebrated the completion with a picnic on top of the treehouse.

"Cheers!" June had cried and we all clinked together our glasses of orange juice together. The plastic cups made a rather disappointing sound. My parents wouldn't let me take glass into the treehouse. By that point, there were only three more days until Patty had to leave.

All of them were upset with me for not talking to Patty.

"You have to talk to him," Jade had said. June went quiet and looked the other way, seemingly tuning out of the conversation.

"Please, Lavender!" Indigo had begged. The two of them teamed up and they practically forced me to go over to his house. I'd secretly agreed inside though. Ignoring him was just due to my stubborn nature, as much as I didn't want to admit it.

I'd wanted him to come and apologize to me but that wasn't going to happen.

So I gave in. I sucked it up and went around to his place. He was going to be gone for ages and so the best thing I could do right now, is to spend the last couple days together and make the best out of a bad situation. He'd seemed surprised to see me when he answered the door.

That's how I ended up here.

Sitting on the grass, behind his faded blue house.

It has a wrap-around porch covered in potted plants. Turns out his dad is quite the gardener, you wouldn't think so by the roughness of this grass though. A lady bug lands on my palm, its crawls down to the tip of my finger and I smile.

Ladybugs mean good luck and I take that as a sign that Patty and I will get through this with flying colours and when he gets back we can sit on the swinging chair of his porch and make-out all night long.

I take that back. That's a little too much affection, even for me. And think of the germs, ew.

"Promise you'll call every day?" I ask.

"Yes, and I'll send you texts and a letter in the mail." I smile at that. Letters seem so sweet and formal, like something out of a Jane Auston novel. I scoot closer to him and rest my head on his lap. He brushes a strand of hair off my face. "We're only just getting started, Petal." He says.

I melt. Petal. I guess that's his nickname for me now and something about it just causes a tingle to run up my spine.

"Patty...Patty..." I murmur aloud, trying to come up with some sort of nickname, I can't think of one. "I give up," I laugh. "You'll just have to be Patty."

When I'm with him, nothing else matters. I don't think I'd care if all the stars fell down, or if the sky turned purple of even if a tornado came and swept us off to Oz.

It's just him.

God, I'm going to miss him way more than I thought.

The sun is starting to set and I promised my mum I'd be home for dinner so I say my goodbyes to Patty. Not without first agreeing to meet up for breakfast before school tomorrow though. I wish I hadn't ignored him for so long. We have so little time together now.

I just have to keep reminding myself that twelve weeks really isn't that long. Everything will be fine.

"I'm walking you home," Patty says as I start to walk away.

"No, you're not. I'm perfectly able to get myself home." I reply.

"I know you are," he says "but that doesn't mean you should." I bite back a smile and agree. I want him to walk me home even if I act like I don't.

"You can do whatever you want," I say throwing him a look over my shoulder as I walk away. He's not going to get me to give in that easily.

He just chuckles behind me and jogs a little to catch up. I feel a rush of excitement when I feel his hand reach over to clasp mine.

We walk down the middle of the road just because. There aren't any cars driving around here at the moment and there is just something fun about it. We swing our arms as we walk, our footsteps falling into the same rhythm.

A gentle breeze runs along my cheek and I pull my hands up to warm my cheeks. Patty immediately stops and replaces my hands with his.

"You're freezing. Why are you always so cold?"

"As if I have an answer to that," I laugh. He just smiles at me, his hands still on either side of my face. I can feel the heat radiating off them. He leans down and tries to kiss me but I pinch his cheek. 

"You haven't brushed your teeth!" I say skipping ahead, the leaves swirl around and around us.

For once it seems the stars have aligned in my favour. I'm just so very happy. Nothing could ruin this.

That is, except for the fact that he's leaving me.