Flowers

35

The second Sarah saw me walking into school with sweats and sneakers, she pulled me aside with a concerned expression.

"What's happening? Is everything okay?" Her eyes searched mine, hands holding me by my upper arms at the end of an almost empty hallway.

Everybody had gone to eat lunch, but I wasn't feeling very hungry and had decided to go read and study in the library for the hour.

"Hey to you too," I offered her a half-hearted smile, one which she saw through with ease, "everything's fine."

"It's not," her brows were furrowed as she further took me in, glancing hesitantly to see if anyone was able to hear us, "did Michael do something? Did he hurt you?"

Since Michael had never really been interested in getting to know my friends, Sarah had been intent on the scenario of him becoming abusive. I had always laughed it off and joked about her addiction to crime shows, but now felt sad that I hadn't believed her when she told me to watch out.

I shook my head with a deep exhale, "we broke up. It was... mutual."

"You broke up?" Her eyes widened and her hands returned to her sides, "why?"

Again I had to shake my head. Despite how much I loved and trusted my best friend, I didn't feel comfortable telling her about Michael's previous profession. Partly because it would make him look worse in her eyes.

"It just wasn't working out," I managed to get halfway through the sentence before my voice broke a little and Sarah frowned deeply.

"I'm so sorry, Cam," she surprised me with a tight hug, showing a great deal of empathy, "I know how much you liked him."

I hugged back, a small tear rolling down my cheek.

"It's fine, I'm okay," I told her once we pulled back and put on a bright smile, "I'll just find myself a hot college guy as a rebound."

I had joked to lighten the mood, but her frown remained. Despite her opinions about Michael, she knew how much this sucked for me.

"Babe, we're going out for ice cream right now," she spoke with determination, taking my hand in hers and beginning to guide me toward the main doors of this building.

"Right now?" I wondered hesitantly, "we don't have enough time to get back to class."

"We're skipping," she sent me a grin, making me smile softly, "ice cream makes everything better."

__

"You look like you haven't slept," she commented as our ice creams arrived at the small and round table by the window we had sat down at.

I looked down at my assortment of ice cream and shrugged a little, "I couldn't sleep last night. There's just a lot of things in my mind right now."

"Like what?" She pressed, "what exactly made you two break up? Was it something he did?"

"Just.. my father, and such," I sighed, before giggling a bit, "and why are you assuming that it was because of something Michael did?"

Sarah sent me a look, telling me that it was the only rational explanation to all this.

"It was mutual. It's a long story," I offered, not wanting to go into detail, "thank you for this. I really did need the ice cream."

"I know you too well, babe," she grinned happily, "if you feel like you need a rebound, I've got at least seven hot guys I know are totally in love with you."

I laughed quietly and shook my head at her, still feeling very confused and hurt over everything that had happened at Michael's apartment only a few days ago.

I hadn't yet processed everything and knew that this would take some time to get used to. I missed him too much, and had only been joking about getting a rebound. I don't think anything but time would help me get over him now.

Before I could reply, a tall and dark featured man appeared right beside our table and spoke.

"Hello, ladies," his low and happy voice made both of us look up at him and realise that he didn't work here, "I'm sorry to disturb, you're clearly in the middle of something."

It hurt to look at him and I felt like I was going crazy. The stranger had very similar features as Michael, and I was positive I was seeing things for a moment. He was a lot older though, and on second glance only had similar dark eyes.

"That's fine," I gave him a polite smile, speaking before Sarah would have told him to go away, or something along those lines, "can we help you?"

His dark eyes focused on me and the light grin forming onto his lips made my smile vanish. It reminded me instantly of Michael.I felt like I needed to hide away in my bedroom and cry, knowing that since I was thinking about Michael so much, I was surely seeing him everywhere and connecting him to things only to be reminded of him more.

"Just wondering if I could join you for a couple of minutes while I wait for my order," he wondered, "won't take long at all."

"Oh, I..." I hesitated and looked over at Sarah, who just shrugged, "yes, why not?"

He thanked me and pulled a chair over.

"What brings you two here?" The man asked, now sitting beside us and dark eyes focused on me.

"Ice cream," Sarah told him rather bluntly, but he didn't seem to take offence.

"I see," he chuckled, "I'm Rob, by the way."

"I'm Camille and this is Sarah," I introduced us, taking a lot of energy to keep on a happy smile and seem like my regular positive self, "it's nice to meet you. What have you ordered?"

"A few croissants," he told me casually with a shrug, resting back against his seat the same way Michael always did, "you're beautiful, if I may say so."

"Oh, well, thank you," I quickly glanced over at Sarah in hopes of getting her to talk as well, but found her fully focused on her ice cream.

"I have a fiancée, don't worry," Rob then laughed, "I'm not hitting on you. I like to compliment at least ten people a day, makes life better."

"That's lovely," I gave him a genuine smile, "it's always so lovely to see someone smile after a compliment."

"Really is," he agreed with a sincere nod, brushing his hand through his dark hair before straightening the light brown coat he had on, "thanks for chatting, I should leave you two now. It was nice meeting you, I'm sure we'll see each other again."

"Enjoy the rest of your day," I gave him one more smile before he left.

"He was sketchy," Sarah sang quietly and raised her brows at me, "but hot. I feel conflicted."

I laughed and reached my hand over to gently nudge her, "you're crazy. It's so nice to meet kind people like that."

"Bad vibes, Cam," she shook her head at me, but I brushed it off.