Elements

Chapter 29

Why did I make all those orange Lily's? That's never happened before. I can barely focus in my other classes that day because I keep thinking about it. The flowers stopped appearing soon after I left the art building, but Jeffershit would have known they came from me. He better not tell anyone or I swear I will move to Canada and never talk to anyone ever again. The only person I could talk to about this is Alex, but I don't even know if his gift behaves the same. He obviously has more control of it. 

I'm snapped back to attention when the professor stops talking. I look around to see everyone starting to work on some assignment. I have no idea what it is, so I pull out my notebook and start doodling. I quickly scan the room and when I know everyone is completely absorbed in their work, I sprout a small lily from my hand. 

Flowers are among some of my favorite things to draw, as well as birds and the occasional turtle or two.

While I'm drawing I pull out my phone and look up what the orange lily means. Confidence, pride (heh), wealth, hatred, and distance. Huh, I wonder if that's just a coincidence.

Once I finish all of the days classes I find a bench in one of the quads. I've been wanting to try something since I looked up the meaning of orange lilies.

I close my eyes and just try to create a flower, any flower. I open them to see a sprig of blue lilacs resting in my palm. I grab my phone and search of the meaning.

Blue lilacs, happiness and tranquility. Any color of lilac also represents love. Alex. 

I set the lilacs aside and do it again. Except I'm thinking about Alex and only Alex. I open my eyes to both hands overflowing with white carnations, red and lavender roses, and blue flowers that I don't know the name of. Oh my god how am I supposed to get rid of this many flowers? I quickly gather them into a bouquet and shift them around so they look good. At least now they look more natural. I find a spare hair tie to keep them together and then I set them aside. I quickly look up the meanings, but I have a feeling that they all mean some form of love. I'm pretty sure that I can make flowers specific to my emotion.

White carnations, innocence and pure love. Red roses are a given, but the lavender ones mean love at first sight. The blue flowers are corn flowers. Apparently they used to be worn by young men in love. 

I gather the flowers in my arms and go to find Alex. I have no idea what class he has right now, or if he even has a class right now. I shoot the squad a text to see if anyone knows where he is. They don't respond so I just start heading to his dorm. I could just drop it off with a note.

I start walking towards his dorm with bouquet in hand when I run into Peggy.

"Hey John!" She skips over to me. "What're the flowers for?"

"Oh, I Uh, the horticultural club was selling them so I thought I'd get one for Alex,"

"Aww how cute!"

"Yeah," I blush, "Do you happen to know where he is? I don't really know so I was just planning on dropping them off at his dorm,"

"Hmm," she thinks for a second. "Ooh I remember he was talking to me about a job interview or something. That might be today. If it's not I have no idea. Unless he just holed up in his room writing,"

"Oh ok. Do you think I should call him?" I ask.

"Won't hurt if you do. If he has half a brain cell his phone would be turned off during and interview, but otherwise he should pick up,"

"Ok cool, thanks!"

"No problem!" She says, "you could also ask Maria, I know she's at their dorm. I'm actually headed there right now. We're going out for cookies,"

"Cookies?"

"Yeah there's a cookie bakery on campus. And the cookies are so huge! They're like the size of a small plate! They're ginormous!"

I laugh. "That sounds like fun, I'll have to check it out!"

"Oh my god you have to, it's amazing. Who knew college would be this amazing!" I almost choke. First of all there's all of the mandatory classes like Math and English that do nothing except stress me out. There's some assholey people *cough cough* Jeffershit *cough cough*. Oh yeah and I have to walk a lot to get to some of my classes. Honestly though all of the good has outweighed the bad, and a cookie bakery will definitely make things better.

Peggy ends up going on a tangent about why kids thrive after high school. It's kinda nice to just listen to her rambling thought process. 

We get to Alex's and Maria's dorm and I almost knock on the door but Peggy just open it without knocking.

"Mariiiiiaaaa!" She calls and Maria excitedly jumps up from the couch and runs up to Peggy.

"Peggy!" They hug and Peggy kisses her cheek.

"You ready for some giant cookies!!"

"You bet I am!" Maria grins and then they hurry off to the cookie bakery. I'm left in the doorway holding a large bouquet of flowers. Alex might not even be here. Anxiety creeps into the back of my brain. Ha ha look at you standing in an empty dorm that isn't even your own with flowers. I shake it off.

"Alex?" I call. "Are you here?" Nothing. "Alex?" I start walking towards the bed room. I stick my head in the door and there's a bundle of blankets typing away at a laptop. I smile at the coffee fueled gremlin. He's so passionate about everything he does, but his eyes have heavy bags, his hair is messy, and who knows how much coffee he's had since the last time he's slept.

"Alex?" I say softly. He blinks and looks up at me. 

"John," he smiles. "Oh my gosh are those flowers?" He looks down at my hands.

"Oh yeah, I Uh, I made them," I scratch at the back of my neck. His face lights up and he jumps out of bed. His legs almost give out under him.

"Fuck I haven't moved in hours,"

"Oh my god Alex you're a disaster," I facepalm.

"Yeah but I'm your disaster," he laughs. I grin and go to try and find a vase or something to put the flowers in. I find a blue water bottle and fill it up to put the flowers in. I bring the back in to Alex's room and set them on the bedside table.

"You're so nice John," Alex says, still from the ground and eyes half closed.

"You need sleep, you're delirious," I say, grabbing him and pulling him up. 

"I'm delirious for youuu," he sits on his bed and falls to the side. 

"Go to sleep Alexander," I smile at him and I turn to leave, but he grabs my wrist.

"Stay?" My heart flutters.

"Ok," I climb in bed with him and wrap my arms around his waist. He rolls over to face me and pulls himself in closer. He's asleep in minutes and I soon follow suite. I don't have any more classes today, and so neither of us move for hours.