Adoration

1

Emily Brown smiled and waved as the freshly permed older woman left the hair salon.

Emily was the last to leave the salon, leaving her to clean up and close down for the night. As she finished, she made sure to turned off the lights, and grab her things before walking out the back door, to the parking lot where her car was parked.

The only downside of parking in the back lot was the lack of streetlights, making it dark and eerie with a dim yellow glow from the limited light.
Emily shivered from a small breeze as she walked over to her car, but quickly stopped in her tracks, seeing a large group of men run away, leaving a man sprawled out on the hard asphalt.
She made sure the men had left and then ran up to him.

"Sir, are you okay?" She asked frantically, digging through her purse to grab tissues after seeing blood on him.

The blue- haired man didn't respond, wavering in and out of consciousness. She realized that was a dumb thing to ask and quickly grabbed her phone to call 911 and tried to stop his bloody nose at the same time.

One hand holding a tissue to his bleeding nose, and her other hand with her phone about to dial 911, she froze as she sees a man run up to them.

"Don't worry, I've already called 911." He kneels down as well to try and help his friend.

They try to keep the man awake, but fail as he eventually gives in. Emily places his head in her lap carefully, and worries over the unconscious man, constantly looking around for an ambulance.

The man, named Harrison, glances at Emily curiously as she tends to the wounds on his face.

'So, this is the girl he's always going on about? She seems decent. ' He thinks to himself.

A while later an ambulance and police car arrives and Emily sighs in relief. She begins to talk softly to the man, even though she knows he's unconscious. "Hey, there's an ambulance here, you're going to be alright."

Harrison stands up and walks over to the police to give them the whole story. He pulls out the video to show the officers, knowing that this will help their plan.

Emily places him down softly to stand out of the way, wincing when he groans, and gives the paramedics space to pick the blue haired man up to put in the car.

One of the ambulance workers turns to her, "Ma'am, are you family? Would you want to assist this man in the car on the way to the hospital?"

Emily didn't want to get in the way, so she shook her head and responded, "No its alright, could you tell me how I can go check on him in the hospital?"
The paramedic explained to her where to go and the ambulance drove off.

She walks over to Harrison, who was waiting for the officers to come back over to talk to him.

"Um, hey. I just wanted to thank you for helping and calling the police. I was really scared, and you being there calmed me down." Harrison looked shocked as he heard the small girl talk. He wasn't expecting her to thank him.

"Uh yeah! No worries. I'm glad we were there to help him, so he wasn't left all alone!" He said, chuckling nervously.

She smiled at the tall man, "Very true. Well excuse me, but I'm going to go to try to find him some flowers. I know I would want to wake up to something pretty if something like that happened to me! It was nice to meet you, my name's Emily by the way. I'll probably see you around?"

"Harrison, and yeah you definitely will."

 
~~~~

After going to a 24-hour grocery store and finding 2 bouquets of decently pretty flowers, Emily ignored the pull on her heavy eyes and made her way to the hospital.

She walked into the almost deserted hospital and smiled at the receptionist seated at the front desk.

"Hi there! I'm here to see a patient. I know visiting hours are up, but he was recently entered, and I want to make sure he's alright?"
The receptionist seemed surprised at the cheerful behavior of the long curly-haired woman,

"Do you know his name?"

Emily froze, "Uh- actually I don't, he was mugged, and I helped him. I only know he has blue hair?"

The receptionist thought for a moment and hummed, "Ah yes, Mr. Anderson. Room 15. You can go in as long as you don't wake him up, he needs to rest."

Emily nodded rapidly, "Of course! Thank you! These are for you by the way!"

She holds out one of the bouquets of flowers. "For your desk!" The receptionist takes them with wide eyes and a small smile.

She thanks her, and Emily makes her way into room 15. She walks in and is met with a slightly dark room, only a small lamp lit. She assumed it was just in case he woke up, so he wouldn't be confused and scared.

Emily then decided she would stay with the man until he woke up, just so she could explain to him what had happened that night, so he wouldn't wake up scared and confused.
Not knowing that this is exactly what Kai had hoped would happen.

She sat herself in the chair next to his bed and put her purse in her lap. She pulled her book out of her bag and began reading until she couldn't keep her eyes open and fell asleep in the uncomfortable chair.

Once Emily closed her eyes and her breathing evened out, Kai opened his eyes. He smiled slightly at the view of the small girl in the chair and watched her for a moment.
His plan was slowly falling into place.

Unknown to Emily, Kai already knew exactly who she was. Kai had been in love with the girl since sophomore year of high school when he saw her handing out a flower for each new freshman, to welcome them to high school.

At the time, he was too shy to even go up to her, so he admired her from a distance. He hoped that one day he would work up the courage to speak to her. It almost happened once, and it was still one of his happiest memories.

He had just been shoved into the lockers, splitting his forehead open, he sat on the ground silently crying, and tried to wipe up the blood dripping down his face with the sleeves of his dark hoodie. To top it off, his bag was snatched out of his hands and all of his belongings were scattered throughout the halls.
As everyone left to go to class, she stayed behind and picked up all of his papers without a word and put them back in his backpack. She placed his bag next him, and dug through her own bag, finding some tissues and a band aid. Kai watched her silently and she wiped off the blood and gently put the band aid on his head. She smiled at him and plucked the small daisy out of her braided hair to give him.

She stood up and helped him up, walking him to class and left without a word. Kai has kicked himself in the ass every day for not saying a word to her.

Now here she was, almost 10 years later helping him once again, sitting next to him. 

He watched over her constantly throughout the years, but he was always too nervous to talk to her. He eventually went off to college, but she was the only girl he had in mind, so he finished his studies and came right back as quick as he could.
He believed one day he would get the courage to talk to her and make her his.

He lightly brushed his fingers over her soft lips.  He smiled when he glanced over and noticed the small bouquet of flowers she had brought for him. He sat up slightly, wincing in pain, and laid one of his many blankets over her sleeping body. She sighed in her sleep and cuddled the blanket.
Kai watched her, with hopes that he would soon replace the blanket.

He wasn't that scared little boy anymore. And he wouldn't let Emily slip away from him like before.