So finally, FINALLY, after a long period of nothing but writers block, I managed to get some more inspiration. Credit for this inspiration goes to the prompt, "Flowers", and the "Five things" prompt.
Summary: Five times a boy gave Dorothy Ann flowers, and the one flower she kept.
The first time a boy gives her flowers, she's fourteen, and so flabbergasted that this almost complete stranger would give her something that could only suggest romance, she's left entirely speechless. Poor Thomas Bates leaves heartbroken at her lack of thanks while she struggles to speak.
It's a bouquet of Begonias, and she puts them in a glass vase on the dining room table. The flowers themselves are quite nice. They're white, with a dark pink trim on the petals, the leaves dark and green. They look right at home on the polished wood of the dining room table, and her mother is positively delighted when she spots the vase situated between the two candle holders. It's then that Dorothy Ann starts to regret putting them out on display.
"Where did you get these, Dorothy Ann? They're gorgeous!"
Mrs. Watson, who resembles Dorothy Ann only in looks, reaches over and traces the red ribbon that ties the stems together. She turns to her daughter with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow when there is no reply.
"Oooh, a boy." Her mother winks, and Dorothy Ann, who never shares any personal details about her personal life with her mother if she can help it, turns as pink as the trim on the petals.
"Mom – "
"No, no, no, don't worry," her mother drops the ribbon and folds her arms, and her lingering smile makes her daughter increasingly more uncomfortable. "I won't pry."
Though Dorothy Ann can tell her mother is just itching to get all the juicy details from her, she stays true to her word. When Ms. Watson leaves, DA takes a seat on a chair at the table and stares at the flowers, head in her hands, contemplates what life would be like if she started dating Thomas Bates.
The positives end at, "kind of cute with his dark brown hair," and soon all she can think of is the negatives. They would be more teasing from her friends, that's for sure. There would be less time to do homework if she starts dating. Also, she would have to start going to his lacrosse games. He wasn't particularly clever either...
The more she thinks about it, the less she likes the idea until finally she decides that maybe she should just put the flowers away. Before she can, the doorbell rings and she's distracted by the arrival of a tall boy with dark hair and tan skin.
"Hey," Carlos says. He's leaning against the railing to her front porch, looking so depressed the flowers are wiped completely from her mind. It's all Dorothy Ann can do to invite him into the house for a cup of tea.
"Tea?" That makes him laugh. "You're amazing..."
"What? I'm part British after all!" she defends herself while he shakes his head, still chuckling. She shrugs. "It's what dad does whenever he thinks I'm upset..."
"Who says I'm upset?"
"You're not?"
"No."
But Dorothy Ann isn't fooled, and she proceeds to retrieve the kettle.
While the kettle is boiling, Carlos makes himself at home, collapsing on the couch in the living room and putting his feet up on the coffee table in front. He's quiet when DA prepares the black tea, and doesn't say a word when she approaches him with two steaming mugs.
"I'm not upset," he says again as she takes a seat next to him. "What makes you think I'm upset? I'm not."
"Well, I am," she said, blowing on her tea to cool the liquid down. Well, maybe not upset, but certainly not as happy as she had been that morning, when Thomas Bates had been the last thing on her mind.
Carlos places his own cup back onto the coffee table – on a coaster and Dorothy Ann has to smile because he's finally remembered. "Upset? Why?"
Dorothy Ann shrugs. "I don't – I don't know."
Carlos, who always has to crack a joke whenever things started to get too uncomfortable for him, replied, "Did Mr. Heburn give you an A- on our history essay or something?"
"No!" DA glares at him. "I wouldn't get upset over such trivial things like that!"
"Fourth grade, second spelling test we had – "uncomfortable"."
"I was nine! And I wouldn't be talking – fifth grade, science class when we had to make a paper mache volcano and yours wouldn't erupt, no matter how much baking soda or vinegar you put into it. Your reaction was worse than any of mine..."
Carlos snorts into his tea, chokes, and drips the now warm liquid down the front of his shirt. Dorothy Ann bursts out laughing.
"Oh Karma," she says, still giggling as she gets up to get him a paper towel.
"Uh, DA?" She hears him call her while she's in the kitchen.
"Yeah, Carlos?"
"I spilled the tea on some papers lying on the coffee table – I think I can still make out the title: The Rise and Fall of – "
She doesn't let him finish the title, because she already knows what it says. "My history essay!!" Sheer terror runs through her veins and DA drops the roll of paper towels and dashes back into the dining room. "What did you do?!"
She enters the room and finds Carlos lying on the couch laughing his head off, holding two perfectly dry sheets of paper in his hands, and is not amused.
"Carlos!!" she lunges for him and smacks him as hard as she can on the shoulder. He barely flinches, but backs away from her, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"I rest my case," he smirks as soon as he's able to breathe again.
Dorothy Ann is still glaring. "That was NOT funny! I nearly had a heart attack! Who invited you here anyway? I don't recall you saying you were coming over for a visit."
He's stopped laughing, but the grin remains on his face. "Hey, lighten up, DA." And the look on his face is almost apologetic. He suddenly sighs, "I lied, I was feeling upset. I came over here hoping you could make me feel better. Thanks, DA."
He hugs her, and Dorothy Ann is too shocked to even notice the moisture from his sweater from the tea soaking into her own.
She's long forgotten the flowers on the table, but he sees them just before he leaves the house, and when he asks her about them she lies and tells them she bought them for her mother. Right now, the idea of telling Carlos a boy had given her a bouquet of flowers sounds positively mortifying.
"Oh, yeah – I was thinking of getting some for my mom for her birthday next week," Carlos says, eyeing the flowers almost distastefully. Before Dorothy Ann can start to worry that maybe he knows she's lying, he turns away from them and says, "They're nice by the way."
"Yes, well, my mother liked them," Dorothy Ann said, a blush rising in her cheeks: she's not used to lying to him.
Carlos leaves without another word, and Dorothy Ann is relieved he asks no more questions.
Of course, she doesn't know that Carlos had seen Thomas give them to her earlier that afternoon outside her locker.
Thoughts of the hug from that afternoon are enough to wipe the flowers from her mind. The begonias die a few days later in their vase, and her dad throws them out the next garbage day.
--
The second time a boy gives her flowers is on her fifteenth birthday. Rich red tulips. This time, she's not left nearly so speechless, and manages to say thanks to Tim, whom she has never seen so nervous.
"I knew tulips were your favourite flower," he says quickly, as though he needs to explain himself, "and you had said before that you wanted a plant in your room to brighten it up a bit."
She hugs Tim, who now looks so anxious she's afraid he could pass out at any moment. She refrains from asking him where he had heard tulips were her favourite flower. She doesn't have the heart to tell him he's wrong.
"They're beautiful, Tim. Thank you."
He follows her up to her room, away from the party downstairs, when she goes to put the flowers away. She lays the bouquet down on her comforter and Tim leaves to pour water in the vase from the bathroom.
She suspects that Tim has had a crush on her for awhile now, and she sadly strokes a petal lightly with her thumb, waiting for him to return.
When he does, she places them in the vase and sets it atop her desk, next to the cards she received earlier that day. He watches her silently, and eventually Dorothy Ann can't stand it anymore.
"Are you okay, Tim? You look like you're about to pass out!" she says, and she really is concerned.
He looks embarrassed. "No, no I'm fine."
"Are you sure," she asks so quietly Tim has to move closer to hear her.
There's a silence, and DA can see Tim struggling with his next words. She glances at the tulips on the desk and bites her lip, wondering if she should just ask – confirm her suspicions. Take the words from him and spare him the struggle. But she's scared.
She doesn't want to know for sure, though she thinks it's pretty obvious anyway. She doesn't want to deal with rejecting him, or accepting him just because of guilt. She doesn't want a ruined friendship; she likes the way things are with her and Tim right now, and wouldn't wish that to change in any way.
She hopes he will never manage to get the words out.
After a terribly long silence, Tim finally speaks, "Maybe I just need some fresh air."
Relieved, Dorothy Ann nods and says, "Good idea, let's head back downstairs."
Right on cue, Carlos bursts through her bedroom door, a cone-shaped party hat on his head and an inflated balloon in his hand. Dorothy Ann rolls her eyes as the hat he brought slips off onto the floor, and then can't help but giggle. The tension eases for her and she, nor Tim, notice Tim's hands unconsciously ball up into fists.
"Come on you guys! Party's downstairs! What are you doing up here?" he looks suspiciously between the pair.
"Just putting away some presents and cards for later," Dorothy Ann says, with a quick glance towards Tim. Though she feels relatively calm now since Carlos' arrival, Tim looks worse. His face is tense, his eyes narrowed, and he takes one deep breath as though he's trying to calm himself down.
Dorothy Ann suddenly feels like she's about to cry.
"Woah, Tim," Carlos almost looks alarmed, "You okay? You look like you're about to pass out or something."
"I'm fine!" Tim says hurriedly.
"I suggested fresh air," says Dorothy Ann quickly, her throat tight. She needs to be left alone. Just for a moment. She needs to think. "You go ahead – I left the candles for the cake in my room somewhere and need to find them. I'll meet you two down there in a moment."
Tim nods and rushes out of the room without even a backwards glance and she almost breathes a sigh of relief out loud. Carlos stays behind.
He crosses the bedroom while she bends over her desk and sits on edge of her bed. "Need any help?"
Her throat still tight, she forces herself to speak, "No, no I'm fine."
Carlos is silent for a moment, playing with the rubber band on the hat that holds it secure to his head. "Are you okay?"
"Course I am," Dorothy Ann says quickly, her head buried in the bottom shelf of her desk and she's glad she has an excuse not to make eye contact. "Why wouldn't I be?!"
"You just seem kind of quiet today."
Dorothy Ann bangs her head on the top of one of her drawers as she straightens up, candles in hand. "Ow! Sorry, my mind's just a bit preoccupied."
"Oh," is his reply, but he doesn't sound satisfied. Carlos rises from the bed and walks over to her and soon he's standing right in front of her. Dorothy Ann has to crane her neck up just to look him in the eyes. Her heart jumps inside her throat as she wonders what he's going to say next. "Well, just in case you're lying and everything isn't alright, here."
He hugs her and she clutches the box of candles tighter in her hands that suddenly feel weaker. He pulls back before she can compose herself enough to hug him back, and starts walking back towards the door.
"Nice flowers," he says while Dorothy Ann hurries along behind. "Who gave them to you?"
"Tim," she replies quickly.
"Oh."
There's a pause.
"Do you like him?"
She plays dumb, just because it's easier. "What?! Of course I like – "
"No – " he cuts her off before she can finish. "I mean – like that."
DA fingers the box she's holding nervously. Carlos looks calm, leaning against her door casually, looking impossibly handsome with that stupid party hat sitting lopsided atop his head.
"No," she says finally, face hot. She shakes her head. "No, he's just a friend."
Carlos' neutral expression does not change. "Oh, okay."
They leave the room together, and Dorothy Ann takes one sad look at the bouquet on her desk before she shuts the door behind her.
Her mom accidently knocks over the vase while she's gathering her daughter's laundry the day after and places the flowers back in the vase, forgetting to replace the water. Dorothy Ann hides the dried flowers in her drawer because she feels too guilty to throw them away.
--
She's cold when she sees Carlos coming out of Anne's Flowery with a bouquet of red roses and realises that neither mother's day, nor his own mother's birthday is anytime soon. She tries not to jump to conclusions that involve Florrie and him hanging out together during lunch instead of with her and their friends.
--
Phil Thompson asks her out the week before she turns sixteen, though he's wanted to for months already. She accepts; being the only one of her friends who hasn't been on a date before has started to bother her, even though she promised herself it wouldn't. And she figures she has nothing to lose. He's cute with his red hair and round face, he's smart, he's nice, and her hopes of another boy with dark eyes and black hair asking her out have long been extinguished.
He gives her a colourful bouquet – a mix of pansies, carnations, tulips, white roses, and daffodils, and she takes it from him with a nervous smile. The flowers are placed in her favourite vase on the coffee table in the living room, where all her friends can see, and though she's embarrassed when they ask about it, she can't help but feel slightly pleased.
He takes her to her first ever high school party. Though she's nervous, she tells herself she wants to try every experience possible, while she's still young, and tries to keep an open mind. She spends the beginning of the night hanging around in the corner of a room with Phil by her side, not saying a word, feeling more and more awkward by the minute and wonders if he's ever going to kiss her.
When she sees Carlos and Florrie at the same party, lip locked underneath the large chandelier in Rory Blason's entrance hall, she finally takes the spiked juice Phil offers her, hoping it'll ease the sudden tightness in her throat.
She doesn't plan on getting drunk (it's difficult to tell how much alcohol she's consuming when it was constantly being mixed with juice), and wanders around the house, trying to get used to the strange spinning sensation in her head.
The next time she sees Carlos, he's alone, and swaying before her eyes.
"You alright?"
She doesn't reply, and her eyes grow wide as she tries to remember why she's mad at him. Because she was.
"I didn't know you'd be here," he puts a hand behind his head and she sees him bite his lip. "You know Rory?"
"I – I don't," she feels tired, and the spinning isn't fun anymore. "Phil – " and she points to where he had been standing, last she saw him. He's not there anymore, and Carlos sighs and takes her arm. He leans in close to her face when he does, and his suspicions are confirmed.
"Come on, let's take you home."
Without even a backwards glance at Florrie, who's waiting for him at the foot of the stairs, and who he seems to have forgotten entirely, he takes a hold of her around the waist and starts moving her towards the door. She feels so drowsy, and her head lolls against his shoulder.
"Why do boys I don't like always give me flowers?"
As they step out in the fresh air, Carlos swallows and humours her. "Boys you don't like give you flowers?"
"All the time!"
"Oh, how many?"
"I don't know," she replies, and pulls out her fingers, counting them and then forgetting why. She giggles.
"Why'd you come here with Phil if you didn't like him?"
"No! I like him! But I don't want him to give me flowers."
"Oh – so you don't like him like that?"
"Why'd you come here with Florrie if you don't like her?"
He's quiet for a long time, and when he finally replies, Dorothy Ann has forgotten the question. "I do like her. I guess."
When she doesn't reply, he tightens his hold on her and wonders how much he can say to her tonight, how much she'll remember.
"Sorry, what did you say, you like who?" she wobbles in her heels and Carlos catches her around the waist before she can topple over on the street. She shrieks at the sudden motion and grabs onto his shoulders before she can fall. He's so close, and she watches him fearfully with wide eyes as she waits for his answer.
He speaks again after a long pause, "No one.."
"Oh.." the spinning feels worse all of a sudden, and she struggles for her balance. The words come out before she can stop them, "I wish you liked me."
For once, his words fail him, and Carlos almost stops dead in his tracks. "You – you mean – I mean – like – " he stops talking when he realises he's stuttering as bad as Arnold when he's around Wanda, and swallows again.
She's quiet now, and he's not even sure if she really heard him speak. He spends the rest of the walk with his arm tight around her waist wondering how different it would feel if she wasn't drunk.
The cold air clears her head, and she feels almost herself again when she reaches her house. Her hands shake a little when she pulls out her key, and when she's inside, Carlos says goodbye, and tells her he hopes she feels better tomorrow.
Dorothy Ann shakes her head before he leaves, and suddenly her throat is so tight she can't stop the sobs, and collapses on floor, tears streaming from her eyes when he's out of sight.
The living room is dark when she finally steps inside; the dim glow from the moon shines through the window of the living room onto the coffee table, and she can see all the colours of the bouquet. Fresh tears spill from her eyes, and she runs upstairs to her bedroom, wondering when these horrible teenage years of tears and confusing hormones were going to end.
--
She goes to England the summer before the eleventh grade to visit her father's family. It's her first time in a foreign country and she's utterly thrilled. There's one cousin her age there, Manny Parker, and he's more than willing to show her around town. It's through Manny she meets Brian.
They meet on the edge of the local soccer field and she's instantly smitten. The locks of curly dirty blond hair, the deep voice with the irresistible accent, and eyes a brighter blue than her own. He's intelligent too, and she sits with him underneath an apple tree discussing their opinions on classic eighteenth century literature.
"So where do you think you'll end up studying?" Dorothy Ann asks, envious already because ever since she could remember she's wanted to study abroad in England.
He shrugs. "Not sure yet."
"Cambridge? Oxford?"
He laughs. "I dunno. Maybe."
"But you could get in no problem."
And he grins arrogantly at the comment and Dorothy Ann is suddenly reminded of Carlos whenever she pays him a compliment.
"So could you. Come study in England next year." He nudges her lightly on the shoulder, still grinning and she feels her skin tingle from the touch.
She sighs. "I really want to someday."
He doesn't play soccer like Manny and their other friends, so he and Dorothy Ann sit together on the grass talking alone until it's dark. When Manny finally comes by to meet them again, sweaty and grimy, she thinks she can say with total confidence that she's found the man of her dreams.
The next time they met, they're at the field again and end up leaving for a walk around the little town. They walk in a small suburb, along the cobbled sidewalk past the yards, and all that's running through her head is that this might be the last time she'd see him, and that she had to, just had to kiss him tonight and wonders if he wants to kiss her too. Her question is answered sooner than she expected.
"You know, you're extremely pretty for an American girl," he winks suddenly, and she almost trips over the sidewalk in surprise. It suddenly seems almost too easy.
"And you're incredibly handsome for a British boy," she grins back, feeling more bold than ever, and leans forward almost instinctively.
He closes the gap between their lips and she's suddenly in heaven. It's her first kiss and she's not prepared when it gets deeper. She lets him in though, and savours every moment.
It's her who ends it and breathlessly says they should probably go back to the field, because it's getting dark after all, and she doesn't want Manny to get worried.
He agrees and on the way back, picks a purple flower from a neighbour's flower bed and hands it to her. They hug goodbye in front of Manny and Brian promises he'll keep in touch.
When she arrives home, she finally checks her email after three weeks, and gets excited when she sees the ten unread emails in her inbox: two from Keesha, two from Tim, one from Ralphie, and five from Carlos.
She's disappointed there's nothing from Brian yet, but knows that it's still early. She presses his flower inside her dictionary so that it can be preserved forever.
Two more weeks go by and not a word. Her heart sinks and she relooks at the photos from Carlos' of his family trip to the Mediterranean, and writes him an email apologizing for not writing the whole time she was away. She doesn't mention her summer romance, but he tells her about Jill Green, who told him recently she liked him and who he felt too bad to say no to. Dorothy Ann's urgency for Brian's message becomes almost unbearable.
"Do you think I should send Brian an email?" Dorothy Ann asks Wanda a few days later.
Wanda purses her lip as she thinks. "Might as well. You probably don't want to play hard to get when he's halfway across the world."
She writes him a quick email, telling him her trip home was fine and she really enjoyed her time in England with him.
After a month of silence, she opens her dictionary, takes out the dried flower, and crushes it into a fine powder in her fist.
--
She spends almost an hour in the flower shop the day she finds out Carlos broke his arm during a soccer game, trying to find just the right one. In the end, she decides on lilies and lavender, because she likes the smell. The lady behind the counter looks relieved when she finally leaves.
When she arrives at his hospital room, he's sitting on the edge of the bed alone, scratching the edge of his cast. He looks up when she enters and his expression brightens immediately and so does her mood.
She can't help leaping towards him and throwing her arms around him. "So glad you're okay!" she mumbles into his chest. "When Keesha told me you had gone to the hospital, I got so scared!"
"It's just a broken arm, DA." He laughs a little at her overreactionbut she feels his one good arm tighten around her. "Bu if this is how you're going to react, maybe I need come here more often."
She pulls back and frowns at his grin. "That's just stupid."
He rolls his eyes. "I was kidding."
"It wasn't funny."
Carlos grins at her and sits back down on his bed. He pats the empty space beside him and DA joins him.
She looks at the desk next to him and finds that there are so many bouquets and get well cards on the table already that there isn't any room for hers. She turns back to him.
"Those for me?" he points to the bouquet.
"Yeah," Dorothy Ann said, nodding and turning away from him, back at the table. "But I can see you already have enough."
"Enough? I don't have any flowers from you yet, how could I possibly have enough?"
It's awhile before Dorothy Ann comprehends what he's saying, but she hands over her bouquet to him immediately and changes the subject as quickly as she can.
"How's the arm?"
"Kind of itchy now..." Carlos said. "What a day, eh? First I break up with Jill, then I break my arm! Ha!"
He's grinning like a goof now, and Dorothy Ann feels her lips stretch wide as she returns the smile.
"So when can you leave?"
"Soon as my parents come back over," Carlos replies. "How long can you stay?"
Dorothy Ann now starts to regret the fact she spent so long looking for one stupid bouquet of flowers.
"Five minutes," she ruefully informs him. "Work. I just had time came by to drop off the flowers."
"Be late."
"I can't do that!"
He sighs, "Fine, leave me on my deathbed.."
Dorothy Ann rolls her eyes and swats him on the arm that isn't injured. When she turns to leave he calls on her one more time.
"Hey, DA."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for the flowers."
--
It's summer before senior year when the two of them discover the little meadow in a clearing in Walkerville Forest. Carlos has never been one to believe in maps, and Dorothy Ann loses hers before the hiking trip, not going to the library to get another one with the promise that Carlos would bring one of his own.
The meadow is everything Dorothy Ann dreamed it would be and more. Flowers of so many colours – purple, white, yellow, red – grew together in tall grass over the small hills next to a little stream. She could stay here forever, sitting among the lupines and daisies, a book open in her lap.
But today she didn't bring her books for once, and so her and Carlos lie silently in the meadow after a few moments bickering on the importance of maps, and the satisfaction of finding something so cool without the need of one.
"If we had a map," Carlos points out, "we would have followed the marked trail, down the uninteresting trail fork, and would have never found this place."
Dorothy Ann glares at him, but is out of arguments. He was right after all. The meadow was simply gorgeous.
"Well, you never know. We could have gotten horribly lost and might have had to spend the night!"
Carlos grins at her. "Another adventure in and of itself."
Dorothy Ann rolls her eyes. "I'll never trust you to bring a map again."
"Do you like the meadow?"
"Of course I do! It's beautiful!"
"Then why complain about no map? The best things you find are always the uncharted ones."
"You're... insufferable.." Dorothy Ann says lamely. She looks away from him and at the flowers she's sitting in. She finds herself tracing the petals lightly with her fingers, admiring their beauty.
When she feels a tickle on her hair, just above her right ear, her hand instinctively flies up, expecting a bug, but instead it smacks into Carlos' arm.
She opens her mouth about to ask what on earth he's doing when she spots the daisy in his hand. Her eyes widen, and she stares at the flower with white petals and a yellow centre.
Dorothy Ann can only watch in silence as he reaches over again and tucks the flower behind her ear. She closes her eyes when she feels the tips of his fingers brush the side of her face.
"There." Carlos leans back into the meadow, smiling. "Perfect."
Dorothy Ann reaches up with a hand to touch the flower gently. She grins. "Is this flower for me from you?"
Carlos sits back up again, still grinning. Dorothy Ann finds herself smiling too.
"About time," she says quietly, before leaning in and closing the gap between their lips.
It appears fluffy fics are the only ones I'm ever able to finish :p, but I'm hoping to maybe get an angsty one up next.
Reviews are always nice ;)