The Rose

Steven has a rose in his house.

I'm not sure if the funny part of the sentence above is the fact that Steven has a rose in his house, or the fact that it had been a gift from Wallace. It's a beautiful rose, quite unliked any I've seen before, and it was dried in a way most flowers were to keep them 'alive', as alive as a dead rose could be on the outside. Steven keeps his inside the bottom of a broken glass bottle, his make-shift vase.

Once, I asked him if he ever had the intention of getting another vase -- a proper and prettier vase, but he had barely glanced up at me from the book that held his attention(another, I thought mournfully, gift from Wallace), barely even acknowledged my question before the once Champion shook his head and declined. Opening his mouth, he had spoken simply: I like it this way.

I was surprised, and I still am -- Steven had always occured to me to be the kind of person who didn't care about outward appearances; when I remarked that the rose was beautiful, he had not replied. He still hasn't. What -- a question I often wonder -- what is it about the rose that captures him so?

Was it because it had been a gift from Wallace? The thought seems the most plausible theory of all, but, even so...

I wish that Steven would look and smile for me... the way he smiles for the rose.

tbc.

Notes: This is probably the shortest 'chapter', so to speak, in this three-part story.

Prompt: A dried rose with bottle for a vase - he photographs it, and tries to find the link to his past.