Daffodil - Deceitful; hope; unrequited love
Chuck's messed this one up good.
(Do we really have to do this, Jill?)
He doesn't know how he accomplished it, to be honest, but he somehow he did.
(I don't like it any better than you do, Bryce, but orders are orders. We have to establish our cover.)
He has to fix this. He's not about to lose Jill over some stupid he might have inadvertently said or done.
(Why not just break up with him? He's my best friend and your boyfriend. Isn't there a better way than ripping out his heart and stomping on it?)
Normally he'd ask Bryce for advice, but Bryce has been MIA lately. He's not the only one to notice it; everyone else in the group has commented on it too.
(You of all people know that that's impossible. He'll want to know why, he won't stop trying to fix it and he'll get too close. Do you really want to see Chuck get wrapped up in all this?)
People tell him it's normal, the fights and stupid stuff that comes with the separation anxiety they tell you to expect in your senior year. But he wasn't expecting to have problems with his roommate and his girlfriend at the same time. He hopes that once he squares everything away with Jill, he can figure out what's going on with Bryce and why he's been so distant lately.
(No. You're right. We have to start distancing ourselves from him for his own sake.)
Thankfully he has Ellie, who instructs him to apologize with gifts. So here he is, heart open and bearing gifts. Well, flowers anyway. But they're her favorite: white daffodils.
(Look, I love Chuck. And I know you do too. But we have to start getting used to detaching our emotions if we want to survive. Even if it means giving up the Chucks in our lives.)
He loves that about Jill, actually. Her absurd love of daffodils is the most girly thing about her. Not that there's anything masculine about her, of course. It's just that she's so much one of the guys, with her love of Everquest and her ability to out-drink all of them, that when she displays a girlish side to her, it throws everyone off guard.
(Hey, c'mere. Don't cry. You're right. This is for the best.)
She's such a strong, beautiful, wonderful person, and he's so lucky to have her in his life. He doesn't know what he'd do without her.
(He'll survive this, right Bryce? He doesn't need me.)
Chuck reaches for the doorknob and pulls the door open. Shock doesn't even begin to cover what he feels at the sight of a half-naked Jill locked in Bryce's embrace.
"Jill?" he finally manages to squeak out.
A pained look crosses Bryce's face. "Chuck...wait, we can explain."
Their words wash over him, but he can't process anything they're saying. All he can focus on is the crunch of the stems in his clenched fist. Anger and sadness will inevitable follow (and they do), but right now all he feels are the numbness in his fingers and the emptiness in his heart.
--
When Bryce gets him kicked out of Stanford, Chuck bitterly chides himself for being surprised.