Town of Broken Girls

Garden

Faith POV

I wake up early and Hope isn't awake yet, so pull out my tablet and put on my headphones to watch a video of Maxine's performance. Hope didn't let me go in person because she didn't want me to run into the new unstable, she's always been afraid of one of them hurting me, ever since The Incident. I get to the part where Iris and Maxine are singing Shut Me Up and I start to hum along. Suddenly, I hear a knock on my bedroom door.

Hope: Faith, are you up?

I pull off my headphones and shove them and my tablet under my pillow.

Faith: Yeah, I'm up

Hope opens the door and comes to sit on my bed. I scootch away from her. Hope looks at me confused.

Hope: Are you okay?

Faith: Well, it's just, at the town meeting-

Hope: Are you seriously still upset about that? I stand by what I said, the unstables are nothing but trouble.

Tears start forming in my eyes and the lights in the room start to dim.

Faith: But I'm an unstable.

Hope: Yeah, but you're different, your powers aren't deadly.

Does she really think that makes me feel better? It only makes me feel more helpless.

Faith: So, am I allowed to go outside today?

Hope: I never said you weren't allowed to go outside, it was just... a strong suggestion. And yes, you can go outside.

Faith: Great, I'm gonna go out on a walk.

Hope: Okay, just be careful of the unstable.

Faith: I know

I know because she's power-washed it into my head since we've been here.

I get from my bed and walk out the room.

----------------------Time Skip-------------------------------------------

I walk through the park towards the town garden, it's the one place Hope never looks to find me and the only place I can spend time with my best friend, Jade. I'm so excited to get there, Hope has been monitoring me for the past two weeks and I haven't been able to go see Jade. I reach the garden's fence and see Jade watering the plants. Seeing Jade makes me smile for the first time in, I think, two weeks.

Faith: Hey Jade.

Jade turns to see me, she smiles, but her eyeshadow is darker than usual, she's trying to cover up her sadness. I go through the garden's gate and over to Jade.

Faith: Jade, are you okay?

Jade: What? Oh, yeah I'm... fine, thanks.

Faith: Jade, I can tell that's not true

Jade bursts into tears and hugs me, burying her head into my shoulder. I rub her back, trying to console her. I lift her head off my shoulder and wipe the tears off her face.

Faith: Hey, it's okay you can talk to me.

Jade: I'm sorry, I just haven't seen you in so long, and last week Hope told me you never wanted to see me again, and you're basically my only friend, so I got really upset.

Hope told her WHAT NOW?

Faith: Jade, there's no need to apologize, your feelings are 100% valid. I'm just fucking mad that Hope lied to you.

Jade: She was just doing it to protect you, and she's not wrong, I can be dangerous.

Faith: I don't need protecting from you, and you're only dangerous when you're defending yourself.

Clouds start to form in the sky, casting a shadow over the garden. Jade looks up at the clouds.

Jade: Can we please not talk about this, and just have a nice time in the garden.

Faith: Oh, sure.

I sit on the edge of the garden and Jade continues to water the plants. Jade's eyeshadow gets lighter again, I'm glad she's happy. I pull my drawing supplies out of my bag and start to sketch the garden, and Jade. Jade is frolicking around the garden, she's dancing and singing to herself and just.. happy, not many people get to see her like this, she's always so tense when she's around others. I feel bad that not everyone gets to know how great she is. I've actually been thinking of asking Jade out, but I have no idea how I would do it.

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Jade POV

I love gardening, it's so nice to just be around the sweet smell of flowers, tending to them to keep my mind busy. I love gardening even more when Faith is here, I can't explain it, but being around her gives me an overwhelming feeling of joy, I feel like I can really be myself around her.

I pause my gardening to face Faith, who seems to be drawing something.

Jade: Oh! What are you drawing?

Faith's cheeks go red.

Faith: Oh, it's nothing, it's not even that good.

Jade: Come on, let me see!

I sit next to Faith and peek over her shoulder, she had drawn a picture of me watering the garden, it looks so realistic.

Jade: Oh my god! That's beautiful.

Faith: Of course it's beautiful, it's a drawing of you... I- I mean

Her face goes even redder which makes me giggle. She avoids eye contact.

Jade: Thanks

Faith: Umm... you can keep the drawing if you want.

Jade: Really, you sure you don't want it?

Faith: Yeah, it's not like I can keep it around Hope anyway.

She hands me the drawing and I smile.

Jade: Can you walk me home?

Faith: Oh- uh... Sure, yeah, of course.

We stand up and start to head toward my house.

As we're walking, I suddenly realize that Faith and I are holding hands. I look down at our hands and then back up at Faith to see her staring back at me, she smiles and I smile back. A feeling of excitement bubbles in me. The sensation of our hands together feels so... right.