[ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 ♪ 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐘 ]

secrets of a spiral | 7

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          Poppy swallowed hard, staring at the front door of Branch's grandma's home. She knew he was inside by the sounds of water running, shuffling papers and his heavy footsteps.
She brought a hand up to the door, knocking three times. All the noises stopped and she knew he was in there panicking.

After a few impatient seconds of waiting, the door cracked open and one of his bright blue eyes stared at her. Without a word, he opened the door and let her in.
she glanced around, he was making pasta, explains the running water.
He immediately went for the living room and she assumed just to follow him.

It was a bit of a mess, but a cozy mess. A good mess.

"Branch." she uttered, her voice cracked. Embarrassing way to start.
He didn't respond, just sat on the floor of the living room, leaning against the lilac crochet couch, on the pink and yellow crotched rug. The sun began to set, the curtains were drawn to let the light in. She took a seat beside him. "W-"

"When were you gonna tell me?" he spoke in a cold tone, but through his voice she could tell he was hurt.
"and don't lie."

His words pinched her stomach. "I don't know. never?"

He finally looked at her clearly, his blue eyes looked heavy and sad like a puppy begging for food.
"Never?" he whispered.

"I wanted to leave my past with creek behind me." she sighed. "But now that it's out of the picture, what do you want to know?"

An awkward silence filled the air. Branch took this time to collect his thoughts, questions and comments.
"Why didn't you want me to know?" he frowned.

His expression was so sad it was almost as if he was trying to make her regret as much as possible.

"I-I don't know... things with Creek were just so different and I knew I couldn't live with you and Creek in my mind all the time. So, I shut him out." her thumbs grazed the back of his clammy hands, covered in dark freckles.

"I want you to tell me about your relationship with Creek. What did he do that was different from me?" he asked sincerely.

Poppy was taken aback. "Okay." she nodded.
It took her a few moments to prepare herself, because she knew that when she spoke of Creek with anyone it'd make her an emotional mess.

"We'd sit by the river together, almost everyday at golden hour and he'd meditate while i scrapbooked because I could never sit still enough to do it with him."

Branch nodded attentively.

"and he'd make a point to sage my house once a week to 'protect me' from spirits." Poppy chuckled.
"He was really adamant on protecting me, spiritually, so he left crystals all over my house. They're everywhere, I never moved them."

She sighed, pulling out her handmade obsidian necklace Branch had known all too well. She held it up for him to see. It was a small black stone encased in multicolored twine. some strands were red, blue, yellow and green.

"It's beautiful." Branch nodded. He watched her face carefully, her nose became more red then more she spoke about Creek. "What else?" He said softly, intertwining their fingers together.

"He proposed to me, the night before the bergens attacked. And I told him I wasn't ready and I had to think this over, because i still wasn't queen yet..."

~~~~

The party planning was going swimmingly. This was going to be the biggest, the loudest and the craziest party ever!
Creek invited Poppy out for a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant, after all the stress of party planning, this is what she needed.