his plucked flower

Chapter 14: Willow Trees

A shower of water droplets was pattering against the large windowpanes as the wild breeze ran through the streets by Dan's house harshly wiping through the air. The both of them slept in until the afternoon, both too tired to wake up and instead cuddled close and fell asleep all over again.

Lillian stepped out of the large shower, holding a blue towel against her freshly washed body. She quickly changed into Dan's much larger clothing considering she had no clothes of hers here. She's only been in his house a few times because he visited her more so than she did but it was all a matter of work and luck on who had free time.

The white shirt she wore reached her thighs and the grey warm sweatpants reached the floor, past her feet and ankles.

She walked out of the large bathroom, her feet padding against the white tiles that lay peacefully on the ground, and into Dan's even larger room. She could hear another shower from downstairs, it's seems it's raining everywhere tonight from Dan's shower, from her's and from the sky.

She walked closer into his room. The bed was still a mess, unlit candles scattered around the room, and the lights were closed but enough light filled the room from opened curtains.

Her bluish-purple eyes raked around looking for something to do. She smiled seeing a brown carton box laying by the large mahogany shelf and hiding in the corner behind the curtains. It look suspicious, barely even showing. But since Dan opened her laptop she thought it was alright. So she skipped her way towards it and sat crisscross on the floor. Her hair was still wet but she preferred to leave it to air dry.

She opened the brown box and peaked in, a scattered pile of photos laid on top. She picked it up and looked through them. The little kid in all of them had hazel eyes and looked familiar to what she established was Dan.

The first picture he was with his mother standing in front of a pyramid and is smiling with squinted eyes from the sun. She giggles at the adorable picture. Before getting to the next one.

The next one he was standing by his mother, who had her arm around him. Here he looked much younger, nearing the age of six or seven. They were both in a park, the swing was behind them being played on by other kids, and an ice cream truck, in the background, was passing out ice cream to small children.

She looked through all the pictures before placing them beside her. She peaked again into the box and this time saw a little drawing book.

It brought a smile to her face to get to see the part of his life she wasn't in, it was fascinating to her.

She opened the coloring book and the first one was a drawing of what looked to be him standing by dinosaurs. It was horribly drawn she noted but it was adorable. Turning the page, she saw a picture of him and a tall lady, which she noted was his mom from the photos, playing in the park, a line was split in the middle of the drawing showing her his father sat behind a desk, supposedly working.

She felt like she was violating seeing this picture and knowing his home life may not have been as bad as hers but it was upsetting for a child to be ignored by their parents.

She closed the book and placed it on the side, much like the pictures. She took another peak in and this time frowned with confusion laced in her features.

A yearbook sat alone, with the same logo of her school. She never bought her school's yearbook but she was certain this was it. She frowned, completely confused. Maybe Dan was in the year above and they never knew? The thought made her excited, she wanted to tell him about her new found discovery. She couldn't wait for him to step foot out of his long shower and show him the little picture of her.