blooming {complete}

six: sedums

"Baby!" Vanessa squealed, sprinting into Piper's outstretched arms. Piper grinned into her sister's shoulder and squeezed her tightly. "How are you, doll? How are the flowers?"

"Good, blooming," Piper replied, still smiling. It was the day before the Fourth of July and her sunkissed sister was back at last, all thick black curls and shiny eyes. When Vanessa was around her all the time, she got annoyed with her easily and holed up in her room, but now that she hadn't seen her for a month...Her heart swelled at the mere sight of her sister's familiar gray cardigan. "How's Grandmother?"

"Old and shriveled, as per usual. I think she might have developed a little bit of fondness for me, though, because I planted some lavender in the garden. I miss having real growing flowers to tend to. My babies are good, you said?" Vanessa chattered, heaving her bag over her shoulder. They strolled towards the airport exit, Piper eyeing the faint bruise around her sister's wrist.

"What?" She glanced into her sister's soft eyes and smiled again. "Oh, yes, they're fine. We have our very first store regular."

"Ooh, who?" Vanessa inquired, switching her bag to her other shoulder and tugging her cardigan sleeve down. "Wait, lemme guess. An old white woman."

"Solid, but no. A teenage boy. A cute one, too," Piper stated, almost proudly. She actually didn't know how old Henry was, but he seemed young and vibrant when he wasn't being moody.

"Hmm, nice. Can we stop by the store on the way home?"

"Sure. Juniper's there right now."

Vanessa nodded and snatched their parents' car keys from Piper's belt loop. She popped the trunk, placed her bag inside, and jogged over to the drivers' seat.

"Hey, Ness?" Piper said tentatively, gaze locked on the bruise as her sister shifted slid the keys in the ignition. Her cardigan had slipped down again. When Vanessa gave her a hum of acknowledgment, Piper continued. "Is that bruise...new?"

"Oh, this?" She touched it with her free hand and shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

Piper stared at her sister for a moment and tried not to panic. Her leg started shaking of its own accord, and she pulled her knee up to her chest. She thought about the FaceTimes with her sister while she'd been gone, how exhausted Vanessa had seemed. Piper had figured it was just their grandma being a handful, but maybe someone was hurting her sister.

"Ness," she tried again, whispering now. "What happened?"

"It's not a big deal. I'm fine."

"I didn't ask if you were fine. Why do you have a bruise there?" She thought back to the summer before her freshman year when she'd watched all of Law and Order: SVU. Bruises around the wrist meant someone had been restraining her.

"Look, I'll tell you, but you can't tell Mom, okay?" When Piper nodded, Vanessa sighed and tapped her fingertips on the wheel. "I got a job, so that I could have some spending money and everything, at this department store. It's not bad, but I work late shifts and there's always this guy waiting when I get off. He follows me home, and sometimes he, I don't know, messes with me a little." At Piper's wide eyes, she shook her head. "Not rape, just a little, um--I don't know. Do we have to talk about it?"

Reaching over the center console, Piper slid her fingers through her sister's and held their joined hands to her chest. "Not if you don't want to."

Vanessa's grip tightened, and she risked a glance away from the road to smile softly at Piper. By the time they got to the shop, Piper's eyes were damp and she was adamantly staring out the window so her sister wouldn't see. Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the store was in her eyesight, and the keys were barely out of the ignition before she was sprinting inside.

Piper locked the car, slipped her flats back on, and opened the door. She could see Vanessa inside with her face buried in a bouquet of sedums, taking deep, full breaths. Sedums were cures for broken hearts and wounds. Piper hoped she took some back to England with her, or better yet, she hoped her sister didn't go back.

"Are you just gonna brood outside the car, sis, or are you planning on coming inside? You've gotta smell these gardenias," Vanessa gushed, poking her head out of the shop's clear glass doors.

Piper looked into her sister's soft face and smiled as she followed her.

a/n: unedited whoops pls don't be mean to me