❛ SUPERMARKET FLOWERS ♪ ❜ - z. herron

twenty-seven: he didn't feel anything compared to what I just felt.

"I THOUGHT IT WAS COOL." I sit up to look at him.

"We need to work on your idea of cool." I grab his phone to check the time. "C'mon, we have to go meet everyone."

*

As we drive along, music always plays. There's never awkward silence between us, but we both still regularly play music. Zach's music taste is so much more different than mine but will give me the aux every other time.

I wonder why he does that.

Zach looks over at me. "Kira?" he asks, his eyes still on the road.

"Yeah?" I ask, looking up from my hands. I put on all my favorite rings, trying to figure out what worked with my costume. 

"You'll check other peoples phones, clocks, even Corbyn's watch. Why don't you like checking your phone?"

"Well, my dad taught me to never rely on my own technology. Something about how you need someone else to rely on survival, be independent but not alone. He'd always bring up the fact lone wolves were more likely to die. But I guess it's just a habit to check everyone else's before mine. The logic isn't completely there but he always said check everyone else before yourself." I say, slightly laughing at the memory. 

He would walk us into random stores to ask the time or directions, to the point where my mom would ban him from certain stores. We were never on time to anything but all the memories of us finding a new boutique or cool pet store made up for it. 

"You don't talk much about your dad. Well at least not about how he is now. Just old stories. Why?" he looks over at me, trying to read my emotions.

"He died. There's not much to it." I say bluntly, playing with my rings. I don't ever sugar coat what happened to him. 

A good man got sick, REALLY SICK and died. As he used to explain it, life happens. Sometimes, when you aren't looking, prostate cancer comes to ruin your life. We found out when 3 weeks before my 9th birthday. I knew what cancer was but never ever in my life was I personally affected by it.  I didn't know the severity until you're sitting in front of your birthday cake, being told your dad has stage 4 and has 5 years at most left. '

"Oh." He sounds like the breath he had was just sucked out of him. He breathes in continuing the conversation.

"Kira, there's a lot more to it. If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. But don't just disregard your feelings. Y'know?"

I reach out, touching his hand on the gear shift. "Thanks Z." I smile at him, hoping he can feel my smile.

*

As people start to roll in, the bass amps.

"Shit, y'all love your bass." I say to Jack. All of our faces are covered in paint to make it look like we are skeletons. I'm not Van Gogh but definitely a solid skeletal system.   

"Duh, that's what makes a party." he replies, rolling his eyes.

"I feel like that's not-"

"Dude, why are we not drunk yet?" Emerson interrupts, walking up to us. Her hair is slicked back to show off her makeup and her dark clothing.