Accidents Made Right 1: Pistanthrophobia

Chapter 33: A Field Of Beauty

7 years earlier

Rowan ran out of the forest at half-speed into a clearing with a large field of red roses, a wide smile spread across his face(and sweat, can't forget about that). Shortly after, I came out of the forest with an equally wide smile and heavy breath as I was chasing after my target. He may have had more stamina, but I had the speed.

When I started to get close to him, I reached my hand out towards his shoulder. Eventually, I was able to touch said shoulder, and when I did we both stopped running and fell down into the bed of flowers from exhaustion, the laughter evident in our voices. When we started to catch our breath, I yelled "You're it again!"

In response, Rowan said with laughter still in his voice "I-I think that's enough for n-now. I'm e-exhausted."

"You're just mad I got you again."

...

We still laid there on the rose bed, taking in the comfort of the rose bed and the calming beauty of the blue mid-day sky. Eventually, I saw Rowan was looking at my neck, so I asked "What?"

"N-nothing, I-it's just, I-I was looking at your b-birthmark."

I remembered the birthmark of a white Gardenias flower on right side of my neck, chuckled, and jokingly asked "Oh, well if your looking at mine, can I look at yours," calling attention to the birthmark of a yellow rose on Rowan's neck, in the exact same place as mine except on the left side of his neck.

Rowan blushed from my joke, but eventually said "Sure." Looking back, I now know we were just making excuses to look at each other, though neither of us realized why the other was doing it back then.

Eventually, Rowan broke the silence by plucking one of the roses from the ground and saying "I've never said this before, but I'm completely obsessed with flowers, especially roses."

"Hey, you didn't stutter at all that time!"

"T-thanks."

Our eyes crossed paths when we looked up from the flower, and we stared into each other's eyes. His green eyes into my blue eyes, and my eyes into his. My heart started to flutter again, like the thousands of times it did when I was with Rowan. I had recently come to terms with how I felt about him, and I was actually thinking about asking him out sometime soon.

Thankfully, I just found something he liked that I could use to help me.

"Speaking of d-doing things for the first time, I think this m-might be the first time you didn't bring the s-swords with you."

"Yeah... I guess you're right."

Why did I do that?

Maybe you're starting to see them as less of a burden and more of a responsibility, the voice suggested.

Maybe.

...

We lay on the bed for another few minutes, though honestly I feel like we could've laid there for the rest of our lives. Eventually, Rowan dropped the rose, sat up, and said "S-sorry, but I just realized we still have work to do."

"Oh, right. I gotta check the gates," I said, reminding myself of what I need to do.

"A-and I gotta check on the farm," Rowan said, doing the same as me, and looking away from me for a moment.

For the split-second Rowan looked away, I grabbed the fallen rose and gently put it into my belt for later. As I picked it up, I thought I saw a figure hidden behind some trees, but before I focused on it it disappeared, so I just chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me.

We both got up and walked in opposite directions from the flower bed, our hearts, bodies and souls getting farther and father away from each other, despite wanting to stay with each other through everything that might happen.

Wanna know the funniest part about all of this? I thought love would be easy to keep. Boy was I wrong.

That moment when a chapter halfway through your story feels like a beginning chapter.