Coffee Crumbs

Stubborn Petals

Sixth place winner of Poetry to
Prose Contest, written
by Nicoismysenpai

Stubborn Petals

Even as a flower, Ryan was REALLY petty.

He couldn't really be blamed. After all, it was just his luck to have a homophobic witch as a stepmother. Literally. He had confessed to being gay, and BAM! Next thing he knew, he was a rose sulking in her massive garden.

"Come out to your mother, they said. She'll be okay with it, they said. They forgot to mention what to do if your mother has crazy witch powers and experience in turning people into flowers," he grumbled angrily.

Ryan knew no one could hear him except himself, given the fact that he was now a rose. He hated when it rained. He got very wet. He just thanked his lucky stars that he only had to carry out photosynthesis to eat.

Sure, he wanted his human form back. He also wanted revenge on his stepmother, but the most he could do was to curl up his petals and refuse to bloom, slightly spoiling the aesthethics of the other big, colourful flowers in full bloom.

Lucy Terlana was fortunately also very OCD, so naturally one closed up rose in an entire bush of them bothered her a lot.

"If you don't bloom, I'll send the gardener to prune you off!" she screeched, stamping her large feet.

Ryan stubbornly stayed closed. "Should have thought of that before turning me into a rose, bitch," he muttered, his leaves bobbing in the breeze.

Of course she couldn't hear him, but calling his stepmother a bitch felt really good.

♡♡♡

Two weeks after he got cursed, he was contemplating whether it would be possible for flowers to commit suicide, when a new pair of footsteps approached.

Ryan mentally frowned. He had memorised Lucy's footsteps, they were loud and clumsy, obviously from holding her fat bulk. These were more light footed, tapping gently on the cobblestones.

"Great. Terlana has a visitor," he thought. He was expecting maybe one of the members of her knitting club, but instead a young, very blonde man walked down the garden pathway, a pair of shears in one hand.

Ryan immediately started sweating dewdrops. A perfectly hot, muscular guy was going towards him, and he wasn't even able to flirt with the dude.

The man was obviously the gardener. His shears and worn overalls said that much. He was smiling, like he couldn't think of anything better to do than take care of a witch's garden. Of course, he probably didn't know that Lucy Terlana was a witch. Most people didn't.

His teeth were really white, his easygoing grin almost blinding. Ryan was enjoying the way sunlight glinted off his blonde locks when the gardener moved up to him. "Such a shame. This would be such a pretty flower, if only it bloomed. I wonder why Mrs Terlana wanted me to prune it off instead of doing it herself?" he said.

Ryan knew the reason why. Even Lucy wouldn't be cruel enough to murder her stepson, plus she believed that doing so would cause some bad karma. So naturally, her instinct was to trick some poor innocent fool into doing so.