The Secret Garden (GirlxGirl)

Red Rose

"So this is where you met her huh?" Glen asks as he takes a seat next to me on the bench.

"How did you-"

"I just had a feeling." He tells me, without looking at me.

"Yeah." I reply softly, answering his earlier question. "She was sitting right where you're sitting." I tell him and I can see a small smile playing at his lips.

He turns and looks at me and I know he's been crying. "Is she here now?" He asks in a low voice.

"No." I shake my head. "I haven't seen her and few weeks." I tell him and he purses his lips and nods.

"Is she..." He trails off and looks at me.

"I don't know." I tell him, knowing what he was asking.

"Ashley." He says my name and drops his head.

"Yeah?" I ask, looking off into the distance.

"In five days-"

"I know." I cut him off. "I'm gonna figure it out, Glen." I tell him with confidence in my voice. "I'm not gonna let them do this." I assure him.

"I..." He starts, looking up at me. "I'm rooting for you." Is all he says before standing up and exiting the Garden.

Five days...

–

"Dad can I ask you something?" I turn to my dad and ask.

"Of course, Ashley." He says turning to me, placing the red tulip he was holding down.

"How did you know that you were in love with mom?" I ask and his eyes go wide a bit.

"Ashley do you-"

"No." I cut him off with a smile. "I'm just asking." I assure him.

"Whew." He says wiping the fake sweat off his forehead. "I'm not ready to have that talk with you." He says as we sit down on the bench.

"Dad, I'm fourteen I already know. Plus mom beat you to it anyways...like five years ago." I tell him and he nods and smiles.

"Good to know."

"So you gonna tell me how you knew when you loved mom?" I ask him.

"Oh, right." He says, getting back up and grabbing a red rose and coming to sit back down next to me. "Well, I was sixteen and she was fifteen, I was a sophomore and she was a freshman. I'd never dated anyone prior to your mother. I wasn't really popular, believe it or not." He says and smiles at me, and I bump his shoulder with mine.

"Hard to believe." I tell him genuinely.

"I was walking her home one day after school, we'd been going out for maybe only two months...three at the most. But on the walk home I saw a rose blooming in her neighbors yard and back then I was just as much into flowers as I am now. I've always known that I would be a botanist." He says and shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm getting off track."

"It's okay." I tell him with a smile.

"The rose was blooming and it was one of the most beautiful roses that I'd ever seen." He says and smiles like he's replaying the moment in his head. "I guess your mother could tell what I was thinking because she released my hand and ran over to her neighbor's yard and picked that rose right out the ground and walked back over to me. 'You want this?' She asked me with a smile. But I was dumbfounded. Who just goes into someone's yard and pulls something from their garden? 'Christine Mr. Brooks is going to kill you.' I told her and she just shrugged. 'You looked like you wanted it, so I went and got it for you.' She told me without an ounce of fear in her voice." He stops and looks down at me. "You look just like her at that age." He says and hands me the rose he was holding.

"What happened next?" I ask, completely enthralled in the story.

"I took the rose from her and finished walking her home. When we got to her doorstep I told her she didn't have to go and get the rose for me and she told me that she knew that, she just wanted to. After that I leaned forward and kissed her. And when our lips touched I knew... it wasn't our first kiss, but it was the first kiss that mattered." He finishes with a thoughtful look.

"That's beautiful, dad." I tell him and he looks down at me again.

"I've never loved anyone apart from your mother." He says.

"Except me." I counter.

"Including you." He corrects me with a smile.

–

"Ashley I think that we should talk about this." Spencer says as I get up to leave the Garden.

"I don't think there's anything to talk about." I tell her, stopping but not turning around.

"I know you think you do, but you don't." She says and I can hear the pain in her voice the longing.

"Don't tell me what I feel." Is my reply.

"Ashley." She says and I know she's directly behind me now. I can feel her breath on my neck.

"Did that night mean nothing to you?" I ask, desperation seeping from my words. I need her to tell me that it did. I need her to have felt what I felt that night.

"It meant everything." She assures me.

"Then why-"

"Because this isn't right...you shouldn't have to do this." She stops and sighs. I know this hurts her as much as it's hurting me. I don't know why she won't stop being so stubborn about it.

"Please, Spencer, say it back." I beg her.

"I can't." She replies.

I turn around and face her. Tears now spilling from my eyes. "But you feel it too."

"Yes." She whispers.

"Then just say it." I tell her again.

"No." She replies, again in a whisper.

"Then I can't be here." I say and turn to leave.

That night, a week ago meant everything to me.

It was the best night of my life.

I don't understand why Spencer won't acknowledge that she's feeling the same thing as me.

I stop for a moment when I hear Spencer call after me, but I shake my head and continue to walk away. Not daring to turn around. I know the pull her eyes have.

If she couldn't tell me she loved me back...then I couldn't be here...