WARNING: This story contains blood and Hanahaki disease, which is a fictional disease that stems from unrequited love. Mainly the victim coughes up flowers. If left too long, The disease often results in death.
Here's the story:
He just had to make it to the bathroom.
He just had to make it to the bathroom.
He just had to make it-
He couldn't. Jared leaned over the side of the hallway trash can and coughed, feeling the petals and prickly thorns coming out of his throat.
His flowers were a sickening red of course. Why wouldn't they be the color of love?
Jared wiped the saliva from his chin and glanced around to make sure no one saw him. Besides the security camera, he thought he was all good. He wasn't too worried, the school never checks those anyway.
Jared slowly began to head back to class, his stomach still upset and threatening to make him sick again at any second.
Pushing open the door to his history class, he was met with the stares of classmates. Although he knew they had no way of knowing what he had just done, it felt like they were judging him.
He slumped into his seat in the back of the classroom, right where he could see Connor Murphy.
Jared couldn't tell if he loved or hated Connor at this point. Sure, Connor was the reason he was throwing up flowers, but he was the reason he was throwing up flowers.
Just watching him made Jared feel the slight tickle of leaves in his throat.
Jared awkwardly coughed into his arm, earning some odd glances from his classmates.
Ugh, the leaves were the worst. They stayed until he threw up again.
The bell rang and Jared gathered his things, heading out of the classroom when he felt a hand on his shoulder jerk him backwards.
Jared turned around to tell the person off when he was met with none other than the harsh stare of Connor Murphy.
"Oh, I-" Jared squeaked, his throat too clogged with flowers to speak.
"Here, I want to talk to you." Connor mumbled, taking a hold of Jared's wrist and leading him out of the classroom. Jared stumbled along behind him, desperately trying to keep up with Connor's wide strides.
Finally, Connor had lead him to a secluded part in the school library, the children's section.
Why did they have a children's section in a high school library? It just seemed like a poor decision to Jared.
"Jared, do you have Hanahaki?" Connor demanded, staring intently at Jared.
Jared quickly swallowed the flowers that were wanting to come up and shook his head, "No way, what makes you think that?"
"You left class awful quickly and you looked ill." Connor frowned, leaning against a bookshelf.
"Y'know, sometimes you just really gotta piss." Jared lied, feeling a thorn jab the inside of his throat. He winced and had a coughing fit.
"Really?" Connor raised an eyebrow.
"Just swallowed some spit." Jared coughed, clutching at his throat.
"Jared-" Connor began but he was cut off by the sight of dozens of flowers falling from Jared's open mouth to the floor.
Connor noticed the roses weren't just red, but had blood dripping off of them. Glancing back up at Jared, Connor noticed that just as much blood as flowers were coming from Jared's mouth as he continued to cough.
After a minute, the flowers stopped and Jared was left on his knees dry-heaving.
"For who?" Connor asked, watching as Jared pulled one final leaf from his mouth.
"Nobody." Jared said firmly, trying to gather up his flowers so he could throw them away.
"Jared, you're going to kill yourself if you keep this up." Connor sighed, leaning down and helping him gather the flowers. "If you just told the person, they might feel the same. Even if they don't you can get the surgery and you'd feel better-"
"It's you!" Jared panted, more blood mixed with a couple thorns spilling out of his mouth as he spoke. It ran down his chin and stained his light green Minecraft shirt.
"Me?" Connor pulled back, the flowers falling back to the floor where Jared gently picked them up, handling them carefully.
Jared felt his throat tighten as a fresh wave of flowers tried to make their way up to his mouth. He didn't dare look at Connor, now he knew how the boy felt.
Just as the first petal touched his tongue, Jared felt the roses disappear. Confused, Jared grabbed at his throat and looked up at Connor, who was staring at him with frightened eyes.
"It's gone?" Jared said simply. It wasn't a question, yet it wasn't a statement either. It was just there, and it clung in the air as the two stared at each other silently for a couple of moments.
Connor bent down so he was eye level with Jared. "I dunno, let's see." He asked gently, leaning in and kissing Jared.
It was everything Jared had ever hoped it would be. Cupping Connor's face and pulling him closer, Jared felt better than he had in months. He pulled away for a second, staring into Connor's eyes.
"I love you." Jared said before feeling flowers crawl up his throat again.