one || flowers

she liked the yellow ones.

michael picked up a small bouquet of yellow daisies on his way to the cemetery. he parked outside and walked in, the wet grass soaking his sneakers. it had stopped raining, but michael could tell he'd be damp when he left.

he saw her tombstone as he trudged up the hill and felt tears prick at his eyes, which annoyed him because he felt like he hadn't been able to stop crying since forever ago.

had she really only been gone a day?

michael spread the flowers over her grave and sat down in front of it, ignoring the wet ground. "that looks much better," he said out loud, half expecting her to answer.

she didn't.

so michael just sat next to her and stared at the blue sky and inhaled the crisp air and felt the wet grass dampen his pants and sneakers. he traced his name into the fresh earth covering her grave, smiled to himself, and then started crying.

he went over to luke's house after that.

"i need another pair of jeans," michael said when luke opened the door.

luke's eyebrow twitched up but he didn't say anything. michael kicked his wet sneakers off, peeled off his socks and followed luke to his room, shivering as his cold feet hit the tiles.

"here." luke handed him a pair of black jeans. "those should fit."

"thanks," michael mumbled, and luke left him alone to change.

as michael tugged the jeans on, he looked at luke's photos. luke reminded him of a girl in that way: he liked to tack photos up on his wall.

he smiled when he saw one of him and luke, both of them grinning widely, chocolate smeared on their faces. luke's ninth birthday.

he froze in the middle of buttoning his jeans when his eyes landed on a photo of luke, michael, and his girlfriend.

he must have been staring a long time, because luke knocked on the door, cleared his voice and asked, "ah, are you okay in there?"

michael finished buttoning his pants and jerked his eyes away from the photo, tears in his eyes. "yeah," he said, kicking himself when his voice broke on the word.

luke opened the door, one arm full of michael's favorite snacks, the other balancing video games. "i dunno, i thought you might want to just hang out," luke mumbled.

michael could have hugged him. "yeah."

and that's why luke was his best friend.

-

muke af.

-h