A/N I had to get this down before I made myself sadder coming up with it

Peggy ran into John's room, practically kicking down the door. She was carrying several blankets and tubs of ice cream, all of which she chucked at him.

"IM HERE I GOT YOUR TEXT WHAT'S WRONG WHO DIED ARE YOU OK WHAT HAPPENED."

"Calm down! And why did you being ice cream and blankets?"

"Your text sounded upset. It literally said 'Peggy, get over here now'. If that isn't what an upset person sounds like, then I don't know what does. I brought them just in case."

She closed the door and sat down on the bed next to him. As she waited for him to start talking, she noticed his hair was down.

"Why do you have your hair down?"

"I just, felt like wearing it down?"

"Lies. I know you well enough to know that you hate wearing your hair down and you wear it pulled back whenever you can."

"....Alright. It, might have something to do, with why I texted you to come over."

She sat there and waited for him to continue, and hopefully explain everything.

"But," he continued, "I'm having second thoughts about telling you."

She flopped onto her back with a frustrated groan.

"Joooooooohn. Please? I'm already over here anyways."

"I, I don't know." He replied, fidgeting with his hands. She laid there for a moment before lunging forward, trying to move his hair. He yelled out and swung his arms up and stopped her before she moved it.

"John! I swear to God if you don't show me what's-"

"What if I don't want to show you? What if texting you to come over was a mistake?"

"Well I'm here, and I'm not leaving anytime soon. So either you show me yourself, or I find out myself." She fired back. "You realize, that whatever it is isn't going to make me hate you in any way."

He sighed and shoved her away. "Fine. But I swear, if you tell anyone-"

"I won't, I promise."

John nodded, before hesitantly reaching up and moving his hair back. Peggy almost fell off of the bed.

There was a flower behind John's ear.

"John, oh my God! This is great!"

"No, it's not!"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

He frantically moved his hair back over his ear. "Do you have any idea who's flower this matches?" He hissed.

Peggy stopped and thought for a moment, thinking back to everyone's flowers. Her eyes widened.

"That's an alstroemeria. Alex's flower."

"EXACTLY! Now do you see why this is a problem?"

"Well, no, not exactly. Everyone I've ever known has been excited about finding a flower."

"You really don't know, do you?"

She shook her head, very confused.

He sighed and leaned his head against the wall.

"I'm sure you remember Francis. Everything was great. He was great. It was one of the happiest times of my life. And you know the story. We argued too much, got into way too many fights, and bam, the romance is dead."

"And then your flower wilted and fell out. But why does that make you so upset to have a new one?"

"You've never had your heart broken before, have you?"

"Well, no but-"

"Try to keep it that way. Because it hurts. Yes, your heart hurts, but the most pain is from the flower. It doesn't just fall off with no feeling. The flower had literally grown from you. Meaning it's attached. So it rips itself out. It hurts, so much. And It falls out so slowly. You feel each little movement as it dies. It leaves a scar, too." He pulled up his shirt to show a small mark on his side.

"When that happened, I never wanted to go through that again. I don't want to make someone go through that either, because what if I do something. What if I cause that person to be in pain, to have that scar. I, I can't put Alex through that." He didn't realize he had started crying until he felt the tears run under his chin. He quickly reached up and wiped then away.

Peggy had her hands over to mouth in shock. This wasn't something everyone talked about. They talked about the beauty of it, yes, but not the pain. Never the pain.

"John, I had no idea." She moved over and hugged him. He hugged back, closing his eyes and trying to block out the world.

"You won't tell anyone, right?"

"Don't worry. This will stay just between you and me."