Stolen Flowers
willex week gift exchange
for @enbies-and-felonies , you said you were a sucker for angst so I hope I delivered well.
“Well you’re gonna have to show me.”
“What?”
“Show me the guy that is so amazing that you feel the need to steal my flowers for them.”
“Oh- I- okay. Follow me then.”
OR
In which Willie’s been caught stealing violets and has to find a way to explain why.
Alex and Willie were in their apartment, Willie with his head in Alex’s lap. They were talking about everything and everything, they’d been together for eight months now and yet they both fell in love with each other more and more each day.
“Hey, do you remember the bouquet I gave you on our first date?” Alex asked, running his fingers through Willie’s hair.
“Of course,” Willie smiles to himself, “it was a bouquet of lavender, and peonies, and violets. It was beautiful.”
“Yeah, I didn’t exactly know what flowers to get, I didn’t know your favorites... so I just chose mine,” Alex told him.
“Well, they’re my favorites now too, so I guess you did a good job,” Willie beamed, looking up at his angelic boyfriend.
“I guess I did,” Alex echoed, leaning down to give Willie a kiss.
- - - - -
It was now a sunny Saturday in April, and Flynn is waiting at her living room window. She is determined to find out who it is, who has been stealing their violets. For the past two months, every Saturday morning without fail someone has stolen her some of her prized violets from her garden. She is waiting and watching for about an hour when at 10:34am finally the thief strikes.
Flynn rushes from the window and frantically unlocks the front door, trying to catch the thief before they leave. They swing the door open before yelling and the boy with long hair.
“You! You have been stealing my violets every week! Why? Why can’t you just buy some of your own?” she yells at him.
The boy seemed quite flustered and stunned at the outburst, he hesitated for a second before replying, “They- they’re for my- my boyfriend,” he manages to stammer out.
“Really?” she quirks an eyebrow, “So you’ve been stealing my flowers for a boy?”
“Yea- yes ma’am,” he responds, oddly formal for the girl who’s a few years younger than him.
“Well you’re gonna have to show me.”
“What?” Willie was confused by the demand.
“Show me the guy that is so amazing that you feel the need to steal my flowers for him,” Flynn clarifies.
“Oh- I- okay,” the drop in Willie’s mood is visible, “Follow me then.”
They begin walking down the path and Flynn furrows her eyebrows, wondering where the boy is taking her. The silence between the two is filled with slight tension and awkwardness.
“I’m, uh, I’m Flynn by the way,” she says in an attempt to relieve the awkwardness.
“Nice to meet you, I’m- my name’s Willie,” the boy replies.
But still, there seems to be an atmosphere that Flynn can’t quite put their finger on. They look at where they are, still unsure of where they’re going. She glances at Willie for a second and can see that he’s trying to sum up the courage to say something. She doesn’t push him but can tell that what he wants to say is significant.
Willie ends up looking like a goldfish, opening, and closing his mouth, trying to figure out the best way to tell Flynn where he’s taking them. It appears though that he won’t have to say the words after all as they arrive at their destination.
Flynn’s eyes fill with sorrow and sympathy as they realize where they are. She looks at Willie whose eyes are full of tears and then takes his hand as he guides the, through the rows, finally he stops, and she reads.
‘Alexander Mercer
In loving memory
Died 6th of February 2021
Aged 22 years
Suddenly a flower sweet
Is plucked from the garden at our feet’
“Oh,” Flynn looks to Willie and see the tears streaming down his face, “Oh Willie, I- I’m so- I’m sorry.”
Willie tries to wipe the tears from his cheeks as he speaks, “He- it was two months ago that he died. He always loved violets and uh, I saw them on my first visit to the grave so I- I just took them.”
“And now you keep bringing them to him,” Flynn whispers, “I- is it okay if I ask what happened?”
“Yeah, he um, he was in a band with three other guys. Three of them, him, Reggie and Luke” Willie nods to the graves on either side of Alex’s, “they were uh, they were getting food just before a gig and, well it must’ve been tainted or something because they never showed up.”
Flynn puts a comforting hand on Willie’s back, moving it softly up and down. They see Willie’s eyes lock onto something and she follows his eyes, he’s looking at another boy, the boy has dark hair and dark eyes, he was coming over to them.
“Hi Willie,” the boy says sadly, he then looks to Flynn, “Who’s this?”
“Hi Bobby,” Willie replies, “This is Flynn, she owns the violets that I bring to Alex.”
“Hi,” Flynn waves shyly to Bobby.
“Hi,” Bobby nods to her, he then places the red amaryllises they didn’t realize he was holding onto the grave on Alex’s left, the one with the name Reginald.
They stand in silence looking at the graves when a fourth person walks over, a young girl that Flynn recognized from high school, her name was Julie. Julie placed the purple dahlias on Luke’s grave before looking at the three that were gathered there already.
“Hey guys,” she sighs, then she looks to Flynn, “You’re Flynn, right? You were in my music class in senior year?”
“Yeah, yeah I was,” Flynn confirms, “Guys, I am so, so sorry about what happened. Willie I’m sorry that I snapped at you, I didn’t realize-“
“Flynn, it’s okay. You didn’t know,” Willie shakes his head.
“Are you two ready to go?” Bobby asks the two other mourners and they nod. They begin to leave when Flynn speaks up.
“Wait,” Flynn says, and the three turn around, “Where are you going?”
“We’re going to Kenny’s Diner,” Bobby tells her, “It was the guys’ favorite diner. We meet there after visiting the grave.”
“Okay, well uh, I’m sorry for your loss, all of you,” and with that they went their separate ways.
- - - - -
When Willie passes Flynn’s garden the next week he pauses for a second, debating whether or not he should still take the flowers when he sees a note stuck between them.
‘For Alex’
It reads. Willie smiles slightly before looking to the living room window, there he sees Flynn standing beside a girl with long honey blonde hair and kind russet brown eyes. They both smile sadly to him and Flynn nods her head.
With that he waves to the girls, takes a couple of the violets, and continues on his way to see Alex, and meet with Bobby and Julie.