A Single Daffodil

“This seriously feels like we’re going away to summer camp.” Jayden had to raise his voice in order for me to hear him over the chaos behind us. “Except we’re the camp leaders, and the basketball team are the uncontrollable children.”

I chuckled as I nodded my head in agreement. In the back, the basketball team started clapping and chanting, “Everyday we’re hustlin’! Everyday we’re hustlin’!” Lebron James and Chris Bosh were the loudest.

The second we touched down at Heathrow Airport, everything turned into one chaotic blur. Turns out the media found out what time we were landing and since the paparazzi would do just about anything for a picture in exchange for a buck fifty, we were bombarded by flashes when we entered the terminal. The attention was so bad that the airport security had to radio in backup.

I made sure to stay in the very back when the camera flashes went off and the phones were pointed in our direction upon arrival. I pulled my sunglasses over my eyes and kept my head down as I calmly followed my dad, Sophia, Jayden and the rest of the USA basketball team through Customs and Baggage Claim.

I understood that people were just getting excited for the Olympics and that it was a big deal that Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose would be playing on the same team together for the first time in NBA history. And I was aware that we lived in a very technologically-driven world, where people needed to take pictures with their cameras and their iPhones so they could share the pictures on every social media website possible. But I didn’t want to be photographed. The last thing I needed was a paparazzi or onlooker recognizing me as Vita Spoelstra: Harry Style’s ex-girlfriend. I didn’t want my name to end up in any of the tabloids this summer. I didn’t need the rumors to start. I was here to relax. I was here to support the team. I was here to heal.

Once we got everyone through U.S/U.K Customs, we were immediately escorted away from Baggage Claim and straight to a parking lot that was strictly sectioned off for Olympian Participants. There was a fleet of over two hundred buses waiting for us, labeled with every country flag. As we boarded the USA bus, I managed to catch a glimpse of the Russian Gymnastics team getting on their own bus as well as the United Arab Emirates athletes arriving at their bus. It hit me then just how lucky I was to be in this position.

My dad called order to the bus once the last couple of bags were loaded underneath and the bus door was closed shut. He gripped onto the back of my chair when the bus jerked forward. We were pulling out of the parking spot and leaving the airport.

“Alright, alright. Hey! Settle down. I just want to keep everyone in the loop about what’s happening today. We’re headed to the Langham hotel now to check into our rooms. You’ll have a chance to take a shower, freshen up, take a nap, whatever. I don’t care as long as you’re dressed and ready for dinner by 5:30 pm sharp. That goes for you three too.” My dad stepped back to point at me, Jayden and Sophia before looking back at the team. “The hotel has been gracious enough to offer us a welcome reception in their main hall. Not only will we be there, but the rest of the USA athletes will be too, so don’t embarrass me.”

“We won’t embarrass you, coach!” Chris Bosh shouted from the back. “Shit, we’ll make you look damn good!”

A couple of the other teammates called out in agreement and even clapped.

“Okay, okay.” My dad laughed, bringing the attention back to him. “Consider today your only day off. Come six am tomorrow, we’re meeting in the gym and we’ll be working harder then you ever have before. This isn’t the NBA anymore, fellas. This is the Olympics. We’re going to work hard to play hard and we only have a week to get it together before the Opening Ceremony.”

“Here, here!” Kobe Bryant exclaimed two rows behind me and Jayden. “Let’s show the world what we’re made of, boys! U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Jayden and I shared a look before shaking our heads. Uncontrollable children indeed.

I tried to hide the scowl on my face when my dad gave my shoulder a squeeze before he returned to his seat. I had every reason to never talk to my father again. I could never forgive him for what he did to Grandpa Gene. I was so mad at him that I could barely look him the eye any longer than a minute. I resented him for abandoning me. I hated that he cared more about his career than his own father and, well, me.

But for now, that battle would be pushed aside. There was no use in causing hell while we were here. For now, I will be civil and speak when spoken to. Thankfully, I wasn’t going to see much of him for the next two months. He was going to be too busy with everything else going on.

Thankfully, I’ll have Sophia and Jayden to keep me company. I can’t believe how lucky I was to have best friends like them. Nowadays, it felt like they were the only two people in this entire world I could rely on.

“Hey, Vita. Check it out.” Jayden jerked his chin towards the window. “We’re about to drive over the London Bridge.”

I leaned into Jayden’s shoulder to get a better look out the window. My mouth parted slightly as I watched the heart of the city come into view. The weather was pretty gloomy with it’s grey overcast but wow, was it beautiful. Everything about London was so different from Miami. The architecture was more complicated, tall and eroded with historical meaning. Palm trees were replaced by apple and holly trees. Miami Beach in exchange for the River Thames. Even the people looked different! I was visiting an entirely new world.

“And look!” Sophia said from across the aisle. “The Olympic rings!”

Everyone on the bus was now leaning into the windows and looking up. Hanging from the two towers were the five iconic Olympian rings, interlocked together proudly. Things on the bus sort of settled down after the drive over the bridge. I think it finally hit everyone that we were no longer home. We were thousands of miles away from home.

For the first time in what felt like forever, I felt something other than mournful contrite.

It was optimism.



The President of the United States and the First Lady were sitting fifteen rows behind me at the Opening Ceremony.

“Do you think if I asked the Secret Service nicely, I could take a selfie with Obama!?” Sophia leaned in so she could whisper to me and Jayden. Of course, Sophia whispering just meant she was speaking in her indoor voice.

“No, Sophia.” I rolled my eyes, although I was freaking out about him being here too. “The ceremony is about to start any minute now.”

“Man, I’m really excited about this.” Jayden anxiously rocked back and forth in his chair as he looked over the grassy field, searching for any type of sign that the whole shebang would begin. “I can’t believe we’re here. I heard The Rolling Stones were going to perform.”

“And the Spice Girls! Aye, mami. Can you imagine!?” Sophia clapped her hands excitedly. “We were obsessed with them when we were little!”

“Any chance they’re serving hotdogs here?” Jayden asked, peering behind him. He quickly turned back in his seat. “Oh my God. Never mind. I just made eye contact with the First Lady.”

It was safe to say Jayden and Sophia were giddy about the whole affair and I was right there with them. Spending the last week in London was nothing short of amazing. Who knew a place like this existed over the pond? I mean, yeah, I’ve seen Spice World and I’ve seen Bridget Jone’s Diary and What A Girl Wants, but those A+ cinematic masterpieces didn’t exactly warn me about how good the fish n’ chips tasted or how lovely the people were. London was magical, and we couldn’t stop exploring it. Every day was a new adventure for us. While the team trained, Jayden, Sophia and myself visited Buckingham Palace, rode the London Eye, walked through the halls of the British Museum, drank ourselves silly in musty old pubs, got lost in the London Underground, raced each other across the wide lawns of Hyde Park. We were having the time of our lives.

London, for me, was a successful rescue mission. I was so busy taking in this beautiful city, that I didn’t have time to get lost in the dispirited thoughts of missing Grandpa Gene. I was starting to smile more, laugh louder than I have in the past couple of months. I could feel my old self slowly climbing out of the pit of darkness.

The lights in the Olympic Park finally started to dim, and the ceremony was about to begin. Jayden was practically falling off the edge of his seat with excitement. I’ve never seen him show this much emotion about anything, not even motocross.

“Oh shit. Oh shit! I feel like we’re watching The Hunger Games.” Jayden’s eyes moved quickly over the arena, trying to take it all in at once. “What if someone literally just said ‘Sike, you all have to kill each other. May the odds be ever in your favor!’ I would pay good money to see that go down, are you kidding me?”

I had to laugh loudly at that one. “Jayden? I love you.”

Because we were sitting in the American VIP section (maybe it should be called the VFIP section, as in ‘Very Fucking Important People, because let’s be honest, Barack Obama and the First Lady weren’t just important; they were the American version of Royalty.), we were practically right in the damn front of the field. My dad’s advisers insisted the three of us dressed up for the occasion, because tonight was a big deal. We--no actually, Sophia--happily obliged because that meant we got to spend the better part of our morning visiting expensive stores on Oxford Street and getting pampered at the hotel spa.

And now I was here, sitting patiently in my new black Stella McCartney dress and sparkly stiletto heels. And the President of the United States was sitting behind me.

(Sorry. I just couldn’t get over it. The President!)

The Opening Ceremony was everything I expected it to be. Tons of theatrics, incredible lights show, an appearance from the Queen (and Daniel Craig as James Bond?), fireworks here and there and the occasionally dancing and singing child. We were already an hour in and I could feel myself growing tired. The whole olympic ritual was suppose to go on for another three hours. What else could they possible have in store for us?

I sat back in my seat and sighed as I watched the Olympic Rings hover over the brightly lit field. I was trying to imagine what the basketball team were doing right now behind the scenes. They were probably getting into their American-styled uniforms, along with the rest of the American athletes that were attending. I felt myself smiling when I remembered how disgusted Kobe Bryant and Lebron were when they found out they had to wear blue burets with their suits. I wonder if my dad had to wear it too? They weren’t even going to walk out onto the field for another two hours. Was it possible to sneak in a nap before then? I was still feeling the affects of jet lag.

Finally the segment about Britain’s history ended, and all the actors and actresses were running off the field in different directions. The arena erupted into loud, booming cheers while the lighting on the field dimmed and changed to different colors. While Sophia and Jayden stood and clapped along with the crowds, I sat down and rested my chin on my propped up hand. I needed coffee. Or beer.

Suddenly, there was a real shift in the music that was resonated within the arena. Gone were the classical symphonies of Beethoven. Now, there was a loud pop-sounding beat that complimented the flashing lights perfectly.

I sat up straight and peered past Sophia’s figure to get a better look at the field. The beginning beats of the song sounded familiar. Very, very familiar. But for some reason, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

And just as a ton of people dressed in bright red and blue colors started skipping out onto the field, clapping their hands high above their heads to the beat, Sophia and Jayden instantaneously stopped cheering along with the crowds.

“Oh no.” Sophia breathed, slowly sitting back down in her seat. Jayden copied her move exactly.

I raised an eyebrow, looking out at the field and then back at Sophia. “What’s--”

I stopped when I heard it.

“Baby you light up my world like nobody else! The way you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed! The way you smile at the ground, it ain’t hard to tell! You don’t know-oh oh! You don’t know you’re beautiful!”

I stopped breathing. It wasn’t real. I was imagining it. It was just the audio track for the dancers.

I slowly turned in my seat, fearful of what I would see. A massive lori truck had pulled onto the field, slowing down right in front of the section we were sitting in. My eyes did not deceive me. There, standing on a stage connected to the truck, were five guys standing behind microphones, singing their hit single.

Harry Styles was standing in the middle, his eyes staring right into the American VIP section.

Oh my God.



“Well I for one, did not see that coming.” Jayden played with his black skinny tie as he leaned against the tiled bathroom wall.

“I’m so angry, I could scream!” Sophia said, although she was kind of already screaming. “Do you think they saw us? Ugh, nobody said anything about One Direction performing tonight!”

Jayden, Sophia and I were tucked away in a bathroom somewhere inside the arena. The loud cheering from the stands outside were still audible from where we stood but much more muffled with the layers of walls standing in between us.

You see, the second I saw Harry Styles and the rest of his band performing right in front of us, I panicked. Every type of human emotion that ever existed hit me like a ton of bricks. My lungs stopped functioning and my heart was beating faster than a Hummingbird’s wings. I legitimately thought I was having a seizure judging by how my knees started trembling and my hands shook.

So I stood up and ran away.

I didn’t know where I was going at first. I didn’t have a plan. Christ, how would I even have a plan? I wasn’t expecting to see Harry Styles tonight. This was the Olympics, not a damn music festival. Why did his band have to perform? Like, out of all the notorious British bands in the world, the Olympics had to pick One Direction?

Of course they had to pick One Direction. They were the biggest band in the world. Their fan base has almost tripled in size within the past year. I was being unreasonable. I just needed to calm down.

“You guys don’t have to do that.” I finally said, after drying off my face. Thank God for Sophia’s waterproof mascara, because there was no way regular mascara would have survived the amount of cold water I just splashed on my face. It helped me calm down considerably.

“Do what?” Jayden’s eyebrow raised curiously. Sophia handed me another paper towel.

“Pretend that you hate them.” I answered. “They were your friends too. You can’t tell me you guys weren’t even a little bit stoked to see Liam and Niall up there.”

Sophia and Jayden both stayed silent.

I offered them a smile. “Look, I’ll be okay. I just wasn’t expecting it, which is pretty stupid now that I think about it. Why wouldn’t they be here, you know?”

“Yeah, but--” Sophia started, but I quickly cut her off.

“I’m fine. I promise.” I tried to reassure both of them. I pulled my hair back from my face and wiped at the tiny mascara smudges at my eyes. “It’s been a year since...you know. I’m over it.”

I forced a smile, hoping it was enough to stop the worried expressions on Jayden and Sophia’s faces. It wasn’t completely untrue.

“You can’t blame us for worrying a little bit, chicka.” Sophia pouted at me. “You’ve been through a lot this year.”

I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I didn’t want to think about the past year. “I know. You guys are just looking out for me and I’m really grateful for you both. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”

“Hate to break it to ya, chump, but you’re gonna be stuck with us for the rest of your life.” Jayden smirked at me.

“Mi familia!” Sophia added with a grin before dragging Jayden and I into a tight hug. We both immediately groaned.

When we pulled apart, Jayden smiled. “How about we get back out there? They’re starting to introduce all the countries.”

“Aye, I can’t wait to see the Brazilian team!” Sophia fixed her hair in the mirror. “The swimming team are just...oof! Hubba, hubba, no?”

“I think I’m gonna head back to the hotel, actually.” I said, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly. “I’m feeling pretty tired.”

“What!” Sophia exclaimed immediately. “We’ll come with you then.”

“No, no. You two stay. Someone needs to finish watching the ceremony and I bet there will be an epic after party when it’s over.” I responded. “Besides, I want to go alone. I’m so exhausted.”

Jayden and Sophia shared a worried look, clearly uneasy about me going off by myself.

“I’ll be fine.” I reassured them for the twentieth time. “I’m just going to take a cab back to the hotel and sleep. Nothing is going to happen.”

“Well, alright.” Sophia reluctantly agreed. “But text us when you get back to the room.”

After promising I would text both of them, we walked out into the hallway and parted ways. Truthfully, I was dying to get out of here. I felt like I was suffocating and I wouldn’t be able to breathe until I was as far away from this place as I could get. If I weren’t wearing these expensive high heels, I would be sprinting out of this place.

Luckily, there were a couple of black taxi cabs parked around the front when I pushed open the glass doors to the front.

“Where to, miss?” The driver asked as I carefully scooted myself into the backseat of his cab.

“Langham hotel, please.” I answered politely.

I had every intention of just going back to the hotel and hiding under the duvets of my bed for the remainder of the evening. I just wanted to disappear for a while. But when the taxi cab turned a corner and headed towards Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, I had a much better idea in mind.

“Can you actually pull over here?” I heard myself suddenly ask the driver. “I feel like walking.”

“Are you sure, Miss?” The driver put on his blinker and slowed down next to the pedestrian walk towards the Bridge. “The hotel is another mile or so away.”

“That’s fine.” I smiled, handing him the notes from my wallet. “Thank you so much. Have a good night!”

The night air was cool against my face as I wandered over to the palisade of the bridge. Summer nights in London were beautiful compared to Miami’s summer nights. The air felt lighter and much cooler. If the temperature were to drop a couple of degrees, I would have needed a jacket.

I crossed my arms across my chest and tucked my cold hands underneath my arms as I sauntered slowly down the sidewalk. Out of all the places I’ve visited so far in London, this area was by far my favorite. Especially at night. There was something so innocent and whimsical about how the antique-looking street lights illuminated the walk and how Big Ben’s face gleamed like a moon above. London at night was pure magic. There was no other way to describe it.

I slowed down and stopped in the middle of the Bridge to take in the alluring scenery around me. I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly, easily blocking out the traffic zooming past me and the English-accented conversations that were held between pedestrians.

This was the first time I’ve been able to be by myself. Just truly alone. I realized that ever since Grandpa Gene passed away, I was never left alone. Jayden and Sophia practically moved into my place after he died and even Ronnie and Maggie from work always came over with flowers and to check in on me. I always felt somewhat relieved when people were around me because that meant I couldn’t be alone with my thoughts. Being alone with my thoughts was just outright dangerous.

But here I was. Finally alone.

And I think I was okay. It was actually hard to say. Maybe I just couldn’t feel anything anymore. I lost so many things that were close to my heart in the past year, that I think my heart just kind of built up this new, powerfully built protection barrier around it. No one was allowed to get close to it again. It didn’t want to be vulnerable anymore. Shit, I didn’t want to be vulnerable anymore.

I’ll tell you what though, seeing Harry Styles in the flesh made me feel much more than just vulnerable. I felt completely exposed.

I’ve seen pictures of him over the months, I’ve heard rumors about his relationships, I’ve “accidentally” stumbled across a couple of articles about him online. But nothing came close to seeing him in person. He looked so different. He was an entirely different person out there tonight. His hair was styled differently, he looked taller and more confident then he did a year ago. He was a new person.

I stared up at Big Ben’s clock and sighed. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about Harry a lot recently. I barely thought about him when Grandpa Gene got sick, obviously, but I felt myself missing him when I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night or when I would get frozen yogurt with Sophia and Jayden. And I hated myself so much for it. I thought I was stronger than that. I wanted to make myself move on from him forever. I wanted to hate him so much for moving on without me. He made it look so easy, you know. Forgetting me. He must have dated about 100 girls after he left Miami and here I was, still single, still thinking about how lovely his green eyes were and the little twitch his cute dumb nose would make when he was thinking about something clever to say.

My mouth twisted into a frown. I needed to stop.

“Excuse me?” I heard a young female voice ask behind me. I ignored it, assuming it wasn’t directed at me. But the she repeated herself. “Excuse me?”

I turned around to see three young girls standing behind me, huddled together as they looked up at me with curiosity. I raised an eyebrow with confusion. Maybe they were lost?

“Oh my God, I knew it!” The girl with red hair exclaimed with excitement when we made eye contact. She was covered in freckles. “You’re Vita Spoelstra, aren’t you!? You dated Harry from One Direction!”

Oh boy.

“You’re so much prettier in person.” The second girl in thick rimmed glasses shyly added. “We love you!”

“Oh, wow. Thank you!” I plastered a smile on my face. “You girls are so sweet.”

This has only happened to me a couple of times since Harry and I dated, but I could never get used to it. I never knew what to say to One Direction fans when they spotted me out and about.

“Can we take a picture with you!?” The first girl asked excitedly. “It would mean the world to us!”

It was impossible to say no to their sweet hopeful faces so I reluctantly agreed. “Sure!”

The second I said goodbye to the three girls, I walked to the nearest convenience store and purchased a can of cheap beer and a box of brown hair dye.

It was time to go incognito.