White Roses Fade to Black

David awoke slowly the next morning, to find a dismal looking Lucie wiping her eyes at the bottom of his bed.

“Sweetie, what is it?” David asked, sitting up as best he could in his condition.

Lucie sniffed and thought about whether she should tell him. Tell him that she’d been talking to some other guy; some guy that had been so sweet and kind to her and not known the real truth to her sadness.

“It’s nothing… I’m fine,” she said.

She moved over to him and curled up next to his warm body. His arms enveloped her close to him, and she sighed.

“Love you,” she whispered.

“Love you, too, Luce,” David smiled.

Lucie looked up and they kissed, causing their hearts to race and their stomachs to back flip, their heads to pound and themselves to be transport them to another world.

The door opened and they pulled slowly apart, not wanting to leave the other, almost for fear of not returning.

“Oh, so this is your, uh… friend?” a hurt looking Freddie asked.

Lucie looked at the floor and felt her heart rip cruelly into two identical and untainted shards. Freddie looked between David and Lucie, feeling broken and beaten. Lucie felt utter remorse, for reasons that she herself didn’t know. David sat there, confused as hell as to why some random dude with a southern accent had just walked into his room.

“Freddie? H-How did you find me?” Lucie asked.

Freddie looked at her, his piercing eyes seemingly looking into her. Lucie felt slightly exposed, naked even, and hugged herself.

“I asked some nurse if there was a Lucie with an IE visiting a friend. She pointed me this way,” he whispered, looking away.

“Why did you wanna find me?” she asked this time.

The small sheet of paper he was considering crumpling into a ball in his hand, hung limply between his fingers, and he held it out.

“I gave a girl who was talking to herself that picture I drew and ended up doing another one,” he said, holding out the paper. “I knew she knew you coz she was saying stuff and it included your name.”

Lucie nodded and took the picture. It was a full body sketch; clothes, feet and everything. She was laughing, and there were no bruises. There was a crown or tiara on her head, and there was a title…

“Princess Lucie?” she whispered to herself.

Freddie closed his eyes and nodded.

“I know I’ve only just met you. It’s stupid. If you don’t like it, just throw it away. I’ll see you around,” he muttered, walking away.

And he left, the door swinging closed behind him. David looked at Lucie, a little hurt that he was in the dark. He tried to hug her, but she shrugged him off. All he wanted to do was help.

“I’m sorry. David. I’m gonna be late for school. I’ll come see you tonight,” she whispered.

She quickly pecked his cheek and pretty much ran out the room. David felt strangely cold and alone. He looked round the room and saw a piece of paper laid on his dresser. He picked it up and looked at it.

It was the drawing that Freddie guy had been talking about. It was good. Really good. David sighed and propped the picture up slightly. He didn’t feel betrayed, or jealous, or even disappointed. He felt… unloved.

*
Freddie sat at the bus stop, waiting for the school but to take him to his unofficial first day of Belleview comp. His twin sister, Bethany, paced - or more like hobbled - about with her crutches, muttering stuff.

“Will you shut the fuck up and stop pacing!? For the love of God!” Freddie yelled.

Bethany did as he’d said and looked at her brother and best friend with watering eyes.

“What in the name of chocolate chip cookies crawled up your ass, Freddie Wicket-Step?” she asked, angrily but quietly.

He just sighed and shook his head. The problem was that he couldn’t get Lucie out of his head. The image of her kissing that guy just haunted him. Yet he couldn’t understand why.

Bethany looked at him quizzically, her eyes almost demanding an answer or explanation for her brothers strange behavior. Freddie sighed again and hung his head.

“I met this girl at the hospital. She was so damn cool. I drew her and let her have the drawing, but I ended up drawing another one. I went to give her it and she was kissing her boyfriend, that she told me was only a friend. I’m so confused, Beth. I have no idea why I’m feeling so bummed out,” Freddie whispered.

Bethany looked at her brother, her eyes filled with sympathy.

“Fred… did you ever stop to think that maybe you might like her?” Bethany asked.

Freddie looked up and his eyes snapped to Bethany’s. her face was serious and her mouth wasn’t twitching, like it usually did when she was joking.

“No I haven’t, but now I do think about it, I guess… I guess I do kinda like her,” Freddie mumbled.

His face turned slightly pink and he felt his ears burn up. His eyes darted back to the floor and fidgeted with his fingers; Bethany knew there was something more to it than this.

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? I mean, what’s the problem?” Bethany asked, putting a hand on her brothers shoulder and leaning her crutches up against the wall.

“I… I walked in on her kissing her boyfriend, Beth! What’s the point? They looked really happy. I’m not gonna be like that with her!” Freddie cried.

He buried his head in his hands and sighed for a third time. Poor Bethany just patted his back as the bus pulled up. Freddie looked up and stood up, holding out his hand to help Bethany onto the bus. They paid their fare and set off for school.

*
The pen twirled in his hands and the notebook sat, open and empty, on his pants covered lap. Ideas circled his head, but he couldn’t get them down on the paper. Calum’s essay was due in an hour: an essay about instruments and tempo, and how they were important in music.

“Maybe you should call in sick,” said a voice from behind him.

Calum jumped and turned round, to see Lesley leaning on the doorframe. She had her arms folded and was smiling - or more like grinning - slightly, an eyebrow raised a little.

“Or I could rush it, get found out and fail. Well, there us one more option,” Calum grinned, finally regaining control of his facial muscles.

Lesley raised her eyebrow more, and it almost disappeared into her golden brown locks.

“Oh?” was all she said, that dazzling smile growing wider and more mischievous.

“You could help me,” he said.

He laughed at own suggestion and threw his pen and paper to the ground. Calum was sick of school and homework. He was sick of trying to bury his thoughts and feelings, by keeping busy.

“You going to school? Coz I’m not,” he grinned.

Lesley grinned back and shrugged. She’d not long returned to school, after her week of taking a holiday; she’d definitely deserved a break. She’d got the color back in her face and her eyes were slightly brighter. And Calum had noticed.

“Might as well. We’re not doing anything big today, and I’ve done most of the revision that I needed to do,” Lesley answered.

Calum’s heart started to pound faster. He was going to be spending the whole day, ditching school, with the girl of his dreams. Alone…

“Okay, cool. So what do you wanna do?” Calum asked her.

Lesley shrugged once more. Her own heart started to race as she realized she would be spending the day with Calum. Millions of possibilities ran through her head. Movies? Dinner?

“Uhm, how about we go to the movies? You know, catch that new horror, which name I can’t remember,” she said, a slight giggle to her voice.

Calum giggled with her and nodded. A horror movie, with Lesley. In the dark. Again, alone.

“Yeah, sure. Come on then,” Calum grinned.

His voice came out unusually high, and Lesley raised an eyebrow questioningly. Calum shrugged it off with a cheeky grin and stood up, pulling on his Chuck’s and tugging his arm into his black MCR hoody.

Lesley just giggled and slipped on her loose black vans, not bothering with the dark, hot pink laces. She gently pulled on her denim jacket, making sure the MCR ‘Revenge’ logo was in the right place in the center of her back.

“You look… nice,” Calum smiled.

Lesley’s eyebrow rose almost into her hair again.

“Nice? A little… pansy, don’t you think?” Lesley grinned.

She was instantly reminded of that period where Lucie kept going on about Frank Iero and his guitar, Pansy. Every time someone mentioned the word ‘pansy’, Lucie would mutter R.I.P and stick her tongue out at the side, in some slightly insane manor. Lesley giggled just thinking about it.

Calum blushed and looked at the floor, a cheeky smile growing on his face, as he led the way out his front door.