Letters

As the summer passed by, Katelynn's questions about her mother were becoming more frequent. The first time was with Copeland's princess dress. It was the first time ever she asked about a mother. The second was when she ran away. she loved doing that. Alan would run after her, trying to know where she was, worried, and he would try to be mad at her just for her to understand. It didn't worked at all. Usually, he would catch her pretty quickly. But not this time. This time she ran away, and was knocked down, her front meeting unknown legs, as she was looking behind her.

Two still unknown arms caught her, and pulled her off of the ground.

The guy, covered in tattoos, had his clear hair in a mohawk. Katelynn stared, admiring his hair. She had never seen something like that.

"Hey baby girl." He smiled to her. "You no afraid?" He asked rising an eyebrow. He was used to babies fearing him, with all the tattoos and the hair. But the small redhead girl didn't fear him at all.

"Pwetty hair!" She clapped her hands.

He laughed, not quite expecting this reaction. "Where's your mommy? She's probably searching for you."

"My mommy?" She asked, frowning.

He frowned in answer. "Yes, your -"

"KATELYNN!"

The grown up turned to the source of the yell, while the redhead hide her face behind her hand. In the way kids did to hide, while they werent hidden at all.

"Jesus, Kat!" Alan, who had came running as soon as he saw her, swore. "Stop running away, you scared me!"

"I caught her running." Her savior smiled.

"Thanks Kells." Alan smiled. "And Katelynn, no need to hide I know you're here." He was trying very hard to be angry at her, because doing that was really bad. But the cuteness was stopping him. He could only smile, and curse internally at how much she had him wrapped around her finger. "Come here." He signed taking her back in his arms. "It was really bad, you understand?"

"Daddy, where's my mommy?"

Alan froze. He felt like his legs couldn't take both their weights. His lips were shaking as he asked. "W-what?"

She half turned to Kells, who had saved her, pointing at him. "He asked where mommy was." She said as if it was nothing.

"Oh shit, sorry" Kells instantly apologized, understanding the mistake he made. He didn't knew she was Alan's daughter, but he knew about her, and about her mom. He was a close friend of Austin, and so him and Zoey had met once or twice. Plus, being himself a father, he understood the problem very well.

"It's complicated, okay?" Alan said, looking at her. "I'll explain when you'll be older."

She didn't asked again, after that. It didn't mean much to her, for now. But Alan knew that one day, it would. He knew one day he would have to take her to the cemetery and show her. He was trying to think of the best way to tell her. Or not, just the less horrible. But how could he tell something like that? She was such a nice little girl, he didn't want to see her sad, never. He couldn't lie... But at least he could wait a couple of years.

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A few months later

She walked inside of the club, Luna next to her. They were there to celebrate Luna's new job. And because a Friday night had to be a club night.

It had been a long day at work. Not many customers came, so she had been bored all day. She wasn't in love with her job. She hated that the most selling she did, were for deceased people. She wished she could have a better job, but at least she had one.

Luna and herself walked to the bar. Let's not start too strong, and ordered too beers.

The party was doing good, when a an hour later, more alcohol in their body, they went ordering new drinks, and a guy came to Luna.

"Hey baby, having a good night?"

The guy was drunk. He was nice to the eye, as she liked to say. But at this intant, he was more drunk than cute. And he was probably annoying, in search of a stupid girl, who would agree to come home with him.

"Yeah" Luna answered, not at ease. Her friend rolled her eyes. That's not the way to get him off of you, Luna!

"You know, I can make it a hundred time better." He winked.

Luna was uncomfortable, she never knew what to do. She was pretty shy with new people, and didn't liked talking with them. "N-no, I'll be okay."

"Come on! I'm great, and you're so hot!"

"She said no." Her friend said, turning to the drunk guy.

"A feisty one... You can come with us, I can't wait to have the two of you over me."

"Didn't you hear the girls? They said no, so now go away." A strong voice said from the side. They all turned, to see a ginger guy, tattoos on his arms, hands, and neck. The girl stared at him, in shock, while Luna smiled sweetly at him.

The drunk guy grumbled and walked away.

"Thank you so much." Luna said to her savior, a shy smile on her lips. The guy nodded to her, and observed the other girl. She had light auburn almost ginger hair, that was falling underneath her shoulders. She was wearing red almond shaped glasses, and she had a few piercings: Her right nostril, and the left side of her bottom lip. Her hair were covering her ears, so he couldn't see the her left ear stretched to one centimeter. Her eyes were bright blue, and she had light make up on them. She was staring back, and he knew he had already met her. Was she a fan? Maybe. That would explain why she was staring.

"That was nothing." He answered the shy girl. "He was bothering everyone." And it hit him. "You're the girl at the flower shop!" He shouted, his eyes wide.

The girl nodded, glad to know he remembered her. She had instantly recognized him, and was surprised to see him here. He was her favorite customer. Yes, he was always nice to her, but that wasn't the reason. He was her favorite customer because of how different he was. He came there a lot, and tried never to buy the same flowers. Except for daisies. He brought those a lot. He never asked for a card, or for a name on them. Just the flowers. He was mysterious. And she liked imaging for whom the flowers were. For his wife? For his deceased mother? For a girl he wanted to seduce? Or was he just some weird flower-loving-guy? She didn't know, but she liked trying to know.

"Yes I am." She sweetly smiled.

"You know each other from work?" Luna asked, rising her eyebrow.

The ginger's eyes changed. His face closed. Something was going on, but none of the girl knew what or why.

"Yeah, I come from time to time at the shop." His voice was darker than what the flower girl remembered.

"That's nice meeting you outside of work." She smiled.

"Yeah, sure, even if this place's not the best in town." Alan smiled. S

She stared a second. Damn, the man is easy on the eye. " I know, but still." she answered. "I'm Nora, by the way."

"Alan" He said. "What brought you here?"

"Luna just gor a new job, so celebrating! and you?"

"Congratulation!" Alan smiled to the shy girl. "Where are you working?"

"In a prom and big dress shop." She whispered.

"Wow. You must be seen all those teenagers in need of attention... Good luck!" he told her, his two thumb raised.

"And why are you here?"

"Well... Because my friend took me here." He said, staying imprecise. In fact, it was now the beginning of February, and it was a hard time for Alan. Justin had been nagging him to go out for two days straight, saying he was staying home too much, which was probably true, even if Alan would rather die than admit it to Justin.

"I don't like winter." Alan said as they were sitting into a 24/7 burger. They had came there, him and Nora, after they were too hungry to stay at the club. Luna had gone home, she was too tired.

"Why? It's so calm and pretty." It was the night between the fourth and the fifth February. It would have been cold if they weren't in California.

"It's like, everything is dead. Every plant, every tree, every animal."

"Well, maybe in some places but not in here. It still warm, even in winter."

"Yes. I like that."

"I don't. I wish we had real winter. I like snow."

He sighed. "I like more summer."

She smiled. "That suits you."

He smiled back, looking through the window, far away from here. Zoey... No don't think about her, think about the pretty girl in front of you.

"So what do you do?" Nora asked him.

"What you mean?"

"Your job."

He stayed silent. "What if we kept that secret?"

"What? Why?" She frowned.

"I promise I'm not a serial killer." He laughed. "But please, it's just... I don't want to talk about it, and I don't want you to look at me a different way because you know what I'm doing." There was another reason, one he wouldn't say out loud. He didn't want her to know to much about him, if she did she could find him on internet....and learn about Katelynn and Zoey.

"Okay..." She said, feeling weird about that. It was pretty scary. Why didn't he want her to know about his job? Did he have something to hide? Probably. After all the flowers he was buying, and the secret job, he was really mysterious. Probably too much to trust him, but somehow, she liked that. She liked the mystery surrounding him, it exited her. She was curious, and wanted to get him to tell her. and she would get that.

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"And so that's what happened." Alana said. "Maybe she will be as nice as she seems."

He observed the flowers, on the grey stone. Then his eyes went up, and he started at the gravestone.

"She doesn't know about you. That's so weird. Almost like I'm hiding you. I'm not. It's just... I just want someone to treat me as if I was anyone else, you know? Not with so much pity. Even if it's not on purpose, everyone looks at me with so much pity... I hate that, and she don't."

"Isn't it weird that I talk to you about her? It doesn't feel weird, because it's you, I can tell you anything, and you understand, but... Maybe it's weird?" He thought about that for a second why did he came to tell her?

"She's cute, you know? One day I'll bring her here so you can met her."

His eyes went shut. "I feel like the memories are going away." He whispered, his voice breaking. "The colors are fading, the sounds are almost quiet. I don't remember exactly which word you said. I don't remember well.... Your book helps, but there is moments, even when I read I don't remember it, I just picture it." His voice went silent. She was fading off of his memory. What if one day, she was no longer there?

He looked up at the sky. "It would be so much easier if you were here."