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Me:Hey yourself. Nice practice.
Charlie:You like my moves?
Me:You need a little help on defense, but sure.
Charlie:I’d like to see you get out there and try it. Then we can talk about who needs the help.
I didn’t answer him. I didn’t know how. Not many people besides Ali and Malia even remembered I ever played soccer, much less how great I was at it. But, it did bring up the thought I had earlier.
Me:Scouts are going to love you during the playoffs.
Charlie:I’d rather have you up there than them. (Too much? Sorry. But I may have been trying to show off just a little today, not going to lie about that.)
Me:That was you showing off? I’d hate to see you really trying then… yikes.
I didn’t have a chance to read Charlie’s response before Dad came up to me and took the bag. Since I had driven to school, I had my car and could get home myself. He and the head coach thanked me for my service. Dad looked so proud at that moment that I actually smiled and said some nice words about the team to the head coach.
That set the two of them off on a tangent. They excused themselves to go back to the office and I headed toward the parking lot, needing to get to Flow and Jett to finish a contract.
Chapter 19
Una
A few dayslater, I still couldn’t get the sight of Charlie charging down the field, all of his muscles pumping, the fierce look on his face, out of my mind.
He had texted me a few times in the past few days, but other than that, we didn’t have a lot of contact.
But tonight, not ten minutes after I got home from school, a text came through.
Charlie. All he wrote was an address and a time for later tonight.
Malia mentioned something about a party, but I couldn’t remember if it was for this particular Friday night or the next. I shot off a quick message, waiting with bated breath to hear back.
Thankfully, she was on top of things and reminded me it was next week. Then she asked why and what I was going to be doing tonight instead.
She always wanted details. But in this case, I wasn’t providing. I told her to mind her own business.
Thinking about Charlie, I looked up at my dresser. The giant black flower he handed me earlier this week sat on top. After he handed it to me, I didn’t know what to do with it, so I had kept it in my locker for the entire day, until it was time to go home.
I hadn’t wanted it to die, so I cut the bottom and placed it in a cup of water. My green thumb was as black as the flower, but I figured if I kept it in fresh water, I could at least get a few days out of it. We were on day four and it looked as good as new.
The rose from mini golf hadn’t lasted. I had accidentally left it in the car that night and came back the next day to it all deflated and brown. My heart had sunk at the time, but I got over it quick.
This flower, though? A black dahlia? It was so much moreme. And the fact that it had been the only one in the sea of roses made it a bit more special than the mini golf rose.
Malia had bothered me all day about it, asking why Charlie had given it to me, why it was a black dahlia. She seemed to know meanings behind everything from names to flowers, apparently.
The dahlia — representing loyalty and happiness.
But that wasn’t the part that concerned her. Theblackdahlia specifically represented betrayal and sadness, the opposite of the original meaning.
I told her not to read too much into it, that it was only a flower and he probably only did it so I didn’t feel left out or something.
It wasn’t the truth, though. He meant it for me. He had given me a rose before, and handing me another wouldn’t be anything special.
Going out of his way to choose that specific flower, buying a completely separate one just for me… that was textbook loyalty.
Whether he knew the definitions of the flowers, I didn’t know. My best guess was that he saw a black flower, and it reminded him of me, so he got it. Guys never really thought that much into things.
