snitch

5

Stella Flores

Now he's definitely insane. "You will not be coming to my house and I won't be going to yours. We can meet later tonight at the park just down the street from the flower shop."

He raises his hands and drops them in an 'are you kidding me?' way. I smile, and my phone dings.

Dad: I'm outside.

"I have to go. Um...... 6 o'clock. I'll see you then." I give him a half smile and walk out of the classroom, grading one of the pre- arranged boxes of materials for the project.

I spot my dad's car and walk over to it, wasting no time to get in. "Hey dad." I lean over and give him a small kiss on the cheek to greet him.

"What's the box for?" He looks at the medium sized box on my lap, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

"It's for a project, I have to meet with my, erm, partner at 6 to work on it." He keeps his expression the same, weirdly looking even more confused.

"Why can't you work on it at the house?" I didn't want to tell him that I was working with a boy. It sounds stupid, considering I am 17 years old but my parents are old fashioned. They would want to meet him first, and would probably hover over us the whole time. And who knows how Harry would act and what he would say.

"Her parents don't let her go to other people' houses so she asked if I can go to the park near her house. I won't be home too late and plus its for school. Please?"

He forms his lips into a line and nods his head.

I arrive at the park with my school bag and the box of materials. I look around to see if Harry was here yet. I pull out my phone. 6:08 p.m. It's still early.

I felt someone tap my shoulder and I turn around to see Harry. A single flower in one hand, the other behind his back. He was wearing a semi- see through white T-shirt, with black skinny jeans, and the same dirty black converse.

He smiles at me and sticks out the hand with the flower in it, spinning it between two of his fingers, signaling me to take it. It was a light blue peony, I had never seen a blue one before.

I bat my eyes at him and gasp in a dramatic matter. Considering there was a flower shop right next to us, sarcastically in a flirty voice I said "You bought this? For me?"

The familiar smirk crept onto his face and he shakes his head no. "Stole it actually." My eyes widen in shock.

"You didn't." He grabs the box from my hands and hands me the flower. He carried the particularly large box with one hand, and mutters softly, "Oh, but I did."

He walks over to a nice patch of grass in the open area sits down, placing the box in front of him. He sat criss cross apple sauce, which was adorably innocent, then patted the floor next to him. Telling me to sit there.

I smile at his position and move a few steps toward him, then plop right next to him, sitting on my knees. He pulls something from his pocket and opens it.

A pocket knife.

I widen my eyes in shock, considering we are in the middle of a public park. "What are you doing? That's illegal." I whisper shout, leaning towards him.

He just looks at me and starts laughing, "I'm 18 sweetheart. Plus, I've done worse." He smiles at me, making my knees feel weak.

He cuts the tape open on the box, and closes the knife, placing it back in his pocket. I open my book bag, pulling out a sheet of paper. I title it Solar Oven and on the right side I print our names, Harry E. Styles and Stella A. Flores. He glances at the paper before asking me "What does the A stand for?" Missing the pronunciation of the r due to his accent.

"Anise." He immediately smiles and nods his head. "From now on I'm going to call you Anise."

I pull my head back and furrow my brows, "Why?" He smirks again. "Well, do you really want to know?" His words scared me. Well, he scared me all together. So I just shook my head no.

After about an hour and a half, we were almost done. He just had to finish a few things. So, I stood up, walking a few steps away to call my dad to pick me up.

When I hang up the phone, I turn to see Harry sitting down, in the same position, with my journal in his hands. My poetry journal. I rush back to him and snatch it from his hands.

He was reading the poem I wrote when Brandon and I split. "Did you read anything else?"

He shakes his head and points one finger to the book in my hands. "Just that one." Clearly, he saw i was upset and uncomfortable so he had a serious expression.

I didn't necessarily like that he read my poem but I wasn't upset. I just didn't want to talk about it. So, I just gave him a nod in acknowledgment to his words and packed up our stuff.

He picks up our completed project and the box, now full of garbage and extra things we didn't use, and starts walking to his car. Or at least I thought it was a car.

I hear a bike motor rev and I realized, he doesn't drive a car, he drives a motorcycle. He gave me his usual, boyish smirk, on the bike, "Bye Anise." He said teasingly, over the loud motor before riding away.

I watched him as he rode away. He looked really good like that, riding a motorcycle but that's not the point.

I see my dad's car pull into the parking lot and I get in the car. After putting on my seatbelt and saying hi to him, I pull out my journal and flip to the page Harry was reading.

I always dreamed of falling in love.

I always wondered if it was real.

Was love something I could really feel?

I didn't care for the title

I just want the feeling

Could love truly be something healing?

I wasn't certain that it would happen to me

I didn't know at all

All I knew was If I did it right, I would fall

And if I fail, I would end up alone

Weeping in my sorrows

I shall try loving again tomorrow

Writing poetry wasn't something I did for fun. It's what I do in my highest and lowest moments. When my emotions are confusing me to the point where I need to write.

I didn't really tell anyone I did this. Not even Isla or my parents. And it was definitely something I didn't want people reading.

I open my bag back up to put my journal back in when I see the blue flower he gave me. All I did, all I could do, was just smile.

This has to be my favorite chapter so far. As you can see, I write poetry and i thought it would be so cool for Stella to write as well. I hope you enjoyed it because i was really nervous to put the poem in. Thank you for supporting my book:)  -L