Flowers and Pop Rocks

02

p o p p y

"I have to know more than that to figure out what happened," Blake reminded me, removing his glasses and continuing to stare at me.

"Yeah, I'm getting to it," I nodded. "I guess the first thing you have to know is that I only got four blocks today."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "No wonder you're sad."

"That's not really why I was sad," I grumbled. "But thanks for reminding me that I suck."

"I didn't mean to," he apologized. "Continue what you were saying."

"Well, you probably know Angel, right?" I confirmed.

Blake nodded. "Yeah, I've seen her around school. I'm friends with her brother, Asher. You and her are cousins, right?"

"And basically best friends since birth," I confirmed.

"Okay, what about her?" he asked.

"She made friends with that girl, Nina, which is fine by me, but something's been really off with her since we started this thing," I revealed.

He scrunched his eyebrows together. "How?"

"To start off, she's really rude. It's one thing not to talk to me all day, but when I went to her room, she and Nina were ganging up on me and making fun of me. You know, like how I only found four blocks and all that stuff," I explained.

He nodded. "What did they say?"

"Things like I'm stupid and blind and acting like a child. That I'm being so sensitive. They just kept teasing me even if I'm sure it was so obvious that I was really uncomfortable," I recalled.

"Because of the blocks?" he asked.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "Told you it was stupid. What's the big deal about them anyway?"

Blake shrugged. "Don't really know. Do you have somewhere to keep your blocks?"

I thought about it for a while before shaking my head. "I don't think so."

"Wait here," he got off the bed and walked over to his duffel bag, rummaging through some things before pulling out a box. "Have this. You can put your blocks in here so nobody takes them."

I opened the box and dropped my two blocks in, staring at them sadly. "I promised you a block, didn't I?"

He was staring at my blocks when I looked up at him, a defeated look on his face. "You can keep it."

Pity. I could tell that's what it was. I was all for people being kind, but I never wanted anyone to pity me.

"Take it," I took a block out of the box and held it out to him. "It's fine. I'll find more tomorrow."

"You told me you found four," he stared at me. "Where's the other two?"

"One's with Angel and the other one's with Nina," I muttered.

His hand balled up into a fist. "So they made fun of you and took your blocks?"

"Yeah, what a great birthday gift, huh?" I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

"Poppy, take the block," he pushed my hand away. "It doesn't matter to me. You found it first anyway, right?"

I stared at him in shock, partly because I didn't expect him to remember my name from the drunken conversations I had with him, and partly because I was so confused by how kind he was suddenly being.

People weren't exactly the nicest to me all day, barely anybody greeting me, my cousin being rude to me and my sister not even bothering to check up on how I was doing like I did to her.