✓ | ✩ louis partridge imagines ✩

butterflies / l.p.

TW: mentions of death

you let out a huff, bracing for impact as your body jolted when you let go of a stubborn weed. dusting off your jeans and rolling up the sleeves of your crewneck for what felt like the hundreth time in one day, you reached over to grab your gardening scissors to cut it out.

being a cemetery gardener wasn't exactly the ideal job, but you were already cleaning up your mom's garden at home for free, so the $15 an hour was a great upgrade and you had been working the job for the past month. you were just a broke high school student preparing to go to college and you needed money wherever you could get it. 

it wasn't all that bad, usually you just put in your headphones and kept yourself entertained by trying to decipher people's stories from whatever clues you could find on their graves. 

after dumping the weed into the bucket behind you that consisted of various dead plants, you reached over for your rag and spray bottle. crouching down to eye level with the tombstone in front of you, you began wiping down the old granite. 

"kasim adebayo..." you trailed off, reading the name on the tombstone. noting the fact that he had lived until the age of eighty seven, you also noticed that the grave was adorned with tons of flowers and candles, but also a lot of apple, pencil, and book related trinkets."i bet you have a bunch great classroom stories, huh?" 

you rolled your eyes, realizing how weird you sounded talking to a gravestone. scrubbing down on a particularly dusty spot, your attention moved away from it as you heard the sound of footsteps. your head shot up in the direction of the sound, your eyes landing on a boy who was weaving his way through the graves, a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers in hand. 

he looked about your age, his sense of style confirming it. he wore a black hoodie with baggy jeans and adidas shoes on his feet, his unruly brown hair sitting a mess on the top of his head. you cursed yourself internally for checking out a boy in a graveyard of all places, but he was undeniably attractive, so much to the point that you felt butterflies flutter in your stomach as he slowly made his way closer to you. 

you watched as he finally stopped at a gravestone a few feet away, trying not to make it obvious that you were staring. it wasn't that hard though, he had barely looked up ever since he got there. 

"hi love, it's been a while."

atleast you weren't the only one who talked to gravestones. 

you continued working on various graves in the surrounding area, occasionally hearing portions of what he was saying. you weren't intentionally trying to eavesdrop, but it's not like there were any other conversations occuring that could've drowned out the sound of his. all he did was tell the stone about his day, as well as other seemingly monotonous things that he did with his time.

after another hour of cleaning every grave in your assigned plot, you made your way back to the grave that the boy was at since it was the only one you had left to clean before you could go home. it had gotten quiet since you last went over there, leading you to think he had already left. 

approaching the grave, you noticed that he was still there but he was silently sitting criss cross and slightly slumped over with his back turned towards you. 

"hey, are you okay?"

when he didn't respond you walked around the area and crouched down a few feet away from him, just to find out that he had fallen asleep with his head propped up by his hands. 

"oh you poor thing," you sighed, reaching over to lightly tap his shoulder. 

he woke with a start, rubbing his eyes and frantically looking around as if he forgot where he was. eyes landing on you, he quickly calmed down as you pulled your hand away from him.