Forever & Always

Chapter 24: Anthomania✔️

(n)- a great love of flowers

Pronounced: an-tho-mane-nia

•Winter's pov•

I skate around to the beat of the music. My skating coach watches me from the sidelines with a slight smile on her face. I pay attention to the sound of the music and get ready for the jump that's coming up. When I do it correctly and land gracefully, Coach Evans claps and her smile widens. As the end of the song comes up, I do my last trick and get into my ending pose. I wait a couple of seconds before skating towards Coach Evans.

"Very well done Winter. All you need now is your costume and you'll be ready. Let's just go over the dance one last time." She praises. It's Saturday, so technically there's no practice today. But Coach Evans had texted me today and asked me if I wanted a little more practice before the recital next week since she's only going to be at practice Tuesday. She has some kind of family event on Thursday after school.

I agreed and met her here just a couple of hours ago. We had just finished going over the dance, switching things up, taking tricks out, and adding moves in. We go through the dance one more time before deciding that's good enough for competition. I enter the locker room to get dressed and grab my things before leaving the rink.

I get in my car and start driving. I have a couple of things to do today, but the first place I go to is the private hospital Vinny and Enzo own. I drive on the main roads for a while before making a turn into the woods. The 20-minute drive through the woods is peaceful and quiet. When I arrive, I park the car and walk into the building. I walk through the halls and to the room where I know my parents, grandmother, and 4th eldest brother are.

When I get to the room, I knock on the door and Chris opens it. He lets me in and hugs me before leaving, probably to get his seventh cup of coffee for the day. I walk over to my mother's bed and sit down in the chair next to her. All three of them are asleep, but that doesn't matter to me.

I take my mother's hand in mine and stare at nothing. I do this pretty often. Usually, when I look at something, I'm either thinking about a mission or just nothing at all. As of right now, it's the latter.

I'm snapped out of my empty thoughts by hearing my father's voice calling my name. I look over to his bed to see him awake and looking at me. I let go of Mamá and walk over to his bed to take his hand instead. Bampás grips my hand tight and pulls me onto the bed to lay next to him. I wrap my arms around his waist and his chin sits on top of my head, just like it would when I was little.

We stay like this until I hear my name once more, but this time, I hear my mother's voice. I pick my head up from my father's chest and look over to Mamá. I get up from the bed and walk over to her.

Nonna wakes up not too long after Mamá. I spend a couple of hours with them before I have to leave. I drive home to take a shower and change into something more casual. When I step out of the shower, I put on black biker shorts, a white cropped tank top, black sneakers, an oversized gray zip-up, and I fix my hair into two French braids that tie into low buns.