Statehouse (Mostly Califlorida)

Hanahaki-ish IDK (California)

(Snow's note: This is platonic/ Unrequited friendship [you could see it as romantic if you want to])

TW: Gore and depression

Just another meeting that the Gov decided was necessary. Not all of the meetings were ones they had to attend, but this was. Cali usually went to all of the meetings in order to oppose the wrong opinions of the south. It's not that he didn't like them, exactly just that they say mean and stupid things.

The meetings went the way they usually did. Gov being a blue screen and not understanding most of anything. Florida trying to cause chaos as always, with his best friend Louisiana helping. Debates and problems.

"I'm just saying with no police there will be more crime." Oklahoma claimed.

"That's no true if you just hire more social workers" Cali angrily rebutted.

The argument continued and flowed into another. Going on as usual. Until another argument came up. Most states were disagreeing with him. "...Washington will back me up on that"

He could see visible confusion as the state looked at him "No, why would I do that." It was ended in a small laugh.

"Because we're friends." Cali said halfway between a statement and a question. They were friends right? Sometimes it he didn't seem like it. But most of the time they were friends, or at least friendly. He though at least.

"No, you don't have friends" Washington was now clearly trying to avoid Cali's eye contact. Multiple people seemed uncomfortable. Suddenly there was a pressure in Cali's throat causing him to skip a breath. That comment really hurt. He ended up leaving right before Florida broke the awkward silence with some reference that he didn't care to try and understand right now.

Why did that hurt so bad? He didn't know if things were just started to get to him, or if it was because it came from Washington specifically.

A few hours later he went out to the kitchen. It was getting late and he was kind of hungry. He could feel something in his throat that caused him to cough. A small orangish red petal came out. That was concerning, but it's not like he could do anything about it. He threw it away, washed his hands and pretended like it didn't happen. Grabbing a random snack from the pantry he then went back to his room.

While he was walking back he walked passed WA's room. Just by chance he happened to be leaving for somewhere at the same time. They made eye contact. Then Washington looked away like it didn't happen. There was an achy feeling now forming in Cali's chest.

The next time he coughed it was a whole poppy flower. Ok this was bad maybe he should tell someone.  Who to tell though? No one would really care, so it didn't really matter. He could probably fix it, or it would just go away eventually.

He went about the rest of the day without anything happening. Ignoring it he pretended it didn't happen and acted normally.

Through the week he figured out why it got hard to breathe. When the people he cared about clearly didn't like him. Most conversations had people insulting him. Some states he could just insult back because he didn't like them either, but with some, the ones he once thought he was friends with, it hurt. The flowers grow more and more up from his lungs.

Then, it was already next week. Another meeting that they were supposed to attend. Talking about policies and new laws. Some of the points were gotten through, but no one was completely on task. They never were which made the government kind of angry, which was funny. He stopped talking about half way through the meeting as the plant was beginning to make that hard.

Of course there was lighthearted jokes, but the ones aimed at him didn't seem so lighthearted. Every time the other states made fun of him, every insult, every bit teasing, the flowers grew. Even the states that didn't bully him, like New York, only didn't because they didn't care about him at all. At least that didn't make it worse.

Texas made another jab at him, he didn't really care what Tex thought of him. Their hatred had two sides. It did kind of suck that he couldn't say anything back though, the flowers would make that very painful. It was only when Washington looked over at him and said "Looks like he finally shut up" that this actually got to him. It felt like he had been stabbed in the heart. Him and Washington weren't necessarily friends, but he just thought...even after all this he still wanted Washington's friendship. He was still the one he cared about most of all.

Almost every state was joining in now. Taking advantage of Cali's silence. He couldn't respond so they could say what ever they wanted, and they did say some awful things. This was causing the plant to rapidly grow. He looked around to see if anyone cared. Like half the states were actively making fun of him, some were trying not to laugh, the government was just trying to get everyone to talk about covid numbers again, but non of them seemed to care. The only thing he could maybe see was Massachusetts just angrily staring at the others. Then again that is what Mass usually did.

California left the meeting as soon as he could. Going back to his room first, but the petals where now in his mouth. He grabbed a bucket in case he had to throw up. He didn't feel like leaving his room because he didn't want the other states to see him like this.

He could feel the clump painfully climb out his lungs and up his throat. He tried to focus on breathing correctly. The beautiful image of the flower tainted by the bloody mess he just coughed into the bucket. Poppies were a flower of death. Still though he couldn't stop from thinking about the pretty fields as he coughed up the petals. At this point he didn't care who it was, he just wished someone would be his friend. Hoped that would end this.

(word count: 1030)