His Favorite Flower

Chapter 15

Winter Break was three weeks long and in those three weeks I was determined to finally lose all feelings for Simon Mendez. Frequent hangouts with Ben and Ivy, and a whole lot of studying by myself. Alex had been working almost every day at the diner. I saw him working a few times.

There was one time on a random Wednesday afternoon that I decided to self study at the diner. Mom has work friends over, just adult get togethers and I could not stand the laughing anymore. So I booked it to the diner. I sat at the counter and saw Alex writing on his paper pad.

"Are you following me?"

"What?" I shot my head up.

"I'm just kidding, what are you doing here alone" he asks.

"Couldn't study at home, so I came here"

"Mm, that answer is wrong"

"What, but I added all the variables and double checked"

"You forgot the decimal" He smiles.

I show my frustration. " Keep working at it, in the meantime do you want anything?"

"Chocolate milkshake" I say excitedly

He smiles and makes his way back. I continue on with working on some problems from the textbook. Some of the answers become more clear as I work on them.

"One chocolate milkshake"

I look up from my notebook hearing a difference in voice. It's that girl. The one with the curly hair and perfect skin.

"Thank you" I take a sip but she's still standing in front of me.

"Are you Alex's girlfriend?"

I choke on my drink. "No, I'm not"

She tilts her head, "Oh I thought you were, he seems to know you well"

"He tutors me actually, and we're neighbors"

"But not friends?" She questions.

"Kind off, I guess"

She smiles and puts her elbows on the counter. "I'm Iris"

"Flora"

"So tell me what you know about him" She looks at Alex working with a couple sitting at a booth. "He's been working here a while and I know nothing about him" She turns back to me. "Maybe you can help"

"I don't know how I can help, I haven't known him that long" I inform her.

She sighs, "That's a shame, he's the most interesting person I've met and I don't even know him"

"Interesting?" I question. "How so?"

Smiling she says, "He's so nice to all the customers and that I get but all the customers like him a lot. And when he's not working with them, he looks so serious. I can barely get two words out of him when I try to make conversation with him"

"He's just like that, not a big fan of talking with people"

"It appears so"

"Do you go to school with us?" I suddenly ask.

"No, I'm a senior at Abrams High School"

"Ahh, the school with the frog as a mascot?" Ah that sounded a bit mean.

"Yeah, its a weird one, well sorry for bothering you, enjoy your milkshake"

"It's okay, I like conversations"

She left working the other tables. I look at my milkshake and see the majority of it melted. I sigh then I continue to work.

After an hour, I decided that I had studied enough. I began packing my bag up when I heard, "Are you leaving now?"