The Bouquet and Hockey Stick

Cold Knighthood

My alarm started beeping, it didn't wake me up initially, but it did eventually.  I rubbed my eyes and looked on my phone, weird, It was 2:19 AM. I don't have an alarm for this time, not usually. Groaning from being tired, I stood up from the couch and went to the kitchen to make myself a drink. The first thing I took out was a packet of cocoa, I haven't had cocoa in a very long time.

I poured the cocoa powder into a mug, then milk and put it in a microwave for half a minute. As I waited for the heat to reach the mug and make the milk bearable to drink in the morning, something captured my interest. One of the vans that delivers flowers to our shop was parked outside my window.

Brushing it off as an illusion, a fabric of my imagination, I heard the humming of the microwave stop and a very annoying beeping noise starting to come from it to my ears. I oppened the microwave and took out my artificial cocoa and had a single sip of it. It calmed me down as I sat on a chair in the kitchen and took a deep breath.

Soon, I heard a knock on my door. "Who could it be at this hour?" asked the narrating voice in my head before I went to open the door to see a shaking Cole in my doorway. He was pale and white, his lips almost losing their pink colour and his clothes being wet from the snow, I took him into my flat.

Tucking him into my couch bed that I woke up from just twenty minutes ago, I walked into the kitchen, grabbed another mug and went onto to make another cup of hot cocoa in my microwave and as that was finished, I sat next to him and started combing through his hair with my hand, almost playing with it. He was still shaking from the cold, but I could see he was doing better.

There was only one thing on my mind, the urge to help this man feel warm. Trying everything, turning up the heat, giving Cole new clean dry clothes and a cup of hot cocoa, which he drank faster than the twists in Esmeralda, I felt acomplished but tired from the roaming and stressing in my own home.

My body left me laying on my couch bed next to him with little droplets of sweat on my forehead. Cole only looked at me with a big ear to ear smile and my blankets over his shoulders. I smiled at him and fell asleep not soon after the last part of cold air came up my nose and into my mind sending me into relaxation and drowssiness.

I have woken up once again today, but now laying on another man's chest. My eyes looked up at the person, seeing Cole and remembering the the dark morning, I panicked in my mind and got up slowly to not wake up my guest, who's now sleeping peacefully in my bed. I grabbed my keys, put on a winter coat and shoes. My hand almost felt the brass of my doorknob until I heard a loud yawn coming from the living room.

Looking over my shoulder, a man with a bright yellow shirt with 'Beach Life is Best Life' written on the front of it came into the short hallway and looked at me, a small smile forming on his lips. "Hiya Adam!" his word sounded calm. "Hi Cole, welcome to my flat." I muttered confidently and left the door to go to him.

After the three years of him bringing me flowers every once or twice a mont, I've never noticed that he was taller than me. Not that much he would tower over me, but still noticable by the naked eye. "You should try to get your van out of the pavement, or they'll tow it" when he heard the last words, a frown grown on his face and the air in the room became dense.

He looked away to the window where the van should be parked. I didn't know if he knew what happed, or remembered it correctly, but I wouldn't let myself go to work when a friend is in trouble. "Why did you walk out of your van at that time?" I asked him as I sat down in the kitchen, Cole following me not soon after.

Cole sat down in front of me, a small table between us. His eyes wandered as he started to speak. "Well, I was heading to the north of the country and the van broke down suddenly." he swun his arms to exaggerate his story. "I stepped out of it and saw the engine had steam coming from it, so I panicked and tried to fix it, but to avail," his voice got sadder at the end.