ˏˋ°•*⁀➷「Flowers」 *ೃ༄

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟠 - 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕪

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING: ABUSE, SA, BULLYING, HARASSMENT⚠️

"She's so fat in that dress!"

"Yeah, I can see her stretch marks from across the hall. It makes her look even more unattractive than what she already is."

"Her grey hair makes her look old, but now she looks worse than my 80-year-old grandma in the nursing home!"

That's all I heard the night of my 8th grade prom. The insults and the tormenting never stopped.

Dad bought me that dress. I had never felt so beautiful in my life. I had also never gone to any school dances because of the bullying. But that year, he insisted I go. "I've never seen a girl as radiant and beautiful as you, my sunbeam," my dad said as he twirled me around in my dress.

"I'm pretty sure Mom's the most 'radiant and beautiful' woman you've ever seen," I laughed. But in my heart, I knew it was true - my dad thought I was beautiful.

He still thinks I am. He tells me that every day.

I walked into school, my hair and makeup done, feeling like a new person. I felt like a bride, and nothing could take away my happiness in that moment.

That's what naïve, 8th-grade-me thought. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

As I entered the gymnasium, everyone turned to look at me. There was silence, followed by a few coughs and then fits of laughter. I laughed with them, hoping they weren't laughing at me. But, of course, I was wrong. Kids pointed fingers at me, mumbled new nicknames for me under punch-smelling breaths, and gave me daggers as I walked past.

And then the boys caught sight of my dress. Not just any boys, the boys - you know, the popular group of 8th graders who played sport and dated the cheerleaders. Yeah, those boys.

As my eyes caught sight of them, my heart began to thump so loudly that I couldn't hear myself think. My legs were like an overpowered machine. Using up the little energy they had left to work overtime. I paced across the floor, trying to get as far away from them as I possibly could. Alas, I wasn't fast enough. Their massive hands stretched out towards me, grabbing hold of my dress and yanking me back forcefully. My back met the ground with a painful THUD!

"Hey!" I hissed at the group of bullies. "That wasn't very nice."

The boys laughed at me. One of them, who had snow white hair, knelt down in front of me. He lifted my chin up, and I met his gaze. His eyes were the color of blood. His tongue stuck out as he grinned at me. His face came closer to mine. Closer...closer...

His pale lips brushed against mine, cold and cruel. I whimpered with every inch of space that got taken up by his being. The air between us was hot and putrid. I didn't want him near me. A hand slid up my thigh. Another got hold of my puffy sleeves and began to pull it down to expose my shoulders. Someone's lips came down hard on my back.

The blood rushed to my head, my ears, my cheeks. Hot anger. Hot embarrassment. The boys just laughed as they ended their night off with a little treat. I begged for them to stop the touching and the kissing. When I tried to push the white-haired boy away, he slapped me. "You wait until we're finished!" he whispered angrily in my ear.

Before he could kiss me for the hundredth time, someone yanked him backward.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!"

Before long, all the boys had run off sheepishly, crying and whimpering in fear. The white-haired boy followed.

With teary eyes, I looked up to see who my hero was.

"Dan Heng...?"

He opened up his arms to me, a comforting smile playing on his lips. "I'm here now, Stelle. They're not going to hurt you anymore tonight." I crawled into his arms, and he helped me up. We walked slowly out of the gym, into the deserted school halls. After a while, we stopped by some lockers and sat down. I was feeling dizzy.

'Dan Heng...I don't feel so good..." I placed my head in my hands. He rested his hand on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Stelle, what you're feeling is normal after being...uh.." He rubbed the back of his head, not knowing what to say. I thought it was cute when he did stuff like that. It showed me his consideration for my feelings.
"Well," he eventually said, "if you start to feel anything else, let me know. Alright?" He got up and opened someone's locker. There was a water bottle inside. He handed it to me, and I gulped it all down in the blink of an eye.

I wiped my mouth with my arm. "How did you know someone left their bottle in there?"

Dan Heng looked off into the distance. "Just a hunch..."

My parents were called to pick us up afterward. What happened to those boys after that night, I do not know because they were expelled. I hope they're either dead, imprisoned, or both. Once we were at my house, Dan Heng took me upstairs to my room. We sat on the bed.

"Lie down, Stelle. You need to get some rest." I placed my head on my pillow and closed my eyes. Silence filled the room as I collected my thoughts. "Dan Heng," I eventually spoke. "Am... am I ugly?"

He looked at me, confusion on his face. "No? You're the most beautiful girl I've ever had the privilege to lay eyes on." I got up slowly and held his hands. "Are you just saying that because you're my best friend?"

"No," he shakes his head, smiling. A single tear falls down his moonlit face. "I'm not just saying it because you're my best friend. I'm saying it because I love you."

He wiped away his tears. I could see that he wanted to hold me, kiss me endlessly. But the respect he had for me and the knowledge of the night's happenings prevented him from doing so. I was terrified to kiss again, to be held again. But nothing could stop the burning desire for me to kiss my best friend. And, God, it was the best fucking feeling in the whole world.

His lips were pink and warm. They greeted my lips lovingly. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer. The kiss deepened as our tongues interlocked. He bit my lip gently, ever so gently, and giggled. "I love everything about you - your hair, your eyes..." He pulled out of the kiss and examined my body.

"Hm...I also love that little scar on your knee from when you fell off your bike, your stretch marks around your waist and thighs, the few strands of hair on your arms...whatever you hate, I love it all. If someone can't stand one part of you, then they don't deserve all of you. I want the whole package - flaws and all."

I didn't stop the tears from falling. I just pulled him in again and buried my lips into his. The air around us was hot and electric. Nothing could ever break me out of this kiss, I didn't want anything more in that moment than to be loved by Dan Heng. Because, save for my parents, he was the only one to have ever loved me. Scars and all...