Forget-me-not | Seungmin

Cynthia

"Okay, you can dump that in the mixing bowl now." Flora stepped back and let Cynthia dump the flour into the bowl. Cynthia dumped it in without a word. Flora turned around to gather a few more ingredients.

After Cynthia's breakdown in the car and a quick stop at the grocery store, the two were back in Flora's apartment. Flora grabbed ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. The two dived right into baking.

"You're sure I like chocolate chip cookies?" Cynthia asked for the third time.

"I'm positive. You used to make them all the time for-" She suddenly paused and blinked.

Cynthia glanced over, "for you?"

"For me," Flora nodded in agreement. "You used to bring some over occasionally when you spent the night." She began dumping sugar into a bowl on the scale. The near slip-up almost exposed Seungmin and his band.

Cynthia didn't seem to be bothered by it. The two continued to mix everything together. Flora placed and tied an apron around Cynthia. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, so it wouldn't get in the cookies.

Cynthia picked up a spoon and began to mix the ingredients in the bowl together. "Did I bake a lot? This is kind of fun."

"Yeah," Flora nodded. "You baked quite a bit. Mostly cookies, muffins, and brownies. You baked things that you didn't have to decorate. You never got into baking cakes because you weren't good at decorating them."

"Maybe I'll have to try that soon."

Flora let out a laugh which caused Cynthia to smile. Flora shook her head. "The last time you tried to bake a cake, you video called me halfway through. You started to decorate the cake because it was too warm and the icing began melting off."

"Whoops."

"You were panicking and freaking out and yelling. The kitchen was a disaster because you hadn't cleaned anything up. For whatever reason, you were in a hurry and-" More laughter came from Flora. She fanned her face trying to keep the tears away. "I wish you could remember, it was hilarious."

"Am I always frantic like that?"

Flora shook her head again. "No, you're usually much more relaxed and at ease. I think it was for an event or something. I can't remember off the top of my head." She ducked beneath a counter and pulled out a sheet pan. "You're one of those slow and steady wins the race type of people."

"Is that a good thing?"

"For you? Yeah. You believe that everything takes time. You're articulate with all of your life decisions. You take the time to think things through before you act. You're amazing when it comes to life advice."

"Really?"

"You're one of the best people I know," Flora smiled. "You always have this upbeat attitude and nothing seems to set you back. Every time you're rejected from something, you see it as a new opportunity to pursue something else. You get along well with others and you're a social butterfly."

"Does that mean I have a lot of friends?"

Flora's smile began to fall when she realized her mistake. She turned to grab the chocolate chips, so Cynthia couldn't see her face. "You used to, but not much anymore."

"Did something happen between my old friends and I?" The conversation began to confuse Cynthia. Flora made her seem like a great person. Something must have happened between her and her old friends, right?

"Sometimes life happens and people drift apart. Unfortunately, that's part of life. Friends grow up and they have careers. They begin dating people and sometimes they grow up and get married. Eventually, some start having kids of their own. It's not anyone's fault, it's just part of growing up."

"So all my old friends and I drifted apart?"

"You could say that, I guess. It's not your fault that people have their own lives. It's happened to a lot of people."

"So when I was in a car accident and at the hospital..."

"There was a high chance none of them knew. You barely talked to them, so it's not a surprise they didn't show up. I don't have contact with your friends and I have no way to contact them, so it's not like I could inform them."

"Oh." Cynthia's eyes went back to the bowl. She stirred the wooden spoon through the clumpy mixture a few more times until she dropped it.

"Don't be too sad," Flora joked, "you still have me. I'm not going to go anywhere. Why don't you go pick a movie out in the living room? On the bottom of the TV stand, there's a bunch of movies. I'll put these in the oven."

Cynthia agreed and slipped into the living room. She began sorting through the movies and trying to find one to watch. Her mind kept going back to Flora's words about drifting from old friends. The conversation hurt her feelings.

Not a single person knew? Nobody bothered to check up on her? The accident happened a few weeks ago. Her old friends didn't seem to care about her at all and that stung.

"Did you find one?" Flora called from the kitchen.

"What are vampires and werewolves?"

"Wait, what? What are you talking about? What movie?"

"Twilight."

"Twilight! You have to watch that! You were such a big fan of that series. Holy shit, I forgot I had the whole Twilight series."

"Should I be worried? It sounds like a horror film. Is it scary?"

"Trust me," Flora finally appeared in the living room, "you'll love it."