𝘚𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘉𝘶𝘴 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘺𝘢𝘳𝘥 || 𝘖𝘯𝘦𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘴

"𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘴."

[Trigger warning! Mention of vomiting, blood, mention of self harm]

Of course no one noticed.

Not even his friends noticed.
Why would they?
Aiden's always been a little strange.
But even when he suddenly stopped showing up to hang out they didn't seem to notice.

Aiden covered his mouth as he coughed violently, feeling petals and blood falling into his palm.

Orange petals. They looked like snapdragons.

Ashlyn's favorite flower. Of course. How lucky was he. Aiden smiled a little, brushing off the petals into the trash can next to his bed.

Aiden grabbed his phone, beginning to type his symptoms into google.

What to do when ur coughing up petals.

Aiden hit search, reading what was brought back to him.

Hanahaki disease, a disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love.

One sided love?

It ends when the beloved returns their feelings (romantic love only; strong friendship is not enough), or when the victim dies.

Death? That's a real kicker. His eyes focused on something a little more appealing.

It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim's romantic feelings for their love also disappear.

Have the flowers surgically removed? And lose his feelings for Ashlyn? He'd rather die. If this ended up killing him, at least he would die knowing that he truly loved Ashlyn.

Why couldn't the flowers be roses, or lilys? Anything but her favorite flower.

Maybe Ashlyn would return her feelings, right? That's possible?
Aiden scrunched his nose when he realized it probably wasn't.
She had been ignoring him for the past few weeks, even before Aiden began to cough up these stupid petals.

Aiden looked at his phone.
Nothing.
No notifications from any of his millions of apps he had on his phone.
And surely none from any of his friends.

As Aiden was annoyed that no one texted him, he heard the door open and slam shut.

Ben was back.

"Ben? Is that you?" Aiden got up, kicking the trash can under his bed. He walked to his door, seeing Ben traveling up the stairs. Ben stared at him, before eyeing the bed, pointing at it.

"Get back in bed." Is basically what Aiden got from the look. Aiden let out a dramatic sigh, causing him to cough, which only proved Ben's point. Aiden frowned from under his hand which was pressing the petals against his lips so Ben wouldn't see them.

"Fine."  Aiden coughed, and turned around, shutting his door. He walked back to his bed, dumping the new fresh petals he had coughed.

Aiden looked at the plethora of orange petals, tissues and other things in the can.

He smiled at it.

Scrunching his face before laying back in bed. He wondered what would happen the more he pushed this inconvenient disease away.

He should've have just pushed it off.

It had gotten to the point breathing hurt.
And Aiden hated it.
He hated the pain.

He's always liked pain.

He's done various things to inflict pain on himself.
Jumping from tall places, skateboarding, near death experiences, you get it.