Myosotis

Magnolia

'Loves me, loves me not.

Tried to get a rise out of

Magnolia petals but

Soon scattered them over you.

Watch me fall and drop away.'

-M2U Vocal by Guriri, 'Magnolia'

---

There was a vase of magnolia flowers on her bedside table.

Alice wanted to laugh at the irony.

One of the books that had been given to her in an attempt to cure her of boredom and to discourage her from having anymore suicidal thoughts after her attempt at taking her own life - they had barred the window in her room after that - was a book on floriology; the language of flowers.

Name: Magnolia

Colour: white, pink, mauve, cream, yellow, purple, lavender

Meaning

The magnolia flower has a variety of meanings depending on the colour of the bloom and are known to be splendid beauty and magnificent. Its meaning may also depend on the culture. In China, magnolias have been cultivated for thousands of years and attached to it are the sentiments of purity and nobility. In Japan, the flower has been used as a medicinal and ornamental plant and is associated to sublimity, naturalism and love for nature. It is also a symbol of life force. In North America, the magnolia is very significant in the south, being the official state flower of Mississippi and Louisiana. Mississippi has earned the title of 'Magnolia State' and the city of Houston in Texas is known as 'Magnolia City' due to the abundance of magnolias growing there. Here, they are known as the harbingers of spring's arrival.

As such, magnolias are known to be seen as flowers of beauty and perseverance, nobility and dignity, and sweetness and love for nature.

White - purity and perfection

Pink - youth, innocence and joy

Yellow - joy and spring

Green - health and luck

Purple - amplify the uses of the green magnolia

Alice understood why there would be yellow, green and purple magnolias in the arrangement, but not white and pink ones. While she may be in her youth, she was not innocent. No, she had lost that when her beloved brother died. And as such, she was no longer pure, darkness had tainted her along with Hans' death. And how was she perfect? She was now just a broken little girl, a shell of her previous self. She was merely living in the remains of a girl who once inhabited her body.

Reaching over, Alice plucked a white magnolia from the bouquet and held it in her hands. It was so fragile, just like life. Its petals were soft and so easy to pull if Alice desired to do so. Thinking along those lines, Alice was reminded of the small habit she had of pulling petals out and chanting, "Loves me, loves me not," whenever she had a crush to see if they returned her feelings. More than often, to her past self's dismay, it would end in "Loves me not."

(This time, Alice would test the love her brother had for her.)

Alice pulled one petal out.

Loves me.

She pulled another.

Loves me not.

And she continued.

Loves me.

Love me not.

Loves me.

Loves me not.

Loves me.

Loves me not.

Alice's fingers lingered on the last remaining petal before pulling it and scattering the petals around her.

Loves me.