Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

XV

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Dear Diary,

I was waiting at the airport for Suki. I got special permission from Soledad, because she felt bad about what happened. As long as I went with Suki's family, it was okay. We were waiting with flowers and a big green bear (Felix's idea), and Sebastian had a really big sign with blue sparkly letters that said WELCOME BACK SU and then ki in really tiny letters because he messed up.

I spotted Suki first, since it's hard for others to notice her for some reason, but immediately frowned. Her face looked sunken in, like she hadn't eaten in a week, and she was wearing the clothes she had on when she left, which hadn't been washed. Before I could point her out, Sebastian found her and started screaming and jumping up and down.

"THE RETURN OF THE KING!"

Suki jumped when she saw him and momentarily stopped walking to look at us, but then she took tiny, rapid steps our way. She stopped in front of us and looked at Sebastian's shoes. "Hi."

I held out some flowers. "We got you these." They were lilies, which I figured she'd like because of Claude Monet. I smiled softly when she saw them and took them from me. Her nails were bitten down to the beds, and they were bloody and raw. I didn't even know she chewed her nails.

"How was your visit?" Lisa asked excitedly. "We're all going to dinner, by the way."

"Where?" Suki asked, her voice much more monotone than usual. I stood next to her, frowning at her sallow appearance.

"Anywhere you want," Felix said. "Indian, Korean, Mexican- literally anywhere. We're all open."

She looked at me, but not really. She looked at my shoulder. "Where do you wanna go?"

"No, not me," I told her. "It's your decision."

"I don't have the energy to make a decision right now." I had no idea what had happened over the course of a week to make her so sad.

"Fine. Mexican or Thai?"

"I've never had Thai before, so... Mexican." I blinked. "I want something familiar."

"Cool! There's this great place down the street," Sebastian said. But then he put his arm around Suki's shoulders. "We should-"

She shoved his hand off and he stared at her. Her response was, "I haven't showered yet. I don't smell good."

Sebastian frowned. "You okay?"

"She's probably jet-lagged," Felix said. "That's a long flight. We rented a hotel last night anyways, so you can take a shower and put on clean clothes."

"Okay."

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Lisa and Felix sat on the terrace, chatting excitedly about their anniversary, which had just passed. Suki was showering. Sebastian and I were alone in the room.

"There's something wrong," I told him.

"Thank the gods," he whispered. "I thought I was the only one that noticed. What the hell happened?"