C O L O R S

W H I T E

Kris always wonders why days during vacation seem to be longer than days during school days. Everything people do is so tiring but the sun seems to be so fond of the sky that it takes so long for it to set.

He feels like they've been driving for days even without the ever popular heavy traffic along EDSA, making him yawn hard every time they will hit the red light.

"Do you want to get some flowers?" Kent asks him upon driving by a flower shop. Kris doesn't agree right away. He just stares at the flower displays outside the shop, thinking whom should he give it for. "Kris?"

"Sure," he says, finally coming up with an answer.

Extravagance fills his senses the moment he sets foot inside the shop. He's never fond of petals but seeing them in clusters, pots, bouquet, singles, corsages, and dozens make him drown in anticipation.

Colors.

That's all there is, reminding him of Rose, whose presence is still missing in action. One night he's decided that maybe he's forgotten about him so he has to move on, but then he sees that shop, and all of a sudden, he thinks of her.

"Anything of your choice, sir?" the assistant asks him so he darts his gaze around until it fixes to that common type of flower. "One in bouquet and one in singles," he says almost hurriedly, dismissing the assistant. He blows a breath of hair. He's still not used in talking to a stranger casually. He thinks it's being fake.

"Wow. That much?" Kent comments when Kris gets in the car, putting the bouquet of white roses on the back seat, and keeping the single with him. It reminds him of her, that's why.

He's noticed Kent is still looking at him, waiting for him to talk, but when he doesn't, he just starts the car and has decided to drop it off. Ever since his worst panic attack, his father has never really put pressure on him. Instead, he gives him his full attention, making sure he's always okay.

He believes him, yes he does. He believes he is really trying harder for their relationship to be better; to be back to normal. He just doesn't know if he will still be the same and stay that way after he speaks them the truth of what has really happened that one chaotic day.

Kris is wrapped in different sets of emotion when he arrives at home, and Rose is waiting for him on the front yard with an older guy that looks pretty much like her.

He feels uspet that he hasn't called him for weeks. He feels sad that they haven't gotten out some place ever since. He feels utterly happy just by seeing her so close to him, but at the same time he feels pained.

The older guy is the one who walks to him first, since Rose's back is against him---she hasn't seen him yet. "I'm Oleander, you must be Kris," Ole acknowledges, settling beside him, but his thoughts are only set to her.

"She told me she had two years," Kris says, though it comes out almost like a whisper. He doesn't want seeing her like that. He wants her to be laughing, standing on two feet and not sitting on a wheelchair with a small oxygen tank beside her. "What happened?"

"She skipped sessions of dialysis, a lot of times. One night she's drunken too much water that we had to rush her to the hospital. It has never been that good for her since then," Ole explains, his voice breaking, so he coughs in attempt to hide it away. "We can't find a donor."

"Take mine, then," he says almost abruptly, but Ole just lowers his head.

"It doesn't go that way, Kris," Ole explains again, being the older brother he is. "And even if you do, she doesn't want to take the operation. She thinks it will cost as much of everything. We respect her decision, as always."