Poet's Jasmine

Chapter 5

Say Cheese

She didn't cry for long, no, she would never allow herself to. Or at least, that's what Mindy chose to believe. Her eyes hadn't poured rain since she was about... eight years old? Now, as much as she tried to fight it, she was finding it hard to stop.

It was as if years worth of misery had come crashing down to her. She was violently wiping her cheeks, and containing the sobs, but her body didn't seem to obey.

Think jasmine.

Mindy thought about the shy flower, to which she related so much. She purposely tried to make her thoughts have the same lilac tinge the flower had, in hopes it would calm her down.

Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine.

She had almost pulled herself together, but her mind was still elsewhere, vivid images of her mother filling her thoughts and clouding her vision.

She couldn't have noticed Ethan Reid walking towards her.

"Thewlis." He calmly said.

No response.

"Mindy Thewlis."

She kept walking, unaware.

"Hey Mindy, hey, stop."

At this her puffy eyes finally raised from the muddy toe-caps of her shoes, to meet Ethan's. When she came to her senses her eyes widened and she quickly swerved away from him and kept walking, this time in haste.

Jasmine, jasmine, jasmine.

"Mindy Thewlis - I do not know you, but if you're gonna cry it will not be in the middle of the rain."

Once again she did not bother to respond.

He walked closely behind her, much to her annoyance and embarrassment, and didn't let her lack of words stop him from continuing.

"Can you imagine how pointless that is? To cry in the middle of the rain is to cry in the middle of tears. How poetic. I can't let that happen."

Mindy thought she had gathered her feelings, but hearing such words hit her like shattered glass. She couldn't contain it for much longer.

Her whimpers were more and more noticeable, but she fought hard to hide them as she moved faster and faster.

"If you want to cry, you can't cry in poetry form. Let's do it ugly, the old fashion way. Let's do it with violent sobs and hiccups; even snot if necessary. Whatever it takes to pour it all out."

"I'm not even crying. And you don't know me; leave me alone." she finally said.

Who did he think he was? Ethan Reid. Adopted member of the Rutherford family! Mindy wanted nothing to do with the Rutherfords. Even if he wasn't actually related to them by blood.

And now he had the nerve to act as if he knew her? Invade her personal space, assume things about her? 

Mindy was beyond mad but she couldn't bring herself to express such anger. Instead she kept quiet, walking faster by the minute. 

She almost flinched when he spoke again:

"You are crying. You're crying in the rain - and that's beautiful - but beautiful is superficial and what you need to get out of you seems to be deeper than that. Crying beautifully won't help."

Mindy stopped abruptly. Had she heard right? It couldn't be. Not again, not again, it couldn't be another person throwing a random compliment at her, only to laugh in her face if she actually tried to believe it.