She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not....

Daffodils

So, the image at the top is the source of my inspiration for this story! I'm glad I found it, cause I honestly love writing this story, and I hope you guys like reading it. :) And a warning for this chapter, a LOT of blood and flowers, especially the flowers. The flower types will vary every chapter! So that's something to look forward to. I hope you like flowers. Oh, and one more thing. The flowers have special meanings to them, so be on guard for that. :D Now, onto the story!

It was a slightly cold morning, with a slight drizzle, the remainder of the pouring rain last night. It was a bit foggy, with mist hanging low in the air. There was a slight breeze then and there. The sun was barely visible, but it was still a rather bright day.

Budo woke up feeling like complete crap the next day. He was sweating badly, and had a temperature. "Probably a cold because of the rain yesterday," he muttered to himself, and got up. "Great..." he whispered in the end. He washed his face and got ready for the day. Then he started coughing. His throat felt dry and because of that, coughing was painful. He coughed into his palm, and was startled by what he saw. A few bright yellow daffodils were laying frail in the palm of his hands. They had a bit of dark red blood coated on them as well. Budo didn't know what to do. One thing, he woke up with a cold, the next thing he knew, he coughed up flowers and blood. 'What's going on?' he questioned himself, even though he didn't know the answer. He started coughing again, and even more blood and daffodils came out of his mouth. "Budo, you awake yet?" he heard someone ask from the other side of the door. From the sweet, caring voice he recognized that it was his mom."Uh, yeah," he said and started to go into another coughing fit. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Y-yeah, it's just a cold," he answered. "Okay, well when you're ready, come downstairs for breakfast," his mom said, and went down the stairs.

Budo tried to contain his coughing, and then opened the door and went downstairs. There, he saw his mom waiting for him by the table. "Budo! You look so pale!" she exclaimed. "I told you, its just a cold," he said. "I told you to bring an umbrella to school, and you didn't listen," his mom argued. "Well, its fine, and-" he stopped his sentence and sneezed. He wiped his nose, then sneezed again. All the while, his mom was watching worriedly."Maybe we should go to the hospital, you've never been this sick before," she said. "No! I mean.... I don't need to go there, its just a cold, that's all, why waste time for that," he made up an excuse. His mother considered what he said, and then said," fine, but be careful, okay?" Budo nodded, and the pair sat down to eat. Then his father rushed down the stairs, and grabbed a piece of toast. "Bye dad," he said to him. His dad said goodbye to them too, and rushed out the door to work. The pair sat in silence, and ate their breakfast. Budo only picked at his food like before, as thoughts were swimming through his head. His mom sat there worries at why her normally enthusiastic son was acting like this. "Budo...." she started, but she didn't know what to say. Budo stopped messing with his food, and got up from the table."Budo! Where are you going?" His mother asked. "I'm not really hungry," he told her and started up the stairs. "Budo... stop," she firmly ordered. The martial artist stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that when his mom was speaking in that tone, she was angry. And when she's angry, you didn't want to mess with her. "Listen, what's wrong?" She asked. "I...it's nothing," Budo muttered. His mother sighed, and began to speak again. "Sweetie.... you can tell me anything, I'm your mother," she told him. The male gulped, he didn't want to keep secrets from his mom. But he didn't know what was going on right now, and if he told her, he would just worry her. Budo managed to put on a believable fake smile. "I'm fine, really!" he said. "I wouldn't lie to you," he finished. Budo's mother smiled. "Well I'm glad, but try to stay put for the day, you have quite a cold and I don't want you to get even more sick," she told him. Budo ran up to his room, jus as he felt another coughing fit coming on. His throat felt pained, and he saw even more daffodils coated with blood. The amount of blood had increased, and so had the flowers. After the coughing calmed down, he looked around his room to find that there were a load flowers and blood on the floor. He cleaned up the red substance, and stuffed the flowers into a drawer. He laid down onto his bed and sighed. "What am I going to do?" he asked himself. "What's even going on?!" he silently questioned, no one to answer his question for him.

A few minutes later, Budo heard someone answer the front door. There was a muffled chat, a bit of laughter and then someone rushed up the stairs. Budo assumed that it was Sho, as he was the only one who would come to his house at 8:00 in the morning. And if his theory was right, Sho wouldn't knock on the door, instead barge in. Budo jumped up and tried to get his normal attitude back so that Sho wouldn't suspect anything. As he thought, Sho burst in through the door. "Hey Budo!" he shouted and tackled Budo into a hug. "Wow, I didn't know you missed me so much!" Budo said, and tried to maintain his normal manner. "Can you.... let go...of me now?" Budo asked, struggling to get breath. "Oh, sorry!" Sho apologized, and let go of him. Budo finally managed to get his breath back. "Lets go," Sho said and dragged Budo off. "Where are we going?" the martial arts master asked. "To my house! I gave you a message yesterday that I was coming to your house, remember?" Sho said. Budo thought about it. He couldn't remember anything after school from yesterday, his heart ached when he remembered about the series of events. "Um, okay," Budo agreed as they said goodbye to Budo's mom, and left the house.

"You don't seem like yourself today," Sho said, as soon as they started walking to his house. "What?! I don't know what you're talking about! Budo exclaimed, worried if he was found out. Sho looked towards him with a bewildered expression. "Um... okay?" Sho said. The two walked in an awkward silence to Sho's house. "So what did you want to show me?" Budo asked when they entered the house. Sho smiled. "Well, I got this new game console, and I wanted someone to play with!" Sho enthusiastically told him. "Oh, well I guess I can do that!" Budo said and tried to get his usual cheery attitude back. The two boys went up to Sho's room, and Sho turned on his console. They started the game, and got ready to play. Just then Budo started coughing, and he felt the flowers in his throat. He swallowed it back, and smiled at Sho, as he didn't want to arouse suspicions. But he started coughing again, and he felt even more flowers clogging up his throat. "Um, I need to go to the bathroom," Budo barely managed to say and ran off, leaving behind a flustered Sho.

When he got to the bathroom, he immediately coughed out the bouquet of daffodils into the toilet. He continued coughing for a while, and then he washed his face to get rid of some blood at the corners of his mouth. He flushed the daffodils away, then put on a fake smile and left the bathroom. "Okay, I'm back!" Budo said and sat down beside his best friend. Sho just stared at him worriedly. "Are you sure you're okay?" Sho repeated his earlier question. "Uh, yeah of course!" Budo answered. "But you seem a little different..." Sho continued. "How?" the martial arts master asked his disciple, anxious if he had found out. "Well, first off..." Sho stopped and touched Budo's sweating forehead. "You're sweating like mad," Sho said. "And you have a temperature," he finished. "I- um... I have a cold," Budo lied. Well, it was only a half lie, he probably does have a cold, but that's not the problem. The problem was the flowers that he was constantly coughing up. As if to mock him, he felt his throat itchy again, and he knew that he was about to go into another coughing fit. "I need to go," Budo said and ran to the bathroom again. But Sho stopped him. "I need more answers first, don't try to escape with that stupid excuse." Sho sternly said. He sounded like he was serious, and Budo got the feeling that he was really worried about him.

He managed to keep the flowers at bay for a while, and he sat down to talk to Sho. "You seem down, did something bad happen?" Sho asked, the worry vivid in his words. "No, nothing happened," Budo replied, and gulped again to get rid of the flowers. "You know that I don't believe you, right?" the martial artist said. Budo sighed. "Look, you can tell me anything, I'm your best friend!" Sho said, as he put his hands on Budo's shoulders. He trusted Sho, but he couldn't tell anyone about this weird syndrome that he caught. Not his mom, not his dad, not even his best friend. "I-," Budo started but he felt like coughing again. "I need to go," Budo said, jumped up and ran. Sho didn't stop him this time.

"If it keeps up like this, Sho will find out in no time," he muttered to himself. He returned back to his friend. "Wanna continue playing the game?" Budo asked. Sho looked at him, disappointed that his friend wouldn't trust him. Then he saw a bit of a red liquid at the tip of his mouth. "What's that?" the brown haired male asked, wiped it with his finger and then examined it. Budo realized that he hadn't washed his face, and there was still blood on his face. "Ah, that's.... um...." Budo tried his best to make up an excuse. "Its blood, isn't it?" Sho questioned. Budo froze. 'Sho was going to find out soon anyway, its probably best if I come clean now,' he thought to himself. He sighed and bit his lip, nervous about how Sho was going to react."Fine." Budo started. "I'll tell you what's going on." Budo told him.