How Our Garden Grows

My Lily

Dear Lily,

I think the day we got our apartment was one of the most exciting days of my life up till then. We spent weeks looking for a place we could afford, and once we finally moved in, it was about a week before we'd finally managed to get all our stuff there, and another week until we were unpacked. I was so thankful that we both got into the same college; it made finding a place to live a hell of a lot easier. It was a small place with only one bedroom, and the bar space separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment tripled as a place to cook, eat, and study. We had our small couch against the wall by our bedroom door, the TV from my room at Mom and Dad's house sitting on a stand next to the window. We kept all our nerdy movies in that stand's drawers, and one whole wall of the apartment was lined with bookshelves where we put all our books, and I think a lot of our pictures ended up there too, somehow.

I'm not sure why I'm telling you this in a letter, since you live there and you know what our apartment looks like, but it feels like a good thing to talk about, since I'm running out of stories that won't be repetitive. I've told you most of the things I could think of that wouldn't be boring to hear a first time, but if I sat here and told you everything that had ever happened to us, we'd be here for ages.

"Hey, Dandelion, I'm home," I called as I walked through the door, hanging my coat and backpack on the hooks by the door. When I didn't get an answer, I started to get a little worried. That was, until I looked across the room and saw her fast asleep on the couch, head tipped back with her mouth slightly open. Theo the bear was tucked under her arm, one fuzzy paw held tightly in Dandelion's hand. I stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching her peaceful expression.

She opened her eyes sleepily and smiled over at me, stretching and setting Theo to the side.

"Did class go well," she asked.

"Yeah, it did. Did yours get cancelled?"

"Yeah. I thought I'd try to get some unpacking done while you were gone, but I found an old photo album, and I guess I fell asleep looking through it." She laughed. "I think I got all our books and movies put on the shelves though."

"That's more than I've done," I told her. Dandelion stood up and came over to me, giving me a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"You've done plenty. You carried in the heavy boxes, and helped me with all our furniture. With my noodle arms, I doubt I could've done it by myself." She stepped back and held both my hands in hers, looking around with a happy gleam in her eyes. "I can't believe we finally have our own place," she sighed. "It's like a dream come true."

"Did you find anything interesting? Besides the photo album, I mean."

"Yeah, I did!" she chirped, going over to a spot on the bookshelf I had thought was empty. "I found your Grandpa's record player," she told me happily. "I found some of his old vinyl records too, but I don't know how the player works. I was waiting for you to get home to try and figure it out."

"I can take care of it," I said, going to the bookshelf and picking a record. I set the vinyl on the turntable and placed the needle on the first groove, sending the record spinning. Pushing the coffee table against the couch, I bowed low and held out my hand. "May I have this dance," I asked Dandelion as a slow waltz started to flow out of the speakers. She laughed and placed her hand in mine, allowing me to spin her around.

"I had no idea you knew how to waltz," she said, watching my face rather than my feet.

"You learn something new every day."

We danced through the rest of the record, then pulling the coffee table back out before collapsing on the couch, laughing as the record stopped playing.

"Hey," she said, rolling over onto her side and looking at me. "Do you remember when we were in the library and we first started talking about music?"

I looked at her, her glasses crooked on her nose and her blonde hair floating around her head like a halo. Freckles still dotted her nose, matching the odd flecks of hazel in the deep green of her irises. I thought she was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen, and just then I was wondering how I didn't notice it the first time I saw her. It was because I was an absolute ass who couldn't see past the pain her was trying to deal with by shoving an over-inflated ego down everyone else's throats. Dandelion saw through all of that, somehow, and broke away the obnoxious outer shell I'd put up, turning me into a human being with a future again.

"Alex?"

"Yeah? Oh, yeah, I remember."

"You told me back then that you'd teach me how to play guitar if I taught you how to do math. I think I did a pretty good job teaching you math. I never got a guitar lesson."

I smiled at her, heaving myself to my feet. I got my guitar from its stand by the TV, sitting down on the couch and patting my lap. When she gave me an incredulous look, I rolled my eyes.

"I only have one guitar. It'll be easier to teach you if I can control your hands."

She rolled her eyes again before scooting over and pulling herself up onto my lap. I reached around her, setting the guitar on her legs. She was wearing a skirt again, and the smooth wood of the guitar was resting against her bare thigh.

"Just follow my fingers," I told her as I took her hands in mine and positioned them on the strings for the C chord, and told her to just strum the strings to make the right sound. "You're doing great," I promised her, leaning up to kiss the underside of her jaw, since it was all I could reach.

"Do you teach everyone this way?"

"Considering you're the only person I've ever taught, yes. Do you want to try playing a song?" She nodded. "Cool, just keep following my hands," I said, curling my fingers over hers.

While she was strumming, I changed our fingering to the G chord, then back to C, then to G again. Back to C and we changed quickly through A minor, E minor, C, F, and G. Using those chords, A7, B7, and D minor, we played through "Can't Help Falling in Love," as I quietly sang the lyrics.

"I really couldn't, you know," I whispered, setting the guitar to the side and resting my forehead on the back of her shoulder

"Couldn't what?"

"Help falling in love with you."

Dandelion laughed softly, resting her hands over mine where they were rested on her stomach.

"It took me some time," she whispered, twisting our fingers together. "But I couldn't help it either."