Petals In The Wind - a Myles Parrish story

Nuclear Bomb.

"Dude, I feel like this is gonna end badly." I said to Laura as we walked to the local cafe called Charlotte's Nest. I was supposed to meet Myles there to finish up our project, a little change of scenery since we'd been working in his basement for a week. I asked Laura to come along for back up since I obviously couldn't control myself. "It's not going to end badly," she reassured, "it's just a project. Plus I'm here. And it's in public. Give yourself more credit." I sighed. I didn't deserve more credit, honestly. I was a mess.

We finally made it to the cafe and I could see Myles sitting in the booth all the way in the back, sipping in something that had steam rising from its rims. It was getting a lot colder outside and I could see his red, glowing cheeks from where I was standing. Is it weird that I remember exactly what he was wearing that day? I actually remember every detail of that day. He had on a grey sweatshirt that had the word "Hyphy" across it in black letters. It was the first time I had ever seen him in a beanie, but it was black and it looked nice on him.

Laura and I stepped through the doors of Charlotte's Nest and were greeted by a warm burst of air and a ding from the door. I instantly began to warm up as I walked towards the booth were Myles was sitting. He turned around and smiled when he saw us. "Hey Mira, what's up Laura."

We both greeted him and then slid into the seat across from him. "Okay so all we have to do, it looks like, is finish the little details." I said looking at the paper. It was very beautiful if you ask me. It was a night sky, with thousands of stars, hanging above a cliff that stretched out. And there were two black silhouettes of people sitting on the edge of the cliff, their feet dangling, pointing at the stars.

It was quite poetic if you think about it. "Well," Myles said, " it could use some color. Did you bring the water colors?" I froze. I literally had one thing to do and I forgot it. "Uhm about that..." I stumbled, trying to look as innocent as possible. Myles rolled his eyes, "you had one job." I let out a sigh and then Laura cut in. "Wait do have paint brushes?" she asked, looking at Myles. He nodded and held them up. Then Laura turned to me. "Remember that time we were scrolling down tumblr and we saw that picture the guy painted with his coffee?" I nodded my head 'yes' and she kept going.

"And remember how you were so amazed that we stayed up all night learning how he did it?" I nodded my head once again, waiting for her to get to the point. Noticing that I was still oblivious to what she was talking about, she rolled her brown eyes at me. "Where are we right now?" she asked. "A coffee shop."

"And what did Myles bring?" I began to smile as I realized what she was getting at. "Paintbrushes." I whispered, and smiled at Myles. I ordered a cold water and dumped Myles' coffee into it. "Hey, I was still drinking that!" he protested, but I wasn't listening. "Shhh, okay this is how this works. We're gonna paint the cliff. For dark shades of brown, use the coffee left at the bottom of your mug. For light shades use the watered down coffee, got me?"

He sighed at his wasted coffee but nodded anyways and began to paint. It was super messy but it was fun. Our clothes were stained with coffee just like our paper but I thought it made us look artsy. Somewhere inbetween it all, Laura had snuck off to flirt with some guy sitting at the bar. I hadn't even noticed and I turned to ask her opinion but she wasn't there. Shrugging my shoulders, I turned to Myles. "Sooooooooo. How do you think it looks?" I asked glancing at our project. "A plus material if you ask me." he laughed and wiped his face with his sleeve. Once his arm withdrew, there was a line of coffee across his forehead. I burst instantly into to laughter and he looked at me, puzzled. "What?" he asked, confused obviously.

"Oh nothing," I managed to get out before laughing once again. "Come onnnnnn, Mira, I feel left out." Myles twisted his face into a pout, which added with his forever red cheeks, made him look insanely adorable. I gave in and patted the empty space beside me on the booth. "Fine, come here, I'll fix it." Loosening his frown, he got up and planted himself next to me. I grabbed a napkin and dunked it in a fresh glass of water that I forgot I even had. "Come closer," I said, grabbing his chin with one hand and attempting to wipe off the coffee with the other.

Myles let out a small laugh, "you look so determined." When he said that, I realized I was doing that thing where I bite my lip because I'm so determined. Slowly letting go of my lip, I let out a nervous laugh and continued to clean his face. "Sorry, you just have sticky coffee everywhere. Maybe if you weren't so pale, it wouldn't be so noticeable," I joked, earning a laugh from both of us. "Maybe if you weren't so cute I wouldn't have wiped coffee on my face to have an excuse to sit by you."

I looked down from his forehead to his eyes and just stared there. "Wait what?" I asked, my voice shaking. It was kinda weird because I was still holding his chin for some reason. I was frozen, basically, it was like I was caught in a trance. "You heard me," he whispered, searching my eyes for the emotions that were bubbling up inside. I tried my best to conceal them and remember how much I liked Kalin. Because I did. I really did like Kalin. So I stayed silent but I couldn't move, I tried, but I couldn't. Everything around me seemed like a blur. The noises, the people, everything. That's why I didn't hear Laura chanting "oh shit" in the background or Kalin screaming my name until Myles slid away from me. It took me a couple of seconds to get myself together but when I did, my face burned bright red.

I could hear everything. The people talking. Laura chanting. And Kalin, yelling. "Myles get the hell away from me! Mirlana, what the hell is going on?" I tried to stand up but my legs felt weak. What was going on? "Nothing, we came here to do an art project." I said, gesturing to the painting on the table beside me. He snorted, like he always did when he was mad. "That didn't look like a fucking art project. That looked like you were about to kiss Myles." He said, lowly but full of anger.

I jumped up, along with Myles to protest. "No!" I screamed. "Bro, it's not even.." started Myles. "He had coffee on his forehead." I explained. "She was just helping me." Added Myles.

Kalin remained silent, trying to decipher bullshit from the truth. But we were telling the truth. I took a step towards Kalin and embraced him in a hug. "I promise you nothing happened, Myles isn't shit to me except a friend okay, that's all it will ever be and that's all it ever was. Please don't leave. Please."

Kalin remained stiff and then wiggled out of my grip. Putting his hands up, almost like he was in surrender, he began to walk backwards towards the door. "I don't know man, I don't know. I'll hit you up ight?"

I immediately felt the tears flowing down my face. Let me get something straight right now. I liked Kalin. I liked him a lot. He meant the world to me and the second biggest heartbreak I ever had was when he walked out that door. And even though I have always refused to admit it, what happened next was the first place winner of heartbreaks.

I turned to Myles and saw his expression laced with hurt. "I don't mean shit to you?" he asked, taking a step back. I wiped my tears which was pointless because more kept coming down my face. "Myles, I didn't mean it like that, you're still my friend. Please don't leave too." I practically pleaded. He stepped closer to me and looked me in my eyes. He was so close, I could feel the hurt radiating off of him.

"I lost my best friend. Because of you. I broke up with my girlfriend. Because I didn't feel right. I didn't feel right loving you so much and staying with her. And you sit here. And in front of me. Tell me. That I don't mean shit to you? Then you have the nerve to ask me not to leave? You picked Kalin and honestly if you ever want him back, you'd want me to leave. You'd hate me right now. But you don't huh? Do me a favor and get your shit together."

I gasped. He broke up with his girlfriend? And for me? My head was spinning. Myles kissed my forehead, which made me cry harder, and walked out of the door. Instantly, Laura was there to pull me close to her. I clung to her and poured out my wet feelings onto her shoulder. I'm not sure how long we stood there. I'm not sure how many people were staring at us. I'm even sure what happened between the time Myles left and I ended up at home in my bed.

I just know it hurt. And I just know a guy like Myles can't come into my life without making an explosion. Whether it be a nuclear bomb or a firework.