Black Roses {Skephalo}

Day Four

————— 27 days remaining —————
Thursday, January 4th, 9:35 am
Status 1: stage 1 - Blush
Status 2: stage 2 - Skye

                                ~~~

-Darryl's POV-

Zak didn't come to the coffee shop this morning. He's said he wouldn't for the next couple of days, but didn't specify why.

I can't help but feel like it's because of me.

It must've been what I said. I asked him something I really shouldn't have.

Why did I have to be so nosey...

~flashback time~

When I first open the notebook, I see what looks like a diary. Being the illogical and desperate person that I am, I read through the pages to try and find out if Zak returns my feelings. Hanahaki is caused by feeling one-sided love, that doesn't mean it is one-sided.

I don't have to read that much to find what I'm looking for. Or rather, what I dreaded was there.

January 1st

Dear diary (or notebook or whatever this magical thing is),

I'm not sure why I'm writing like this. It's just, I can't help but feel like this book is meant for me. It does have my name on it after all, so it only feels right to address it like I would my diary.

The reason I'm writing to it, or you, or whatever the hell this book is. (Fuck do magical books have genders? I'll use 'it')

I laugh hysterically at his comment. I can just imagine the confusion on Zak's face as he wonders out loud what gender book identifies as. At least he's a considerate muffin.

Is because this book has practically brought this 'hanahaki' thing with it. I'm just minding my own business, then a magical pair of notebooks appear and I magically have hanahaki. There's a rose on the front of the book, and I puke roses.

I'm not that dumb.

Either way, maybe writing about my crush will stop the hanahaki? I'm not sure at this point, I'm probably just delusional and desperate.

Well here goes nothing.

I take a deep breath, praying that his crush is me. The writing from this point onwards looks a little messy, scribbled-out words everywhere. It looks like it was hard for him to write.

I have a crush on this boy. His name... well... I'm just going to refer to him as 'he' incase anyone reads this I don't want to read it.

I feel guilt reading that last line. I am invading his privacy, but I really need to know. It's effectively a matter of life and death.

Him and I have been friends for a long time. We talk everyday, for hours on end...

My stomach quite literally drops. Zak and I haven't known each other for long, and we don't speak for hours a day.

His crush isn't me.

The sick feeling rises in my stomach, hurting a lot more than last time. I drop the now glowing book on my bed and sprint towards my bathroom.

The flowers come before I expected, spewing out of my mouth and spraying the bathroom in spots of blood. I cough out some petals, noticing something new.

The petals are larger, now just a little larger than a normal-sized rose petal. The petals I coughed up yesterday were less than half the size.

How did it get so bad so quickly?!