Flowers

If there's one thing that Melody hates, it's thunderstorms. But if there are two things she hates, the other one would have to be when you treat her like a "girl".

Or so she says. Last time you bought her some flowers when she was going through a rough patch in high school, she kicked your ass for it. But the next time you went to her house, you caught a glimpse of those flowers in a vase in her room. She had moved quickly to hide them from view, but it was too late. You know that, even though she will never ever admit it, deep down she actually likes it when you dote on her like that.

Besides, this is the first time in a long time when you are both simultaneously single. It seems like as soon as you sorted out your feelings toward your best friend, it has never been the right time to advance the relationship. Now might be a good time to start planting some seeds and start dropping some hints. Since her relationship with Keith exploded so violently with his cheating, all your years of of faithful friendship is going to make you look good in her eyes. You can probably make the work toward you advantage.

You immediately stop this disturbing line of thought and mentally slap yourself. Jesus Christ, you groan inwardly. Just listen to yourself. You are trying to strategically use your best friend's pain and sorrow for your own advantage. This is playing exactly to the worst of people's expectations of you. Maybe this isn't such a hot idea...

No, you want to cheer her up. This will cheer her up. You focus yourself on that fact and try to keep the Machiavellian plotting out of your head. You saunter over to the small display of flowers and look over the stock. Roses are a little too on the nose, so you choose a bouquet of white and blue flowers of various types. It looks very classy and doesn't give off an particular vibe beyond thoughtful gesture. Exactly what you need; something to show you care without being presumptuous about the romantic intentions you are trying hard to mask. Just friendly flowers from a friend. And if she happens to be so bowled over by your thoughtfulness that she decides to immediately shower you with kisses and sex, that's just a bonus.

Yup. What could possibly go wrong?

You put the flowers back and take them back out 3 or 4 times before finally deciding to man up and just get the damn things. You bring them over to the counter and plop them down with the ice cream before you wuss out. The teenage cashier looks at the flowers, then back at you.

"Flowers for a young lady friend, huh?" She asks coyly.

"Don't even." You say quickly. "Just ring them up, okay?"

"Okay, Lothario." She laughs. "Want to add an inscription on the tag?"

"There's a tag?" You ask. You hadn't noticed that before. Sure enough, there was a little card hidden in the flowers. "Umm...okay." You say. "How about...'To my best friend - I will always be there for you'."

"I think I can make that fit." She pulls the cap off her pen.

"Wait!" You say suddenly. "Make it...make it..." You stutter a bit, unable to believe you are about to say this. "Make it out to...'The most important person in my life'." Your face heats up a bit.

"Uh-huh." The cashier says simply, raising an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Yes, do it." You say quickly.

"All righty." She starts writing. "That will be $15.00"

"Yeah, yeah." You hurriedly push some cash across the desk, grab the bag with your goods in it and head back out into the rain. You cannot believe you just bought flowers with a sappy inscription for Melody. And now, the long walk back to second guess yourself and contemplate all the ways this can go wrong. Oh joy.

You pick up the pace and scuttle back as quickly as you can. The ice cream at Hennesey's is always kept really cold, so it shouldn't melt too much on a cool night like this, but it is still a long walk back. Besides, a faster run helps keep your mind off of your decision.

It's a long, uphill brisk jog back to the dorm, but you manage to make it in a half-hour. You are panting wearily as you enter the warm, dry building. Scott and Dirk are no longer on the couch; in fact, the dorm seems particularly dead, which is strange for a weekend. You slowly walk up the final flights of stairs back to your room.

You walk up to the door and grab the knob when you hear some noises. Is that...giggling? It sounds like two voices in there. You double-check to make sure you are at the right room; you hadn't expected to hear Melody laughing after the night she had. And who is in there with her?