Chapter 1: Colette

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  I pack my stuff into boxes, and I look over at Brett. His eyes are scanning through the cardboard boxes marked "books". He picks one up, it's Romeo and Juliet. The infamous star-crossed lovers.

  "Wow Colette, I didn't know you could read," he teases.

  "Well, I can read as well as you can play. Interpret it however you like," I smirk.

  He clutches his chest playfully, and shock and betrayal floods his face, his features curving and molding to match his faux mood. I laugh at his silliness. It's truly a blessing to be able to be friends with a person like Brett. However, the daunting wonderment of how long more I get to see this, to see him, it's always a damper. My condition's getting worse by the day, and the doctor says it may be just a few more years before I... 

  I try and shake the thought of death out of my head. At least I have a few years left, and now I get to take charge of my life and live however I want to live it, instead of how society dictates we have to live, with a full-time job and "formalities" as such. 

  "Thank you for helping me pack Brett," I smile at the brown-eyed boy.

  "No worries Collie. Where's your boyfriend anyway?" He asks, and I detect a hint of something in his voice.

  "Wallace is overseas with his company, I can't ask him to give up a million-dollar contract just to help me pack, can I?" I defend him, albeit a little reluctantly. I haven't seen him in a month, and he's all the way in Germany. I miss him, like any girlfriend would.

  "I don't know about him, but if I were your boyfriend, I'd be here for you 24/7, especially since you're sick now," he says as he takes the hangers off some of my clothes.

  I blush. I know we've joked about this before, the relationship thing, given our 12 year long friendship, but I just can't help but feel a swarm of butterflies fluttering about in my stomach.

  "It's just a little cough, I'm not that sick," I lie. He's noticed that I've been coughing a whole lot lately, especially when I'm around him, and while I'd love to tell him the truth, it's a lot harder than it appears. I could only disguise it as a regular, common cough, but little does anyone know, it's much deeper than that.

  The urge to cough rises inside me as I feel my throat getting gently tickled. I run to the bathroom, and I definitely wouldn't have made if I hadn't made a mad dash for the bathroom. Flower petals escape me, and they float around in the air for a second before they land and scatter all over the tiled floors. I scoop up the blue petals with my hands and toss them into the bin.

_

  "Miss Tang, I'm afraid you have a developed a very rare disease. It's called the Hanahaki disease, and it causes the sufferer to cough up flower petals. Your x-ray shows flowers and roots growing in your lungs, as you can see here," Dr Turner says as he points to my x-ray, his index finger gestures over the black film.

  "What? Is this some kind of joke? How can flowers grow in your lungs?" I ask in disbelief. It's barely April, it can't possibly be an early April Fool's joke. Plus, I pay him good money for a diagnosis, and this is what he gives me? I mean, I've been coughing a whole lot lately, and I'm suspecting that it's pneumonia or something, but flower petals? Come on.

  "I'm sorry, Miss Tang, but it's a real disease. It's a chronic illness that stems from psychological problems of the sufferer, and it grows into a physical condition. It's very rare, hence I understand that it sounds very unbelievable. It happens when one is so in love that they start growing flowers in their lungs, usually cherry blossoms, rose petals or the first flowers that the unrequited love ever gives them, even out of goodwill. They will keep growing, until one day, when your lungs cannot keep up with expelling the high amounts of carbon dioxide, you will..." he says grimly.

  I stare at him in shock. If this is really a joke, then he's gone too far. 

  "Miss Tang, have you been expelling flower petals when you cough?" 

  I think back to that one time when I coughed and I saw some heart-shaped flash of blue in my hand, but I thought that was just a leaf or something because I happened to be standing under a tree. 

  Hang on a minute... did he say unrequited love? He's definitely kidding me.

  "How can that be? Firstly, I have a boyfriend, and I'm pretty sure he's the love of my life," I spit.

  I love Wallace, and this man... this supposed "doctor" is questioning me about it? How could he?

  "And secondly, no one's ever gave me flowers with these heart-shaped petals before."

  I think back to all the Valentine's days and birthdays. Carnations, roses, baby's breath, but never these weird petals.

  "Thirdly, I think you're just trying to cheat me of my money, and this just sounds like some made up disease a Japanese writer invented to make profits," I scream as I leave the room.

  I throw some money on the receptionist's counter as I drive home angrily. How dare he? I'm a 24 year old woman, how can he trick me like I'm some teenager?

_

  But when I got home that day 2 year ago, I found out that it was real. There were blog posts and websites and everything. I also found out hat the only cure to Hanahaki is either for the unrequited love to return my affections, or to get surgery to remove the flowers. But the surgery means that I would never love that person again. I didn't want to risk forgetting about anyone in my life, especially since I didn't even know who that special someone was, so I just lived with it. It got worse and worse, especially when the coughs got more frequent and I actually coughed out flower petals. Dr Turner referred me to the best psychologist he knew to try and cure me, but to no avail.

_

  "Kiss me," I say to Wallace after I slam my laptop down in fear after doing my research.

  "Okay, you weirdo," he smiles as he gently presses his lips against mine.

  When we pull apart, I feel a strong force pressing against my chest, and it's traveling up my throat like a tidal wave. I run to the toilet, and I kneel on the over the toilet bowl, throwing up at least a small garbage bag's worth of petals.

  No. This can't be. Wallace isn't the one. He isn't the one unrequited love. But if he isn't, who is?

_

  I tried to brainwash myself into thinking that he is the one that I'm in love with, and my therapist said that perhaps one way of curing Hanahaki, is to trick myself into thinking that he's the one. He said that there might be a possibility that it can be damaging to my mental health, but he wasn't sure as he never had experience dealing with this before, and not many therapists and psychologists have either, hence no books or reference materials except for those cases when people got cured by making their unrequited love fall for them. 

  I didn't care though. One, because I've got a wonderful boyfriend and I don't want to let this relationship go down the drain, and two, because I have no idea who that "unrequited love" could possibly be, ironically. There are just too many men in my life that I love and have loved. Maybe I suppressed my feelings too hard, but I really couldn't feel any love for any other man but Wallace. I threw myself into loving him, and only him, but it only got worse and worse. Dr Turner said that I might have lost a year doing that, but I just can't seem to let him go. He loves me, and firstly, it would break him to find out that I have this disease. Secondly, it would break him even more to find out that he's not my one true love, because my body is physically rejecting him. Even if he isn't the one, I still don't want to hurt him. Also, what if I let him go and I lose my one shot of a cure? I can't let that happen. I don't know who else there is for me, romance-wise. I do feel tinges of love for Brett, but I'm sure it's because we've been inseparable for 12 whole years, and maybe when I had a small crush on him about 9 years ago back in middle and high school, but it's already long faded. Plus, he's in a relationship with this girl Diana, she's a pianist who plays in our orchestra, and they've been dating for about 5 months now.

  "Hey Colette, you there? I found a questionable box, and I'm not sure if I should open it!" Brett yells out from my room, pulling me out of my reverie.

  "Coming!" I yell back as I cough again. The petals go everywhere. I briefly sweep them up with my hands and throw them in my trash can. He doesn't know that I have this disease yet, and I don't want him to get worried.

  I walk into my room to see him holding a cream-colored box. It's the box that I use to put mementos and special little things. Cards, letters, and special little knick-knacks from Wallace and some good friends. There might even be a few things from Brett, maybe I'll let him open it to give him a little surprise. I do like it when he smiles. His eyes positively glow.

  "Go for it," I grin.

  "Yay!" He squeals as he pries the box open gently, like a child on Christmas morning.

  "Wow, you have a lot of stuff in here. Is this a hair clip with googly eyes on it? Oh, I remember this. You kept it," he smiles as he holds up a shriveled stalk of something with a card attached to it.

  I peer over to look at it. It's a rose that I pressed to preserve it. It's all shriveled up now, but it's still really gorgeous. I remember clear as day what the card says.

  To my favorite girl Colette

  Happy Valentine's day!

  Your favorite guy Brett

  It was from Valentine's day, 2 years ago.

_

  "Hey Col, come here, I have something to give you," Brett says as he holds his hands behind his back.

  Oh boy, I hope it's not a rubber snake or anything. He's a prankster after all, and I've been known to be a victim. I walk up to him cautiously.

  "Hold out your hands," he grins.

  I have no choice but to do so, or he might tackle me down and tickle me until I'm close to asphyxiation. I stretched my hands out nervously. Please don't let it be a rubber snake, or a tarantula, or a creepy-crawly. 

  He gently plants a rose into my hands, and I smile. How sweet of him.

  "Happy Valentine's day, Col. Don't read too much into it. I don't want Wallace to get jealous," he smiles, but it turns slightly sour upon mentioning Wallace's name. Or maybe I'm too sensitive.

  The rose a beautiful rose with light blue petals, and it gets darker until it becomes this brilliant purple shade at the bottom.

  "Thank you Brett," I smile, "Don't blue roses mean eternal friendship or something?"

  It seems like he was hesitating to say something, but he smiles and says, "Sure, why not?"

  I bet he knew that I was upset because we have a Valentine's day concert tonight, and Wallace couldn't make it because he's abroad. Brett's such a sweet friend.

  I look into the box, and I find scattered and shriveled rose petals everywhere. They are heart-shaped and the blue has faded, but I somehow, I can remember vividly the color of the petals, they look remarkably similar to... no, it can't be. He's just a friend.

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