Roses are Red

By: Raven aka Shadowcat

A single, little drop is where it always starts. That first moment of shock that one feels when they awaken. The second time he was usually more prepared. Yet the third and fourth and fifth always came while he was still recovering from the second. Then suddenly they would congeal, a thousand drops with a single purpose, melting together like a river cascading down his soft skin.

He was lying on the riverbank, oblivious to the wetness of the grass. Crying. Tears poured down his face and he sobbed quietly to himself.

“Hey!” she called down to him.

Panicked that someone might’ve seen him crying, he froze instantly. Then his instincts kicked in and he hurriedly wiped the tears from his face, shot to his feet, and frantically looked around. She couldn’t help but giggle.

“Who are you?” he tried to call up to every tree at once, fear edging in on his voice.

She leapt down from a branch and landed behind him. He shrieked and fell backwards, slipping on the wet grass and landing between her feet.

She looked down and smiled warmly at him, “You can call me Kat.”

“Vi-Vivienne,” he managed, intensely embarrassed. She had short, untamed, black hair that made her silvery-blue eyes glow like the river behind her.

“Nice to meet you, Vivi!” she grinned, remaining unmindful of his clear view of her panties, much to his dismay. After a moment that he was too embarrassed to speak, Kat continued.

“What are you doing out here,” she mused, as if it weren’t a question.

By Vivienne’s reckoning, he should’ve been the one to ask that question, considering she was at least 14, making her a year or two older than him. However, her manners were hardly his primary concern. Taking great care to move horizontally first, rather then vertically, he removed his head from between her legs; only for her to plop down next to him anyways.

“Why were you crying?” she asked.

“I… I wasn’t crying!” he said angrily, turning his head away to hide his still red face. “What’re you doing here anyways?”

“Oh! Well, I live here,” she explained happily.

“Don’t you have any parents?” Vivienne asked.

“Nope!” she smiled. “Do you?”

“Of course I do!” Vivienne said, shocked. She certainly was strange; her eyes constantly darted from one place to another and she was covered with a light layer of dirt. She certainly wasn’t like anybody Vivienne had ever met.

“What are they like?” Kat asked, rocking herself back and forth.

“Well… my mom is very thoughtful, she gives me a dozen roses every night before I go to bed. I don’t really know my dad… he left when I was little.”

This got Kat’s attention, as she froze in place just as Vivienne had before.

“Oh. Um… look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say anything wrong…” Vivienne apologized frantically.

She remained frozen. Even her eyes stared blankly ahead. Then she seemed to spark to life and she leapt up. “Let’s go swimming!” she said happily.

Vivienne looked up, baffled. Kat quickly responded with her shirt, followed by her skirt, both of which landed squarely on his head. By the time he’d batted them off she had already leapt into the stream. His eyes got very wide then he quickly covered them, blushing profusely.

“Come on Vivi!” she called. “Hurry up!”

He stood up and walked to the edge, his eyes still covered, and shook his head. The splashing stopped. Slowly, Vivienne uncovered his eyes to find… nothing?

He looked around frantically, worried that perhaps she’d drowned herself or something. Out of the blue, she shot up out of the water in front of him like a python and dragged him in. He fell with a loud splash.

She began to laugh, holding him tightly, until she realized he wasn’t laughing with her. Slowly, she let go.

He looked at her as though she were very odd, and then dragged himself back out of the river. He crawled back where she’d found him and glared, dripping quietly.

She smiled back, “What’s wrong?”

Vivienne blinked several times before saying, “You really don’t get it, do you? You ruined my coat! Now they won’t let me into school!”

It was Kat’s turn to look confused, “Why do you care? I figured your mom could buy you a new one anyways.”

Vivienne figured she was probably right. “That’s not the point!” Again the drop came.

“Then what is the point?” she asked, still disarmingly happy.

Vivienne sputtered, “The point? The point?!”

The drop quivered on his cheek. His voice dropped to a murmur, “I don’t know what my point is.”

Kat reached up and caught the tear before it fell. Suddenly she was out of the water, and he was on her lap crying. It was the first time he’d cried with someone.

She held him tightly until his wails became short gasps. She kissed his cheek and then began to softly nuzzle off his wet coat. He reached up to his shoulder, and his hand held hers.

Vivienne looked up at her, smiling through his tears, small and defenseless. She didn’t know what else to do. She nudged his head up and kissed him.

After a moment he finally pulled away, startled but not frightened. Kat pulled off his jacket. He let out a small shriek.

Beneath his jacket he wore a short-sleeve button-up. All along his arms and shoulders were small red dashes, as though he’d been stabbed a thousand times. Some of them still bled.

Vivienne quickly snatched back his jacket, and covered his wounds.

“What are they?” Kat asked quietly.

“They’re just roses,” Vivi explained, pulling the jacket tighter around him.

Kat reached down and touched his cheek. "You're mother?" she asked gently.

Vivi looked away, tears still on the edges of his eyes. When he finally spoke again it was in rhyme,

“Roses are red,

But I am just blue,

I hate myself,

But I might love you.”