Cassie D Clouds

To love with every fibre of your being, that's what he'd been taught. Never did he think this unconditional sentiment would lead to unrequited love, but that's where he was, surrounded by an array of different coloured flowers.

At first, they were bursts of pink petals, just here or there occasionally, he thought nothing of it. Then it got worse, whole flowers, still the bright pink he was used to. It became the norm, petals spluttering from his mouth when he coughed. No one questioned it, they'd all seen it before. They'd all lost close friends before. 

But this was the farthest any of them had ever seen. The flowers had changed completely, they weren't the same. Instead, they were different colours, weaved throughout his jaw and lips. They couldn't understand how he'd made it this far, how he hadn't opted for the easy way out, to just feel nothing.

He always just muttered something about 'never giving up on the ones he cared for' before coughing up an array of petals.

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"Have you ever bothered looking up what the flowers mean? They changed pretty quickly y'know, they used to just be pink." 

The man shook his head, "Why bother? It's not like it'll matter-" his lungs seized as he coughed the petals into his lap.

"Dude this isn't healthy. It could kill you."

"Yeah, why don't you just tell us who it is?" 

"I will suffer if it means my friends get to be happy and still have me to support them. Not everyone gets their happy ending, and I'm fine with that." 

"You won't be here to support us all if you die."

"And I won't have the capability to feel anything if I put my life first." he moved the small soft petals between his fingers.

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Intense pressure pushed against his chest, weighing him down. If I go, at least I lived a life full of love and gratitude. He blinked away tears as he lifted his arms only to be showered with flower petals. Hmph, geraniums, they may not know them but I do. A flower that represents foolishness, no matter it's colour. He swiped the petals off his face, forcing himself into an upright position. He brought a handful up to his eyes, wincing as his arms protested the sudden movement. 

Purple, that's new. He picked a petal out, it felt rougher than the pink and red ones he was used to. Near him his phone dinged and he dismissed the new petals without a second thought.

Zach

Hey bud, you still coming to the session or not feeling up to it today?

"Fuck." He muttered swiping the notification.

Yeah, sorry. Play a few without me. I'll be there soon.

We haven't started yet, was just checking in. 

A small smile graced his lips, a rare occurrence. He flung the cover off himself spraying petals all over the floor. I have to remember to clean that later. He made his way to the kitchen and made his coffee, I trail of flowers following him in his wake. 

"Oh. Hello. I don't believe we've met!" A voice chirped from the living area. 

He glanced over, noticing a woman sitting with a mug in her hands. "Oh hi."

"Landlord did say someone else lived here, and they regretted informing me that my roomie had a passion for gardening." She joked tilting her head to the trail of petals and flowers on the floor.

He hummed, almost a chuckle, "I wasn't informed you were moving in. I would've cleaned it up."

She laughed, "Honestly it's okay. I got lucky, mine is a little easier to hide than that." 

He tilted his head but didn't enquire further. She's still a stranger. I don't even know her name.

"Taryn. Uh I'm Taryn by the way."

"I'm -" a fit of coughs erupted from his lungs, he turned his head so the petals could fall into the sink. He grimaced at the sight of the pink, red and purple flower petals laying there, hints of blood splattered across them. 

"That's not good. Why haven't you gotten it treated yet?" he hadn't even realised that Taryn had made her way to the kitchen.

He opened a draw to his left, pulling out a small plastic bag. He collected the petals and shook his head, "If they do the procedure, I'll lose all my emotions. Not just for them but for all my friends. I don't want to lose the love I have for them. It's not fair." 

"Listen, I'm just some stranger who was given accommodation to share with you, but if I know anything about a terminal illness it's that the longer you leave it, the harder it is to cure, if it's possible to." she placed he cup in the sink and heading back out of the kitchen area.

"Max." He called over his shoulder.

"Huh?"

"My name, it's Max."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Max." She said before entering her room.

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"I'll be back in a minute chat, I'm gonna go grab another drink." He pushed his chair out spraying petals onto the floor. He sighed shaking head picking up his glass. He wandered to the kitchen and filled it.

"How's stream?" Taryn was sitting on the longue watching something on her laptop.

"No wig today?" He questioned taking a sip of his water.

She shrugged, "why bother putting on something itchy if I'm not going anywhere. You don't mind do you?"

He chuckled, "Listen if you can put up with that," He gestured to the petals trail as more fell off his arms, "than I'm sure that you not feeling like wearing a wig should be the least of your worries. As long as you're comfortable."

She hummed, focusing back on her screen.

He smiled, making his way back to his room.

He placed the glass down and put his headphones back on.

"He's still muted, do you think he's alright?" Chilled's voice chimed through.

"Chilled, seriously. He's dying. Physically not metaphorically." Cheesy replied, their ghosts were floating beside his player.

His eyes flicked toward chat where they were going crazy. They couldn't see him, he'd stopped playing with face cam months ago, he couldn't even remember how many anymore.

"What do you mean by "he's dying"?"

Cheesy scoffed and Max could just imagine the scowl on his face, "He's one of your best friends and you don't even know what his health is like. He's been throwing up bouquets of flower petals for almost a year now Anthony." Oooo, now he's in trouble, Cheesy never uses our names on stream. "But you wouldn't know that because beyond these lobbies you don't talk to him anymore apparently."

He bit his lip, it wasn't that Chilled hadn't tried to talk to him. He had, but he couldn't bring himself to call or any of that. Too scared he'd say something stupid and ruin their friendship.

"Wah. I do talk to him. We were literally talking three days ago. We often talk Cheesy." He sounded offended, Max was sure neither had their face cams on at this point.

Cheesy scoffed again, "Right. Well then you'd know that he hasn't left his house in a month right-"

The sound of someone undeafening interrupted Cheesy's sentence, "Guys this is not the place to be having this conversation in front of three, by the looks of it, chats full of viewers. Platy's private life is not their business unless he wants it to be." Kara's voice came through before the deafening noise came back through the feed.

He unmuted his mic, "Oh shit, didn't realise we started. Sorry guys. Went to get some water."

"You're not dead-" the animation played across the screen, Platy killing himself. 

"Looks like your lover died."

"Motherfucker." Kara's voice joined the feed.

He glanced at his roles, investigator. Whatever, boring role. "Sorry I missed the round, went to get water."

"We figured you were afk after the first round, it's fine."

"Who got you?"

Kara snorted, "My imp partner. Warlocked Ze, killed me through him."

"Rough man," Platy replied, glancing at chat again. "I think this will be my last one, I'm not really feeling great."

"Awe, that's okay. Thank you for coming anyway. I'm sure Court will be happy to cover if she's still available." Kara replied.

The round ended with the Jester winning and Max said his goodbyes, before leaving the call and ending stream.

His phone dinged a few times, the screen illuminating the dim lit room. He sighed, picking it up.

CheesyBlueNips

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ChilledChaos

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KaraCorvus

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