A Rose with All its Thorns
“I don't know why you're so angry, Annie,” said Gabriella, all enthusiastic. “It's Valentine's Day, for God’s sake, love is in the air!”
“That's precisely the reason for my anger. Today's the phoniest day of the year. On second thought, second-phoniest day of the year. Christmas is more fake than valentine's.” said Annie with her usual cynical voice.
Gabriella sat next to her and started caressing my head, “Oh, Annie… Do you regret breaking up with Nicolas?”
Annie slowly turned her head, giving her the best death stare she could and said, “Bitch please, he's lucky to have dated me for more than four months. Even if he'd still be my boyfriend, it wouldn't change my feelings on this day. It is just a stupid capitalist festivity made by greedy corporations to increase their sales after the Christmas decline in consumerism.”
“Ok, I get it. Not a fan of Valentine's Day. Bummer…”
Gabriella continued, “Well, recess isn't going to last forever, and I still got chocolates to collect, so I'll see you later.” She stood up to walk out of the room, but returned to hand Annie something.
She pulled a blood-red rose out of her bag and gave it to Annie, “I didn't know you hated Valentine's Day before I bought this rose for you, so could you do me a favor and begrudgingly accept it? It would look pretty in your room…”
Annie slightly laughed and accepted her friendly gesture, “I guess it's still a pretty flower, even detached from all the Valentine bullshit.”
“Exactly. See you later, love.” Gabriella gave Annie a kiss on her cheek and ran out of the classroom.
Annie began fiddling with the rose Gabriella gave to her, but she didn't notice all the thorns it had and nicked her finger.
“Ouch… Stupid rose!” and throws it across the room.
The bell rang across the school grounds, bringing an end to a day filled with classes. Annie & Gabriella gather their stuff to leave the classroom when a shy, scrawny, fair skinned teen with angular eyebrows, a cleft chin and large, light-brown eyes approached her, “Eh… Hi, Annie… I-I'm Joan. H-How's your Valentine's Day going so far?”
Annie didn't pay him any attention and continued to gather her stuff, “For such a shallow day, it hasn't been that bad. Actually, scratch that, I got cut by a dumb flower.”
Joan nervously looks down at the ground, “No way. That sounds crazy…” Gabriella picks up on Joan's vibe and tries to help him out, “That is because it is, Joan. It was barely a scratch, and besides, if you weren't so rough with it, you might've appreciated it.”
“That's just another thing I hate about Valentine's Day. Anyway, I've had enough of this conversation, so goodbye,” She grabs her backpack and heads out the door.
“Wait!” Joan quickly grabs her hand in desperation. “I, uh… W-Would you like to go on a date with me?”
Annie looks at him confused, “What would make you think I--” But before she could say the wrong thing, Gabriella intervened, “Yes! She'll totally go out with you. How about this Saturday? Is Saturday good for you?”
“Y-Yeah, sure,” Joan responded excitedly. “Great. This Saturday at 6:30 Agora Mall. Y'all can walk around, eat, talk and do some shopping all in one location,” said Gabriella. “That's awesome. I look forward to Saturday then, goodbye,” Joan left the classroom and couldn't help to have the biggest smile on his face.
That isn't the expression on Annie's face though, she's going through numerous emotions right now, but happiness isn't one of them, “What the hell, Gabriella! What was that about?” “Annie, as your closest friend, trust me when I say this, this is good for you. Whatever you got going on with men and hating love, there's only two ways to solve it. One of them is going to therapy, but who wants to be the 17-year-old going to therapy for toxic romantic relationships. And the other way, the easier way, is dating a nice guy with good intentions to wash out all those bad experiences. Now let's go to your house and start looking for what you will be wearing on Saturday.”
I wanted to say something that'd refute Gabriella's point, but I had nothing. What she said cut to my core at that time and made me feel self-conscious about how I'd been behaving, so I went along with it.
The days leading up to the date were quite unremarkable to be honest, but the anticipation was killing me so when Saturday came around I was a sweaty, nervous mess, “Wow… You look beautiful. Black really suits you.” said Joan so genuinely that it made me feel somewhat bad that I had put no thought to my outfit apart from to avoid sweat stains, that's the opposite of dressing to impress.
“T-Thank you, that's nice of you to say. You look good, too,” I said. “Oh, this old clothes. My mom helped me pick this ensemble actually, she thinks I don't have any fashion sense at all,” Joan said.
“So, what you wanna do first, do you want to eat, you feel like walking around, or do you have to buy something?” he asked, turning in circles with his hand to his forehead like a sea captain looking for land. “Let's walk around the mall and see where we go from there.”
We walked and talked and laughed all around the mall until the night came, and it was passed my curfew. We decided that it was time to head home after both of our parents had called us up multiple times asking when are we returning home. As we were waiting for our Ubers to arrive I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind since Joan asked me out on Valentine's Day, “Hey, Joan, why did you ask me out? Like, why me? We didn't know anything about each other until today. In fact, I didn't even know you existed until you approached me on Monday. No offense.”
Immediately after I said that I felt bad, 'cause he might take it as me saying “I didn't enjoy this at all, thanks to you, I lost a Saturday.” And it couldn't be farther from the truth, I really did enjoy myself.
Joan took a moment to answer my question, and what he said really took me aback. It showed me he was different from everybody else. He said, “Have you ever had the feeling you're drawn to someone? And it isn't anything they could've said or done?”
When he said that it really left me pondering, but my Uber had arrived, so we'd to leave that conversation for another day. I said goodbye to him, thanked him for the good time and went on my merry way. I got home and Gabriella immediately texted me asking how it went. I simply texted, “You were right.” I laid down in my bed and closed my eyes thinking, feeling that things are about to change.
“Oh, c'mon, Gabby, don't be mad. You can hang out with me and Joan. We'll be your Valentines,” said Annie lovingly.
“I don't know what makes me madder, that I don't get a date for Valentine's Day, or that this time last year you professed your hate for this very day,” said Gabriella annoyed.
“Yeah, I can't believe it either. Who knew love could make you so optimistic,” said Annie. “It's all thanks to you, Gabby.”
“I knew. And you're welcome,” said Gabriella.
Annie smiled.
“By the way, Joan asked me to give you these roses and box of chocolates since he's not coming to school today,” said Gabriella as she hands Annie her present.
“Aw!” Annie cried. “He's so sweet.”
“Yeah, he's a national treasure,” Gabriella said. “I'm gonna go to the cafeteria and buy myself some chocolates. Later.”
I sat alone at my desk surrounded by all these roses and chocolates, getting this weird sense of fulfillment. I picked one of the roses out of the bouquet, started fiddling with it, and it made me think of one thing, “A rose without its thorns.”