"What do you mean by that! Of course, I'm ready! Besides he's a great guy-super nice, my parents like him, he makes me laugh. And he's cute! Get off my back!"
"I'm not trying to be mean, honestly. I'm just saying you can barely take care of a plant, "she motioned across the living room, where tiny brown leaves from the various plants on the mantle dotted the floor. "How do you think you can nurture another person, and a relationship with that person, while still taking care of your own mental health, when you can't even remember to water your plants?"
"Oh! Thanks for reminding me," she said as she leapt to grab a pitcher of water. "And I do remember. Just not everyday. They aren't dead...they just have some dead leaves. They're fine."
"Ok..," her friend mumbled. "I'm just trying to look out for you."
She knew her friend was right, and she knew the entire time she should have taken the advice. But she had wanted him so badly she wasn't going to let a little thing like common sense stand in her way. The relationship was train wreck from the very beginning-neither of them knew how to be in a relationship and it was intense and exciting and awful. It fell apart within a matter of months.
And even though she knew it was doomed, she mourned the end of the relationship-laying helplessly on my couch, watching movies and eating ice cream. She cried more than she thought she should, but she couldn't help it. She looked around the room, the dead leaves had continued to fall from the plants. They now laid on the floor, serving as a reminder, taunting her.
This post is in response to a prompt at The Lightning and the Lightning Bug-Flicker of Inspiration #27-flash fiction! Pick one thing that you can see at this moment, in the room with you, and write something down somewhere
For the record, this was inspired by a plant I keep on my desk at work. I was once told I wouldn't be ready to have a relationship until I could keep a plant alive for one year. The plants been there for almost three :-)
2 comments:
Oh God. Then I'll never be ready for a family. My husband can usually at least keep them sort of alive. But my record for the ones in my care is about six months. And that was because I could put them outside for the summer rain. Sigh. Maybe that's why I'm having so many issues with this motherhood thing :)
It's all about cactuses. Cactuses I can keep alive. ;) But somehow people keep giving orchids.
There is something particularly sad about a dying houseplant, though. I like it as an image for depression.
Post a Comment