Persephone Rutherford
The girl intertwined her fingers behind her back, then tilted her head. Puzzled at Leon’s discomfort at the sound of his own name. “I’m sorry, Leon.” She said with a soft pout before her lips became flat again. “Can I ask why?” The girl had a natural instinct to approach situations as if they were a fragile and delicate flower that she held in her hands, who’s petals would all fall away when she caressed it too roughly. Many bullies at school liked to call her weak for it, but she saw their cheeks become the roses she envisioned when the girl remembered their favorite color. She wondered if Leon would always work in the same way for her, petals staying intact. Noted: Never call Leon by his full name.
After clarifying everything with him, she asked
“Sooooo… where are you taking me?”
“Through that pathway and up the little hill”
The girl looked up with a cheeky smile and hypnotic ebony eyes to ask, “Race you?”
The guy nodded with a smile and off they ran, her shoes crunching grass blades like shaved ice, wind blowing swiftly against them and brushing her dress back up against her figure, the tail of it flowing backward with the current. They ran and they ran, steps getting slower and more difficult as the hill sloped upward, but at last, she had reached it, not having the energy to admire it in all of it’s beauty as she sat down with her legs out, tickled by the green. The girl exhaled from deep within her core and fell back onto the picnic blanket. “Ugh. My feet hurt from running in these heels.” She took a brief moment of enjoyment before realising her counterpart was not laying beside her.
She sat up to find him staring right at her. He was so handsome, that smile feeling all the more wise when she realised he had let her win. A grin grew on the right side of her smile. “Did you let me win?” She chuckled as he answered.
The man instructed her to turn around, to which she obliged, and that was when the romance of it all hit her like a dagger to the heart. Everything was perfect. The blanket was checkered red and white, the food, of course, was in a basket, fruits, and crackers, and all, and every hue was twice as vibrant as she used to see it. It was flawless, he was flawless. “Leon, you did all of this? For me?” Her jaw could have fallen to the floor if she let it, and the light in her eyes twinkled bright. The girl had never been treated this nicely. She grew up without a home, unwanted, living where she was permitted to, not where she was wanted. And when she was supposed to be wanted, her adoptive parents considered her a nuisance. Not to mention her significant others who have treated her like sh*t. She should have known she deserved better, but no one ever showed her she did. This potential for her comfort had been lying away collecting cobwebs for so long, she was not sure if it really belonged to her. Leon must be crazy.