#I swear with how often they burst into song you’d think venom is a musical

[daily-symbiotes]

Today’s Daily Symbiote: Duet

[jonchampion95]

Different Times

After that date they had, things went quiet. Lucy had just taken a job with a digital marketing company and Chris was working as an administrator at one of the companies on his estate. Time passed, as did interactions via text. However, there was a sadness underlying this decrease in passion.

They eventually arranged to meet and sat in a cosy coffee bar that had ample heating. There was an obvious lack of excitement and an ambiguous reason as to why. They addressed the feeling over their drinks; Lucy explained that her work has been time consuming and she had been having difficulties at home. Chris probed, asking what the problem was despite knowing her reluctance on the topic. She explained that her elder brother had moved away under bad circumstances and since then, had not been in contact with her or her mother. While this did seem to be the cause of some of her reserved behaviour, Chris could see something bigger lurking beneath her once deep eyes.

‘There’s more, I can tell.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What aren’t you telling me?’

‘What makes you think I’m not telling you anything?’

‘You’re different, something’s different.’

‘Stop interrogating me. I just told you some heavy stuff.’ She folded her arms as if she was defending her heart.

‘How are you feeling about everything?’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll get through it. I always do.’

‘What if you didn’t always have to get through things?’

She didn’t answer. She sipped the last of her coffee and suggested they go elsewhere.

They were on the high street of St Albans, the distance between them masquerading as a necessity to avoid people walking the other way.

‘Where do you want to go?’ Chris asked.

‘I don’t know. You choose.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I don’t mind.’

‘That’s really unhelpful.’

He was starting to really annoy her. What was wrong with her leaving it for him to decide?

‘I honestly don’t mind Chris.’

Silence invaded them as they walked. After enough time for the two of them to soak in the disappointment of this afternoon, Chris spoke once more.

‘I’ll drop you home.’

In Chris’ car, the music that had scored their happy journey to the high street was nowhere to be heard. All that accompanied their ride was the pounding of rain on the windscreen and the occasional whisper of a car travelling in the opposite direction. Then Chris burst into life.

‘What’s “I don’t mind”?’

‘What?’

‘That doesn’t add value to the interaction. It isn’t helpful.’

‘Why are you obsessed with this? I’m saying that no matter what we do or where we go, I’ll be happy with the outcome. How is that unhelpful?!’

‘Because then I’m making all the decisions. What we do next is the most relevant and real moment we’re about to have - how could you have no say in what happens in that moment?’ His tone was steadily rising. It had a slight harshness in its clarity.

‘This is such a stupid conversation. You’re being ridiculous.’

‘We’re having the conversation because you didn’t make a decision. I might as well be alone.’

That sentence struck her chest with such venom, she was paralysed by the notion.

‘Stop the car.’ She muttered

‘What?’

She opened the door while the car was still accelerating forward. Chris reacted fast and veered into a lay-by, provoking an ensemble of beeps from the cars behind. As soon as the car stopped, she got out and shut the door, walking away in the heavy rain.

‘Lucy!’

She walked towards a field that she would be able to cut across to get to her house. Chris hopped out and chased after her, gracefully jumping over a barrier, leaving his car behind.

‘Lucy, come on.’

‘Please leave me alone.’ She uttered the words as she continued walking away. He eventually caught up to her. The rhythmic thuds of his boots hitting the grass brought her back to the memory of their first date outside of Bloom. It hit her with the same ferociousness a memory hits you with when you smell something familiar for the first time in a while.

‘Can’t we just talk openly about this?’

‘You said it yourself, you’d rather be alone.’

‘I said I might as well be.’

‘Much better.’

He made one last effort to keep her there, placing his hand on her shoulder. She turned aggressively and forced his hand away.

‘Don’t. Leave me alone.’ She walked on, disappearing into the melancholy shelter of a rain-drenched woodland. Chris stood alone in the field, soaked to the skin.

Months passed. Soon after their ordeal, Chris sent a long email to Emily. There was no apology in the letter, just an expression of something that he wished he had realised in the moment she walked into those trees.

Lucy sunk into the depths of her broken mind. She questioned everything. She felt worthless. She wondered what the point had been of getting so invested in Chris, or what it meant to be invested in anyone for that matter. They did not speak after Chris’ email. He often wondered what her response to it would be and the uncertainty carried a feeling of heaviness in his heart. With time, their lives continued - Chris’ burdened with uncertainty, Lucy’s drowned in a feeling of meaninglessness.

When Bloom approached again, the two of them pondered the last year of their respective lives. Nothing had progressed for either of them. Revisiting Bloom would either be an admittance of stasis, or the first step forward either of them had taken since that fever dream of a date they had in the bookshop cafe.

They both revisited Bloom. The groundskeeper gave them their readings again, neglecting to tell Lucy that Chris was here. However, upon Chris’ new reading, the groundskeeper was compelled to say something to him, perhaps he saw a younger version of himself in him. A familiarity.

‘You are a different person than you were last year, hence the new flower assigned to you. But, do you still have your sunflower? From last year?’

Chris solemnly nodded.

‘She does too.’

Chris looked up and stared into the groundskeeper’s soul, tackled by an unharmonious combination of joy and anxiety.

‘Where is she?’ Chris begged.

‘You will see her when it matters. But you must remember this: You will be overwhelmed during your time here. You must be completely present. When you feel overwhelmed, notice your surroundings, what you can hear and see, the weight of your body on the ground. You will only get her back if you are present. ’

Chris and Lucy participated in the festivities once again; the gatherings, the observations of the sunrise and sunset on the first day, the welcoming ceremony. Lucy was using these as band aids while Chris was using them as a means to rediscover the meaning she gave to his life.

Last year, the two of them had both been assigned sunflowers, an incident that the groundskeeper begged for them to keep quiet as to not reawaken the old prophecy. They were given decoy flowers in order to attend the festivities without interrogation. Their chance meeting that occurred the first time they were here was actually orchestrated by the groundskeeper, otherwise they would never have known that they were both assigned the same notorious flower reading.

This year, two other participants had both been assigned the sunflower, a revelation that provoked the groundskeeper to go about the same arrangement as he had with Chris and Lucy.

It was nightfall and the final days of the festival were approaching. Lucy had made the difficult decision to revisit Crest Park, a place that held so much for her heart to handle. She sat on one of the benches that looked out on to the blossom tree and the beach beyond. Chris stood on the beachfront, listening to that night’s musical performer singing a song called ‘Johnny and Mary’ - the song moved him in a way he hadn’t been moved since that day last year in Crest Park. That all seemed so long ago now. So out of reach.

The minute the song was over, there was some commotion in the crowd gathered by the stage. An animated man who dragged the groundskeeper alongside him leapt to the stage and made a beeline for the microphone. Everyone was still.

‘It’s happening!’ The man shouted as he held the groundskeeper close, as if keeping him prisoner. The man passed the microphone to the groundskeeper and then proceeded to retrieve a gun from his belt. The crowd screamed in horror but were frozen in the fear that this moment had conceived.

‘Tell them or I’ll pull this trigger, I swear!’

Everyone was engulfed in terror and silence, a feeling that would either live or die depending on the groundskeeper’s next words.

‘There are two sunflowers in this town.’

A chilling groan surfed over the crowd and before the groundskeeper could offer any possible consolation, everyone descended into a frenzy. They wanted a sunflower for themselves. It was all or nothing now.

Everyone had overheard the revelation. Chris watched as the beach grew into a brawl while Lucy remained seated on the bench, unmoved by the chaos that slowly began to surround her.