The lilac dress clung around her torso and flowed into a mesh of stars from the waist down. Lilac was Aiden's favourite colour on her. It was a representative of their relationship if put to words.
Summer was strong in Canton City that year; Soleia was hanging up a signboard for her start-up and a particularly harsh gust of wind had her convulsing off the stepladder. Though, in a rush to avoid heatstroke and return to the safety of her small studio, Soleia picked up her ladder without much consideration and ended up stabbing its leg in a person by the sidewalk.
"Oh my— Oh my fuc— oh my freaking god, I am so sorry, oh my, please, are you okay?!" Soleia cried out loud as the boy fell to the footpath, a bush of lilacs resting beside him.
"Ye-yeah, my, flowe-rs?" He groaned as he tried propping himself on his elbows.
"Oh please, don't worry about them. They look good, are you okay? Let me take you inside. Do you want to go to the hospital—"
"No, no, I must make a deli-very, my flowers!" The boy groaned as Soleia tried to get him up.
"Ah, looks like you've hurt your ribs or something...Oh my, don't worry. I will call an ambulance and yeah, the flowers, what's the address, I will personally deliver it. Please, forgive me," Soleia all but cried.
The summer wind was sticky. Her short brown hair did not provide much solace by sticking to her neck, flowing into her mouth and poking her eyes. Her lilac top was drenched with sweat and the white pants were beginning to form dirt patches around the knees. Even with such distractions, her doe eyes did not break contact with him.
Her eyes held an odd intensity which the boy couldn't help but revel in. He wondered, if he kept looking, would he drown within them or unearth the secrets of world? They looked at him with such compassion that wasn't even shared by those of his own blood. They held concern, they held worry, they held unbridled attention.
And it made Aiden's heart swell.
Maybe those eyes were the reason why he did not mind the stabbing pain in his chest. Maybe they navigated his senses to the creaking board above her head. Maybe they compelled him to pull her out of danger's way and let his back be plummeted by the iron board instead. Maybe that's why he did not mind his fall on one hot summer day.
Aiden never liked hospitals. His father had been in one for as long as he lived and when he didn't, Aiden remembered hospitals as a place that failed faith. His mother's hardwork and his father's suffering were all to naught. To end up in a place he loathed would have been enough for him to spiral again but he didn't.
The yellow tulip Soleia delivered every morning brightened his day. The elaborate stories of powering through college that she would narrate in the evening kept his mind wound up all night. Somedays she'd even bring him sandwiches when she had more time on her hands.
There wasn't anything special about her, if one were to ask why his mind was wrapped around his assailant. Aiden had no logical reasoning to justify his infatuation. She wasn't particularly pretty or rich, on the contrary, she seemed quite shabby and ineloquent. She was straightforward and loud, Aiden realised on his fifth day in the hospital when she was busy announcing to all his attending nurses that it was his birthday.
Birthdays were a solemn affair in his strict household before his father's death. They never had the money to celebrate his birthday and it kept getting pushed back in everyone's heads as the years progressed. After his father died, his birthday merely became an event of longing as his mother would go to work and come back like any normal day. He was taught that he was privileged enough to survive another day when people were out there dying in a war and, "that should be gift enough."
"Mum's gift for your birthday is this new year. You wouldn't be here without mum's help, would you, Aiden?"
Aiden would shake his head and understand. He had always understood. So, it was quite inexplicable why his heart was thumping in his chest at a mile a minute as he sat in a dark hospital room illuminated by one singular candle on top of a cake. Behind the light source were Soleia's eyes ominously pouring over the cake and a chorus of claps and the happy birthday song being sung by the nurses.
His eyes welled up, not because he was staring at a candle in the dark (or probably yes) but because he had no other words to express himself. His heart was in leaps and bounds, breaking free from the primary restrains of his basic understanding of life and sliding straight into the warmth offered by her eyes.
Anyone seeking out more warmth in summer would be a psychopath but Aiden would gladly wear the title if it meant that he would have something tangible to associate himself with Soleia.
...
"Now that you're discharged, I guess you'll be rid of me as well?" She chuckled. As they stood at the foot of the hospital stairs, Aiden found himself craving yet another injury. Anything that would make her stay longer with him.
"D-don't say that...unless you want to be rid of this sick man?" Aiden chuckled as well, gesturing all of himself.
"Oh please, you're a tall, strong and handsome man now!" Soleia patted his back with much enthusiasm. "I should get going now, I have—"
"Please!"
Aiden cut in before she could say her final goodbye. This should not be their end. He did not want to let her go, not too soon. He yearned to be closer to the warmth he had sought. He did not want to trickle back into the cold cave of lonliness that he was so used to. She had brought the sun to him and now he was a sucker for basking under its light. He wanted to grasp that light, inhale it and make it a part of his being. He had to say something, anything, to make her stay, maybe an offer, a promise, or a relationship—?
"Would you be my friend this summer?" Aiden finally found the words. His restless heart finally stood to a courageous standstill. If she were to reject him, all of Aiden's system was ready to collapse in one go. He was riding a high, a once in a lifetime high and if he were to come crashing down — none of him would survive.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, why not. Sure!" She held out a hand out for him to shake.
Simmer and simmer in warmth and eventually the heart craves more. Stay in the presence of a singular flower and one day the heart urges you to buy a bouquet. Bask everyday in the light of the sun and slowly the body begins demanding shade.
Soleia's friendship over the summer was all Aiden longed for, at the hospital five months prior, but as the chill air of fall breezed amidst the tresses of his dark hair when he was fixing up Soleia's signboard for the nth time — he wanted more.
Something different, something new, something erratic with only her.
So, when he stepped down the ladder and met Soleia's smiling face, he couldn't help but propose, "Do you want to be my girlfriend?"
...
Soleia Manchester.
An orphan.
Aiden Craver's first love and the reason for his ruin.
"Do you still hangout with that orphan girl? She's of such lowbirth, you don't even know how she survived until now. Can you stop spending time with her and looking at proper marriage-worthy prospects?!"
"She's my girlfriend, mother and I am NOT leaving her side."
"I cannot believe you have the nerve of going against your mother and calling her your GiRLfrIeNd. That lowborn has sent your mind into the gutter! You're ruined, my son!"
"Stop it! Stop being so ev—"
SLAP.
With a hand caressing his bruised cheek, Aiden walked down the snow-laden footpath of Canton. The world was cold but his cheek was warm with the sting of guilt, hurt and betrayal. It was nothing new to him but the humiliation never lessened. He fished his phone from the deep pockets of his overcoat and called his girlfriend.
The call did not go through.
Her studio was as dark as Aiden's thoughts stacked up together, leaving no way for him to see.
...
"Aiden, meet Cassie. She's the daughter of—"
"I'm not interested, I have a girlfriend," Aiden passed a polite smile to the girl his mother was introducing and walked away. She seemed as bright as the flowers around her but his heart yearned for someone else. When everything was pink, he merely sought lilac.
"Aiden! Do not be rud— Aiden! Stop walking away! Aiden!" His mother chased after him as he sped out of the babyshower upon receiving a call from his girlfriend.
Soleia Manchester was an incredible person but she was a terrible girlfriend.
Aiden concluded as he stood outside of the locked gates of her studio and waited for her to arrive. She was late, a new usual about her, but Aiden would patiently wait for her. Setting up a business was a big deal. Soleia Manchester was horribly ambitious and it was romance watching her pursue her goals.
Sometimes, when he would be sitting in the audience, clapping for her as she walked her way to the big stage and recieved an award — he'd realise, Soleia Manchester's presence was too big. Beside her, one could easily feel inconsequential. So what if he caught her warmth and lit himself enough to flicker a flame? It would remain invisible owing to her burning brightness.
Aiden Craver loved Soleia with all that he had to call himself a person.
Though, his mistake was to love her with all of him. For in the end, without her, there would be nothing of him.
...
"Aiden! You are a mere florist! What do you think flowers will do for the future? How did I raise such a failure?! It's only because you hangout with that bad blooded lowborn! She has rendered you incapable! Damn that witch! Curse her for ruining my ch—"
"MOTHER. Stop it. None of it is her fault! I was the one who wanted to make big money! It is my fault. I will pay—"
"Ah, my heart cannot take it any longer. No, my heart—"
Aiden's mother collapsed. Medical bills and reports followed suit. Once again, he was trapped in a spiral of him versus the medical world. His girlfriend wasn't there by his side but the news of his mother's heart failure clung to him like a djinn on a mission.
As he sold his shop and collected money for his mother's surgery, life got him thinking if love was worth all the hassle he went through. The nagging, the constant betrayal, annoying his mother to pursue his heart. He couldn't hate Soleia, he hadn't in his heart to blame anything on her — so he merely blamed it on himself and his bad fate.
Until, one day, a stranger walked up to him and offered him money to marry Soleia Manchester.
...
"Hey, Aiden? Hello? You there? Now isn't the time to zone out!"
Aiden squeezed his fingers against his eyes and groaned. "You never told me Landon would be playing," he grumbled under his breath as Soleia offered him a glass of champagne.
"Well duh, now you'll have at least an element of familiarity to cling to," she chuckled.
They were at Soleia's highschool alumni meet, in the grounds of the very prestigious Herald Academy. He was here to make connections, socialise and primarily...his gaze landed on his fiancee, again, and his heart skipped a beat.
Her hair were tied up in a messy bun but the meticulous placement of glittering butterflies in it indicated that everything was calculated. Her bedazzled butterfly sandals were pointing at him but her torso was turned to a sixty-five degree, eyeing someone else.
"Was there someone you did not like in highschool?" Aiden asked. His fiancee merely shrugged.
"I don't know. I used to be so busy...I hardly remember any one of them now that I am out of that routine."
That was a very valid, very Soleia on-brand response.
"Um—"
"We need to move up the wedding to this Friday, or before. The next hearing is scheduled on Friday afternoon," Soleia stated, cutting Aiden's words.
'This, Soleia no!' Aiden wanted to gasp, exasperated as he caught her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. He missed the acknowledgement of her warm eyes. But now, only a pool of ambition stared back at him. He wanted to remind her, 'You know my mother won't be discharged until the coming Wednesday. We cannot do it without mum. It took her so long to come around — she'll be so disappointed!'
But all he ended up was asking, "Tell me, if it ever came down to choosing your company or me, who would you choose?"
Aiden knew it was a cruel choice but he was tired of meandering around her, trying to find answers in her eyes.
"Why, that's such a stupid question, Aiden, you're a person. You're independent, of course I will choose my company. It's not only my life source but also ev—"
"This morning," Aiden let go of her shoulders and pocketed his free hand in his suit pants, "This morning you begged me to choose you," he laughed out loud, "You were on your knees at Tiffany's!" He reminisced loud enough for a bunch of people in proximity to hear.
"Aiden, chill out. It's not that dee—"
"Why is it not that deep when it's not concerning your selfish feelings. Soleia Manchester, I have been blind to the real you," he scoffed, "The selfish, conceited and detestable part of you."
"Aiden, I didn't mean it like that. Of course I love y—"
"Save it," Aiden snapped and took the engagement ring off his finger, "You're on your own from now, Soleia Manchester. Again." He flicked the silver band to the floor as the crowd around them gasped.
"Aiden Craver, you sit yourself on a pedestal carved out of a love you've created in your head but in all honesty you've been using me to compensate for your flaws. You're not a perfect hero of love, Aiden, you're just another simpering fool who thought they had a chance with a girl way out of his lea—"
Aiden dropped his glass. It reached the ground with a screeching halt of music, shattering Soleia's confidence as he stepped on the broken shards and leaned into her ear.
"See if anyone accepts you for the ugly person you are, lowborn Manchester."
Soleia gritted her teeth and shoved him away from her proximity. Tears threatened the warmth of the eyes he once fell in love with. The daunting betrayal would stalk his days and prey his dreams, Aiden was sure, but as she walked away from, he couldn't help but smile.