Jackson Lowell (force_of_mind) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2009-09-27 17:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-06-16 |
Insecurities and Assurances
Who: Annabelle & Jackson
Where: Downtown Scarlet Oak. Parade Route.
When: Various times within the parade.
They never really hammered out a schedule. Sure, it had been tossed around that they could meet up for coffee before the parade. But Jackson couldn’t find the time to meet up with Annabelle before. He shot her a text, letting her know that something had come up and he wouldn’t be able to do it. It wasn’t the entire truth, but it wasn’t exactly been a lie, either. Something had come up. His nerves. His insecurities. Those things that built up inside of Jackson and kept him from thinking that he was actually good enough for Annabelle. Good enough for Miss Michigan. She could tell him all the words in the world, and she probably would. She could do it in a way where he would even believe those words. Ultimately, however, there was always going to be a part of him that doubted their relationship. It may have only been in its infancy, but it was there.
How could he go to see Annabelle without anything? That just wouldn’t make any sense. There wasn’t a lot of time for him to try and find a gift for her, and he hadn’t really gotten around to asking her about the things that she liked. Throw in the fact that he still wasn’t at the point where he could really admit the fact that he was interested in someone to any member of his family, that meant that he didn’t have a lot of people to go to for advice. Instead, Jackson was forced to rely entirely on the things that he knew about pageantry, which wasn’t much. One thing he did remember? Flowers.
At the time where he would have been with Annabelle at some place grabbing some coffee, Jackson was instead inside of Michael Lowell’s greenhouse. His father wasn’t aware of his presence. He wasn’t even around. Michael was still at home.
Roses seemed too normal. Annabelle had quickly established herself as anything but normal, in many good ways. Jackson wasn’t the kind of guy who knew about flowers. What little knowledge he had gleamed from being the son of a planter atrophied long before. Sure, there were a few flowers whose names he knew, but there were many more that he didn’t. This meant that Jackson was forced to just go based on what he thought looked nice. It didn’t make for a thematic display of flowers, but… at least it wasn’t all that typical?
His hopes to see Annabelle before she started her celebratory run down the heart of Scarlet Oak was dashed. Finding parking was a pain in the ass, and running with delicate flowers? Not going to happen. The many factors going against him tipped the scales of fate far beyond his favor in that moment, and by the time he made it to the start of the parade route, Jack could already see the car slowly making its way down the road.
The young man made his way towards the end of the route, taking what shortcuts that he could. The streets of Scarlet Oak weren’t always that crowded, but during an event they were. It slowed him down, and more than a few times he stumbled just a little bit. Jack was forced to use his telekinesis to stop himself from falling down at least twice.
He reached the end of the route before Annabelle did, catching her just at the end, with enough of a view to see her in her glory. She looked remarkable. He couldn’t wait to give her the flowers. Then he looked over and saw them. They were practically mangled. A few were still presentable, but a significant chunk of them were slumped, petals ripped off from the friction of moving into crowds and so on.
That was supposed to be the gift that he gave her? It just didn’t fit… and yet, didn’t that just make sense in the overall scheme of things? Probably.