“Callum!”he whined. “The whole point of you quitting Apex was so you don’t have to kill people anymore. Promise me you won’t hunt down and murder the kids that gave me a hard time at school. It was years ago. I’ve moved past it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Fine. I won’t hunt down and kill the kids that gave you a hard time. I promise.”
Just because I couldn’t kill them didn’t mean I couldn’t hurt them real bad. Right?
I adjusted my halo as Ryan nodded, accepting my promise at face value. He sat down on the dusty floor, leaning back against his hands.
“Sit down. It’s a bit of a long story.”
I flopped down on the floor with him, suddenly eager to learn more about the man I had fallen head over heels for.
“So, when I was eight years old, we had to bring in something for show and tell…”
8 years old
Mrs. Rodriguez had told us all to bring in something that showed the class what we wanted to do when we grew up.
Everyone immediately turned in their seats to stare at me. They all knew I lived in a funeral home, and I braced myself for all the mean things I knew they were going to say to me about the project.
“Mrs. Rodriguez! Ryan shouldn’t be allowed to come to show and tell this week. He’ll probably bring in a dead body!” Kenny Samuels exclaimed loudly. His posse of mean friends sniggeredas I sunk lower in my seat, hating the way everyone’s eyes were burning into me.
“Ewww!” Clarissa Daniels squealed. “I don’t want to see a dead body! Mrs. Rodriguez! Tell Ryan he can’t bring in a body!”
My face was burning, and it was taking everything in me not to call Clarissa a big dumb, stupid head. Only an idiot would think you could bring a dead body in for show and tell. There were all kinds of rules around taking care of the deceased, and youcertainlycouldn’t take someone’s loved one toschool.
I didn’t evenwantto be a mortician when I grew up. I wanted to be a florist. But everyone always assumed I would take on the family business the second they met me. It was a curse that had followed me around since kindergarten, when my dad had come to school for career day and told everyone that we lived in a funeral home.
Ever since then, my sister, Theo, and I had a pretty tough time with the other kids. Theo handled it better than I did. When we were at recess, sometimes she even beat up the bullies that picked on me, even though it got her in a lot of trouble with Father Samwell, our school principal.
I would show them. I would come to show and tell with some of the most amazing flower arrangements they’ve ever seen and tell them all about my plans to become a florist.
Then they would all feel stupid and forget all about the dead body jokes.
Everyone was always so impressed with my arrangements when I helped make them for funeral services. One lady even told me once the vase I put together was so amazing she thought a grown-up had done it.
Despite the jeers from the class and Mrs. Rodriguez’s pitiful attempt to get everyone to calm down, I felt myself smile at the memory.
Yeah. I was going to blow everyone away and have the best show-and-tell presentation anyone had ever seen.
It was going to beperfect.
I would make sure of it.
It tookall week and only alittlehelp from my mom, but by the time show and tell day came around, I was ready.
Getting my project to school was the hardest part. I didn’t want to risk taking it with me on the bus, so I carried the four-foot by two-foot plywood board for the entire twenty-minute walk to school all by myself.
It was heavy and it was hot out, but it wasso worth it.
My project turned outamazing.
Mom helped me find the plywood at a home hardware store, but I had collected all the flowers from her garden and arranged them by myself.
The board was now covered with peach, white, and pink flowers, and the words‘Flowers by Ryan’were made out of perfectly manicured green moss.
It took forever to get the moss to line up perfectly with the stencils my mom bought me from the craft store, but the final result was amazing.
Dad said it looked like a real professional made the sign, and I had never been more proud of anything in my life.
