Title: Until All the Roses Dry
By: Ashley Delfín
Notes: This was my first real short story, it was my final exam for my first high school English class. Most people who read it liked it a lot. You can really notice my whole style has changed since I wrote this. Anyway, even if it IS amateurish, it still belongs to me! ~evil laughter~ So no stealing!

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Justin had been waiting for six hours now. Six long hours of anxious waiting that seemed to be eternal. He heard a sound and turned his head towards it, but only saw a squirrel rushing to a treetop. Justin turned his head to the water in the fountain besides him. This fountain had not been on for twenty years and the rain water that had been stuck in there presented a greenish color and millions of tadpoles.

Whoever Justin expected was obviously not there yet. Justin sighed as he looked at the lifeless garden around him. About twenty-five rosebushes circled the area and many others were placed here and there in apparently random positions. Each and every one of these bushes were dry as dry could be. The statue in top of the fountain was headless and time had left dark marks on the statue’s skin.

Justin forced his mind back in time to the day when he had met the angel he would love for the rest of his life. The angel he had waited for all of his life. He suddenly saw himself as a six year old entering that first grade classroom. He seemed to be the only one with a worried look on his face. Then, he saw her, the angel. He saw Mila with the same worried look in her brown eyes

Justin remembered vividly that day. He remembered perfectly that face. As their gazes met each other, Justin walked towards Mila. They saw each other deeply into their eyes and smiled. No words were needed to start that friendship. From that day on, they became the best of friends, nothing could bring them apart.

Everybody was surprised at seeing these two very different children become such good friends. Justin was the typical blond, cute kid. He was a very quiet boy, he had been since the death of his father. He also was rather timid and tried never to make himself stand up. Whereas Mila gave honor to her Latin-American heritage as a very beautiful Hispanic girl. Her cinnamon skin and eyes matched perfectly into her sweet personality. She was a rather talkative girl and loved to be the center of attention. Although everybody said she would turn into a cold, uncaring girl; she proved to be everything but that.

Justin closed his eyes and found himself in his six year old self again. After school, they always walked to Mila’s garden to play. Her garden was a magical place where all of their childhood dreams came true. A mystical forest surrounded by rosebushes and that exhibited a statue of the goddess Diana in the top of a fountain just in the center of this enchanted place.

A rustle of leaves prevented Justin from falling asleep aside the fountain. He rose and searched for what had provoked the sound. It had been merely the squirrel, now coming down for some acorns and nuts.

“I love squirrels.” Ten-year old Mila stated as a pair of them went in between a couple of rosebushes. “They are so lively. I think they are my favorite animals.” She turned her sweet cinnamon eyes towards Justin. “Which is your favorite animal?”

Mila, the inquisitive Mila, always asking questions. A day did not pass without Mila asking a question to Justin. Justin loved the questions she made to him. They made him think and look at the world with different eyes.

Are you happy? What is happiness? What are the stars? Can you speak to animals? Can we fly to the moon? Can you bring down the stars? Would you count the stars for me?

All of these would have been dumb questions to anyone besides Justin who heard them. Justin at first thought that but later he started to believe that they really could fly to the moon and that he could really count the stars and bring one down.

Yet, the easiest question of all the questions Mila ever asked was: “Do you love me Justin?” Justin would never forget the way Mila asked that question. No one had ever asked him that question with such trembling fear and hope, or with such wistful love.

“Yes,” Justin smiled, “I love you.” There was no other answer to that question. That answer would remain until the end of time. That answer was one of the universal truths.

The memories were starting to stress him. He lit a cigarette but quickly turned it off and threw it away. Never in his life had he managed to smoke a whole cigarette. Justin shuddered, it was beginning to get cold. He stared at the cigarette lying on the ground.

“It makes me look older, and cooler.” Justin, now thirteen in his memory, grinned as he smoked a cigarette he had stole from his uncle.

“It’s disgusting!” Mila whined. “I don’t like it.”

“Don’t be such a goody-goody girl!” Justin mocked.

Mila stood up from her seat at the fountain and walked away, it was horrible to mix the sweet smell of the roses and the fountain water with that of the cigarette. It was even worse to see Justin do such disgusting things just for the sake of “coolness”.

“Mila, don’t go!” Justin pleaded but Mila kept walking away. “Mila! I’ll turn it off! See, I’m not smoking anymore… Come back!” Justin threw the cigarette to the floor and stepped on it.

A tear came down Mila’s face. “Promise me you will never do something as gross as that again!”

“I won’t, I promise. There’s no need to cry about it…” Justin hugged Mila quite firmly. “I promise…”

“I promise…” Justin whispered to himself. Those times of promises were gone, yet still he refused to smoke so he would not break that promise. Love never goes away, even if the person who one loves is gone.

“Would you…” fifteen year old Justin began. Justin really had to let go of all these memories, but he and his memoirs were inseparable. “Would you… be my… girlfriend?”

Mila was so surprised at hearing this that she let fall her package of M&M’s to the floor.

“Would you grant me that honor, Mila?” Justin was so nervous he had to put his hand back to hide the trembling. He tried to speak without stuttering, but it was almost impossible.

Mila did not spoke for a minute. Justin thought she was terrified, but then, she slowly began to smile.

“Yes!” Mila broke out crying. “Yes! I thought you would never ask me!” Mila’s tears of joy wetted Justin’s T-shirt as she leaned on him.

Justin smiled timidly, “I thought a rose would be better than those M&M’s,” Justin pointed to the scattered candy in the soft mud of spring, “but the flower shop was out of roses…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Mila smiled as she wiped the tears off her face, “after all you can’t eat roses, can you?”

“No, but you always said it would be so romantic if your boyfriend gave you a rose when he declared himself to you…”

“Yeah, well…”

Justin abruptly interrupted Mila. “Wait, I have an idea!” Justin walked to the rosebushes and pulled out a rose. He then turned back to Mila, kneeled down, and recited right out of the heart:

“If all the roses in the world should dry,
Then we would still have the red rose of your lips.
If all love in the world should end and be forgotten,
Then we would still have our love to learn again.”

Mila was speechless, she took the rose and smelled it deeply. She turned to Justin and jumped to his arms.

“Liked it?” Justin asked, “I just made it up for you…”

“I love it and I-I…” Mila suddenly stopped, “I like you…” Mila smiled timidly.

Justin and Mila smiled to each other.

Justin smiled to himself, and looked at his hand. The scar that rose had caused had been away for so long, yet he still remembered it as if it had been a part of his palm since birth. Then, the second saddest memory of Mila came to him. This was the worst part of remembering the angel he loved with all of his soul, pain. Yet a pain worth suffering in order to see his cinnamon angel once more. Justin and Mila had been boyfriends for three years. That day they came into the garden, everything seemed. As usually, they sat on the edge of the fountain. Mila timidly began to tell Justin of the news her father had told her.

“I’m going to Germany to study to become a doctor.” Mila turned her face expressionless to wait for Justin’s reply.”

“When?” Justin responded surprised.

“Tomorrow…” Mila began to cry, but she tried to hide it. “I’ll take the plane to Germany tomorrow…”

Justin was speechless he tried to say something but Mila stopped him.

“Don’t…” Mila’s tears were too obvious to hide now, “don’t say a word, you’ll just make it harder to say good-bye.”

Justin did not spoke a word, he just brought Mila close to his chest. Mila felt secure while being near the strong body of her beloved.

“Promise me one thing…” Mila whispered.

“What?” Justin whispered back in a soothing tone.

“Promise me that you’ll wait for me, no matter how long would I take to come back.”

Justin, looked into the garden, and looked back in time. “I promise I’ll wait for you…” Justin’s tears fell on Mila’s soft hair, “I’ll wait for you until all the roses dry.” He hugged Mila firmly and turned her face to his. Slowly, calmly, lovingly, he closed her lips to his own, and, for the first time in a long time of boyfriendship, their kiss did not only meant love, but eternal union.

“I-I…” Mila tried to find the three words she had planned to say but could not find them. “I’ll miss you.” Mila’s face showed the most melancholic smile any face had shown. Tears ran down her cheeks. She pushed Justin away and ran as fast as she could. She was running away, away from the truth, the feelings, and the pain. She was running away from love.

Justin fell in the fountain and the water mixed with his tears. “I love you!” He shouted to her. “I love you!” the next it was just a mutter, “I love you, Mila…”

Justin felt like he was losing himself in sorrow. He had to stop hurting himself with these memories. He had to let go, but the pain was worth it if he could see Mila’s face again, even if it was just in his memory.

Back in his own self, in the now dead garden, he remembered the saddest memory of Mila. This one was only two days old. Now in age thirty-eight, after twenty years of waiting, Justin finally received a letter from Mila. This letter read:

“My beloved Justin:

Life is given to us so we can love, so we can spend all of it with the person who we love. I met that person, that person was you. My darling, the last three words I wanted to tell you were ‘I love you’, but I could not find the courage to say these valuable treasures. Yet, you did, you told me and shouted it to the seven winds. I am not worthy of your love, and since the only reason to live is to love… I cannot live anymore. I am not a good enough lover to live. By my side lies the sword which will spear my heart as you did. This sword’s blade will not be as painful as the dagger of your love. After all, what is the point in loving someone if you can’t say that person you love him? One last question before I die: my dearest Justin, do you still love me?

Please, forgive this fool for not going back, but I guess all the roses are already dry… What would be the point in going back if you’re not waiting for me? My only regret is that I won’t get to kiss your lips again.

Forever, be dead or alive, yours,

Mila

P.S.: I’ll wait for you in heaven…”

Justin folded the letter and walked to the graveyard. It did not matter how long he waited, Mila would not come back.

He reached the cemetery and saw Mila’s body on the sarcophagus she was going to be buried in. He slowly approached it, nobody was nearby.

Justin stepped closer to have a better look of Mila. Even dead, Mila was beautiful. It would seem that time had forgotten her, she was still as beautiful as when she was eighteen. Justin walked slowly towards her and took her right hand in his own and whispered to her:

“After you went, I wrote a poem for you…” Justin tried to be as cheerful in the face of death but his efforts were useless. “The title is: Cinnamon Angel.” Justin sighed deeply, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket and began to read…

“There you are, walking between the roses.
Are you not one of them?
There you are, swimming on the fountain.
Are you not Diana herself?
There you are, walking between the roses,
Stealing their beauty.
Not even the sweet smell of the roses
Is as sweet as the smell of your hair.”

Justin’s tears started to wet the poem at the same time a light rain came over him.

“There is no red as beautiful,
As the red of your lips.
There will never be no love as enduring,
As…”

Justin hesitated, had it been his love the one who killed Mila? Was he responsible for the death of this cinnamon angel? Justin’s face came closer to Mila’s face. Justin closed his eyes and with the same love he once had for her when they were eighteen, he kissed her cold lips.

“As the one I have for you,
My cinnamon angel.”

As the drizzle became a storm, Justin remembered the day when she fled from him. The day he had shouted the three words that caused her death. After she ran, he took a rosebush sapling and planted it on his own garden. That rosebush was now the only survivor of the rosebushes that existed in Mila’s magical garden.

“I still love you.” Justin began trying hard not to cry, “A day did not pass by without me thinking about you. My beloved, I will love you forever. I promised to wait for you until all the roses dry, and not all of them are.”

Justin’s tears fell on Mila’s dead figure, mixing with the raindrops. “Not all of the roses are dry…” he muttered, “Not all of the roses are dead.” Justin let himself fall into the hands of melancholy and, carrying all the grief that love could give to a man, Justin lifted Mila’s inert figure and hugged her.

“I’m still waiting for you to come back…”