Greenhouse || Xavier Thorpe x Male Reader

heliotrope || chapter 32

 I wake up still sitting up and my neck hurts, probably from sleeping as I did. When I look over at where Xavier was, he is gone. I get up and realize that on my nightstand is a note from him.

[Y/N],

I am on a run. I'll see you in Botany.

Even though it's not a long note or a detailed one, I am still happy he left it. I change into my uniform and water the plants in my room before heading down to the greenhouse.

It's been a while since I've spent a morning here, so I take care of the remaining plants and sit down on a stool. It looks so empty with the lack of plants overflowing, and I, against my better judgment, get up to look for a pot and some soil. When I find them and set them on the table, I close my eyes and allow my emotions to reign freely over my head instead of tuning them down.

In front of me, when I open my eyes again, is a purple heliotrope.

~=~

"Hey," Xavier says to me outside of the Botany classroom. "Can... Can we talk really quickly?"

I nod, slightly worried by his tone, and follow him into a hallway close to the room.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

He shakes his head but turns away from me, tugging on the strings of his hoodie. "Nothing's wrong. I just had a lot to think about on my walk, and it made me realize something. Something I kind of need to tell you."

I wring my hands and prepare for the worst. He's going to break up with me. Maybe I can say something, convince him otherwise. Even though he hasn't spoken, I'm pretty sure I've heard this lead-up only leads to one thing.

"Xavier, I'm sorry if I've been distant lately and if I've been pushing you away. I can change that. You don't need to walk away, you can stay here," I tell him. He runs a hand through his hair and the ghost of a laugh flits across his face.

"Why didn't I think that's what you'd assume? [Y/N]... I'm here, and I love you. I have always loved you and I will always love you. Don't tell me not to walk away, because I'm not going to in the first place."

I stand in the shadow of the hallway, processing. Yes, it's been five months and it would be pretty obvious that he loved me, I loved him, but there's something about the spoken words that make you realize that it's real. It's not just a shard of glass, prepared to fall apart at the slightest fracture. It's the soil nurturing a healthy and growing relationship.

"I love you, too."

The bell tolls, so I kiss him and we walk back to Botany as if nothing had happened. But even as we are reprimanded for our late arrival, both of us are still lost in our own thoughts. I know it's just a silly teenage love, and there will be plenty more 'I love yous' that won't overwhelm me like this, but it's the first time someone has told me they loved me in a romantically inclined way.

When I sit down with my group for the Scotch Broom project, they can tell that I'm different than usual. Wednesday, as always, eyes me suspiciously but doesn't say anything. Bianca, on the other hand, isn't as reserved.

"So," she remarks in a whisper, just loud enough so I can hear, "you took it to the next level?"
My eyes widen in shock and I shake my head frantically. "Absolutely not. Not yet. He just told me he loved me, is all."

"That's sweet," she responds.

"Much sweeter than your idea."

"It's a school full of teenagers. Can't blame me for thinking-"

"Bianca. Do you want this plant to die? Let's stop talking about sex and start talking about how to get the best possible grade."

~=~

The day passes by without much spectacle. Every class is beginning to focus more on our exams, including, surprisingly, Beekeeping. Since it's a club, we don't have an 'Exam' but instead a 'Performance Check'. Similar to Weems's monthly run-throughs of the greenhouse, at the end of the year a professor with adequate beekeeping knowledge will request to see a ledger of hive productions as well as our hives themselves. It's a fairly mundane process.

Eugene has Wednesday and I begin cleaning the Beekeeping Hut, swabbing windows and taking Clorox wipes to every potentially dusty surface.

"We'll be doing this every week until the Check," he instructs us. "The week of, we'll also try to clean the outside of the hives as much as possible without potential harm to the bees."

The two of us nod and he goes outside to check all the hives and potentially harvest them while we clean. It's a grueling process, but the Performance Checks will impact our club's status next year and we really need to pass. It would be devastating for Eugene if he lost his bees and it would mean all three of us would need another club to join. Whereas I'm not sure that this much cleaning is necessary, I love the club and will do whatever I can to keep it running.