Page 27 of Petite Fleur

Does a place like that even exist?

Chapter 10

Leon Aldon

I feel like a fucking pervert.

Seriously, someone should medicate me or put a poster of my face on campus.

It's been six months since I first talked to Maeve and all I've done since is fucking stalk her.

I have a key to her apartment, I've memorized her class schedule, and I know everything that she does with her day and when.

I know that every Wednesday, she goes to the grocery store. She walks up and down the aisles for so long that it becomes suspicious, yet still only picks up the bare minimum.

Every Friday night when her idiot friends are at the bar, she sits on the small patio of her apartment and reads until the sun sets.

Every Saturday morning, she tends to her little garden that doesn't produce much of anything, but she seems so damn proud whenever she's able to harvest a single green onion or the world's smallest head of cabbage.

My least favorite part is watching her walk to school on Monday mornings. She stops every morning and stares at this little coffee shop. She watches people come in and out for a few minutes before walking off, knowing she can't afford to go inside.

It's depressing that I can't help her.

It's also a little sad that I watch this woman so closely.

I mean, come on, she's 14 years younger than me! Yeah, she's legal, but we're in different worlds.

I shouldn't be so enamored with this woman, I should be able to go a single day without checking in with her, but I can't.

I can't help myself, Maeve is amazing.

She's kind, smart, and funny but quiet around friends.

There's something about her, something buried deep in her bones that I wish I could dig out.

Something dark.

If I were a worse man, I'd let myself poison this girl just so I could be around her.

But I can't.

I can't let myself take someone so beautiful, a light, and dim her.

I can't drag her into my darkness forever.

That's why I stay away.

I know if I had even a taste of that girl, I'd never let her go again.

She'd be mine, and she'd have to die to get away from me, and even then, it would only be until I joined her in death.

Maeve seems to love nature, she's studying botany, and all her classes are about plants, the environment, and how to save the planet, so I bet she would want some burial that gives her back to the earth or some shit.

I can give her that.

I can love her until her last breath and then bury her under a gorgeous tree.

I would climb into the dirt alongside her, hugging her corpse while I put a bullet through my skull.