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Chris Kratt was five when he first started kindergarten. He hid behind his Mother when she took him there for his first day of School.
Mrs. Kratt leaned down to smile at her son. "Don't worry honey, I'm sure you'll make friends." She told him. Then there was a voice behind her.
"Linda? Is that you?" Chris' Mom turned around. "Sabrina? It's been forever!" Chris saw a tall pretty woman with jet black hair and green eyes hug his Mom.
He looked down and saw a boy gripping at the woman's leg. His hair was also black and he too had green eyes.
"Oh! Have you met my son?" The lady picked the little boy up. "Say hi Zackie." Chris watched as the boy shyly curled himself in his Mother's arms.
"He's very shy." Sabrina chuckled. Linda shook her head. "So is mine." She leaned down to scoop up Chris. "This is my boy, Chris." Linda said. Chris reached out a tiny hand and tapped Zach's shoulder lightly.
Zach turned around. "Hi.. I'm Chris." He whispered. "Z-Zach.." The other boy mumbled. Their Moms noticed the quiet interaction and set the boys down.
"Why don't you two play while Mommy talks to Zach's Mommy?" Chris nodded and grabbed Zach's hand and pulled him over to the area with toys.
Their Mothers watched them play. "Those two are going to be best friends." Linda smiled. "I hope so." Sabrina agreed.
*_*-~
"I can't believe we're in seventh grade already. And that's when the girls get pretty." Zach smirked. "R-right." Chris smiled awkwardly. "Remember Aviva? I bet she's gotten hot now." Zach commented. "Oh absolutely. She must be... gorgeous." Chris did his best not to show he didn't really care about a girl's beauty.
"Hey boys." Chris felt like he was stabbed in the back. Zach turned around. "Aviva." He smirked. "Wow, did you work out during your summer or what?" Zach leaned in to whisper in Chris' ear.
"She's hotter than I thought." His breath hitched. Zach walked over and started a conversation with Aviva.
Chris bit his lip. He felt an arm rest on his shoulder. "You get used to it. Not the only guy she managed to wrap around her finger." Chris turned to see another girl.
"I'm Koki, nice to meet you." She held out her hand. "Chris." He accepted it. "He your best friend?" Chris nodded.
"She's ruined so many friendships because she got one of the guys. Then when she dumped them their best friends never took them back. So... don't let her take him." Koki's warning was like a stab to the heart.
Was Aviva really like that? Last time he and Zach saw her was third grade. She transferred to another School for three years.
She came back for seventh. Chris remembered, even as eight-year-olds, a lot of the boys in his class liked her. Including Zach.
Chris was the only boy in their grade who didn't like Aviva. The others thought he was crazy for not liking a girl as cute as her.
But he didn't want to like Aviva. And he especially didn't want her to like him. Puberty hit him—like the bus hit Regina George—when he entered seventh grade.
Koki had warned him not to let Zach date Aviva. She was going to ruin their friendship. He didn't want some playgirl to take his best friend away. Whatever it took, he was going to crush Zach's chances with Aviva.
That sounded more civil in his head.
*_*-~
"Chris, do you think if I asked Aviva out, she'd say yes?" The question made Chris nearly choke on his mashed potatoes.
"I don't really think that's a good idea Zee." Chris said once he got his breathing under control.
Zach dropped his fork and whipped his head around at Chris. There was a scowl on his face. "What? You think I shouldn't ask out the girl I like ? You know what, I bet you're just jealous. You don't want me to ask Aviva out because you wanted to ask her out." Zach accused him.
Chris was shocked. "What? I don't want to ask Aviva out. I never did. I'm just trying to warn you so you don't get hurt. She's a player, Zach." Saying Aviva was a player made the ravenette mad. "You don't know her Chris. I'm asking her out whether you like it or not." With that Zach stormed out of the Cafeteria, leaving Chris alone.
Did their friendship just end...?
*_*-~
Up until eighth grade Zach gave Chris the cold shoulder. It made him stress more about entering High School.
They were so excited about spending their years making trouble and graduating together. If Zach kept hating Chris that was never going to happen.
It made things worse when Zach bragged to everyone that Aviva said yes to being his girlfriend . Chris' heart shattered because he lost his best friend to the biggest player in the School. She made Zach hate Chris. It was her fault he hated him.
Seeing them together holding hands made Chris' world crumble. It also made him come to terms with the fact that he's been gay all along and was in love with Zach.
The reason why he never found girls pretty, why he felt uneasy when Zach talked about the girls being hot on their first day of seventh grade, why he was upset when Zach asked him if Aviva would say yes if he asked her out.
And why he was hurting so much because of their relationship. It hurt a lot more than it should.
Like Chris' body was on fire. That wasn't normal. Chris ran to the bathroom and clenched his stomach. He felt like he was going to throw up.
He didn't make it to the toilet in time and collapsed to the floor. He put a hand over his mouth to stop the puke but it came anyway. There was only one problem. It wasn't puke. On the floor in front of Chris, were green flower petals.
*_*-~
Chris jumped onto his computer the second he got home. He had to know what was wrong with him.
He typed 'What happens when you cough up flower petals?' And hit enter. What came up was not an answer he was looking forward to reading and knowing.
But he had to know. So he began to read.
Hanahaki Disease; when one's love is not returned, a flower begins to grow inside their body and they cough up the petals of a flower that best represents the victim's feelings. The longer a victim has the disease, the worse it gets. The only cure is if the victim's love is returned, they die, or surgery. The side effects of getting surgical removal is that the victim's feelings for their romantic interest will also be removed.
Chris' hand flew over his mouth and tears ran down his face. "If Zach never loves me back... I'll die. And if I get surgery... I'll never love him again." He told himself, horrified at the thought of never being able to love Zach ever again.
The next thing Chris needed to do was find out what kind of flower was going to kill him. He'd collect the petals and examined them closely.
He searched up green flowers and waited until he found one that matched the petals. It took him nearly half an hour to finally find the type of flower he was looking for.
Zinnias: the zinnia comes in all kinds of colors from red all the way to lime green.
It was a lime green Zinnia that was killing him then. That was sure going to be fun. He just had to hide his condition from everyone. Especially Zach.
*_*-~
It wasn't going to be easy hiding his disease from every single person he knew when he was constantly coughing up petals. He had to collect them all and hide them in a secret place in his room when he got home everyday.
It got so much worse the next day when Aviva decided to talk to him. Not only that, she was flirting with him! While she was already dating Zach.
The last thing Chris wanted was to let Aviva cheat on Zach. "Listen Aviva, I have to go." He tried to leave but she grabbed his arm. 'What is wrong with this girl? She's thirteen! Not an adult stripper.' He tried to get out of her grip but she forced him closer to her.
"Oh but Chris... you're just so cute. I don't think I can resist the temptation to seduce you..." She trailed her fingers along his chest and he began to sweat. "You can't be doing this. Not when you're dating Zach." Chris pushed her hand away.
Aviva scoffed and rolled away. "He's too stupid to notice anyway. I do this all the time. It's not new to me. I'm an expert at getting away with it and making my seduced victim look like the villain and well, that's another friendship ruined." She laughed.
"That makes you a horrible person. Who does that? You use people and then break them. You ruin friendships and because of you they never get fixed." Chris accused.
"So what? As long as I get what I want it doesn't matter. You're different Chris, I think you might be the only one I want for real." Chris backed up away from her but she kept coming after him.
He prayed someone would save him. He just didn't know his best friend had seen some of the scene and taken it the wrong way completely. He missed the part where Koki yanked Aviva by her hair and threw her away from Chris.
"You leave him alone, player!" She snapped at Aviva. The brunette growled angrily and stormed off.
Koki walked up to Chris and put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?" She asked. "Thanks for the save Koki. That situation just felt so wrong. More than just that she was trying to cheat on Zach with me, it was that she's..." He trailed off.
"A girl?" Koki guessed. "Y-yea actually. How'd you know?" The ravenette shrugged. "I could see in your body language how you act whenever a girl attempted to ask you out. You turned them all down as kindly as you possibly could. Plus, I noticed how you get all nervous when you're around the guys. Especially... Zach." She gently nudged his arm.
"I mean... you're not wrong. I do really like him." He confessed. 'And I'm dying because of it.' Was something he could never add to that sentence. He and Koki became friends, and neither of them knew Zach was planning to confront Chris about what he'd seen.
If only he had stayed to watch the whole thing.
*_*-~
Zach was on his way to find Aviva so they could have Lunch together. He'd been waiting years to have her as his girlfriend, and she finally was.
He turned the corner to see Aviva. She was with another guy. Her back was turned to him so he had no idea what the expression on Aviva's face was.
All he could see was Chris trying to get with his girlfriend. Jealousy enraged him and he stormed off before he could understand what really happened between Aviva and Chris. Zach's only goal was to make Chris pay for trying to steal Aviva away from him.
He would have his revenge, even if it was against his old best friend he'd known since kindergarten.
*_*-~
Chris was hanging out with Koki, and she introduced him to Jimmy—she denied liking him even though she clearly did—who was her other close friend besides him.
The three of them were laughing together when a shadow towered over them. Mainly it was Chris he was standing over. The shadow belonged to Zach. He was very angry.
"Z-Zach... what are you..." The ravenette gritted his teeth. "I saw you! I saw you with her! I can't believe you would stoop so low as to try and get with my girlfriend. I can't believe you Chris. At first when you told me I shouldn't ask her out last year, I was mad at you. But this makes everything different. You tried to hit on my girlfriend. So now, I hate you."
The flower in Chris' lungs squeezed. He was dying so much faster now. His cough got worse. He had to get away. "Chris! Wait!" Koki and Jimmy called after him. They tried to go after him but were beaten to it by someone else who had bad intentions at the moment.
Zach chased after him and found the brunette on the floor of the boys' bathroom with some sort of flower surrounding him. He looked sick. Very sick. Zach's anger vanished and was replaced with concern and worry.
"What's wrong with you?" Zach stared at Chris in horror as he saw the state he was in. "I have a disease. It's killing me slowly..." Zach gasped. "What?! Why?!" Chris coughed up more green petals and a few drops of blood.
"It happens when someone isn't loved back. A flower grows inside of you and you cough up it's petals. Then once it's complete it chokes you to death."
"So the person you love doesn't love you and that's why you're dying?!"
"Yes.. I'm sorry the burden had to fall on your shoulders.." Chris' words made Zach understand everything.
"Wait... it's me..?" Chris nodded. "Uh-huh..." He coughed up another pile of petals mixed with blood then he passed out.
"Chris!" Zach cried. He jumped to the floor and pulled the unconscious boy into his lap. Tears fell from his eyes.
"I'm sorry Chris... if I hadn't been so blind to your feelings for me.. then this never would've happened.. you were right... Aviva was horrible. I caught her cheating a few days ago and yet I still took my anger out on you. I was stupid. I wish I left her because... Chris?" Zach heard one that breath come out of Chris' mouth before his hand fell to the floor.
"Chris no! You can't leave me! Please Chris, I love you! I love you so much it took me forever to finally admit it... Chris... I love you.. don't leave me..." Zach held Chris close to his chest and sobbed.
He was still crying when he heard a gasp of breath be taken from behind him. "You meant it.."
Zach pulled Chris away from him and he saw that he was still alive. "Of course I meant it. I'm sorry I was too stupid to see I've loved you from the start..." Zach shut his eyes tight in shame.
He felt hands cup his face. "No.. I'm sorry. I never should have kept this from you for so long. If I had just told you from the beginning... then maybe I would've have experienced being so close to death for a few seconds." Chris whispered.
"I'm just glad I fell in love with you..." Zach pressed his and Chris' foreheads together. "The other cure was surgery but then my feelings for you would be gone and then maybe you might've suffered the same fate if you had come to terms with your feelings for me sooner and I certainly wouldn't have wanted that." Chris looked up into Zach's eyes.
"If I had gotten surgery we'd both be out of luck..." Zach started to lean in and Chris met him halfway. They kissed like it was the oxygen they needed to live. "Think we'll be able to date all throughout High School?" Chris wondered. "I'm sure we could make it." They kissed once more before cleaning up the bathroom and walking out of it, holding hands.
"Just, give me one second before we do anything. Technically I'm still dating Aviva. I gotta dumb her player ass." Zach kissed Chris' cheek before letting go of his hand and walked right up to Aviva who was talking with a group of girls. One of them whispered in her ear of Zach's presence. Aviva turned around with a clearly fake smile on her face and used her annoyingly fake cheerful voice. "Oh! Honey, I've been looking for you everywhere!" She tried to get in his arms but he pushed her away.
"Zach, what the heck?" She demanded. "Sorry, darling, but I can't stay in a relationship with someone who goes around playing with hearts then breaking them for sport. I have a boyfriend now who would never do that to me. So, bye." He flipped his imaginary long hair and walked right back over to Chris and took his hand again.
"Oh yea, High School will be easy."
*_*-~
Chris and Zach grew up to graduate from High School and started a flower business. Green Industries in High School made Chris realize he didn't have to be afraid of all flowers. Plus his boyfriend really liked that class and made a goal of opening up a flower business after graduation. He wanted nothing more than to make sure his boyfriend was happy.
So Chris made that his goal too and he and Zach got married after the grand opening of their Greenhouse store.
"We have so many different types of seeds, but I feel like there's a kind missing." Zach checked the seed inventory and Chris walked over to wrap his arms around his husband's waist.
"We can go shopping later this week, just promise me one thing." Zach turned his head around and kissed his husband's lips. "Of course. Anything." He said. Chris bit his lip before he told his request to his husband.
"No zinnias. Especially green ones." Chris looked a little uneasy. Zach remembered what happened many years ago. Chris had bad memories with zinnia flowers.
"Okay. I promise. No green or any other color zinnias."