Christine is even prettier in the sunlight, as she trails her fingers over the bright yellow roses. She picks a white rose and holds it up in front of my ear.
"Hmm. Yes. This is the perfect colour of rose for your hair." She muses. I laugh and take it from her, then place it behind my ear.
I study her for a second, before looking back down at the bed of roses. I pick a lavender rose and give it to her.
"And this is perfect for you." As she tucks it behind her ear, I cant help but admire the way the sun makes shiny, golden flecks on her red hair. Then my attention turns to her eyes.

In the club, they were a bluish-grey. But here they are a deep purple, so deep I feel like I could get lost in them. There are gold flecks in there too, with a lavender ring around her pupil that matches the flower I got her. She grins at me.
"You know, I didnt notice last night how green your eyes are."
"What??" I say. Has she been studying me the way I've been studying her? I guess it makes sense why we've been standing in silence for a minute...
"Your eyes. They're like, really green. Green like the top of the Amazon jungle, or the entrance to a secret garden. Your own secret garden, in your eyes. Arent you special."
"Not as special as you."
She flushes, but my heart sinks.

"Hey, Christine, I... I need to tell you something."
"What is it?"
I take a deep breath and steel myself. "Someone has been sent to kill you."
Her eyes widen. "What? Who? How do you know?"
"One of your coworkers wants you dead. I dont know who, but they tried to hire me first, and I said no." Liar, liar, pants on fire. So tell my parents. I've done worse than lying.
"Why would they try to hire you?" She takes a step back. "Are you dangerous?" Crap.
"No, no! Just..." what can I say here? "They saw me in the outfit i was wearing yesterday and assumed i was."
"So what do we do?" She cries, sounding hysteric. "I dont want to die, Leslie!"
"You won't. But you'll have to come with me."
"Why?"
"Their wording was unusual. They asked me to make you disappear. That doesnt mean you have to die, but you need to move away. I have a place in the country, on the other side of Mountain Hollow... if you trust me."

She looks up at me with fear in her eyes.
"I trust you, Leslie."
"Good. We'll walk to your house first, grab whatever we can carry. Then we'll walk back to my place-"
"Didnt you say that you lived on the south side of Mountain Hollow?"
"Yes?"
"That's a really long walk! Do you walk everyday? Oh my god, did you walk here?" She looks around the gardens. "I'm so sorry, I would've picked you up if I'd known!"
"So how do you suggest we get around, then?"
"In my car."
"Oh."

Her car is bright blue and squat, with a weirdly fabric roof. When I ask her why the roof is fabric, she just laughs and says something about convertion. Or convertible? I dont know. But the boot is large and theres a backseat, so we'll be able to bring more of her stuff than I anticipated. She drives us to a nice looking house with neat gardens and a fresh paint job. She unlocks the door- a much better safety system than Nicholas'- and leads me inside. I'm relieved to see that she lives alone. We open the boot and begin piling things in. A duvet, blankets, pillows, lamps, dishes, clothes, toilet paper, food, soap, and a squashy armchair which didnt fit. Christine insisted she wouldnt leave it, so I grabbed some tools and managed to remove one of the back seats, which we then replaced with said chair.
"Done." I say.
"No!" She replies. "We still have the back seat to fill!"
Oh. Right. Posters and paintings and family photos go in, along with her mattress (thank god she has a single bed) and a rug and a TV. And then a... litterbox? Some raw meat? And a small, round bed.
She comes out of the house next holding a cat in a cage.
A cat. A... cat?

"Meet Mr Snugglebuns!"
"Mr Snugglebuns?"
"He is the absolute joy and light of my life and if I have to leave him behind I will throw both me and you off a bridge."
I blink. "O-kay... is that all?"
She grins. "Yes. You drive and I'll hold Mr Snugglebuns."
I flush. "Um.."
She stares at me. "Wait. You can't drive?"
I shake my head. She looks utterly confused. "Well... in that case, you can hold the cat."

Sitting in the passenger seat of her car while holding her cat with her sitting next to me is actually nice. I was worried that having to sit while we went to my house would hurt like heck, but no. She even has this thing called a CPS- no, a GPS- that is telling us the way to my house. A robot that knows how to get to my house! This is so crazy. Technology is weird. Christine's stuff rattles in the back and I realise that we're going to be redecorating my house. Usually the thought of such an activity would bore me, but the thought of doing it with this girl...
Well, I guess I'm just glad I didn't kill her.

{942 words}