Excerpt: Defect

00.

Most of us walk through our lives with others in our peripheral vision, seeing but not really seeing at the same time. We brush by strangers, mutter a,”Sorry,” or,”Excuse me,” without ever thinking to stop and wonder if something as simple as a moment of eye contact could change our lives forever. If a leaf rasping against the sidewalk that catches our attention might distract us long enough to keep from being splashed by water a passing car runs through.

Fate can be as sweet as it is cruel and unforgiving.

01. The farthest from serendipity

It smells sweet here.

Blue eyes close as he breathes the scent of bonnets wafting through the shop, giving the room an open, friendly atmosphere. It is certainly more refreshing to his lungs than the smoke from the employees' cigarettes, smelling a little like shame and plenty of irony, after all, who smokes in front of a flower shop? Winter hasn't been forgiving in New York with snow covering the ground, frost on the citizens' breaths at every shaky exhale; he thinks that the weather is especially harsh to plants as the sunflowers outside slowly wilt away, petals taken away by the wind while they hang their heads.

He lets the pads of his fingers touch a rose peeking out of a bouquet of varying different kinds of flowers, careful not to bruise its coral petals. One hand reaches up to tuck a strand of dark brown hair behind an ear as he leans forward to smell it, a grin he feels probably looks dopey on his face.

“I wonder if I have enough money to buy one for Valentina and Suzu,” he says out loud, fishing through his pockets for a ten dollar bill. Suzu had came home from college a couple of days ago, his ever present devil-may-care attitude showing in his insane dash to the house, the sloppy kiss the older boy had pressed to his cheek, and the automatic raiding of the refrigerator that his aunt missed oh so much (she chased him away from it actually, told him she wanted to have food for the next few days at the very least).