Open Wild Flowers Are Better Anyway

[Santiago Torres]

Santiago's break had been about as bad as he had expected it to be. He had gone home to his mom in Texas and while he usually liked spending the holidays at the ranch he knew it was intentional to keep him away from his old friends. He had begged to go visit his dad and when his mom finally relented it was only for a weekend and he was so busy visiting his grandparents and uncles there wasn't a spare minute he could get away. Now he was back at this stupid school on the other side of the world and everyone was sending flowers and gushing about how much they loved each other and it made his stomach turn. He hadn't made any real connections with anyone and the loneliness was getting to him. So instead of going to any of his classes he went out to the lawn and found a patch of flowers and sat down. He wanted to cry but he kept taking deep breaths to keep it all in. He wouldn't let this stupid day break him like that. He picked one of the flowers and spun in between his fingers. It was small with white petals and he didn't know the name of it but he liked it better than anything back at the castle.

 

[Finley Holmes]

Finley decided it was best he avoid the castle for the time being now there were loads of people walking around with roses. Not that he thought for one single second that any of them would be addressed to him, but he'd rather not be around it all. The whole idea was just a stupid one and it made people realize they didn't have any friends when they received no roses. Not that Fin wasn't well aware he was alone at Hogwarts, but he'd just rather not be reminded of that fact if he could help it. His avoidance of the castle ended up with him aimlessly wandering the grounds, hands shoved into his pockets and head down as he just let his feet take him whenever they felt like it. The sound of the water made him eventually look up, stopping right at the edge as he let out a long breath. Though it seemed he wasn't alone, eyes drifting over to a slightly younger-looking boy sitting just off to the side. And no matter which way he looked at it, the other boy kind of reminded Finley of himself. "You avoiding the castle too?" He offered quietly, not all too used to actually having to to start off a conversation. Usually, it was other people bothering him, not the other way around.

 

[Santiago Torres]

Santiago wasn’t expecting to run into anyone else out here, so when he heard a voice he turned quickly to see who it was. He didn’t recognize the other boy and if he had to guess he was a little older than him. “Yeah.” he said, and even with that one word his voice cracked and he winced. Of course he had to look lame to the first person to try and talk to him in weeks. He cleared his throat. “I just…don’t need to see all that.” he shrugged, his shoulders tense as he waited for what the other boy would do. He was ready to act if he tried to make fun of him. At least he wasn’t the one creeping up on people.