Page 58 of Spotlight on Poppy

"The Whitney house."

"Why were you in the Whitney house?"

"Because Josh is buying the Whitney house,” Poppy said.

"What? Seriously Poppy, we live in the same town. We are NEIGHBORS for crying out loud. How do I not know about all this stuff?" Hannah asked incredulously.

"It’s all happening so fast I can barely keep up! But yeah, we went and looked at it the other day.” said Poppy as she took a bite of the Twizzler in her hand.

“It’s amazing, and here is the weird thing. When I walked into the house, I felt like I was coming home. I don't know how else to describe it. When we were in the kitchen, I had this clear image of baking in the huge, glorious kitchen with all these little children. And then when we went upstairs the master bedroom overlooked this beautiful backyard and I had this vision, but it was more than a vision. It was like I was there experiencing it and I could feel it. I was sitting in a rocking chair rocking a baby and I was looking out the window at Josh and this beautiful little child that had the best features of each of us being pushed on a swing. It was amazing."

"Yeah... that is not the kind of magic I got.” Hannah said. “That's amazing. What's your dilemma? You sound pretty certain."

"I don't know. I want that with Josh. I really do, and I don't think I could fight it even if I wanted to."

"So, what's the problem?" Hannah asked.

"I have always wanted to leave and now, what? I changed my mind because I fell in love with a guy? I'm not that girl. How do I reconcile that?" She was struggling between who she always thought she was and who she might end up being. They weren’t the same, but when she was with him none of this seemed to matter.

"So, it is a pride thing?" Hannah asked with a knowing glance.

"No, it is not a pride thing!" she snapped defensively.

"Okay, have you talked to Josh about any of this?"

"No, I don't want to hurt his feelings."

"I think his feelings would be more hurt to know you are going through all of this and not talking to him about it,” said Hannah.

The words Hannah said were bouncing around in Poppy’s head. She should talk to Josh about it, but also that part about pride was there too. Was it pride that was stopping her from fully embracing the idea of a life in Mystic Falls with Josh? She searched her heart and maybe yeah, there might be some truth to that. The whole town knew Poppy had big dreams and wanted out, was she disappointed because she didn't want to be seen as a failure or as someone who settled? But she knew a life with Josh would never be settling. She knew she wanted a life with him more than anything, but they had never really talked about it.

"You're right,” Poppy said finally. “I do need to talk to him and maybe part of the reason I’m scared is because I’ve gone on and on about how much I hated the town and the orchard. And now if the visions are true, I am going to marry Josh Turner, work at the orchard with him, have a handful of kids and be deliriously happy. So maybe I just need to get out of the way of happiness and live my life."

Hannah nodded and kept her eyes on the road, letting Poppy come to all this herself.

"So maybe I let go of other people's thoughts about what I should be, including my own. Maybe I need to let go of my expectations because something I could have never expected fell right into my lap and I would be an idiot not to be happy."

Those words sunk in as they got closer to the city. Poppy was going to do this. She still needed to talk to Josh and work everything out, but if she could find the contentment in Mystic Falls with Josh, she would be a fool not to try.

In the afternoon they were finally in the city. As they walked in Hannah stopped at her mailbox to get the stray pieces that hadn't been forwarded. The door from the outside opened and Poppy dropped her bag when she looked up to see who had just walked into Hannah's building. Damien St. Cloud.

CHAPTER26

Poppy

"Damien! What are you doing here?" Poppy asked, clearly taken aback.

"I live here. What are you doing here?" he asked.

"My friend, Hannah, is packing up her apartment. I came to help," she said.

Damien's eyes glanced over to Hannah. She held up her hand and awkwardly laughed and said "3B."

Damien gave his cool James Dean smile and said, "Nice. 2D. I’ll see you around Poppy and Hannah from 3B." He winked at them and turned to head into the building while they both stood there bumbling in the foyer.

"Was that --"

"Damien St. Cloud. How in the world does he live in your building?" Poppy said in disbelief.

---