METAMORPHOSIS

Leia had always known how to push Tyler’s buttons and, even in her current state, she was still as feisty as ever. Tyler looked at her with a mix of amusement and annoyance, wondering how on earth he had gotten himself into this predicament.

Tyler’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of the hospital bed, his gaze unwavering on Leia’s pale face, her skin almost blending with the sterile white pillows. The color had drained from her once rosy and quick to sass lips. But her emerald eyes still sparkled with the fire that was unmistakably hers.

Leia motioned to a pathetic-looking plant on her bedside table. “Bet you can’t keep a plant alive for a month,” she had challenged him, her voice barely above a whisper but laced with an unmistakable dare. Tyler, a born urbanite, had never cared for anything beyond concrete and food with an expiration date. But as he looked down at Leia, frail and fading but still full of spirit, he knew he would take on her challenge.

He left the hospital room that day carrying a small pot with a feeble-looking fern that Leia claimed she had been nurturing. “Don’t let it die,” she had teased in parting. But underneath the light humor, the parallel between the plant and her own life was as heavy as an anchor.

The fern sat on Tyler’s kitchen windowsill, a green intruder in his steel-and-chrome world. Tending it became a daily sacrament. When he passed it, he spoke words of encouragement and touched its leaves as if willing life into its roots. Slowly, as the fern began to thrive under his watchful eye, he found himself changing, too.

In accepting Leia’s challenge, Tyler discovered a part of himself he never knew existed—a place within himself that was nurturing and patient. He also realized that his feelings for Leia ran deeper than their playful rivalry these past years. The fern became not just a symbol of their connection, but also of his transformation.

A month later, Tyler returned the vibrant, flourishing fern to Leia. As he entered her hospital room, her eyes lit up as they landed on the thriving plant. Despite the tubes and machines surrounding her frail form, she looked more alive than she had in months.

“You’ve changed,” she murmured as he handed her the pot. Tyler looked from the fern to Leia and knew she was right.