"Excuse me, but are you Laura?"

"Uh, yea?"

"Here, these are especially for you."

The delivery boy hands over one delicate, red rose over to Laura, my best friend, and she gasps in delighted shock. She tries to hide her immense glee at being one of the lucky few to receive a rose today for Valentine's day but I see right through her. The applause from the now dispersing crowd dies down and she turns to me, rose in hand.

"Who's it from?"

She giggles and shrugs, twirling the rose playfully in her hand and swiping it around her nose as if to smell its aroma. 

"You know its a plastic rose, right?"

She smacks me on the shoulder playfully and exclaims, "I know! But its the thought that counts." I shrug in reply, gathering my books from my locker. I stand there and continue watching as she plays around with her rose, having gathered many jealous female onlookers. Twats.

"I feel horrible for getting a rose now when you didn't get one." Laura pouts my way. I shoo away her face, not wanting to hear any nonsense about this rose business.

"This rose thing is totally uneceessary." I pronounce, ready to launch into a heartfelt monologue. "It degrades those who don't get roses. It promotes the idea of women having to have men in their life to be happy when in reality, we do just fine without them!"

Laura looks on in amusement. She's heard many of my pro-feminist monologues so she knows what she's in for.

"I mean, who says that just because I'm single I'm sad, lonely, and depressed? Why can't I be happy being single? And besides, Valentines Day is so overrated. If theres a day reserved especially for couples, why not for singles?"

"Okay, let me stop you there." Laura laughs. "One, Valentines Day is in celebration of love, not couples. Two, singles day is everyday." 

"Okay okay you make a good point. But still !! I'm just sick and tired of this crass culture where women are encouraged not to think for themselves. We are women and we should be proud!"

A slow, deliberate clap rings out in response to the end of my monologue and I'm ready to bow, thinking it was Laura that was clapping when instead I look up and am greeted by a familiar figure.

"Absolute cracking speech that was, absolutely!" 

My lips are pursed and okay, I'll admit, my cheeks grow a bit warm. I try convincing myself it's from embarassment but ... who knows?

"Don't tell me that's the end of your little speech? More, I say, more!" Lay's overly cheery tone gives me more than a little indication of his sarcasm and I give a sarcastic little bow.

"I didn't know you enjoyed eavesdropping in your spare time." I reply just as cheerily. Laura is still trying to figure out exactly what is going on, and so I quickly fill her in. 

Lay steps over to us, purple backpack slung casually over his shoulder. He stares at Laura's rose in her hand for a second before returning back to the topic at hand.

"Only when I need to eavesdrop. Say, what you were saying before was really interesting. About all that rose crap and stuff."

"Rose crap indeed. Just me mindlessly ranting how Valentines Day is completely overrated and that single women cop too much crap for being single and blah blah blah"

"Aah, but I didn't hear anything about guys? You women all think it's about you on Valentines but the real pressure is on the guys. Put yourself in a man's shoes for a second. All of a sudden on Feb 14 his girlfriend wants about 101 million things done especially for her, and the pressure to do it bigger and better, to do it right increases every year. Yet wheres our chocolates? Our roses?" 

"Are you seriously telling me that guys don't get treated as special as girls on Valentines?"

"No. I'm saying it's unfair for all boyfriends in the world to be expected to do something for their girlfriends. It should go both ways."

I open my mouth but nothing comes out - Laura looks at me weirdly, and if I was somebody else looking at me I would give me a weird look too. I was ever rarely speechless so the fact that I was, was a huge milestone in itself. Nobody, espeically not a boy, had ever had an intelligent enough conversation with me to warrant me being speechless but I guess today was full of surprises. 

"Cat got your tongue?"

I huffed in frustration. Everything he said, I surprisingly ... found no fault in. How was this possible? Lay, the boy who bumped into me rudely and demanded that it was the other way 'round? Lay, the boy who so rudely referred to me as 'deaf ears'? Lay, the boy who so boldly proclaimed for me not to fall in love with him?

"Lay, right?" Laura says, eyeing Lay unashamedly.

"Yes. And I have a confession to make." Lay reaches over and pries the rose from Laura's hands, much to her displeasure. "Hey!" She yelps. Lay mouths 'sorry' and I begin wondering what he's doing, taking Laura's rose.

"Hey that's not yours-"

My words die out as Lay grabs my left hand, and places the rose inside my open palm. 

"I told the guy to give it to the girl next to Laura."

Lay lets go of my hand and I look down at it, at the rose that I'm holding, the rose originally meant for me and I think, what? Who, me?

"Valentines doesn't seem so bad now that you've got a rose, does it?" Lay smiles, dimple on display.

"Hypocrite."

With that being said, he smirks and coolly walks away, as if he didn't just make me completely speechless for the second time in a row. I'm still clutching the rose, when Laura and I both turn to each other, complete shock etched across both our faces.

"Can I still tell people I got a rose?" Laura pleads.