Is This Love?

Oh, Valentine's Day. It brings equally as much joy as it brings pain. You never see as many roses in one day and you never hear "I'm going to eat chocolate until I burst" quite as much as on February 14th. Girls prance around with roses, cards, teddy bears and chocolate in their arms, arranging everything in their room when they get home. They vow to treasure everything; to dry the roses, to sleep with the teddy bear and to put the cards on their pin boards.
At least I thought that's how it was done - I've never had a legitimate valentine. I've received roses and cards from my friends before but that's about it. Regardless, I never imagined girls would carelessly drop their valentine's rose in a million years.
Whenever I find these things (be it the rose, the random wall paintings or other stuff) I always wonder about the story behind them - especially this one. Maybe the girl did not actually like the guy she got the rose from and she dropped it as soon as she got away from him. Maybe the couple got in a fight and the rose was thrown on the ground in anger. Or maybe the guy was rejected and discarded the rose out of resignation. In any case, this rose reminded me of the day after a party or a concert, when the ground is covered with everyone's trash. It's upsetting to think, however, that a rose could be anyone's trash. Even if you get a dozen roses, every single one matters - doesn't it? Someone sure did pay for every single one of them. But far more importantly, someone paid for these roses because they symbolize affection. Why should you discard that? While it is very well possible that someone simply lost this rose and my judgement is too harsh and granted, people lose things all the time (I know I do), that still signalizes carelessness. And whether this rose landed on the ground on purpose or by accident, it still ended up in the same place - on the ground.