Flowergirl

✿✽❀~ two ~❀✽✿

                          w  e  e  k   2  :  o  r  c  h  i  d  s

"Your son has no manners whatsoever, Mel."

I gave Stacy an exaggerated grin as I picked up my bowl of cereal and walked out of the kitchen, leaving her leaning on the counter, glowering at me. I heard my mum's footsteps coming from the back door as I sat down at the dining table to eat.

"What did he do this time?" I heard mum ask as the back door slammed shut.

"I was just minding my own business, making myself a warm cuppa tea and then out of nowhere, he snatches the milk from me and uses it in his cereal, taking every last drop!" I smiled as Stacy told my mum the story. I could just imagine the way her arms must've been waving around to help narrate her tale. "Can you believe it?" she asked.

"Actually, yes," Mum said, making me laugh quietly.

"Melina, seriously?"

"Well what do you want me to do, Stace? Go out and buy a whole nother jug of milk?" Mum asked.

I could just hear the smile in Stacy's voice as she said 'yes, please' and made a kissing noise at Mum. I heard Mum groan and then walk past the dining room in the direction of the front door. "You're not actually going out to buy milk, are you?" I asked her as she passed me.

Mum rolled her eyes. "Have you met Stacy before?"

I laughed, heading to the kitchen with my bowl. "Well make sure it's a big jug then, I'm feeling like seconds."

I entered the kitchen and Stacy scowled at me, blowing on her black tea. I smirked as I placed my bowl on the counter, looking at her drink amusedly. "I didn't know you took your tea black as well?" I asked, faking confusion. "I thought it was just your men that—"

"Cark it, Miles!"

I raised my arms, feigning innocence. "Well it's true isn't it? Wasn't it you who went to that one bar that only let—"

She gave me the finger, stopping me mid-sentence as she took a sip of her drink. It must have still been too hot because her face twisted in pain—something I unashamedly found hilarious—and she set it down hard on the counter, panting to cool her tongue down. I was already chuckling at my earlier comment, but by now I was buckled over in laughter as she stuck her tongue out of her mouth in attempt to cool it down, letting out a string of profanities as she did so.

"Miles, stop being so bloody rude and take this flower up to my room." Mum walked back into the kitchen with a flower pot that held some purple and yellow flower that I didn't recognize.

"Wait mum, where did you get that?" I asked.

"From J, the girl who sells flowers—the one you hate so much—she just passed by." Mum held out the flower with a smile on her face. "She actually asked for you a few times this past week, I told her..."

She kept speaking but I wasn't listening to her anymore as I made the split second decision of whether or not I would go after flowergirl. I pushed past my mum and ran to the front door, throwing it open and looking out to see flowergirl—or J, as mum called her—pushing her trolley mindlessly down the street.

I wasn't quite sure why I was running to her and why I wanted to talk to her so badly, but before I knew it, I was yelling for her and she turned around, confusion written on her face as she saw me coming after her.

"What..."

She didn't finish her sentence as she looked at me questioningly. I came to a stop before her and she took in my appearance, a smile playing at her lips as she spoke. "You came running from bed just to buy my flowers?" she teased, making fun of my clearly indoors-only look. I hadn't planned on leaving the house today and so I was in a grey t-shirt and darker grey sweatpants with a bedhead I didn't even want to begin trying to fix.

She, on the other hand, was wearing a light purple t-shirt that made her look skinnier and smaller than she actually was. As she looked up at me, it seemed as though her eyes were bigger than they were the last time I'd seen her, farther apart even, and her hair just as limp. I smiled as I looked at her. She looked cute. Like, really cute.

"I, uh..." I stuck my hands into my pockets, smiling as I pulled out a bill. "I have a five."

"For the sunflower?" she asked. "Wasn't that a week ago?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

She opened her fanny pack and smiled nonetheless as she plucked the bill from my hand, putting it with the rest of her money and zipping it all up. "Thanks, mate. I guess the deposit worked then. A little late if you ask me, but business is business."

"I guess so...but..." I looked at her and she didn't say anything, waiting for me to continue. "What would you do if I told you I killed the flower? By mistake of course!" I quickly added.

She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it—something she did quite often I'd come to notice. She shook her head and her hair bounced up and down on her head. Finally she took a deep breath, "Did you?"

"What?"

"Kill it! The flower, is it dead?" she asked, her eyes wide as she spoke.

I shrugged. "There may have been an accident involving the garbage disposal." I spoke under my breath in hopes that she wouldn't hear it, but she cringed, leaning a good foot away from me.

"It's okay," I said, "It was quick."

"Fuckin' hell." She opened back up her fanny pack and pulled out my five to give back to me.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked, pushing her hand away. "I don't want it. I've been waiting a week to give it to you."

"I'm not taking this," she said. "This is blood money."

I rolled my eyes. "You're not serous. It's the circle of life, mate. Things die."

"The flower didn't die, it was killed." She scowled at me, dropping the note on the ground and turning around to leave. "Not exactly what I meant when I said I wanted good business," she muttered.

"Wait, wait!" I called, grabbing her arm quickly. It was almost comical how my hand wrapped around her entire bicep, fingertip-to-fingertip. I liked the way it looked, her darker skin against my light skin.

She turned back to me with large, impatient eyes. "Yes?"

I almost jumped as she jolted me out of my little reverie. I scratched the back of my neck. "What was the name of the flower you sold to my mum today?" I asked.

"It was an orchid," she said. "Why?"

I shrugged, "It looked kind of like a vagina...but like, a purple one."

She rolled her eyes at me. And when I say rolled, I mean they rolled. They did a full 180 around the top of their socket and because her eyes were so big I couldn't find it in myself to look anywhere else. "Mate, have you ever seen a vagina?"

I smiled, "Came out of one, didn't I?"

She bit her lip, trying to keep from smiling as she said bye to me.

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Bye J," I said.

She frowned, turning around. "What did you call me?"

"J," I said with a shrug. "It's what my mum called you."

"Do you even know what my name is?" she asked.

I shook my head and she laughed, unlocking the brake of her trolley to push it down the street to the next house. "Good," she said, "because I like flowergirl better."

🌷 🌷 🌷

Does anyone have any guesses at to what J's name might be?

Don't forget to vote if you liked it!