Chains and Petals; Jalex

Flower Beds

"...Traffic has spiked due to construction in south Baltimore..." Were the only words that seemed to stand out to the man as he paid little to no attention to the morning news.

Jack grumbled to himself angrily, gulping the rest of his coffee down and pulling on his leather jacket, only to slam the power button on the remote. He would have to find a better way to work. He didn't hesitate to slam the door, either, trudging through the wet grass towards his bike. He caught a glimpse of color across the street, more flowers poking out of the soil, and he rolled his eyes.

They were going to die anyway, so why plant them?

Jack clambered onto motorcycle- yes, without a helmet. Of course it had gotten lost, and he didn't bother to go buy another one because after all, what were the chances of him crashing anyway?

Now avoiding possible police officers who could find him for this, that was going to be difficult. With the construction right on his route to work, there'd be police everywhere. The only possible route was through the back roads.

In a nicer persons view, they'd care that their motorcycle was possibly going to wake up peacefully sleeping people in their homes as they drove through the neighborhoods. But then again, a nicer person would've bought a new helmet.

Lucky, to the not-so-nice Jack Barakat, there was no construction near the back roads.

The rumble of his motorcycle, as he didn't care, did cause quite a commotion throughout the roads, and especially when he reached a small neighborhood by the name of Tulip Hollow. He'd always avoided this place, because as you've heard, Jack didn't take a liking to flowers. Pointless beauty that shriveled away in a series of months. Tulip Hollow was filled to the brim with flowers, and not just tulips, no. Roses, lilies, sunflowers, the lot. He only shook his head, grumbling to himself about how useless they were.

It wasn't until he passed a small blue house with a white trim, the entire yard overflown with flowers that caught his attention. A small framed person sat in the garden, letting water trickle from the watering can they held. He couldn't seem to make out whether they were a boy or a girl, due to their very short hair and overalls.

Could they be the one planting all of the flowers?

All of this went through Jack's head as he drove by, and even until he parked next to his tattoo parlor, the person was still on his mind.

Clearly, they were the one doing it all, they had to be.

He stopped caring who was doing it at this point, and walked into his work.

***

"Oh, so you finally saw him?" Rian, his co-worker pitched into his conversation.

Jack was now explaining to Zack, his second co-worker what had happened, and complaining about the flowers and the person.

"Him?"

Rian laughed, rummaging through files of old tattoos on his laptop. "Yeah. Kid's sure got a green thumb. He's been planting those for weeks. Name's Alex, I think. Saw him at the flower shop when I was buying Dallas some roses. The staff there knew him pretty well."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Didn't expect it to be a dude," he scoffed, Zack smirking.

"Yeah, no one did really."

Jack didn't care much, he just assumed this kid was gay. Didn't affect how he felt about the flowers.

***

The day went by fast, only a few clients coming in to schedule appointments. It being Sunday, no one had scheduled anything, which was convenient.

Jack left work that night, making sure to lock the doors and shut off all the lights. He clambered onto his bike once again, deciding to take the back roads once again to make sure there would be no conflicts with the police.

Soon he was driving through Tulip Hollow, and he wasn't sure why, but he slowed to a stop outside of the blue house with white shutters. There were flowers in the window boxes, in the front yard, all over. He stood up slightly, one foot off of his bike. He managed to get a small glimpse through the window. A light was on and he could see the boy Rian had mentioned. He was holding a mug, and it looked like he was talking. Maybe he had someone living with him.

Jack hummed, and quickly drove off.

***

That night, Jack's mind didn't stop filling with thoughts of the flower boy. Alex. He had no idea why, he always hated the flowers, but all he wanted to do was see them now. And talk to the boy. He wondered what his voice sounded like, if he had any tattoos. Is he afraid of needles? Who's living with him? Or was he talking to himself? Or a pet? So many questions spilled out of the man's head, before he dozed off, curious about him.

The next morning, Jack woke with a raging headache from staying up the day prior. He could feel the pounding in his forehead like drums. He thought of his episode the previous night and grunted, his curiosity still flowing. He stood and got dressed, before going downstairs to take some Tylenol and start his drive to work.

It was an awfully cold April morning, His motorcycle roared down the street once again, and he pondered his direction for a second, before going down the back roads. He assured himself he did it to avoid police and traffic, but a small voice in the back of his head told him otherwise. He pushed it back and rolled his eyes. He hated the flowers, obviously he wouldn't choose to go this way. Again, he drove past the baby blue house with white shudders. And there he was, outside, watering flowers. Jack saw him perk up at the sound of the motorcycle, eyes following the man down the road. He had never seen the boy that clearly, and something about him made his thoughts linger. But again, he pushed it back.

The whole day at work Jack's mind was overflowing. He found himself asking Rian way too much about this boy as he gave people tattoos, and did paperwork. To the point where his coworkers were wondering what had him so curious about a young boy who planted flowers.

"Do you know how old he is?" Jack asked, in the middle of shading in a skull tattoo on a man's shoulder.

Rian shrugged, leaning against the counter. "Probably younger than us, maybe twenty or something. He looks pretty young, but its kinda weird that he lives alone." Jack nodded. With every question his curiosity grew stronger.

But why did he want to know so much about this boy?

Lunch time rolled around, and as Jack ate his lunch, he scrolled mindlessly through Instagram. Until an idea struck him. "Do you know his last name?" He asked Rian, who was sitting next to him eating a salad.

"Nah, I've only ever seen him a few times. And since you're so interested in him, why don't you ask yourself?" Rian answered the tattoo artist with another question, smirking. "You've been asking me things about him non-stop all day, dude. I'm just saying. He doesn't seem that scary. Just approach him if you like him that much." Rian finished with a quick, forced smile before disappearing into the back room.

Jack sat dumbfounded. He didn't like anything about Alex, he was curious is all. As to why a kid would go out of his way to plant flowers everywhere around town. He didn't like anything about him. He was closer to hating him than anything.

Right?

***

there ya go. chapter one for ya. haven't written a proper fanfic in years so sorry if it's kinda oddly written at first.

Pls vote and shit so I can feed my family. thx

~Aus