❁
LIZZY lined up the ruddy pots of flourishing peonies and tulips, humming cheerily to herself as she worked. She considered last evening a nightmare, the owl simply a figment of her overly excited imagination. After getting a good night's sleep, she felt refreshed and ready to tackle what the day thrust her way—specifically, the conversation she was bound to have with JJ. Unfortunately, he wasn't responding to her texts which asked him outright what exactly occurred last night, but she didn't let that dampen her spirits.
After Lizzy finished arranging the flowers, she slid out her cell phone just to make sure she hadn't missed the familiar buzz that signaled an incoming text. JJ's name remained absent of her lock screen that featured a picture of her thriving garden from last year. Colors of peach, gold, lavender, cobalt decorated her beloved plants, their green leaves resting upon each other amiably like a group of friends. She couldn't wait for her garden this year to grow into a glorious rainbow, delighting not only her craving eyes but also her yearning nose.
"You almost done over there, Lizzy?" Naomi called from the other end of the shop, a watering can dangling from her fingers.
Lizzy quickly pocketed her cell phone, validating that she had finished her task with the peonies and tulips. "All good over here!" Lizzy responded, wiping the dirt from her hands on her jeans.
"Can you man the counter for a few minutes while I get us some water bottles from the back?"
Lizzy nodded, meandering around overflowing greenery and narrowly dodging flower pots that hung near her head, their vines tickling her face like seaweed brushing her toes. She positioned herself behind the counter, leaning forward with her palms on the counter as she peeked at the busy street just outside Once and Floral's window. Naomi soon returned accompanied by two bottles drenched in watery sweat, and she handed one to Lizzy who immediately took a refreshing swig.
Naomi and Lizzy stood next to each other, drinking in silence, until Naomi declared aloud, "Good work today, Lizzy. I'm proud of you. Why don't you take some lilies home with you?"
Naomi's young employee brightened at the mention of the pure and sweet flowers and Lizzy began bouncing on her toes with elation. "Really?"
"Hey now, don't get too excited," Naomi warned with a smile, ambling over to the box teeming with multicolored bouquets. "I know that whenever I usually treat you like this I give you something that you can plant in your garden, but I figured I'd change it up this time. Especially since it's such a busy gardening season right now and I want to make sure I have an overabundance of flowers on hand for it. Here, a bouquet of lilies, a little reward for your hard work—of which I'm very appreciative, mind you." Naomi selected a bouquet of lilies with petals made of snow, handing them to Lizzy who gently stroked the soft flowers.
"Thank you, Naomi. They're beautiful. It is a very busy time of year and I completely understand. Really, any flower brings me happiness, whether it be a seed or picked or planted in dirt."
"And this is why I hired you." Naomi winked, the lines around her eyes creasing as she smiled. "Are you feeling bouquet about your bouquet?" she joked as she watched Lizzy admire the lilies.
"Did you give me this just to say that pun?" Lizzy laughed, cradling the bouquet in her arms.
"Maybe," Naomi chuckled, throwing their water bottles in the trash before squinting outside the shop's window. "I think your friend is waiting for you out there. Spring formal shopping—that's what you told me, right?"
"Right."
"You know, your student council president talked to me about supplying the decorations for the dance. I might need some of your help for flower arrangements and getting them to your school, but I'll talk to you about it when it gets closer."
Lizzy sauntered away from the counter, her messenger bag slung over her shoulder with the bouquet of lilies still cuddled in the crook of her arm like a baby. "That sounds awesome, Naomi! I can't wait! The dance is going to be absolutely beautiful with Once and Floral's flowers."
"I hope so. Now, go and have fun and find that perfect dress that makes you look as pretty as those lilies you've got there."
"I'll try." Lizzy grinned and waved before exiting Once and Floral, the bell above her heralding her exit with a euphonious sound.
Occupied by her phone, Teagan was leaning on the brick wall just outside of Once and Floral, a gray wool hat adorning her head with her midnight colored hair warming her neck. When she heard the flower shop's bell ring, she looked up, startled until she recognized her best friend. Beaming, she embraced Lizzy, and Lizzy hugged her back with equal amounts of enthusiasm. Lizzy was glad that their friendship hadn't altered from their tense quarrel about Reece; she hadn't realized she had been worried until the knot in her gut dissipated into two free and untied shoelaces.
"You ready for this?" Teagan asked with a luminous grin, her eyes half-moons.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Lizzy responded, checking over her bouquet of lilies to make sure they weren't smashed by Teagan's hug, which brought Teagan's attention to them.
"Naomi gave you those?"
"Yeah." Lizzy admired the petals once more before moseying over to the small alley in between Redford's Bakery and Once and Floral, which led to the two stores' joint parking lots where her car was parked.
"They're pretty. Are you putting them in your car?" Teagan trailed behind Lizzy, her hands diving into her jacket's pockets. Lizzy nodded, her free hand searching for her keys to unlock her car door. Once this task was accomplished, she gently rested the bouquet onto the front seat, validating that each flower was safe and secure.
"Buckle her up, why don't you!" Teagan joked as she observed her best friend's meticulous placing of the lily bouquet.
Lizzy rolled her eyes. "Shut up, T."
Teagan held her hands up in surrender before shrugging. "I'm just making fun of you, Liz. You do care a lot about those flowers."
"Hey now, don't be hating on my plants. They're pure, innocent, and beautiful, which is more than I can say for some people," Lizzy defended, slamming her car door shut and locking it.
"Too true. People could learn a lot from flowers." Teagan glanced around the parking lot, cars idling around them like cats lying in the sun. "Where should we shop first?" Lizzy opened her mouth to reply but was quickly silenced by Teagan's sudden burst of excitement. "I know! Let's go to Bailey's Boutique! They have the cutest dresses that will match perfectly with your skin tone—"
Lizzy resisted the urge to laugh, allowing Teagan to tug her along toward Bailey's Boutique. For a girl who loved murder mysteries and elaborate, calculated schemes, Teagan could sure be a fashionista sometimes.
"Oh god no. Take it back," Teagan complained, her hands covering her eyes in horror.
"What? I didn't think it was that bad," Lizzy protested, offense written all over her face with her hands propped on her hips, the itchy fabric of the dark green dress scratching her palms.
Teagan and Lizzy had left Bailey's Boutique behind in the dust as they tried on dresses at their sixth (or was it seventh?) store. At Bailey's Boutique, Teagan had quickly found her perfect dress, fitting on her petite frame like a puzzle piece: a two-piece, the polka-dotted skirt falling midthigh with a slim, sparkly top, that revealed only a strip of her stomach. Both of them automatically agreed it was the one as if it was made just for her. Finding Lizzy's dress, however, proved to be more difficult as they waded from store to store, Lizzy trying on hundreds of styles and Teagan disapproving of each one.
Teagan moved her fingers, a single eye surveying her best friend in the hideous dress. "I mean—well—" she stuttered, trying to figure out some way she could compliment it, but she came up empty-handed. "Nope. Just take it off."
"Ugh, fine," Lizzy groaned, clutching the skirt in her fists before marching away in frustration. She had lost patience for spring formal shopping a long time ago and she was done with attempting to conceal her exhausted feelings for Teagan's benefit. Lizzy flung open the dressing room door and glared at the hanging dresses that were waiting patiently for her to try on.
"Try the dark red one on for me please," Teagan called from outside the dressing room, her sneaker-clad feet peeking underneath the door.
Lizzy blushed as deep as the dress, which peered from behind a gaudy yellow one. "It doesn't have straps, T. I told you I only want to wear dresses with straps because of my chest—or lack thereof, I guess."
"Oh, don't be a granny and just try it on. It won't hurt. It's not like anyone's forcing you to buy it or anything. You don't even have to leave the dressing room if you don't want to."
"Fine, fine," Lizzy grumbled in reply, caving into Teagan's pressure. She slipped out of the dark green dress and replaced it with the magenta one, her sensitive skin already approving the smoother, lighter fabric. Lizzy zipped up the dress as best as she could before slowly turning around to face her reflection in the dressing room mirror. When she saw herself, her jaw dropped—she looked like a rose, as ruddy and delicate and silky as a rose. She was surprised at finding herself in love with the sweetheart neckline, which effortlessly transitioned into a long, straight skirt. It was plain and simple yet there was a certain beauty to it in the way it rustled when she stepped forward, in the way the fabric flowed like ripples in a pond, in the way it made the wearer feel just as beautiful as itself.
"Have you tried it on yet?" Teagan impatiently inquired after a few minutes. When Lizzy didn't respond, as she was still soaking in her reflection in complete and utter awe, Teagan pounded her fist on the door and shouted, "Let me see! Let me see!"
Reluctantly, Lizzy turned away from the mirror and opened the dressing room door. She clutched the frail skirt in her fists as she climbed onto the pedestal that faced the enormous mirror. The sight of Lizzy in the dress left Teagan speechless, her normally crescent moon eyes widening into glassy bubbles, her jaw dropped to the floor. Lizzy seemed to glow as she sashayed the skirt and twirled around so Teagan could view it from every angle. When Teagan still didn't utter a sound, the minutes ticking by and made evident by the obnoxious clock on the wall, Lizzy looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow, her hands on her hips, her face flushed ruby just like the dress.
"Well? What do you think?" Lizzy asked, suddenly uncertain and nervous, her hands wringing together as she surveyed her reflection again. Maybe there was something wrong with it that she was missing, that she didn't spot before. "Teagan, you're scaring me."
Teagan forced herself to extract her gaze from Lizzy's dress, her wide, unreadable eyes meeting Lizzy's. "Its's beautiful. You're beautiful."
Lizzy's ruddy face darkened and she covered it with her hands, unable to swallow Teagan's compliments. "You're just saying that because you have to."
"No, I mean it," Teagan responded, her attention sliding back to the dress that clung to Lizzy like a friendly puppy; it seemed as though the two were simply meant to be together. Truth dripped from Teagan's words so innocently that Lizzy couldn't help but believe that her best friend's statements were genuine. The thought that she looked beautiful caused butterflies to erupt in her stomach and her mind to wander to when JJ called her that special word after she sent him a picture of herself. Beautiful. She adored the feeling and desired to capture it in a potion bottle to pour it over herself whenever misery should befall her like a suffocating blanket.
"I think it's the one," Lizzy declared aloud, committing herself to a dress that made her feel exquisite.
"No, I think we need to try a couple more," Teagan replied doubtfully. Lizzy swung around, shock prominent in her features, wondering what could possibly top this dress. Teagan's hands flew to her mouth as she stifled a giggle at her friend's dumbfounded expression. "I'm just kidding, you dumbass. Of course it's the one."
Relief flooded over Lizzy and she snuck another glimpse at herself in the mirror.
"You can't stop looking at yourself, can you?" Teagan asked, stepping onto the pedestal to stand next to her best friend.
Lizzy blushed with embarrassment at being caught and wished that she could melt inside the stunning dress. Teagan rushed to explain before Lizzy could tip deeper into the depths of humiliation: "I mean—hell, if I looked like you right now, I wouldn't take my eyes off me either." Teagan then embraced her best friend, her arms supporting Lizzy's back and her head tucked on Lizzy's shoulder. Lizzy breathed Teagan's fresh scent of lavender, gathering the love that Teagan offered like she was picking dandelions in a meadow.
"Let's get out of here, weirdo, and buy this dress," Teagan exclaimed before shoving Lizzy off the pedestal who not-so-gracefully stumbled to the dressing room, chuckles escaping her lips all the way. Shaking her head, Lizzy closed the dressing room door, savoring the rose dress's texture on her skin until she reluctantly peeled herself from its hospitable fabric.
Now she couldn't wait for the spring formal.
❁
A/N:
Hi everyone! I was gone this time to my grandparents' cottage that's on a lake for the 4th of July! It was very relaxing and fun! The weather was amazing (really hot) so we always went into the water to cool off. I'm going to be home (and writing!) for the week until my next excursion.
Please vote and comment if you enjoyed! I'm slowly but surely planning other novels that I will write soon! Although, with my senior year coming up, I doubt I'll have much time to write them.
I just finished writing Chapter 41 of this book! Nine more chapters to go! I will post as often as I can--my goal is to finish before September!
- Payton