Chapter Text
The soft ring of the doorbell hummed out in the nearly empty shop, echoing around the room and vibrating the sweetly blue glass panes in the shop. It was a warm afternoon so the main room was filled with sticky, hot air that only made charlie more uncomfortable and sweaty than before. She had just come from the library, so the periwinkle wrinkles under her eyes only looked more miserable. She hated the heat with a passion, and the only reason she hadn't quit right after learning that the flower shop was mainly a greenhouse was because of the company.
The brown haired man behind the counter looked up at her from his book, his back straightening upwards and making him a lot taller than most customers usually expected but Charlie knew him and just kept walking through the aisles, they had been friends since secondary school where they just bonded closer every year following, leading them to the same job and same university in the town neither of them had lived in before two or so hours away. She liked this place though, it was sweet and urban unlike where she had lived before in hills and farmlands. Where everyone you would know would grow up with you and die with you.
She walked around the wooden desk, picking up a border and ducking under to reach the door behind him, she inhaled the cool air of the backroom as she stepped through, looking at herself in the mirror opposite to her. She was wearing a dark green cotton blouse and brown trousers that went down to just above her sandals. Around her neck was a silver chain and locket which matched the other shiny jewellery on her heavily pierced ears and her hands and wrists too. The arrangement that sat opposite to her made her eyes have an almost fuchsia tinge to the iris, which was usually a light hazel-brown in the evening sun.
Plants surrounded every corner of the main shop behind her, from the alliums to the zinnias . They weren't quite at peak bloom right now but their roots were strengthening every morning and buds were peeking out from behind the lime green sprouts. She dreaded it and was excited for it too, seeing the plants she's nurtured for a few years now prosper and grow. She felt like a mother to them.
Jeremy poked his head in the back door, scouting out whether he should talk or if charlie was going to smite him down for even breathing wrong, she just looked tiredly around at him. 'Gabriel talked to me today!' He sputtered out in fear, which made her perk up. She always liked listening to his ramblings especially when he had a crush and Gabriel was the newest one.
From what she'd heard he was 'beautiful' and 'a heart stealer'. Now, charlie hadn't seen him but gave Jeremy the benefit of the doubt since she wasn't one for romance and when she did like someone, it wasn't a boy. She remembers the one time where she felt like that, must've been in year five when a new girl came to town for a year and how since then, she's ached to have her back in her arms. To talk as deeply and sweetly as they did back then. She wished for the safety of what she knew again.
In the back of everyday life she wished she could remember that girl's name. It stood out like a sore thumb in between her memories, which were growing thin from age anyway. She pushed that thought away, too scared to admit that she could even subconsciously value those precious moments as anything less than she would another one of her mother's rose biscuits, for her mother was far gone.
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Susie's keys jingled in the lock, the pink rose key chain getting caught on the shiny, silver metal plates of the storefront as it always does. She sighs deeply, in exasperation and how much she wished she could just crawl back into her still-warm bed, or just not have to deal with anything after today. For a second she debated quitting but that was gone as fast as a balloon touching a cactus spine.
The wind rushed around her legs and twisted her curly hair round like it was personally sent to annoy her. Firstly she wakes up to the rain pouring down outside and in through her open window, messing up some new designs she was working on, then her favourite dress all crinkled and stained by ink on the hem and now her hair, that she was wearing down for the first time since autumn, getting messed up in the wind. She was a right mess today.
Yet, she still managed to get in with a bit of jamming the key and sat down in the reception seat in a huff. Placing down her duffel bag on the counter and trying to pull herself together for the wide window was open right onto the main high street; Even if it was a quiet Tuesday evening, she could still see a few people meandering about on the sidewalk.
She spun round, looking at herself in the reflective wall behind the desk, in disgust she pulled at pieces of hair from the bottom to the top and after a moment, her hair looked good again. Or well, good enough for her. She straightened out the pink puffy skirt of her dress and tidied the collar up. She wished she could've had time to remove the white ink from the bottom of the skirt though, she had spilled it when doing a practice Tattoo a few days ago. She checked her sweet, dainty rings and pearl earrings were oriented correctly.
she savoured the silence for a beat until Gabriel rushed in, scaring her and making her jump up. The boy was put together, he was wearing a button up shirt under a brown vest and blackberry blue smart trousers. His hair was combed and curly in dark brown ringlets. It framed his soft features and spruce-colour skin. He had seemingly just come from a philosophy class due to the reading glasses propped on the tip of his nose.
They had met a little over 3 years ago when he came for university but they were best friends, she had coaxed him to learn some tattoo skills and he was a natural, honestly don't tell him she said this but he was incredible. He just had a knack for it apparently, so he stayed.
Susie had lived here her whole life ( ignoring year 5 where she lived with her grandma two hours away, she doesn't like to mention that.) so she knew the paths like the back of her hand or the paint on her pallette. She always liked how the spring came year after year and watching trees grow with her. Or the way new people came for school from the more countryside parts just out of town, letting her complete a new cycle of making friends, maybe more than friends then they leave. Leave her to stay where she always is.
sometimes she wishes that she could move away but she feels an obligation to stay, for until gabriel has his feet set in the stone. She is bound to the town she's always been bound to.