The Garden of Sunflowers and Daisies

The Tattoo Parlor

*Josephine is regular and Tyler is bolded during dialogue*

Josephine Taylor is a sixteen year old girl. She is the spitting image of her mother. She has blonde hair and green eyes. She's kind and generous but also rebellious at times. She absolutely adores her friends and her little brother, Oliver. Her best friend, Rebecca, is the more "idk and idc" kinda girl. She and Josephine are like peanut butter and jelly; they're complete opposites but are great together. Josephine's friends, and Oliver of course, call her Josie.

Josie walked into the store with the tattoo she wanted in hand. She saw a young looking, brown-haired, blue-eyed boy, probably around her age, sitting down on the bench waiting for his turn to get a tattoo. She sat down next to him. He turned his head to look at her, but the tattoo artist called him to get his tattoo done. After awhile, he returned to where he was seated when Josephine walked in and turned to her. 

"Hi! My name is Tyler. And who might you be?" he said politely. 

Josie answered, "Oh, hello. I'm Josephine, but my friends call me Josie." 

"Well hello, Josephine. You have a lovely name by the way."

"Thanks! It was my great-grandmother's name, and my mother loved her very much, so she named me after her. What did you say your name was again?"

"Oh, it's Tyler. I don't have a cool story to go with my name though," he chuckled.

The tattoo artist called Josie to get her tattoo done.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you Tyler, but I have to go now."

"Alrighty. I hope I'll see you again soon, Josephine."

Josephine got up and walked away from the bench chuckling at the boy she had just met. She didn't know why, but she felt that something important was going to happen between the two of them. When she got to the counter, the guy asked what she wanted, and she handed him the picture in her hand (the chapter cover). He told her to go sit in the chair and he would be there in a few minutes to do her tattoo. 

Once the man said that they were done, he showed Josephine her new tattoo in the mirror. "Wow! I love it. Thank you so much!" she said turning around to face the man that had done her tattoo. She went to the counter to pay and then went to look for Tyler. She had only just met him, but she wanted to keep talking to him. She found him sitting on the bench right where she had left him.

"What did you get?" he asked.

"A small sunflower," Josie said.

"Any particular reason?"

"They're my favorite flowers, along with daisies."

"Wow. You have a funny taste in flowers."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because those flowers are basically the same thing except for their color."

"Exactly. They're similarities and differences are what make them my favorites, Tyler."

"Whatever you say, Josephine," he said jokingly rolling his eyes.

The two laughed and then there was an awkward silence that filled the air like smoke.

"Ugh. I'm hungry. Gotta go get some food," Josie said.

"I was just about to go get some pizza from the place down the street if you want to come with me."

"Sure! I would love to," Josie said excitedly.

"Alright then, let's go!" Tyler exclaimed.

They walked to the pizza place, conversing on the way of course, and then went to the counter to get their pizzas. When they got to the counter, the woman working it asked, "What can I get for the lovely couple?" Tyler and Josie stuttered trying to explain to the woman that they weren't a couple but ended up giving up and just forgetting the whole thing entirely. The ordered their pizzas and went to sit outside on the patio portion of the restaurant. They barely knew each other, but they felt like they had known each other their whole lives. 

The two ate their pizza and then left the restaurant. Tyler was a couple months older than Josie, so he had a car and driver's license, and she did not, to which she jokingly complained about for a duration of 15 minutes. Rebecca called to let her know that she was going to come pick her up from the tattoo parlor whenever she was done, so Tyler and Josie walked back to the shop to wait for her. Josie insisted that Tyler could leave if he wanted to, but he protested and said that he wouldn't be a "polite young man if he didn't wait with the lady for her ride." Tyler and Josie simultaneously realized that they didn't have each other's number, so they exchanged numbers and then joked around until Rebecca arrived to pick up Josie and then the two departed from each other's company. Hopefully we'll see each other again, Josie thought.