I Chose Nothing

7

Instead of visiting each other's apartments Sage and John would sit and talk on the tin can. "TC" for short. It was their code word, it was their thing now. As he opened up more and more to Sage, and as she did too, John couldn't be any happier.
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     John woke up to the sound of chickens clucking, and cows mooing. It was time for the days work. He got up from bed and looked out the window, touching the glass as he did. The sky above him was covered in grey clouds and he felt the glass was cold. A terrible combination, he went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. He got dressed and put on a jacket to help with the cold and with the soon-to-be rain.
     As expected, it began with a light sprinkle as he fed the chickens their seeds, then it got a bit harder as he grabbed all of their eggs. By the time he was cleaning the horses' stable, it was pouring. However, the rain did not stop him from getting his morning chores done. As his father went to town to buy the produce that their farm hadn't grown, his mother made breakfast for his siblings and tended the garden. He milked the cows and fed them hay, he gathered the eggs and gave them to his mother to cook and store in the fridge. The milk he turned into butter using the churn. His father preferred store-bought milk anyways, and making butter for their toast along with frying things, was cheaper for him and his family. The rain showed no sign of stopping and only got stronger. His father arrived with a list of chores for him to do, he did so as his siblings helped from time to time.
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     He sighed as he wrote a commission down, and typed onto his computer 'facts about fireflies' he opened website after website and finished writing and sent it in for reviewing and hopefully pay. In the background he listened to episodes of the Star Wars saga on repeat, he hadn't memorized them yet, but he did like begin to get a feel for them. He had went out and bought an automatic water dispenser for his flower, it was a stem now. Sure it was little, but it showed John that he was doing good at making Sage proud. Just the other day, she inspected it and was very impressed with him, not expecting him to actually grow it properly.
     John took his eyes off of the screen and saw that he still hadn't begun to sketch out what he wanted on the canvas. He began to research ideas and settled on a tiny tree. Couldn't be that hard right?
     He started first on a piece of paper, he wanted the painting to be special, not copied off of the internet. He used the small canvas to make small outlines just so he knew how to reference its size and use the most of it. At first the tree was going to be a massive oak tree, then it turned into a pine, then into a maple, then spruce. He scratched out the tree idea. He looked at more ideas and made a list of things he thought would be good enough. 'I'll get Marc to help me out.' He thought to himself as he pushed his chair away from his desk with enough force to land in the middle of the room. He spun in circles mindlessly, wondering if Sage was home, he texted her. 'TC?' The message was immediately delivered, opened, and read. Typing bubbles showed up, showing that she was replying, 'Cant, at the doctors, maybe later?' He sent a thumbs up emoji and threw himself on his bed, bored. He knew that Marc was busy on a date since he kept on talking about how excited he was about it, he looked outside and saw that it was cloudy. Which wasn't unexpected for Florida, so he decided to leave his apartment. And for the first time, without reason, venture the city.