Blood Stains and Marigolds

》FIVE《

The next week, Dipper noticed the flowers getting worse. He had gone from throwing up petals and a bit of blood to partially formed flowers and clotted blood. In addition to that, he noticed the flowers had gone from a bright yellow to a golden yellow. As well as now being able to identify what kind of flower he had growing in his lungs. Marigolds. A flower used in day of the dead celebrations, to guide the souls of the dead back to the living. Dipper found it ironic that a flower symbolized for life was going to be the reason for his death. Like a sick joke.

Dipper also occasionally felt small stabbing pains in his chest, especially especially he interacted with Bill.

Dipper knew he had to be careful around Bill. He was pretty sure being around Bill made the disease worse. Even just thinking about Bill made his chest hurt and his breathing difficult, as if just the thought of Bill not returning Dipper's feelings made the flowers in Dipper's lungs bloom faster.

Dipper knew this disease was real now. There was no doubt in his mind about it now. And he knew this was how he would die. There was no way Bill felt the same way. Dipper knew he'd never be able to confess anyway. He didn't want to hurt Pyronica like that.

It was Sunday, thankfully, so Dipper didn't have to see Bill. It was strange how this disease made him both want to be close and far away from the one he cared about.

Dipper got up later than he usually did. Hanahaki had made his body feel weak, so he tended to sleep more now, even if he had only had the disease for a week.

Dipper checked his phone when he woke up and noticed he had two messages. One from Mabel reminding him he had to help out with the shop today. Mabel normally watched the shop on Sundays, but Dipper had offered to cover for her so she could hang out with her friends. It had been his excuse to get out of movie night with Bill. He wasn't sure he could handle seeing him more than five days a week.

Dipper glanced at the clock and noticed it was 10AM. The shop didn't open until 10:30 AM.

Dipper checked his other message and saw it was from Stan, reminding him he had to watch the shop as well as informing him Ford would be home Monday night and that Dipper needed to pick him up from the Bus Station, letting him know that he could borrow his car to do so.

Dipper rolled out of bed and got dressed, heading down to the shop to help Stan open.

But when he got downstairs he found someone else was already behind the counter.

Bill.

"Morning Pinetree!" Bill said, smiling as he saw him.

"What are you doing here?" Dipper asked.

"Mabel mentioned you might need help today so I offered to work at the Shack today. Stan said it was ok as long as I don't steal and ask for any money." Bill shrugged, "I didn't have any plans for today so I figured it might be cool to help out here today."

Dipper silently cursed Mabel, though it wasn't her fault necessarily, she didn't know being near Bill was killing her brother.

"Cool...did Stan leave a list of tasks he wanted done today?" Dipper asked, walking over to the register desk.

"Yeah, but his hand writing and wording is a bit hard to understand..." Bill said, handing Dipper the list.

"What does, chase the lint demons away mean?" Bill asked, squinting to read it.

"He means dusting." Dipper said plainly, "He does it for Mabel mostly. She complained that the job wasn't exciting enough so he said he would try and make it seem more exciting."

"But it's still just dusting..." Bill said. Dipper shrugged.

"I guess it's different to Mabel." Dipper said. Bill just nodded and the two of them got to work.

>>>>>>

Wendy and Soos stopped by, allowing Bill and Dipper to go to lunch. They ended up eating sandwiches and drinking sodas on the roof.

"This is a cool spot, do you come up here often?" Bill asked as he sipped his soda.

"Sometimes. Wendy showed it to me when Mabel and I first moved here." Dipper said.

Bill just nodded.

"You feeling any better? You mentioned you still get a bit sick when the medicine wears off." Bill asked.

"I'm fine. It's just a stubborn cold." Dipper said, hoping Bill would drop it.

"Are you sure? Have you seen a doctor, I mean, this has been going on for a week now." Bill said.

"If it gets worse, I'll see a doctor." Dipper conceded, knowing that he wouldn't actually see a doctor about it.

"Fine, but if anything happens while I'm around, I'm taking you to the doctors." Bill said. Dipper sighed.

"That won't be necessary. I'll be ok. I promise." Dipper lied.

Bill frowned, but nodded.

After a few moments of silence, Bill opened his mouth to say something but his phone going off, stopped him. He looked down.

"Damn, I've got to go. Preston caught on that I wasn't home." Bill said. Dipper nodded.

Preston Northwest, Bill's dad, didn't care for Bill much. He was the result of an affair, and Bill's birth mother had passed during labor, leaving him with the kid, and a lot of explaining to do to his wife.

"Thanks for coming to help. Wendy and I should be able to handle it for the rest of the day." Dipper said. Bill smiled.

"Any time Pinetree. I had fun today, even if it was just free labor for your Great Uncle." Bill said. He stood up and climbed down from the roof and left Dipper, waving back at Dipper as he walked away.

Once he was out of eyesight, Dipper began coughing, a small, golden yellow marigold splattered with blood coming up in his napkin. The sight of the fully formed flower scared him a bit. He wrapped it in the napkin, pushing it from his thoughts, as he threw it in the sandwich bag that contained half his sandwich, and climbed down to go back into the shop.

Once there, he threw away the bag and joined Wendy at the counter.

"Oh cool, you're back, can you take over on your own for the rest of the day? I've got a bunch of homework for college and it's due tomorrow." Wendy said. Dipper sighed.

Wendy did online college, so she could stay in town with her family. She worked at the Mystery Shack when she had free time.

"Yeah, no problem." He said. Wendy smiled.

"Thanks man, I owe your lunch or something." Wendy said.

"Bring me back some of those crazy doughnuts on your next trip into Portland and we'll call it when." Dipper said. Wendy did fingerguns at him and winked, before leaving.

Dipper knew Soos had only stopped by to drop off a few things Stan had asked him to pick up, so Dipper was alone.

He sighed, grabbed Stan's list, and got back to work.