To Keep Your Memory (HIATUS)

4 - Gardeners Are Humans Too

Right away, Bay walks outside and marches with keen, bold steps to find a guy, and his name was Jesse Hope. She thinks it's a peculiar name, or rather, it was how Hugh described him— a man who could dig you six feet under and then raise you high up to mountains. A weird way of describing him, she tells herself. If she would meet Jesse at this moment, she'd disagree with the hyperbole.

Because he was a guy who'd send you twice more than six feet under.

"Hello, I'm looking for a Barrel Cactus."

As soon as Bay stepped inside the store, Jesse stared menacingly, as if she were a bank robber holding him at gunpoint. "Come inside."

"... I'm already inside."
"Oh, are you?"

Bay stomped four times. "Yep." Jesse looked like he was scared that she might break the floor. Of course, he wouldn't say it out loud. Even so, she was able to read his face and was rightfully annoyed; and dreadfully made sure that he would read her face as well. "Alright, what do you need?"

"I need a Barrel Cactus."

Jesse sneered. "What for?" Bay rolled her eyes and made it painfully obvious. "Do you ask your other customers that?"

"Why? It's small talk." Jesse puts down the pot he was holding before facing Bay completely. She watches him as he does so; her expression remains indifferent. As she speaks, her tone evidently shows an annoyed one. "I don't have much time. Please, just get me one?" 

"Eh? What type of reason for you to buy a cactus that would take fifteen minutes to explain..."

Moreso, Bay felt as if it would take more than fifteen minutes to explain why she's doing this in the first place. Jesse wouldn't understand. "Because it is one. Just get me a Barrel Cactus."

"What are you going to get again?" Jesse asked mockingly.

Bay wanted to kick him into oblivion. I do too. "Barrel. Cactus."

"Huh? What's that?"

"Aren't you a gardener?"
Jesse cracks his knuckles. "Yeah, so?"
"Don't you know what a Barrel Cactus is?"

Jesse pouts, "Don't expect me to know everything. Gardeners are humans too..."

"What."

Bay felt her blood boil, whilst Jesse was enjoying every moment of it. "This is highly unprofessional."

"Don't tell me what to do, this is my job." Jesse starts to caress a watering can gently. Bay grabs the watering can and places is on the table next to her. 

"I literally can."

Silence visited for four seconds.

On the spur of the moment, Bay was about to hit a blow to his face, but was immediately halted when he suddenly laughed maniacally. It was comparable to someone wiping their window.

Bay grumpily said to him, "What's so funny?"

Jesse points at her. "Your angry face is funny." Bay isn't the happiest when she hears him add this to his dialogue: "Calm down, I was just joking. Try to smile more."

Then, he adds again, "Auntie Sarah told me you were visiting, so I prepared some stuff for you to choose from."

"You know Ms. Hugh?" Bay seems a bit curious now. 
"The way you call her is very formal. I'm guessing you two aren't very close?" Jesse chirrups. Bay scoffs at his comment, "No, it's because I'm polite."

Jesse doesn't bother to respond to that. 

There's a long pause between them before Bay decides to break the silence. She shrugs her shoulders, "Can I get one now?"

Jesse smirks, "What are you getting?" Bay starts to reach her hands to pinch him, to which Jesse moves away from her. "I'm kidding!' 

"Just show me the cactuses!" Bay practically growls. Jesse's eyes trail off to look at the ground.

 "..Actually, the plural form of cactus is cacti."

Bay crinkles her nose. "I know that!" 

"Then why did you say cactuses instead?" Jesse returns the offended tone, and Bay's voice gets louder and louder.  "Just shut up and let me choose one!"

Jesse stretches out his hand, "Okay, choose one." Then Bay gets a sudden drainage of energy, "They all look the same to me..."

"Of course they do.", Jesse said, weirded out. 

This was the seventh time Bay glared at him today. He gave her a light tap on the shoulder, "Joking."

Once Jesse started to realize he needed to shut up, Bay observed each cacti one by one.

She found out that... there was nothing to notice. It 'all looks the same to her.' (Obviously.) Jesse notices her wrenched face and snaps his fingers to try to get her back to earth. And slowly, Bay started pressing her fingers against their spines and Jesse can't help but watch her do it.

He even started doing it too.

"You there?"
"Yeah."

Bay blinked her eyes. Then, by looking at them, one by one, she started pondering. Why did he even like cacti? What was so special about them? A cactus is just a green prickly plant. It looks so general and there's nothing special about them. It looked even scary, a bit. The spines were sharp.

It was as if it were just like him. He was a nobody. He was just a guy who attended classes everyday doing the most common things.

"You know, a Barrel Cactus isn't that boring."
Jesse looks at her, butthurt.
"Even if a Barrel Cactus looks tedious and ordinary, It's actually pretty cool. Inside, it contains water, but it has some sort of acid that can cause diarrhea."

"What are you trying to say?" Bay doesn't return the gaze. 

Jesse looks at Bay's hands. "Well, you never know a cactus unless you try to understand it, and look at what it's actually made of."

Bay pauses for a moment, thinking about what Jesse's words imply. She decides not to comment anything further about it, and responds with a simple: "That's cool."

"I know right? I'm so deep."
"No."

Jesse tittered. This was Bay's eighth time to glare at him.

"So, which one are you going to take home?"

After a while, Bay clasped one and took out her wallet. She takes her time to count her money before taking some and handing it over to Jesse. Her gaze stares at a cactus right beside him. 

"I'll take this one." Jesse frowns. "The smallest one?" He was disappointed since it was the cheapest one.

"Yeah, after all, I can wait for some time for it to grow," Bay breathes in, and lets out a soft gasp. 

"Because I still have to find who Daphne is."

Buy a cactus. Checked.