he loves me, he loves me not

part two

It was 5 p.m. on a Wednesday and Jezabel was replacing the dying black dahlias display with a new set of pink calliopes. She had a total of two customers so far and was desperate to get home. It had been exactly one week since Shawn's little visit. She had placed her white camellia in a vase on her desk as soon as she'd gotten home. She has yet to receive the money for said flower. Shawn hadn't stopped by or even acknowledged her in the hallways at school. She wouldn't see him come home so she decided not to walk over to his house and bother him about it. She had texted him about it but he never responded.
She took it upon herself to pay for her own flowers as sad as it may sound. She could've just put it back but, she didn't want to. As stupid as it sounds, she liked the idea that someone was thoughtful enough to gift her flowers, even if it was her annoying neighbor that she had to save once again.
She was about to head to the back and wait for a customer to walk in when she heard the chime of the bell to indicate a customer entering the store.
"Sup," Shawn casually walks into the store. He is wearing an oversized white t-shirt with black stripes on the sleeves and some grey jeans with a pair of white Nikes that have clearly been through a lot.
"Sup?" Jezabel repeats, "Sup? That's all you have to say for yourself?" Who does he think he is just walking into this store like nothing after ignoring me for a week?
"Umm... how you doing?" He says perplexed.
"Oh, I'm doing great, fantastic even, you still need to pay me by the way," She sounds a little crazy but she doesn't care. She was a little tired of his careless attitude.
"Why do you think I'm here?" He says waving around the money he had in his hand that Jezabel hadn't noticed around in the air. Her face turns slightly red out of embarrassment for her behavior.
"Could've just walked across the street," She crosses her arms, calming down.
"Okay, so here's the thing..." Jezabel leans her back against the wall knowing that she's in for a treat. "I get home, right? The cops had already come by and rightfully so, my parents were furious. So they think to themselves, 'How can we make Shawn as miserable as possible?' Next thing I know I'm heading off to my grandma's house for a week where I did things like crochet or scape bunions off her feet. Gross by the way. And if I wasn't doing that, I was at Chris' place replacing his entire carpet by myself as if I'm some sort of carpenter...so that's why I didn't just 'walk across the street'" he concludes then smiles, "plus, I was hoping I could make another purchase".
"Aww, did you trick someone into going out with you? That poor thing." She puts a hand over her chest in mock concern.
"Not exactly," He laughs rubbing the back of his neck.
"Did you have anything in mind?" She asks.
"Not a clue. Was hoping that I had a professional botanist to help me out?" He smiles down at her.
"I mean I guess I know a thing or two," She walks around the counter and heads to meet him at the front.
"These pink ones are pretty," He points at the begonias near the counter.
"Those 'pretty pink ones' symbolize a warning of misfortune, So, unless you're planning on hitting this person with a bus, I'd suggest a different flower," She waves her hand to the rest of the store with hundreds of other flowers.
"Noted," he looks at the ground sheepishly "okay,  these for sure," he says looking over at the yellow carnations in the middle of the room.
"No no no, not those," Jezabel winces, "these means rejection and I don't think you'd want to give this person those."
"Yeah, definitely not," His face reddens and he's once again rubbing the back of his neck. He stops a foot on the ground frustrated, "Why do all of these pretty flowers have bad meanings!"
"Well most of them have good meanings... you're just not lucky picking them," She's humored by his struggle. "C'mon try one more."
"Okay fine, but I'm going to be very careful with this one," And so he begins to survey the entire store, similarly to how he did last time until he stops on a display of red-orange flowers. "These."
"Good one," Jezabel claps, pleased by his decision, "those are zinnias which mean remembrance. They are good to show someone that you're thinking of them."
"These are perfect!" Shawn exclaims, "These are what I was looking for all along!"
"Then why didn't you just say that," She crosses her arm raising a brow.
"I dunno..." He kicks a foot across the marble flooring, "so how much for them?
"Well, these plus the camellia from last time are going to total up to..." Jezabel says behind the counter, punching in numbers into the cash register, "$6.50."
"What?!?!" Shawn's eyes practically bulge from his socket, "This is highway robbery for two flowers!"
"How much did you think flowers cost?" She holds up a hand over her mouth to cover her laugh.
"Like 50 cents max. Whatever it's worth it." He hands the cash over reluctantly. Jezabel hands back his change and he grabs the flower from the counter. Then, without another word, he exits the store.
After Jezabel finishes her shift she heads home and heads up to her room. She's getting prepared to go to sleep when she looks over at her window and sees none other than the zinnia she'd helped Shawn pick out earlier. She opens her window to grab the flower and notices there was a note underneath it.
Thinking about you, right? ;)
She rolls her eyes at that but still decides to go over to the vase on her desk that was currently occupied by her 'you're adorable' flowers and places the zinnia right next to it.