Cat in The Flowerbed

Day One of Many

The moment Mari entered her home, her hands quickly navigated for her phone through her bag. She had to tell them the news, 'them' being Amilie and Marcus, her two very best friends. Mari scurried through her contacts, making quick work of finding Amilie. Her text read;

"Am! Guess what!!"

Amilie's unnaturally quick fingers spared no time in texting back, as usual.

"Yes?? what is it???"

"I got a summer job watering flowers, and it's paying 35$ an hour. it's CRAZY."

"That's insane girl, how many flowers do you have to water for that??"

"Her entire yard is filled top to bottom with exotic things- I don't know what half of them even are."

While texting, Mari dressed into her pyjama's and brushed her hair for the night, humming a sweet song to herself while Amilie blew her phone up. She applied her nightly skincare, just some quick moisturizer and toner with some chapstick.

She brushed her teeth, looking into the mirror to practice her smile for tomorrow. She wanted to be the greatest employee that ever graced this earth- which she so obviously wasn't. She couldn't get her hair to tame, she wore heavy makeup and messy eyeliner, her clothes were an utter disgrace to anything girly, and she couldn't for the life of her not be snappy at people. This was something she's been trying to work on for years, but people have told her she seemed sarcasticwgen she tried being nice. So she stopped caring about things like that.

After her facial ritual, she returned to over 30 new messages. She read all of them, of course, but only asked;

"Is Marcus at home?"

"Nah, he's been out of town alot more recently. I think he might be in the Bahamas right now."

"Haha."

"Okay fine, he's at his mom's for the week."

Mari hesitated, thinking about her next words thoroughly. Amilie has always been their #1 supporter, if they ever got together. She's been trying to matchmake them her entire life.

"Do you think he'd be free to call?"

"Of course your honey bear sugar snookums is free to call you, out of all people."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll meet up with you tomorrow after I get home."

Mari left the chat, and scrolled all the way up to the top of her mind-blowingly small contact list. She marked him as a favourite, so he'd always be easy to find, as if that was ever difficult. The only people she had saved were her parents, grandma, and her friends. All the rest were spam accounts she couldn't care to remove.

"Marcus?"

...

"Can we call?"

Mari waited for an asnwer. Her thumbs twiddling above her keyboard. She knew he was probably busy talking with his parents, or whatever boys do. but couldn't wait to tell him.

"yes, call me"

The phone only rung once before he picked up, Mari blushed slightly, she's really, really bad at phone calls. but Marcus is also a really bad texter, and prefers to talk on the phone rather than text.

"Mhm? What is it?" Marcus spoke softly from the other line, his voice sounding almost as low as a hum. it's calming to listen to, it's like he's constantly whispering encouraging things to you while playing with your hair.

"I got a summer job working for an old lady, I'm watering her flowers."

...

"I'm being paid thirty-five dollars an hour."

An awkward silence falls over the line, neither of them knowing what to say. It's much easier to talk in person. Marcus is a quiet type who forgets to speak sometimes, and Mari's just.. not good at calling.

"That's so cool. I think you'd be good at that, you have tons of plants at home."

"I do, but most of hers are something I've never seen before."

"Mhm. Different watering schedules, id assume."

...

"Would you like to talk about it in person, Mari?"

"Yes, please."

That was the only time she exhaled that entire call. They both get so tense and cant say anything to eachother without sounding like they're holding a wicked cough. Finally, they managed to schedule a date to meet at a local park when he gets home from his mom's.

Mari updated Am with the new change of plans, with the park meet-up and such. Amilie teased her about going on a date with him, but that was quickly shut down.

Mari set her alarm clock to 7am sharp, and feel into a deep sleep shortly after. Making sure she was rested well for the following few days. She'd have to be, it'll be a pretty busy week.