Flowergirl

✿✽❀~ one ~❀✽✿

                          w  e  e  k   1  :  s  u  n  f  l  o  w  e  r  s

"Miles, I ordered you a pizza!" Mum called from downstairs. "There's cash under the koala so pay when it gets here and bloody hell, please tip the poor bloke!"

"Alright, alright!" I ran down the stairs, giving my mum a quick kiss on the cheek before she pulled on her coat and left the house. I hadn't bothered asking where she was going because she only ever went one of four places; work, the supermarket, bingo night, or Stacy's house.

I turned on the tv, sitting on the arm of the couch and flipping aimlessly through the programs. After unsuccessfully going through the entire loop and not finding anything, I settled on watching Gravity Falls, I liked cartoons well enough anyway, especially American ones. They were always so crude with their humor, something I really appreciated whenever I came across it since everything in my life seemed to be so blue-pencilled.

About five minutes into my cartoon-watching, the doorbell rang and I got up, running over to the ceramic koala and grabbing the money to pay for the pizza. I hadn't planned on entertaining anyone else but it was too late before I figured out it wasn't the pizza man at the door at all.

I opened the door to find an extremely plain-looking girl on the other side. It was almost painful as I looked at her and tried to figure out what exactly it was that made her look so plain. She stood there with a fanny pack around her waist and a pencil behind her ear as she leaned on a trolley full of flowers and I frowned as I spotted the daffodils in the back-left corner of the trolley. I recognized her instantly as the flowergirl.

"G'day Miss—" She stopped speaking when she finally looked up at me and realized it wasn't my mum. She placed a hand on her hip as a sly smile snaked across her face, "Well I'll be stuffed, look who it is! I was beginning to think you didn't exist."

"Well I do, thanks for checking," I said, giving her a small wave goodbye.

"Hey, not so fast!" She put her hands out on the frame of the door as if to stop me from pushing her away. "I'm here to sell you some flowers."

"Really?" I opened my eyes wide for dramatic effect, "Damn it! I had thought you were selling drugs."

She rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath as she looked down into her cart and pulled out a small sunflower. She held the sunflower out to me and smiled. "Nothing like a good ole sunflower to warm up a room, ey?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, I think our heater does a pretty good job of it."

She gave me a pointed look and I noticed the way her light brown hair bobbed up and down as she moved her head. Her short hair was straight and limp, only at the very tips did it curl outwards and add some life to the whole equation. Her hair was almost the exact same golden-brown colour as her skin and it was quite funny how she didn't seem to notice that that wasn't normal. She seemed perfectly happy as she looked at the sunflowers and I didn't like it.

It was the middle of December and the sun was still nowhere to be seen, I couldn't see much to be happy about.

"Don't be a fucking downer," Flowergirl said. "I mean spiritual warmth, ambiance. Buy a few, you might end up very pleased with them."

"And if I'm not?"

She shrugged. "You'll be alright. You'll survive losing a five."

"How much are they? Five?" I asked.

She nodded, now grinning as she opened her fanny pack, pulling out change. "And that's my mate's discount, just for you, bud." She stuck out her elbow and pointed it at me as she called me her bud.

I held my hands up in apology. "Sorry, I don't have five."

"You don't have five?" she asked, incredulous.

I shook my head. "Mum only gave me money for pizza and made me promise I'd tip the bloke, so no, I don't have five."

She had a thoughtful look on her face as I spoke, finally putting the money back in her fanny pack and placing the sunflower on our doormat.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "Does this one have superglue on it too?"

She shook her head. "Consider this a deposit. Next time I come by, I'm expecting some bloody good business," she said, backing the trolley up from our front garden.

I picked the flower up and looked from it to her questioningly. "I didn't ask you for this," I said.

"That's why it's a deposit, just enjoy it," she called, now outside our small picket fence, waving from her trolley. "Sorry about the daffodil by the way!"

I waved at her with the hand that held the sunflower. "You're a piece of work, flowergirl," I said.

She frowned as she heard that name, and in that moment, I noticed that she wasn't as painfully plain as I had initially thought. The more I looked at her, the more I noticed that her eyes were just a little bit too far apart to be normal.

No, she wasn't plain looking at all. In fact, if anything she was quite weird looking, but I kind of dug it.

And so after finally meeting her, I decided that despite her stubbornness, I could get used to flowergirl. I really could.

🌷 🌷 🌷 

Okay, so this is the first book I've written that's based in Australia so bear with me because I know there's bound to be a million mistakes. If you happen to be Australian, then I ask that you suspend your disbelief so that you can at least enjoy the ride

love y'all

xx