Guns & Roses

Chapter 2: It's Really None of my Business

You know that moment when you realize you beat everybody and it feels amazing? That's exactly how I felt when I gave those flowers to my sister, because while her dumbass boyfriend was out here giving her a fake Gucci bag—seriously, they were c's, not g's—I had given her a more sentimental gift that she'll probably remember long after those flowers will have died. And to think, I spent less than $30 on it! That girl Evelyn came in real clutch that day.

I wasn't kidding when I told her that her coming down here made it a lot easier on me. She pretty much made it easier on a lot of people living down here, because she was the first florist around here in the past 7 years or something like that. I'd see whole families go into her shop while passing by it. We'd do what we usually did when I walked by: make eye contact and smile. Of course I wanted to go in, but I wasn't going to come off as thirsty. If she wanted me, she could come out and say hi too.

I ended up having a reason to go in a few weeks later though. Franky, aka my stupid "brother", thought it'd be a good idea to go out with me and the rest of the guys on his anniversary. Now, if I knew that I would've told him to go home so he wouldn't be in the doghouse. But it was none of my business, yet somehow I was the one going with him to find her a gift. Immediately I thought roses because what girl doesn't like roses, and so we made our way there. I walked in with him right behind me, and of course he let the door slam shut and ring the bell all loud.

"Is someone there? Or is that just the wind again?" She came out from whatever that door behind the counter lead to, and damn she looked good as always. I swear, she never had an off day.

"Just me ma, and I brought a friend too. Franky, this is Evelyn. Evelyn, Franky." There she went with that rolling her eyes at me. If she wasn't smiling a little bit, I would've thought that she was actually annoyed with me.

"You don't listen, huh? Either way, nice to meet you Franky." I shrugged with a smile and she just shook her head. I knew she wanted to laugh, but something was stopping her. Probably pride. Maybe that was her major flaw, she was too prideful.

"Something between you two that I don't know about?" He gave me that look that I knew all too well, the one all of us gave each other when asking if we hooked up with a girl. I shook my head and he got the message, turning back towards her.

"Your friend here insists on calling me ma when I'm pretty sure he's not my child. Last time I checked, haven't gone through the pain of childbirth. Plus I would've remembered, his head looks like it's been that size since birth." She laughed once she saw the look I was giving her, because honestly I was surprised she'd come for me like that. What happened to the niceness from 5 seconds ago? I ignored Franky yelling "Roasted!", focusing on her.

"Damn, why you gotta go and be mean like that? I can't joke around and call you ma?" She actually snorted at me. And not in a cute, mid-laughter way, but in a you're lucky I'm paying attention to you way. Maybe she had more spice to her than I thought in the beginning. I liked that a lot actually.

"Now you and I both know that you're not calling me ma just in a joking way. It's ok to admit you think I'm cute, you know!"

"Looks like she got you there."

"Franky, shut up." She laughed at the two of us, shaking her head.

"Anyways, what can I do for you two today?" I knew I was forgetting something, we didn't just come in here to cause trouble. Well, we did that a lot, but this time it wasn't the intention.