all the flowers in time | laurinah *rewriting hehe*

Chapter three

edit: this was rewritten/edited on 10/02/18!
word count: 1316
trigger warning(s): swearing + depictions of ocd + depictions of a panic attack

For lack of a better word and thanks to Dinah's not-so extensive vocabulary: she was shook.

Lo, or Lauren, was insanely beautiful in the absolute most lovely way. Her hair was a dark black, her eyes a piercing green, and there was no way those were her natural eyebrows. If Dinah wasn't so angry she would have half a mind to hit on the girls and ask her out. Wait, she thought, angry! You're angry!

Dinah shook her head, as if the thoughts themselves would fly out of her ear with the sheer force of it. Angry, she reminded herself, angry angry angry. She repeated it like a mantra, until a throat clearing brought her back to reality. "Ma'am?" It's was Lauren speaking, her head tilted to the side as if she were curious. "Are you alright?"

"Oh," Dinah pauses, a moment passing before she manages to collect her thoughts and form them into proper sentences. "Right. Uhm, my name is Dinah." She corrects, clearing her throat herself before continuing, tone a little more stern. "My name is Dinah and you fucked up my car." She says, as if she's reminding herself.

From the note on her car, she'd expected a lot out of Lauren. She thought the other girl would be annoying, loud, and mouthy maybe. But; she didn't expect the soft squeak that emanated from her, echoing slightly in the mostly quiet room. The only other sound being Harry moving around and marking down plants.

"Er- yeah, we—me and Juniper—were getting into the, uh, the car. She started making noise so I had looked over to check on her and- and well that's when I knocked into your car." Lauren stammers, fumbling over her words like a track runner miscalculating a hurdle. Dinah is endeared, for a split second, and she even feels bad about being so angry. For a split second, then it's back to grumpy town.

"Juniper?" Dinah askes, because she really isn't sure what that has to do with the story at hand, it didn't sound like a person'd name. As if on cue: Dinah hears a quiet meow, and when she looks behind the counter she sees a chubby little tabby cat trotting out onto the floor and over to where Harry is finishing up the arrangements.

"Yeah!" Lauren chirps, and Dinah notices how quickly he girl's demeanor had changed at the mention of the name. "Juniper," She points to the tabby. "She's my baby. I take her just about everywhere, including work." Lauren seems proud of the fact, her chin is held high and her smile is beaming.

Dinah blinks slowly, because—? A cat? She brings a cat to work? Dinah was hardly able to show up for work with non-neutral make up. But she supposed that could be the difference of working at a flower shop as apposed to an office. "You bring your cat to work?" She vocalizes her thoughts, nothing but curiosity laced with her words.

But, the absence of judgement didn't stop the frown that spread across Lauren's pretty lips. "Yes, of course I do." She replies as if it were the most obvious fact in the room.

Dinah had vastly misjudged this girl.

▽ ▽ ▽ ▽

lauren did her absolute best to keep eye contact with dinah—who was extremely pretty??—and act as adultly as possible, but she was having a lot of trouble and dropped her hand back down to her side, anxiously tapping her thigh in patterns of six.

"right, lo." she heard the girl, dinah, hum, and when she attempted to look back up at the girl she was already starring her down. lauren's attempt at eye contact didn't last more than a split second. "we need to figure this out, you know, did you take any pictures of the accident?"

lauren's gaze remained on her feet, blinking slowly in a state of panic. what does she mean pictures? she wonders. are you supposed to take pictures of an accident? do you go to jail if you drive away? lauren's head snaps up quickly, and she looks over to her saving grace. "haz?" she calls. when there's no answer she frowns, raising her voice slightly. "harry!"

harry jumps, noticeably, and curses softly to himself before straightening up and looking in their direction. "yes, laur?" he calls back, gently sitting the flower he'd been examining down. lauren motions him over, and without hesitation harry is padding over to the two, standing beside dinah. juniper plops down at his feet. "how can i be of assistance?"

lauren looks over at dinah, who's already looking at her, and then immediately back over to harry. it's easier to hold eye contact with him, of course it is, harry is her platonic soulmate. "i'm not entirely sure," she gestures in front of herself in the middle of them all. "what to do here."

harry, as he always does, seems to have all the answers. "well, you could report it to your insurance companies but that would just drive up both of your rates because they can't prove who's at fault-" dinah acts as though she's about to interrupt, but harry keeps talking. he must not have noticed. "neither of you took any pictures, so there's no proof of what happened."

dinah scoffs, and lauren peeks over just in time for her to roll her eyes. "there's a massive fücking dent in my car-" she continues to talk, but lauren tunes out and thinks about something else. she hates confrontation, of any kind, and she was starting to get overwhelmed.

did i leave the milk out this morning? she wonders first, and then wrinkles up her nose in thought. i need to get juniper a new toy, she destroyed her last one within a matter of days. her brain is moving faster than she's used to, thoughts rushing and racing until-

dinah must notice the way lauren has spaced out, because she reaches out to gently touch the sliver of skin on her elbow that's peaking out where lauren's flannel sleeve is pushed up. "don't-" harry attempts to interject, but lauren is already shaking her head slowly, tapping rapidly on her thigh as she tries not to think about it.

she witnesses a rapid flash of memories in the back of her mind, slowly approaching the frontabd overwhelming her until she feels like she can't breathe.

▽ ▽ ▽ ▽

"Lauren," Harry says, his hand resting on the girl's lower back. Dinah watches in slight shock as Lauren doesn't respond, continuing to hyperventilate and look straight down at the ground. "Laur, go to the back," He tries again, but it seems he's established that his words aren't working; so he opts to walk lauren carefully to he backroom and out of Dinah's sight.

Dinah just stands there looking stupid, not knowing what to do or whether or not she should leave. She must wait at least five minutes before Harry returns to the floor, looking exhausted. "You shouldn't touch people you don't know." He scolds, seemingly angry. Dinah is slightly taken aback. "She's nothing but kind to you, even though you've been a complete ässhole since the moment you walked in, and now you don't even care that you just triggered the fück out of her."

Dinah opens her mouth to speak, maybe even yell, but Harry slaps a piece of paper down on the counter, following that with a pen. "Write down your number, I'll have Lauren contact you." He says simply, retreating back to where he came from. Dinah looks down at her feet, then, and the kitten, Juniper, is looking up at her almost disapprovingly.

With a loud huff, Dinah writes down her name and number, debating on whether or not to leave a bïtchy message for Harry, but ultimately decides against it.

She fixes her cardigan and leaves the store more angry and, now, confused.

hi, i appreciate y'all being so cute n sweet n patient as i fix this story. luv ya. -e