Parade Des Fleurs

7

Sophie shrieked as she fell. Her heeled sandals had never been great for balance anyway, much less when given a reason to topple. One of these days I'm going to break my ankle, then I'll learn.

"I AM SO SORRY!" She saw a hand extended above her, which she grabbed and hoisted herself up with. She looked towards the voice and saw a panicked boy in front of her, still rambling on about something. She looked him up and down. He wasn't a familiar face, and customers weren't allowed out the back door. He had one of Alistair's aprons on under his jacket - maybe he was that new guy he told her about. 

Having grown accustomed to Alex's rather tall stature, and being as vertically challenged as she was, Sophie wasn't used to meeting people the same height as her - but this guy was almost as short as she was, if only a centimetre taller. His close cropped chestnut hair matched his eyes, which seemed like they smiled more often than his mouth did, and he had a mole next to his lip - Sophie was surprised that Alistair even knew someone that looked as clean cut as he did. She knew that when it came to Al, his list of friends (if any) started with the bin man, who'd been a family friend, and end ended at Sal, the thirty - something woman who worked at the off licence down the road, who he'd won the adoration of by doing odd jobs free of charge. The people in-between included Les, the cat lady, and the homeless man who lived down the street, who never had enough money to buy flowers for his wife's grave, so Alistair gave him small arrangements of wildflowers now and then. He was kind like that.

 Sure, Al talked to people, he'd never been afraid of it, but Sophie had been his only close friend, and she'd always questioned why. He wasn't unlikeable, and was always willing to lend a hand to anyone - she'd always thought of him as chivalrous, if anything. It always confused her as to why he never bothered making friends - when she asked him, he just shrugged and told her she was the only friend he could be bothered caring about, which didn't really surprise her. She'd always been such a social creature, and of course she'd try to make Alistair one too, but he resisted. He seemed content in his bubble.  So she stopped, and focussed on herself, and later on, their relationship. Beside their differences, they'd just clicked, clicked perfectly, clicked in a sense that was created than the "Opposites react" thing - she'd always thought of them as counterparts.

 Whenever something went wrong for Sophie, who never reacted well to failure, she would sink into a deep hole of self doubt grenades and demons that told her she would never be good enough - but Alistair was always there, with that adoring smile that always turned her cheeks red (even though she hated the way it made her vulnerable), sense of practicality, and his infuriating ability to knock her straight. She was a big believer in fixing her own problems, but Alistair always helped her with his practicality. Although, that same sense of practicality seemed to be Alistair's undoing. It made him scared to do things, forced him to hole up in his room all day. When that happened, Sophie did whatever she could do to make him laugh, or see something new, whether it meant climbing up onto the roof of the shopping centre, or forcing him to go skinny dipping in the lake buy pushing him in first. It was her recklessness that forced Alistair to let go of order momentarily. It was like that, perfectly complementary, like how salt and pepper combine together, or how their hands fit so well together. Simple, yet infinitely complex. 

Sophie was lost in her thoughts, as she so often was, and the boy was still talking. Boy, I thought I was talkative.

"...and my parents aren't particularly clumsy people, neither is my sister, so I have no idea why I tend to these kinds of things-" Sophie knew she she should wait for the guy to finish, and on any other day she would have, but not today though, she was too tired for niceties. She had lied to Alistair, she really was starving, ands was freezing her ass of in this dress - she just wanted to get these bags shifted, and she didn't care if he was going to lift them or not. 

"Are you always this talkative?" She interrupted the spool of words trailing out the boys mouth with her harsh voice. 

"Oh, uh, I -" The boy bit his lip, "I guess? Not that it's any of your business."

"Actually, it is my business, especially when you just hit me with the door, and I've got a place to be. So if you don't mind," She turned towards the luggage, and felt a shooting pain through her back. Sophie twisted to peer over her shoulders and felt around.

"Ah, crap," She let out a groan of pain. The boy looked concerned, coming towards her and looking at her back. 

"Don't- " She slapped his hand away, "- Do that! It's just from the door, beginnings of a bruise I think. I'll get some ice for it, right after I take in my things." She gulped as she looked up the stairs of the fire escape.

"Hey, you can't be serious! Bruise or not, you're not lifting those in by yourself."

"Why?" She spat indignantly, "Because I'm a girl?"

"Because you're wearing shoes that look extremely precarious, and if you had the strength to bring those in you would have started by now, girl or not." He smiled, regardless, and began striding towards her bags, picking up two with ease.

"Okay, you can take those two suitcases." He nodded towards the baby blue wheeled suitcases, and Sophie stared intensely at them.

"What? C'mon!"

"Maybe if I stare enough, they'll move themselves." Alex laughed and started ascending the stairs.

"Okay miss witch, you just levitate those up -"

"When you humour me it makes the joke less funny." Sophie grumbled, taking one suitcase in each arm and following Alex up the stairs. She heard the boy laugh again. Jeez, he's chipper, isn't he. It's like staring at the sun. 

"I'm Alex, by the way. I work at the till here on the weekends, since Alistair -"

"- Wouldn't deal with the till if you offered him the world." 

"Yeah! I don't usually do the heavy duty though, that's his thing. It's probably because -"

"He'd rather drown in a sea of numbers than speak to me again."

"... I was going to say he has a massive amount of paperwork to file, and that flower delivery coming in few hours, but... okay. Sure. I guess that works too."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"He obviously adores you, or he wouldn't be so upset about whatever you two fell out about. I wouldn't be so quick to judge the situation if I were you, Miss Oberlin, because it seems perceptiveness is not your strong suit."

Sophie stopped and stared at Alex, who carried on plodding up the rattling fire escape, too baffled to be offended. How could he have figure Al out that fast? Figured me out that quickly? Am I that transparent? And I can't believe Al told him about me - guess he really did make a friend. But knowing this guy, he probably pushed his way into his life. 

Noticing that Alex was nearing the window, she ran to catch up, the luggage banging up the metal stairs. 

"Okay, we're here. Now," He tilted his head, "How do we get it all in?" She winked, flinging the window open. Her parents didn't tend to lock the windows in the summer. 

"We throw it, of course, you dumb dumb."

"I can't believe you called me a dumb dumb!"

"Takes one to know one."

"You just realised you called yourself an idiot."

"I'm just quirky, is all. You're the real idiot."

"Takes one to know one..."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, Ma'am!"

"I have no idea why Al's friends with you."

"I don't know why he ever dated you!"

"Okay, how do you know every detail of my life?"

"Haha, now who's the witch?"

"Still me."

"Oh. Okay then."