Red String

chapter one

There's this belief somewhere in the world, that people have a red string of fate. Two lonely people are joined at birth by an invisible red string which never breaks - it may get twisted or knotted, but as time goes by it will always find its way to the person on the other end. The person you will love forever. It's like the soulmate thing, but with more explanation.

I had been sitting in this park for a while and the wind had become stronger, making my hair flow in all possible directons except down. I untie the red string from my wrist and tilt my head upside down, managing to gather all my hair and tying it into a tight ponytail, fastening the string into a bow.

How the hell is it this cold?! It's supposed to be summer.

I hold my coat closer to me as I walk to my bike. I was lucky that I had such a long lunch break, considering I was basically the only person who worked in the flower shop in town. I pedalled through the familiar cobbled streets and arrived at the front of Sienna's Florals. I was hired for a summer job there, earning a little bit of extra money to help my dad a bit.

The outside was a soft grey colour with bright, hanging baskets in the shades such as green, fuschia and yellow whilst the flowers inside the baskets contrasted and brought out the colour in both the basket and the flowers. The words Sienna's Florals decorated the top, in cute cursive writing and the door jingled from the bell above it as I swung it open and flicked over the "Come inside, we're open!" sign.

The inside was also beautiful and minimalistic - to help bring out the beauty of all the flowers. The three walls were a soft white, the one behind the counter was chalkboard paint with all the set bouquets and deals in pastel chalk writing with rose petals drawn falling around it. Flowers were placed in metal buckets on three wooden shelf rows on all the walls; two for ready made bouquets and one for individual flowers to be customised. Decorating the middle of the shop, infront of the counter and what was seen as soon as you walked in, was an amazing decoration of houseplants. Pastel-potted flowers and succulents, all placed on wooden ladders with vines and fairylights decorating around.

I loved the whole feel of the place, the atmosphere was so peaceful and perfect that I could sit here for hours. Which is obviously a good thing since, duh, I have to work here. As much as I enjoyed the serenity and aesthetics of the place, customers were usually the polar opposite from 'serene' and 'peaceful'. You would think that with this day and age, the number of people buying flowers would decrease with all the new forms of technology coming out, making it easier to double tap someones picture instead of handing over a fresh bouquet of flowers. To my surprise, the business is still intact. I guess you could thank the millions of people buying the traditional roses and chocolate thing on a special day, the children appreciating their parents on Mothers/Fathers day, the parents doing the same when their child graduates, etc.

I strolled towards the counter and sat on the metal stool, no customers seemed to be coming in as I pulled out my phone in the hopes of playing some dumb game to pass the time. Just as I was pulling my phone out of my coat pocket, I was interrupted by the twinkling sound of the door opening.

"May I help you?" I asked from behind the counter, countinuing with the process of pulling out my phone (but placing it on the desk instead). "You work here?" He asked, out of breath. I tilted my head upwards and was surpised by what was infront of me. Eli Undertown. I knew him from school. He was usually never there - when he was, he was quiet and never really talked to anyone, which contrasted with how people talked about him. You would be surprised at how many girls love the mysterious-no-one-understands-me type.

"Um yeah," I responded, realising I had been staring at him for quite a while. He grabbed a handful of white lillies before returning to the counter. "Can you tell me what these symbolise?" He asked, twiddling his fingers impatiently.

"When you give someone white lillies, it usually tells them that they complete you," I recited from the floral guide under the counter. I was supposed to memorise each and every significance of all the flowers, but hey, why would I when I have a cheat card under the counter?

"Great, that's fine, I'll take them loose?" He started before his brown eyes drifted to what was sitting on my head, a flash of almost mischief glinted in his eyes behind his round glasses, but it might have been the light catching his specs. Usually, I would've asked if the customer needed anything else, trying to get them to put a little more money into maybe a few more flowers or additions to their purchase but I was so stunned to see him here that I nodded meekly. What are you, a mouse?

"Do you have any more of that red stuff?" He asked, breaking the silence and pointing upwards. I followed his eyes and his finger with my hand and felt the silk touch my skin and realised he meant the string that was holding up my hair.

"Sorry, we don't do red, unfor-" I was cut off by the swift motion of his hand pulling the string, untying the bow and my hair fell flat. What the hell?!

"I'll give it back to you tomorrow, I really need it! Thanks for the help," He said calmly and strolled out the shop. I furrowed my eyebrows in shock, being unable to gather any sort of movement or emotion. As the surprise drifted and the realisation hit me, I snapped out of it. Who does that?! Why would he urgently need a silly piece of red string?! I ran out of the shop after him, seeing him jump onto his motorbike and giving me a little wave before riding off. I was fuming. How the hell did he know if I was here tomorrow anyway?!

I walked back into the shop and literally prayed that I would get it back, it may seem idiotic, but that string was important to me. How was I going to get that back? I had no form of contact with the boy and whenever he was in school he seemed to dissappear straight after class anyway.

Irritated, I made my way back behind the counter and looked at the till, realising what Eli had done. With the distraction of my personal property and his amazing eyes, he hadn't paid for the flowers. I screamed in frustration at my stupidity as I ran my fingers through my hair. Looking up, I didn't notice the elderly man ibrowsing through the flowers on the right side of me. He gave me a startled look and hobbled out the shop as if he had just seen bad, bad things. I slumped on the stool in embarrassment, my cheeks almost as red as the string I had lost.