Crush (18+)

Chapter 27

A few months later

With my face in the palm of my hand I was watching the locals and tourists walk by. Some were enjoying the sun with an ice cream cup in their hands, others were taking pictures of each other and I swear I even saw some paparazzi guys running by. I took a deep breath and stretched my arms in the air. Working in Santa Monica was nice, but on beautiful days like these no one was going to stop by at a flower shop. I've only had like five customers today.

I checked the time on my phone and I noticed that it was almost the end of my shift. It would still take about 40 minutes until I was finally home though, but I knew what I was getting into when I applied for this job. The reason why I wanted a job this far from home was because the chance that I would see someone from school in Santa Monica was pretty small. Especially in some random flower shop.

An old man with a mustache and a friendly smile on his face entered the shop and he nodded at me. 'Valeria! You're working again on this beautiful day? Does this shop even have other employees?'

I chuckled and spoke up. 'Mr Green, what can I help you with?'

'Just the usual,' he winked and I immediately knew what to do. I grabbed the red roses out of the bucket and and only took one of them. Mr Green had been coming to this specific flower shop for almost thirty years to buy a red rose for his wife for every month they're together. Sadly his wife passed away two years ago, but now he brings the roses to her grave.

I gave him the rose wrapped in paper and he pressed a five dollar bill in my hand. A rose only costed two dollars though and he knew that. I opened my mouth to tell him he gave me too much money but he opened his mouth before I started talking.

'Keep the rest dear. Enjoy this beautiful day,' he said and he left the shop.

I softly smiled and put the three extra dollars in the pocket of my jeans and I continued watching people until my shift was finally over. It was 6 pm, so I locked the flower shop and made my way to the nearest bus station. About 45 minutes later, I finally opened the door of my house and walked straight to the living room. I didn't expect anybody to be home yet so it was a surprise to see my brother sit on the couch.

I sat down next to him and kicked my shoes off. 

'What are we watching?' I asked Rafael and I grabbed a hand full of the popcorn he was holding. He shrugged and looked at me. 'It's a movie about a serial killer. I don't know, something about it really caught my attention.'

I rolled my eyes at him and tried to focus on the movie. The movie was stupid though and nothing about it was realistic. Murdering someone wasn't like they showed us in the movies and I wasn't proud to say that I knew all about how it actually went down. Thanks to my twin brother, I had enough experience in this subject.

Thinking about it made me feel sick to my stomach, so I stood up and took a quick shower before I laid down on my bed. It was Friday night and just like every other weekend I had nothing planned. My life hasn't what you could call very exciting these last few months. I have mostly been working and hanging out with Tina so now and then. Tina was the only person who willingly wanted to hang out with me, besides maybe my mom and brother.

I decided to send her a text and ask her if she had any plans for tonight. I didn't feel like being alone tonight, even though I've gotten used to that just fine lately. A few minutes later, I received a call from Tina and I picked up the phone.

'What's up, mamacita?!' Tina's happy voice sounded through the phone and I grinned. 'Hey. Listen, what are you doing tonight? Do you wanna hang and I don't know, watch sad movies and eat a lot of junk food with me?'