Pollen Count | ✓

f o u r

Allie feels nervous, standing outside the flower shop. She's dressed up a little too nicely in her knee-length red skater dress, with her neat brown brogues tapping the concrete impatiently. She keeps checking her phone, sure that she has the time wrong, or the place wrong, or the person wrong.

Daisy had sent her a link to the store's map page, so she knows she's in the right place, really. She looks back at the messages she'd been sent, and sure enough, the time is right, too – as heinously early as it is. Daisy, however--

Barrels into sight. Allie can see her figure appear through the windows of the shop. She knocks into one of the display tables, hard, making the flowers and ornaments on top shake. Allegra flinches, wincing in sympathy.

Daisy doubles over and clutches at her thigh for a moment, cursing under her breath before righting herself and getting back on track. She has the door unlocked a moment later.

"Don't you dare--" Daisy begins, all too aware that Allegra saw everything.

"Nice to see you," Allegra says, a hint of a playful smile brightening her face now she knows Daisy is okay, and only her too cool exterior is truly injured.

Daisy purses her lips, and her eyes rake over Allie, sizing her up. She's not sure if Allegra is joking or not.

"Yeah, same," she eventually says, before stepping back.

Allegra can see inside more clearly now. She's struck with an immediate nervousness, because there are flowers all over the place, obviously, and she's not sure she took her allergy medication long enough ago for it to be effective yet.

She creeps inside nonetheless, following Daisy's lead. It's still reasonably dark inside, only the lights over the checkout are lit up. They have the place to themselves, too – it's before opening, as per Daisy's request to meet up at an ungodly hour. Allie had thought the whole thing might've been a prank, but here they are.

"So... this is the place," Daisy says, stretching an arm out to gesture grandly at everything. It's quite large, and Allie starts to think that flower shop is a bit of an understatement.

It's not quite a full-on garden center, but there's a huge variety of plants on display and a station for making up bouquets to sell, too. They also have a few garden necessities, like tools and trellises, lining the far wall.

Allie notices as Daisy turns back to her that there's red on her thigh from where she bumped into the table that's now to their right and loaded high with what Allie thinks are-- gardenias? She's not too sure.

"Um, you're bleeding," Allegra says, squinting a little as if it might help her get a closer look.

"Not the rave review I was hoping for," Daisy grunts, looking down at her leg. "I'm fine, c'mon. It's barely a scratch. Don't you wanna see the back? My grandma expanded her stock this year. She got all these cool water features--"

"I, um, I really think we should patch you up first," Allie says, interrupting but sounding apologetic about it already.

Daisy stares at her for a long second, but when Allegra only gives her a meek smile, she folds.

"Oh my God," she huffs. "Fine."

Allie feels the tension rise in the air as Daisy turns with a heated flourish to head for the counter. She dips out of sight, crouching to rummage around, until she emerges again with a first aid kit.

"This is so goddamn dramatic of you," Daisy mutters, opening up the kit and tearing through its belongings for what she needs.

Allegra looks down at her brogues, trying to remember what had even made her agree to hanging out. It was practically the crack of dawn and why was she even pretending she wanted to see the shop in the first place? It wasn't like she was eager to get acquainted with all the pollen-laden flowers that were just dying to get her feeling itchy and stuffy.

"I just didn't want you bleeding out on my dress," Allie eventually says, the corners of her mouth hooked up in a small, tentative, teasing smile.

Daisy blinks up from tending to her wound and then cracks a big, wide, stunning grin in response.

Allegra feels blown away.

"You should be so lucky," Daisy laughs. "Who said we'd be getting that close, huh?" Daisy raises an eyebrow that gets lost behind her pink fringe, and Allie's heart thumps in her chest. Oh, yikes, she thinks. Suddenly setting her alarm for a single digit hour during summer vacation makes a lot more sense.

Allie's sure her face is reddening embarrassingly, but she shrugs nonchalantly.

"A girl can dream," she smirks.

Daisy, with her freshly taped up leg and her wicked grin, starts to think Allegra might be more fun than she'd first thought.

***

Allegra is sat alone by a large fake waterfall, the most impressive water feature in the lot. Daisy is, technically, next door, brewing two cups of tea. It turns out her family doesn't just own the store, but they own the house next door, too. Allegra keeps looking back at it, peering at the windows and wondering which one belongs to Daisy's room.

Eventually, Daisy surfaces, wielding two large cups. She offers one to Allie, then sits by her side.

"So, this is it. Sick, right?"

Allegra smiles politely, not sure she herself has ever used the word sick as a positive.

"It's lovely," she says.

Daisy snorts, scoffing a laugh into her tea as she takes a big sip. Allegra knows she's being made fun of, but she can't quite gather up the emotion necessary to be huffy about it, because her nose has started tingling incessantly. The outside is full of flowers, too - and the breeze is causing her trouble.

She'd thought she'd gotten away with it, that she'd taken her medication early enough, but--

Ah-ah-achoo!

Allegra sneezes into the crook of her elbow, once, twice, thrice, all in quick succession. Her teacup spills some of its insides down over her fingers and onto her leg, the hot water thankfully not hot enough to be truly scalding.

Daisy stares at her with wide eyes, taken by surprise.

"Ow, ow--" Allie settles her cup down beside her hurriedly, shaking away the spilled tea from her hand. Her face is as red as the patch of skin on her thigh that's been lightly burned.

"Holy shit," Daisy says, and something that sounds dangerously like amusement hangs in her voice.

Allegra glowers up at her.

"Do not," Allie warns.

"Did you want us to match that badly?" Daisy teases, flashing the plaster on her thigh, even though Allegra clearly isn't in the mood for it.

"This hurts, Daisy," Allegra says, as if that might stop her.

"Do I have to get the first aid kid out again? We're a liability," she cackles, pulling Allegra closer to her.

She looks down at the girl's thigh, placing cold hands just outside the reddened splotch to poke and play with the skin.

Allie hisses, and Daisy rolls her eyes.

"You're being a baby," Daisy groans. "It is not that bad."

Allegra's eyebrows raise at Daisy in surprise; she's taken aback.

"How dare you?" Allie starts, and she hasn't felt this fired up in a long time. "You don't know what my pain threshold is like, okay? This stings, like, really bad, and it's really rude of you to--"

"Alright, alright!" Daisy is laughing, and Allegra is openly staring daggers at her.

"Go get the first aid kit."

Allegra glares at her, entirely not messing around.

Daisy tilts her head like she's thinking about it, which only serves to infuriate Allegra more.

"Go, Daisy," she says, simmering.

"Maybe I could make it feel better some other way," Daisy says, and the flirtatious words don't even register in Allie's mind because she's so busy being aggravated by the inaction.

Daisy sweeps in quickly, and steals a kiss from Allegra's pouting mouth.