Pollen Count | ✓

n i n e

Daisy turns out to have a broken ankle.

She doesn't cry, not once. The back of the ambulance is filled with the sound of quiet, muffled, overdramatic sobbing, but that's entirely Allie's doing.

Daisy tells her for the sixth time to quit it, but Allie can't keep it together.

"It's not your fault," Daisy sighs.

Allie sniffles and continues to weep even as she says "I know." She hauls her shoulders back and forces herself to take a big breath in. It doesn't do her much good, but she manages to get another few words out. "I just feel so bad," she mopes.

Daisy gives her a dumbfounded look, and even the EMT beside Allegra chuckles.

"You feel bad?" Daisy laughs.

***

Daisy makes Allegra leave before her grandparents can arrive and 'make things weird' – but she doesn't go without making Daisy promise to text her the moment she's back home.

Daisy doesn't quite keep that promise, but she does text her a captionless photo of her cast just before she goes to bed. She has it propped up on a miniature mountain of delightfully ugly throw cushions.

pink

That's the only word Allegra texts back for a full two minutes, then it's followed up by:

i cannot believe you have a pink cast

Daisy grins at her phone screen and types back...

i have to stay on brand

...before she uses up all of her self-restraint and locks the device. She connects the charger, leaves her phone carelessly on the floor by a watermelon-print sock that has a big hole in the heel, and calls it a day.

Allegra responds with just an emoji of a monkey blushing, and then when she receives no immediate reply, she sends a sparkly heart as a goodnight. It's all she can do to not embarrass herself by also adding the emoji of two girls holding hands.

***

They text on and off for the following days until, eventually, Daisy says she needs to get out of the house.

Before she's even checked with Daisy, Allegra has asked her dad to borrow his car to pick her up.

The drive over breezes by, because all Allie can think about is the master plan she's crafted to make Daisy forgive her for her role in the broken ankle saga. Well, that's what she's hoping will happen, anyway. 

Daisy, of course, has told Allegra countless times now that she's totally blameless and that all of this is unnecessary, but that hasn't quite gotten through to her new friend yet.

Allie meanders onto the property and knocks twice at the odd cyan door that she thinks is the right one. She hopes it is, anyway. It's next to the flower shop, but she can't quite remember if she's supposed to be looking to the left or the--

"Allie!" A gray-haired man chirps her nickname happily, and Allegra smiles unsurely.

"Um, hi! Are you--?"

"Daisy's a yèh," he says, a smile bringing out his well-established laughter lines. "Her grandfather," he explains, chuckling as understanding dawns on Allegra's face. 

She gets a better look at what he's wearing – paint-stained jeans, a big woollen cardigan over a faded band t-shirt – and realizes that the resemblance is uncanny, really. She notes the flower that's tucked behind his ear, too, nestled in among the unruly gray. It's a pretty peach color, and she wonders what type of flower it is.

"It's so nice to meet you," Allegra smiles. "Did Daisy tell you I was picking her up? I was going to take her back to my place, my parents said we could--"

The man waves a hand dismissively. "Oh, please, you girls are bound to get up to some mischief, I know," he laughs. "Daisy's always causing trouble. I'll see if she's ready. Do you want to wait inside? We just made ourselves some tea," he says, raising his eyebrows as if to offer her a cup.

"Ah, um..." Allie looks back at her father's car, then up the street. She isn't sure she's ready for this – Daisy isn't exactly her girlfriend yet, and this feels awfully meet-the-parents, even if it's actually meet-the-grandparents.

"Come on," Daisy's grandfather laughs, stepping aside to let her in. "The tea'll get cold, otherwise!"

***

Allegra is still there ten minutes later, only now she's drank half a cup of tea and made best friends with Daisy's grandparents.

When Daisy hobbles through, resting on crutches and looking grumpier than usual, Allegra's smile fades.

"How are you feeling?" Allie asks, all concern.

Daisy rolls her eyes, but the adorably genuine worry on Allegra's face dampens how annoying the girl's guilty conscience is. "You didn't see me cartwheel in here?"

Allegra frowns pointedly, and Daisy's grandmother tuts. "Breaking your ankle has somehow worsened your attitude, Daisy," she semi-reprimands.

Daisy scrunches her mouth to one side, fighting back another remark. She shrugs, after a moment, and directs her attention to Allie. "Can we go already?"

Now both grandparents sigh, and Allegra looks apologetically between them – as if she's to blame for their granddaughter's perpetually sassy, sour mood.

***

"Don't come back too late! We're up early tomorrow."

"Keep an eye on her, Allie! You look after her for us!"

"Stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Be good!"

Daisy tumbles into the car, almost throwing herself into the passenger seat as she leaves her grandparents' blend of well wishes and cautions behind.

Allie shuts the door for her, making sure her crutches are well out of the way first. She heads over to the driver's seat and waves cheerily at Daisy's family.

"They seem really nice," she says, glowing. They're the nicest new acquaintances she's made lately, outside of Daisy herself. And even then – she wonders whether nice would really describe her pink-haired gal pal.

"Whatever," Daisy shrugs, staring out of the window.

Allie feels the frostiness, but she can't help but smirk out at the road. Daisy is the epitome of an angsty teenager. It's almost comical that her teen angst is trapped in a flower shop.

Allegra starts to have doubts about the day she has planned for them, then, too. Maybe Daisy won't like it? Maybe Daisy will think it's boring, or lame, or...

"So like, what's the plan? What's going to cheer me up?" It's like Daisy can read her mind. "Are your parents home?"

The tone Daisy uses to ask that third question makes Allie rip her eyes away from the road. Daisy is grinning at her, somehow all charm and all sleaze at once. Allegra scoffs a laugh and stammers out a scandalized "Daisy!"

Daisy cackles and then puts on a very deliberate frowny pout. "Aw, c'mon. I'm injured," she whines, before cracking herself up and laughing again.

Allegra shakes her head, refusing to look back at her nightmare passenger so she can focus on the road. "Actually," she begins, still a tad nervous about her idea, "I thought... we could bake."

Daisy groans incredibly unenthusiastically, but it's so over the top that it somehow makes Allie laugh instead of cringe. She doubles down.

"You're going to love it," she says, suppressing a smirk at the image that pops into her head: Daisy, struggling with a recipe, covered in flour and sugar and cocoa powder.