Coquelicot (On hold... kind of)

Chapter four - When called short

We race into the store, and I almost trip, again.
"Honestly Cath. With the amount of times you trip in a day, you should be the one called trippy."

I smack him lightly. "No you dumbo. He tripped me."

"Mhm." He shrugs and walks over to the blue decorations. "What's Estelle's favorite color?"

I roll my eyes at him. "And to think you would know."

He raises his hands up. "Sorry! I have no idea actually, not that I could see it anyways."

I laugh. "She likes blue."

"Isn't this blue?" He says, holding up a party hat.

"Yep."

I leave him to choose the banners while I go to get balloons from the front desk. "Hello can I get two hundred balloons in an assortment of blue please?"

The man at the desk looks up and me and immediately freezes. "You?" He says.

"Tripper?" I gasp, shocked. I sneak a peak at his name tag which he covers quickly. Although before he does, I catch a glimpse of a 'C' in the beginning. I smirk. "So your name starts with a 'C' huh? Who woulda thought."

He laughs. "If you really want to know my name, why not just ask my dear brother? He'd probably know."

I blink. "Well... " I pause. "I hadn't thought of that actually."

He grins. "Now what do you need two hundred balloons for?" He asks.

"It's your cousin's birthday tomorrow." I answer.

"Oh." He proceeds to start blowing up balloons. "This might take awhile so I suggest coming back later. Ask Lucas for my number." He says.

I nod. "Thanks." I wave before going back to where I left Kalvin. "Kal!" He turns around, almost dropping the mountain of decorations he has in his hands. I laugh because some of them are green. I pick them out of the pile, setting them back into their places. "These aren't blue silly.'

"Whoops. Did you get the balloons?"

I nod. "Yep, but we have to come back later to pick them up, seeing as we ordered like, two hundred."

He laughs. "Go get a cart, would ya?"

I get a cart and he dumps what's in his hand in. "Is this gonna fit in your car?" I ask.

He just shrugs at me. "I dunno. If it doesn't, then we'll put you into the trunk and the decorations in shotgun." He says innocently.

"Hey!" I give his shoulder a gentle nudge. He just laughs. We take the decorations to the counter, where a different worker is scanning items.

He gives us a look. "So it's a boy, eh?" He says, twisting a toothpick in his mouth.

"What?" Kalvin says, obviously puzzled.

"Sir I-"

He shakes his head. "Don't worry. I too, was a young father."

I gasp. "What? Sir are you implying that I'm pregnant? Because I am in no way carrying a baby. Are you calling me fat!?" I huff out. The nerve of him.

Kalvin pulls me back, realizing I might pounce at any possible moment. "Calm down Cath. It was a misunderstanding."

I shrug him off. Someone comes from the back- more specifically, someone carrying a bunch of balloons in his hand. "What's going on here?" Trippy says.

I point my finger at the man. "This man assumed that I am pregnant. That's basically calling me fat!" I wave my arms in the air.

Trippy puts one hand on his face. For a second I think that he's going to scold me for raging like this, but instead, he turns to the cashier man. "David. We talked about this. This is the sixth time this week that a costumer has complained because of you. I'm telling Shadow about this later. Say goodbye to your job." He says.

I widen my eyes. "Who's Shadow?" I ask him.

"My cousin on my dad's side. He owns this place." He gestures around the area.

I nod, my cheeks reddening. How embarrassing that I lashed out on the cashier. "Well, we better get paying for this stuff now. We have to decorate for the party, and it's tomorrow."

Tripper nods and take the things from my hand, scanning them with a beep. "So am I invited?"

"Huh?" Kalvin says. I shake my head. Sometimes he's just so clueless.

I roll my eyes. "He means the party you dum dum."

"Oh." He chuckles nervously.

"Sure." I smile at him, and he returns the gesture.

_____

"Kalvin! Help me get this banner up would you? You're not even helping."

He looks up from his phone. "Sorry!" he comes over, taking the tape and easily taping the banner on, though I have to use a small ladder.

"That's not fair. You're so tall." I mutter.

He laughs at me. "Haha you shortie!"

I throw a ball of tape at him. He dodges it. What a waste. "You better take that back young man!"

He winks at me before muttering under his breath. "Catherine's a shortie." He mocks.

"Oh you asked for it." I tell him, narrowing my eyes. I jump down the ladder, pulling some tape from the tape holder. He takes a step back confused as to what I'm gonna do. "Oops. Sorry Kalvin. Do you not understand what I'm going to do because of the altitude difference?"

He takes another step backwards. "Cath-" I cut him off by proceeding to run around him, wrapping him in tape- tight, but not too tight, just tight enough that he can't move. "Catherine!" He yelps, trying to get out. I finish wrapping him, cutting off the tape, then I burst into laughter.

"Ahahaha! That's what you get for calling me short you butt!" I make funny faces at him. All of a sudden, someone pounds on the door. "Who's that?" I stop laughing.

Kalvin squirms. "I dunno. You better go open it because well I... seem to be preoccupied at the moment." He gives me a look.

"Fine." I mutter, walking over to the door of the place we rented for Estelle's surprise party. "Hello?" I swing the door open. Tripper boy stands there, looking flushed. "Trip?"

He gives me a weak smile. "Hey. Lucas gave me the address and my shift is over, so I figured that I could just deliver the balloons myself. I know you guys have a lot of decorating to do." He responds.

I grin. "Oh Trippy, you didn't have to do that."

"It's the least I can do. Estelle's my cousin, after all."

"Right." I say, leading him in to wear Kalvin is situated on the floor.

"Cath who is it-" He starts. "Oh. Hey Ca-"

Trippy runs over, clamping a hand over his mouth. "Shhh. She's supposed to figure my name out on her own. Anyways, what's up with you?" He gives Kalvin a puzzled look, then turns to me. "You have something to do with this, don't you?"

I laugh. "He called me short."

"Well he's not lying..." He trails off. "Uh-oh."

"You better run bro." Kalvin warns.

I brace myself. Ready, set, go.

_____