Cold

6 - Cold Couch

The sun shone down on the deck onto a row of succulents and Ezra. He laid down next to the table of plants, holding a book up over his face. Birds flew around in the surrounding trees. Singing, chirping, screaming, whatever it is one thinks they do but Ezra kept reading his book aloud to his plants. He wasn't sure if it helped them but it certainly didn't hurt them. He figured he'd read from one of his favorite books since one of the plants, Carl, had recently died. The others could stand the cheering up.

"'The front seat is for people who've never been kidnapped by bloody numpties,'" Ezra smiled at the book. He loved Rainbow Rowell. Her books always made him forget about everything going on around him.

And everything going on inside him.

He shifted himself on the scratchy outdoor carpet so that he would be sitting up against the couch. The air pinched his hands but he had already confirmed it was quite difficult to hold the book with his sleeves over his hands. He reached for the large cup next to him and chugged it for a while until the water line dropped beneath the two cup mark. He stretched his legs out before bringing them back in. He couldn't get comfortable for the life of him. His heart seemed to be beating faster than need be. He was as restless as he had been last night trying to sleep.

At five o'clock Julia, Alyssa, and Ezra were going to the mall. What if there's food? What if I can't get out of it? I can't stop now. I'm 78 hours in. If I fall asleep at nine I'll be 82 hours in and if I wake up at like six, I'll be in 91 hours. I'll say that I don't like mall food or something.

He caught himself staring off into the distance, the book sitting loosely in his hands. Some of the pages had flopped closed on his thumb and he reopened the book. He looked over at his plants. Organized from tallest to shortest. Last week it was alphabetical order by name. Next week will be by what color pot they are in. That way they can mingle. Julia bought him a tiny Impatient about a year ago and was rather offended when he named it Julia. Why he named it Julia had nothing to do with the name of the plant but rather he had a plant for everyone in his family and decided it would be smart to have one for her too. He was able to study the plant's emotions better than people's.

Julia, the plant, sagged a little. One of the leaves had shriveled up as if all the moisture and life had been sucked out of that leaf in particular. Ezra sighed and kissed his index finger before reaching over in pressing it on the dirt around Julia, careful as to not touch the plant itself. I should bring Julia inside. It's getting too cold out here for her. He stood up and tossed the book onto the couch before grabbing Julia and taking her inside. A spot was already open for her on the kitchen window sill and he set her down gently. He got down to eye level with her and stared for a moment.

"You're okay. Everything is okay. Whatever's wrong, it'll be better. I hope the pain eases soon, whatever that may be," Ezra whispered over the plant. He worried that a change in the environment would just make the 'whatever' worse. She's not used to changing mid-week. He wrung his hands along the bottom of his sweatshirt.

"You guys be nice to her okay?" he addressed the other plants along the sill that were temperamental and hated any change in temperature ever. All of them came inside when winter hit but the rest seemed to like feeling the temperature drop.

"Are you talking to your damn plants again?" Alyssa made Ezra startle. She was grabbing a CapriSun out of the fridge.

"Shut up," Ezra was in too good of a mood to hear her running her mouth. He walked back out the back door and opened back up his book to read.

"'Jesus Christ, Baz,'" He fell back onto the sofa, the unbearably cold fabric could be felt through his clothes.