Flower Shop Camellias

Queen Anne's Lace

Lance woke up in a cold sweat. The ceiling fan above him that lightly spun whirred calmly creating the familiar noise that he could never fall asleep without. His phone was hot underneath him while the soft sound of music murmured though the earbuds that had fallen out of his ears. 

12:52 am: You probably fell asleep. Sleep well, I'll see you tomorrow.  

1:04 am: Lance, what's going on? Please call me, I'm--

Lance clicked off his phone and groaned while he reached over to plug it in. He squinted at the alarm clock on his nightstand which read 4:37 am. He took in a deep inhale of the cool air from the fan. Birds outside of his window had just begun their morning songs and whistled varying tunes back and fourth to each other. 

"It's too damn early," he said to the empty room. 

In his sweat he felt disgusting. The past couple of days he had been sleeping terribly regardless of the fact that he had been going to bed exhausted. For the past week his house and only been a place for the activity of sleeping and eating the occasional meal. Somehow it felt like being away from that place was much easier. The secrecy of everything that was going on was much better kept when the rest of his family members weren't bombarding his every movement. Now most days and nights he spent with his friends and at Keith's house where he felt like he could actually breathe. 

Keith's black hoodie hung from his bedpost were it had been living for the past couple days. Lance had been given it to keep him warm again on his bike ride home. His delivery jacket could be found on the bedpost in Keith's room as well. He lazily got up and took it in his hands breathing in a deep inhale of it's scent: a myriad of floral aromas, just like Keith. He let the scent fill up his nostrils before he hugged it to himself and collapsed back into bed. The action felt a bit silly but it was just enough to calm him down back to sleep. 

                                                                                                    ~*~ 

"Keith? You're doing it again..." 

"Wha-what? Doing what? What am I doing?" 

Kelli chuckled as she made her way around the shop sorting the newest delivery of flowers into their new homes. 

"Did you not hear what I just said? We've got that wedding order so I need you to do a bit of overtime alright? I was talking to the bride this morning and everything needs to be all set by Thursday. I've got an extra shipment coming in just for the arrangements. Veronica's coming in to help tomorrow too." 

Keith's mind was felt fuzzy as he tried to listen to his boss. His eyes wandered to the bouquet of multi-colored carnations to his left. 

He should be here by now. 

"--We're making the bridal bouquet too but you should leave that one to me, the bride was very specific, I need some eucalyptus...hey!" she snapped her fingers. "You still listening?" 

Keith jumped. "yES!" he squeaked. 

"I'm talking about extra pay here." 

"I know. I know. Sorry. Got it." 

"So back to what I was saying, we need centerpieces for the tables, only ten of them though since this is kind of a small gig--" 

"--AM I LATE?" 

The sunny boy practically tripped into the shop after swinging the door open with such force he could have almost thrown it off it's hinges. His chest threw itself up and down with each exasperated breath he took. His sea blue eyes looked from Kelli to Keith who both were motionless after his his grand entrance. Keith felt like he was melting a little when he saw him disheveled like that.