Will to Way, Wilt Away

Chapter 10

Julius was right. Mrs. Elliot kindly offered me a job as the garden landscaper for five days per week, 4 hours per day, and $28 dollars per hour. And for what? To say, flowers here, maybe a tree there, and perhaps a pretty bush over yonder. This operation that the Esprit's ran was clearly more of a charity for struggling teens than a business. But of course, Mrs. Elliot said that Shiloh and Julius would work alongside me every day. So I guess my job was not to fix up the Wasteland, but to fix up a broken boy.

Today was my first day of work. I set one alarm for 8:05 AM, one alarm for 8:08 AM, and one alarm for 8:11 AM. I also used the smoke alarm sound, so I flailed my limbs around like a madwoman when the clock struck 8:05 and I thought my apartment was up in flames. As I learned four days earlier, the sun is not a reliable alarm clock. A smoke alarm apparently is.

I didn't know what the dress code was for a landscaper, so I went with the safe bet of black jeans, a gray hoodie, and white Converse. I Dutch braided my hair while waiting for the doorbell to ring.

Five minutes passed until I heard a sound at the front door. Knock, Knock, Knock, Knock.

I guess Julius was more of a knocker than a ringer.

I opened the door to Julius wearing black jeans, a gray hoodie, and, as fate would have it, white Converse.

"Oh my god," we said in unison.

"I'll change," we both said again.

Julius laughed. "You know what, we don't have to be childish about this," he remarked. "Neither one of us needs to change."

"At least your hair isn't braided," I commented.

"Well, Shiloh has a wig I can borrow. I think it would really pull together the whole twin thing we have going on," Julius joked.

"Mmm, maybe another day," I said while walking out the door.

When we got out of the elevator in the lobby, Shiloh was sitting at his desk eating an absurdly large chocolate muffin. At the sight of our matching outfits, he brought the muffin down from his mouth, revealing scattered brown blotches of chocolate from his nose to his chin.

"Oh my gosh! You guys look ridiculous!" He hollered, falling back into his desk chair as he chuckled. "Wait, that's not our uniform, right? 'Cause that outfit is terrible."

"I don't think you have the authority to say that," Julius replied, trying to talk over Shiloh's rampant laughter.

"Oh, why? You gonna fire me, Bossman," Shiloh mocked and resumed his muffin eating, smearing more chocolate on the tip of his nose.

Julius looked at me and rolled his eyes. "I think he would listen if it came from you."

I approached Shiloh's desk and handed him my phone with the front-facing camera open. "Why don't you take a look," I told him.

Shiloh, not bothering to wipe his hands, grabbed my phone with chocolate-covered fingers.

"Oh god," I muttered in disgust.

"OH GOD," Shiloh yelled in disgust.

Shiloh wiped his face off with a napkin while saying, "Well at least I'm not dressed like your guys' triplet."

"We wouldn't want you as our triplet 'cause then we would constantly have to justify why you eat shit for breakfast," Julius quipped.

Shiloh ducked under his desk and retrieved a large plastic box with eight more chocolate muffins. "Well, I was gonna ask you guys if you wanted to breakfast together, but I guess I'll just put these—"