TURF

Oh, Brother

Caesar studied his brother as he smeared the creamy delight across his face while trying to wipe it off.

"You look like a clown." Vinny came in with one of the free T-shirts he had been handing out and gave it to his colourful brother. "Did that lady do this to you?"

"Let it go." Caesar replied.

"Okay that lady desperately needs to get laid."

"Vinny!" Caesar warned.

"I can't imagine being a single mother is easy." he continued "Since you were already across the street, Matthew, would you like to do the honor?"

"You're the eldest here," Caesar sneered. "if anyone-"

"I'm married. In fact, we're all married or in committed relationships except for..." Vinny glanced at his brother who was wiping the icing off of his fingers with the shirt "except for Mr Rainbow Lips over here. Take the rest of the day off," he told him "I don't want customers seeing you like this."

Vinny walked away leaving Caesar to wonder what was going on in Matthew's mind. "What were you doing over there?" he asked in frustration.

"Why did you authorize the bomb?" he asked Caesar with equal frustration.

"Again with this question? Matthew you weren't getting her out of the house fast enough. You know your brothers are impatient!"

"And you know how I feel about explosives!" Matthew hissed at his brother before heading off to his car. Caesar was at a loss for words for the first few seconds, but as Matthew's history became clearer, he understood that they had made a grave mistake.

***

A couple of hours later, in his bathroom, Matthew had managed to remove the last trace of blue food dye from his paper-white skin. He threw away the stained lip ring and applied a brand new one, to symbolize a new beginning or something like that.

Time was not on his side, so he threw his slightly damp hair into the tightest man-bun possible and cringed at how he looked like a sick naked puppy with his hair up. He grabbed the matching jacket that went with his grey sweatpants, before heading into the windy evening.

Alas, he made his way out post-sunset and battled against the evening traffic. It look him a good 20 minutes to drive to a flower shop that was only 7 minutes away.

The door was shut when he had arrived, but the light was still on. He tapped lightly on the glass and the store assistant, Aimee, sprung up from behind the counter. She hurriedly opened for him.

"I was afraid you'd miss me!" she said. "Lemme get your order." The high-school mathlete came back from the back with a basket just large enough for her arms to carry. She sat the generous load of treats on the counter with an uneasy grunt.

"I'm sorry I put you through that." he sighed as he handed over his bank card.

"I'll admit, the basket was fun to make. And there's no need for the card, I've already added it to the Monrowe tab." she smiled.

"I'd like to keep this off Monrowe records if you don't mind."

"Oh? Okay, lemme just fix it." she said as she switched the computer back on. "Matt, this looks like an apology basket. What did you do?" She looked at him with a curious grin.