#ava 01

there’s something about that girl, her wistful gaze off into the distance as she sits near a pond. it reminds akira not too much of himself, as clearly both of them had been trying to occupy and mask their thoughts with a whole lot of nothing.

akira tries to approach casually. he takes a rock from the dround near the pond’s egde, examines it, then skips it across its surface. he does this a few more times, glancing over his shoulder at his current company.

“you seem like you’re having a good time.” his words are filled with that kind of friendly joking sarcasm, that kind you use to get through to a friend who didn’t seem at the top of their game. akira takes a seat on the ground next to her, his feet tucked in close and his long legs sticking out at odd angles. 

“you okay?”

“Rihannon, this is Ava. I mixed up my calendar and basically promised her a girls night tonight even though I’m, as you well know, working. So I thought I’ll just bring her with me. She is real awesome at giving advice.” A wink directed at Ava as she introduced the brunette to her personal assistent. It really had been unfortunate and something that rarely ever happened to the rather well organized Lia, still there was no reason they couldn’t do a fun night and work into one night. At least not with Lia’s work. “We brought wine for everybody, you all can drink as much as you want as long as you’re able to do your work! We’ll need another chair in the recording room and we should get her her own mic too. That plus two wine glasses, plus two for water and of course some plates and we should be set. We’re gonna keep the phone lines open the entire night today, play music in between and maybe have some conversation between my friend and me here. Everybody good?” She asked while she made her way to the recording room, half of the women working for her had already scattered to make the magic happen.

“I asked my bosses to have only women working on my show last week and we’re very happy that way.” She explained with a grin towards Ava as she gestured at the chair somebody just brought in. “Sit down and make yourself comfortable, this will be a very fun night. We’re a tiny bit behind schedule, which is why I’m throwing orders around like that.” Explaining that she took place at her own chair, openen her Macbook and checked her mic. “Alright so basically we’ll get calls all the time, people who aks for adive and you’re free to comment and like say whatever you want. We’re gladly uncensored here. Aside from that we’ll play some music. I’m gonna let you pick the first song for right after the intro so maybe come up with one already? And it’s also okay if you don’t feel like saying anything for a while.” 

“I’m here, aren’t I?” What was supposed to be a fun night out for his friend- in which he was to tag along, had become a series of misadventures that had led the two of them to their current situation: drenched from the rain at 1 o’clock in the morning, at a 24-hour, but completely vacant, bodega. “What more could you ask of me?”

She was embarrassed. She didn’t know what she was doing.

The dark skinned girl glared at the piece of paper she held in her hands, it was a flyer hiring new workers at this one shop. It was decorated nicely and the message was sweet, a lot of bees buzzing around immaturely drawn flowers. It had charm but just thinking about working made her sick to her stomach.

She had little to no work ethic. Though she tried in school, she had to unless TITAN wanted to send her away to a correction school back on her home planet. The thought of her having to put on a fake smile and greeting customer who probably don’t give a shit about anything and answering their stupid question and listening to their petty complaints. Having a shitty boss that makes you clean the store and maybe wipe their own ass since you’re getting paid for that too.

But that’s the problem, she needed money. So she must get a job.

She groaned to herself and shut her eyes to communicate with Tuls again, no answer. She needed someone to yell to about this shit and he was still nowhere to be found? She hated this fucking city.

She remembered the direction to where the shop was and followed it begrudgingly. When she approached it, it was a tiny shop and it seemed like it was about to close since the lights were dim inside of the building. It was Maggie’s last minute decision to even come to this place so she wasn’t surprising it was closing down but she put her hand on the handle and opened the door.

A bell rang above her head, it was a sweet sounding twinkle as she walked into the door and she was surrounded by many flowers. It was a flower shop? Then she remembered the title and the flyer in her pocket. Busy Bee’s. Huh. What a charming name it was for a flower shop and this was actually her element.

She could basically talk to plants. Even if her powers were shortened thanks to the assholes that run this place she could actually be useful here. She looked around and saw many different colored plants, the shop was organized by color and types of flowers there were. She smiled to herself. The aroma of the flowers and the way everything was lined up into place made her feel at peace.

Whoever was running the shop must know what they’re doing to.

She approached a flower bed of bluebells and her hand hovered beneath the slightly wilted petals. It was just how they grew but all of the flowers seemed really healthy nonetheless.

“Do you like being here?” She whispered to the flower and the flower spoke back to her. It was a weird power. Flowers spoke in tiny whispers that only she could hear. In the beginning when she gained her powers from the contract, she thought this power was completely useless but it had its perks.

Like spying on cute boys she likes.

The flower spoke to her gently and talked about the girl who ran the place. Seems like the boss was a sugary sweet girl and the plants liked her very much. Apparently she was shy but she always knew how to take care of them and they seem to all really enjoy her company regardless of her flaws. Maggie made a face, sweet girls like that ignored her because they always got the most attention. Hopefully she’s so sweet that she could step all over her and take early lunches and not even show up to work some days. She’ll leave the boss ragged but for now, she’ll pretend to be just like one of them.

She’ll be so sweet the girl’s teeth will be rotting by the time she leaves the shop.

She looked around and she barely heard anything so she went up to the counter and rang the small bell next to the cash register to bring the boss forward.

“Hello? I spotted your flyer one day and decided to come. Are you still hiring?” She tried to be as positive and sweet as she can be and she could hear the flowers giggle happily among each other.

    If there was one thing Greg was good at– well, he was good at a whole bunch of things, but he was really good at this one particular thing– so if there was one thing he was great at, it was wandering into places. He’d been doing a whole lot of that lately, since he didn’t exactly have anyone that kept him from doing so. 

    Today’s target was a particular flower shop, into which he’d wandered into the garden and through the back door.