#rrl01w12

Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

It had been a long time coming, paying bills for a building that was going unused. But Johnny was finally ready to open his Landscaping storefront. He’d filed all the paperwork, posting for job openings and with Charlie’s help, managed to get the store into a place where they could run through appointment only before they opened for store hours. 

The first appointment was a woman with eclectic taste. Robyn agreed to go with Johnny to meet her at the office and be his assistant while he took notes and got her all set with a consult at her home so he could take a look at the yard she wanted to landscape. She wanted a koi pond with a small walkway surrounded by flowers. He knew he could do it. Knew that it was going to be a good cash grab, too. Koi ponds weren’t cheap, but his goal had been to allow his prices to be affordable, but not run him out of business either. 

Gen One, Day Eighty-Four

The family spent the night talking at the kitchen table. Robyn made them some tea and cookies and they talked about how Charlie had known. Talked about why Johnny had said he wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t planned on telling them about Josef, but they were so supportive of him that the topic came up. He left out some of the more...adult details of the whole ordeal, but when they found out what had happened, Johnny looked like he wanted to go beat up the other kid, while his Mom praised him for keeping such a level head during it all. 

It felt good to get those things off his chest. Felt good to know that his parents were behind him 100%. He wasn’t naive enough to think that everyone’s parents would be like this. Maybe that’s why Josef hadn’t come out, or had even done some of the things he’d done. But Charlie still couldn’t find it in himself to forgive him. Forget, yes. But the hurt would always be there. Would taint every relationship he had moving forward and for that, he’d never forgive Josef. 

As he and his Mom cleaned up after they were done talking, Charlie looked around at the dogs, his Mom and Dad, and thought of Eris off at college. Man, he had a great family. That’s all he could think of tonight. How wonderful and supportive they were of each other. He wished this kind of family connections on the whole world. Everyone should experience something like this, he decided. 

Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

“I’m proud of you,” Robyn told her husband after a long day at the office. It was much different running a landscaping business than it was to be the one solely out there doing the yardwork. He found himself more tired after a night of paperwork and balancing the books, which was odd because he’d thought the manual labor would be the thing that made him more tired. 

Though, Johnny smiled, yawning and stretching an arm across Robyn’s shoulders. “Well, we just started, but thank you,” he told her. She’d put up with him enough that the words meant something. Not many wives would let their husband take out loans and buy a commercial building only to have it sit there for a few months while he got things up and running. 

Gen One, Day Eighty-One

Detention it was. Both Touya and Charlie hadn’t impressed their teacher and were held over for a lunch detention. Touya leaned over, nudging Charlie’s shoulder. “Sorry I got you in trouble,” he told him quietly. 

Charlie shook his head. “It wasn’t you,” he told him, thought he wasn’t quite sure he believed that statement. It was for sure Touya, because Charlie was never this talkative during the school day. Not with anyone, except maybe Harvey if his friend wasn’t feeling like being the talkative one that day. “I’m a trouble magnet.” 

Touya chuckled slightly. “Are you?” he asked, like he was intrigued. “I never would have guessed.” Charlie jutted his jaw out, because those words sounded doubtful, even more so when Touya smiled slyly at him. Charlie was kind of dense when it came to these sort of things, but he swore that Touya might be flirting with him. It had his cheeks blushing, and Touya’s smile growing even wider. 

Gen One, Week Twelve Recap

Weekly Overview (x)

Eris graduates high school and after a rocking party, heads off to college. Johnny finally opens Zest Landscaping and invites some of his new employees over for a dinner party. Charlie makes a new friend that might just heal some of the scars from his first foray into romance, inspiring him to come out to his parents. 

Daily Overview 

Day Eighty (x) - Random Event roll, Johnny buys a shop & Eris is accepted into college.

Day Eighty-One (x) - A unique transfer student & Robyn runs into Johnny’s Mom.

Day Eighty-Two (x) - Charlie makes a new friend & Eris gets ready for graduation.

Day Eighty-Three (x) - Eris has a graduation party. 

Day Eighty-Four (x) - Eris explores her college housing & Charlie comes out to his parents.

Day Eighty-Five (x) - Johnny opens his new store.

Day Eighty-Six (x) - Random event roll applied & Johnny invites his new employees over.

Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

It wasn’t soon after that, once Johnny had the koi pond installed in his first customer’s backyard, that he started getting business out the wazoo. He’d done such a great job on such a low budget, that one customer’s word of mouth had spread. It allowed him to afford a few extra employees to help out and even some store hours so they could sell some small bits and pieces in the store itself, rather than just use it as an office. 

Johnny even made his first sale of merchandise, a small bonsai tree that he’d been nurturing. Almost $100 for the small plant. He frame the first dollar that he made and put it above the door to the office. 

So far, Zest Landscaping was off to a great start!

Gen One, Day Eighty-Two

Robyn smiled. Of course it was the first dress. Today was bittersweet. Her little girl was growing up so fast, she didn’t know how she was supposed to handle all of this. With grace and dignity, she supposed, but it was hard to not just sit here and break down crying when she saw how beautiful Eris looked in that flowery red and black dress she’d picked out. 

Standing up, she didn’t say a word, just came forward to help Eris zip it up all the way, placing her hands on Eris’s shoulders as they both looked at her in the mirror. “You look beautiful, sweetie,” Robyn said and she couldn’t help the way her voice quivered at the end of it. 

Eris, ever in tune with her Mom’s feelings, turned around, feeling her own eyes start to sting. As exciting as it was to be getting ready to graduate and go off to college, she knew for sure she was going to miss her family. It wasn’t like it was goodbye forever and they’d never speak to each other again, but it was definitely going to be different. 

“You think?” she asked, smiling brightly through the tears. Robyn nodded and Eris hugged her Mom, a solid, tight hug that she held onto for longer than what was needed. “Thanks, Mom,” she whispered to her. “For everything.” 

“I am so proud of you,” Robyn answered, pulling back and brushing Eris’s hair behind her ear. “You’ll always be my baby, no matter how old you are.”

Gen One, Day Eighty-One

When Robyn got home after her eventful dinner with Catarina, the first thing she did was search out Johnny. He was cleaning up the kitchen after a failed attempt at baking banana bread with some blackened bananas they hadn’t gotten to. She chuckled, wiping some flour off his nose. “I have something for you,” she said. 

“Is it banana bread? Because I was hungry, but this is like a brick,” Johnny told her, hitting his bread on the counter with a bang to show her where he’d gone wrong. 

Chuckling, she shook her head, taking out her phone and opening up the text from Nancy. Johnny took one look at it, frowning, glancing at her face, before focusing on the picture attachment. “Her name is Lily,” she whispered, running her hand across Johnny’s shoulders, comforting as he looked at the only picture of his little sister he’d ever seen. A sister he’d never met, nor would probably ever in the future unless they sought each other out after she was independent and on her own. “I ran into your Mom at the yacht club. I don’t know what I did, but she sent me this.” 

Johnny’s smile was sad, but he did smile. He ran his thumb over the picture of the little girl. “She’s got Mom’s nose,” he said, lovingly. Robyn leaned over, kissing his temple. Hopefully this would bring some closure to some of those open wounds Johnny still sported.