Painting Flowers

"Sometimes you gotta fall before you fly,
We’re gonna work it out"

It was a Tuesday. Alex hated Tuesdays. Tuesdays were restocking days at the record store, which meant hours hauling boxes in the shop’s dusty back room that inevitably left him red-eyed and runny nosed and more than a little pissed off. As if his day hadn’t already been bad enough, arriving late to his first lecture and then forgetting to hand in the essay that was already a week overdue. The semester had barely started and he was already thinking of dropping out. He ran a hand through his already messy brown hair – he had forgotten to brush it that morning, typical – and held back a sigh as he pushed open the door of the record shop.

It didn’t take long for him to find his boss and old friend, Rian, in the back room.

“Hey buddy,” Rian greeted the elder man with a hug. “What’s up? Rough day?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Tell me about it. Not even a month into this damn college course and typical me I’m fucking up already. Why did I even bother?”

Rian nodded sympathetically. Even though he was the younger one – “only by four days!” as he would often protest – he felt more like a big brother to Alex, fiercely protective of the man, and usually also on the receiving end of his angry rants. He and Alex had practically been together since birth, with their parents being best friends and neighbours they had gone to the same schools all their life. They used to spend entire days in Rian’s garage in the summer, just jamming, Alex on guitar and Rian playing the drums, and had even considered starting a band with their friend Zack, who played bass. Rian had been the one who had given Alex the idea of going back to college, the one who had held Alex’s hand at his father’s funeral, the one who had come round to his house every day for a month just to check up on Alex after his brother had died. He was Alex’s rock.

“Dude,” Rian said, “Give yourself a break already! Sure it might be a bit of a crappy start, but stick with it and I’m sure it’s gonna be great in the end, okay? Your old man would be so proud of you for doing this, now isn’t the time to give up. I know you, and you’re a stubborn asshole, you know as well as I do that you can do it.”

The messy haired man sniffed a little. “Thanks, asshole. I guess it’s just one of those days.”

“Hey, how about I finish up in here and you take the till for a while? It won’t take me too long, and you can just go once I’m done, you look like you could do with an early night anyway.” The younger suggested.

Alex smiled weakly. “Thanks bro. Honestly, I dunno what I’d do without you.” He hugged Rian and walked out to the till.

The shop was always quiet on a Tuesday night, and it gave Alex some time to think about everything. “Rian’s right,” he thought to himself. “I can’t just quit, Dad would be so disappointed if I did. I need to do this. I can’t stay at home forever…”

His thinking was interrupted by the chime of the bell by the door, indicating that a customer had walked in. Annoyed, he forced a perhaps over-friendly smile onto his face and looked up to see a very familiar head of skunk-like hair. Jack.

“Hey!” the skunk-haired boy said in surprise. “I didn’t know you worked here!”

They had been texting over the past few days, and had become good friends. They went to the same college, and would sometimes bump into each other between classes, or eat together in the cafeteria at lunch. Jack was re-training in journalism since his photography degree had proved entirely useless when it had come to finding a job, but, much like Alex, he lacked the actual motivation to attend many of his classes – that was probably why he was repeating his second year for the third time.

“Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. How come I’ve never seen you in here before?” Alex asked.

“Hi Jack!” Rian emerged dustily from the back room. “He’s a regular, actually. He comes on Tuesdays so that’s why you’ve never seen him before. I see you’re already acquainted though.” He said to Alex.

“We actually just met last week, in the coffee shop down the road-“ Jack began.

“He spilled his drink everywhere!” the elder laughed.

Jack blushed furiously, making Alex smile a little – it was kind of cute when he blushed, and the younger boy did that an awful lot. “Hey when do you finish here? I still owe you that coffee!”

“I’m done restocking now so Alex, you can actually head off now if you want.”

“Thanks Ri,” Alex said. “I guess now then? I don’t exactly have much of a social life so yeah, I don’t have any plans for later.”

Jack laughed. “Bye Rian!” he waved as they walked out the door.

It was only beginning to get dark, and the boys shivered a little in the breeze, standing perhaps a little closer to each other than usual. It only took them a couple of minutes to walk to the coffee shop, but as they approached the door Alex could see a big ‘CLOSED’ sign hanging behind the glass.

“Aw goddammit. The thing’s shut.” He muttered, feeling pissed off again.

“Balls!” Jack said, disappointed. “Well, we could always go back to my place or something, it’s only a few minutes’ walk away – only if you want, you don’t have to come obviously…” He trailed off shyly.

“Yeah, why not?” The messy haired man shrugged. “Anything’s better than standing out here in the cold!”

“I could make you a coffee there then, or I’ve also got some Stella if you’d prefer that – you kinda look like you’ve had a shitty day.”

Alex rolled his eyes internally – was it really THAT obvious?! “Sounds like a plan!” He replied.