Fruits and Flowers

“Are you headed to the library?” Nana asked Anemone as she saw her granddaughter pack her sketchbook and art supplies into a backpack.

“Yes! I’m hoping to find some good reference books for my drawings.” Anemone replied.

Nana smiled, standing by the door frame of the spare room in their new house. She loved her granddaughter so much and was ever so glad that Annie had agreed to help them move in since her parents were currently busy with work.

“Well would you mind taking your Papa his lunch? He didn’t have a proper breakfast, you know he gets excited and forgets important things.” Nana asked Annie.

She agreed as she was already headed to the library.

Now with her backpack ready and her Papas lunch in a tote bag she headed out the freshly painted front door.

The sun was glaring down at her, seemingly angry at her for forgetting to wear sunscreen in the peak summer heat.

She ignored its threats of sunburn and paced faster.

Luckily the area her Grandparents had just moved to was a lovely close knit community with all the facilities nearby.

She was at the library in no time; it was almost twelve in the afternoon so she had seen only a few people outside. She imagined adults lounging around, drinking sweet tea. Other teenagers probably sleeping in to avoid doing chores and children having water balloon fights in their yards, settling only when promised popsicles.

She smiled to herself; she liked imagining scenarios in her head. She could imagine things so perfectly that she sometimes got lost in the feelings she created in her head.

They were better than real-life. She felt what she wanted. She saw, smelt and tasted what she wanted; without physical contact. Her senses synced with her mind so well she didn’t need anything else.

She came back to earth when she tripped over a rock on the sidewalk and almost dropped Papas lunch.

“Enough day-dreaming for today Annie” She told herself shaking her head violently so she could once again focus on her path.

She climbed up the large library steps, light reflecting from the glass windows surrounding the circular walls made it hard to look up at the actual building. She figured she could sneak a look some other time when being blinded wasn’t an immediate inconvenience.

She made it to the front desk; the interior of the building was woody. Wooden shelves, wooden furniture, wooden study desks. The only non-wooden thing she could see was the person sitting behind the desk.

He was old to say the least, but old librarians are the best kind-at least that’s what Anemone thought.

Grey hair, still thick and healthy besides the man’s age. An even grayer mustache. Wrinkles around the eyes which Annie wished to believe were caused by an excess of smiling during young age, in times when people were happier.

Bushy eyebrows under which his kind, blue eyes saw the world through round framed glasses. He sat reading a book of his own, not peculiar for a librarian.

“Papa!”

Anemone exclaimed peaking at her granddad over the wooden counter. He placed his book down and looked up at her through his glasses, intrigue shining in his eyes.

“Well, now if it isn’t my favorite artist! Who are we challenging today? Picasso? Da Vinci? That lady down the street who thought your lovely painting looked funny?” He said to her.

Anemone laughed and swatted away the statements with her hand.

“Goodness Papa! I’m nowhere near that level. I simply draw for the fun of it and I rarely paint. Although I do think that lady from down the street hasn’t the slightest idea how abstract art works.”

Papa gave her a smile and handed her a library card; which Annie took while exchanging his lunch.

She headed deeper into the library and wandered around and through the shelves until she found the shelves with books about art and its history. She never bothered to look up the history, it never deemed her necessary. It just was the way she wanted to go about learning art; casually.

After eternal minutes of searching, standing on her tippy-toes to crouching till her knees hurt; she finally found a book that had references and tutorials on drawing people and characters.

She sat herself down on a nearby table that had room for four seats but remained empty. She took out her supplies and started flipping through her chosen book for something she liked.

Time passed and she finally had filled a spread in her sketchbook. She then got bored with her book and left to get a new one.

She repeated this process until she had filled a bunch of pages.

Anemone rested her head on the table and stared at her open sketchbook unsure, even though she was looking at it from an odd angle that made it look distorted.

She sighed and turned to the pile of books that had manifested next to her. “I should re-shelf these.”

She willed herself to get up and do so.

After she had put them back she wandered around some more, it was a big enough library and it was mostly empty.

After a failed attempt at finding something interesting she headed back to her table where her things lay open and apparently not alone.

There was someone leaning over her exposed sketchbook.

“Hey!” She exclaimed running towards her table and the nosy person.

They looked up from her sketchbook wide-eyed as if she were the one intruding.

“Is this yours?” The boy asked.

“No, I ran over here to confront you about your cars extended warranty-YES, yes it’s mine.” Annie said rolling her eyes.

The boy smiled, then closing the sketchbook he slid it over to her. “You’re very good.”

“Flattery will not excuse your snooping.” Annie said crossing her arms over her chest.

The boy laughed this time, “Alright I’m sorry for snooping, you left it open and I couldn’t resist.”

Annie examined the boy in front of her. He was a little taller than her. Chestnut hair, caramel eyes and his skin was the color of sand. He seemed to have been following a theme.

He was pretty.

“I want to draw you.” She said to him, her face expressionless.

His eyes widened.

“But why?” He asked.

She looked him up and down and answered deadpan, “Because you’re pretty and you have nice proportions.”

Anemone watched his face flush as he sat down next to her original seat.

“Only as an apology for being nosy.”

She sat down in her seat and opened her sketchbook, “Maybe I’ll forgive you.” She said grabbing a purple pen.

“You draw with pens? I saw that in there too.” The boy said.

She gave him an angry look.

“I SAID I WAS SORRY!” He protested.

Annie’s gaze softened as she started on the basic shape of his face. “Yes; with pens you only have one chance to draw, and you can’t erase it and keep re-doing unlike with pencils. It teaches you to be careful of the lines you draw and to work with your mistakes.” She said her eyes on the paper.

“Wow.”

“Exactly. Now stick to one pose.”

“Are you done yet?”

“For the thirteenth time-NO” In reality she was taking her time drawing his eyes. Carefully placing each eyelash as delicately as it looked in real life.

She finally finished. Examining her work, she frowned.

“What’s wrong?” The boy asked leaning over.

“I hate it.” Anemone dropped her sketchbook on the table and got up with a heavy sigh.

“Wow. It looks amazing to me. I mean; it is me but you get what I mean.” He told her taking a look at her sketch. He didn’t lie. Anemone drew him better looking than how he saw himself. He did not understand as to why she was being so hard on herself.

“So you think you need more practice; it’s normal. Tell you what, how about you keep practicing and when you think you’re ready, you can draw me again. I’ll even sit for as long as you like-without talking. What do you think?” He said turning in his chair to look towards her.

Anemone thought it over for a second. She turned back around to face him.

“Without talking? Really? Because I’m pretty sure that’s what was distracting me.” She teased finally breaking into a smile.

The boys’ eyes lit up, “So she can smile! Hurrah! Soon the heavens shall sing in honor of such a miracle.” He said deepening his voice to sound like someone from the movies.

“Oh ha-ha was I supposed to laugh? Also, who says hurrah?” Annie snickered raising her eyebrows.

“You find that silly? ’I wanted to confront you about your cars extended warranty’. Sound familiar?” His reply came with equally raised eyebrows.

Annie felt embarrassment bubble in her stomach as she felt her cheeks warm up. ‘Oh God that was a stupid thing to say’ She cringed at herself.

“I didn’t ask your name.” Anemone told the boy in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

“You’ll laugh” He said and Annie tilted her head to one side in confusion.

“Cherry Smith” He said, a grin on his face.

Anemone’s mouth fell open.

“NO-WAY”

“Way”

“Like the fruit?”

“Yup”

“Why?” Annie asked surprised by such an unusually unusual name. She was beyond intrigued.

“You’ll laugh!” He said once again; another smile playing about his lips.

Anemone shook her head violently, “We’re way past that, please tell me why.”

“I was born with a birthmark on my knee that looks like a pair of cherries. Thus my parents decided to name me Cherry.”

Anemone did in-fact laugh as she sat back down next to him. “That’s the most interesting baby naming story I’ve ever heard. You must show me the birthmark sometime!”

He nodded in reply.

“I haven’t seen you here before, are you new to the area?” Cherry asked. Anemone told him about her grandparents moving there.

“Papa just got a front desk job at this library a few days ago and I finally had the chance to visit.” She told him staring in the direction of where the front desk ought to be.

“You like to read?” Anemone asked Cherry assuming the reason as to why he would want to spend his time there.

He looked at her and smiled. “I want to be a botanist. This library has books I like to explore. It’s not very big-but it feels comfortable. I love studying about flowers most. I don’t like using the internet for this kind of stuff.”

“I admire your ambition. You already know what you want to be, I’m still figuring out my hobbies.” Anemone said to him her gaze shifting to her sketchbook. It was raw and messy, filled with ideas she would never use and never need. Filled with daydreams she drew to calm her train-wreck of a thought process. Her mind was a long and continuous chaotic doodle. And if that doodle had sound, it would be loud, very loud.

“Thank you. My mother thinks otherwise, says this is all just a silly phase of me thinking flowers are pretty. That I’ll get over it soon and get back to what’s important; she wants me to study medicine. Help people.” Cherry said, his eyes set on his hands in his lap.

He spoke softly, his voice smooth yet somehow…sad? Still a small smile remained on his lips. His slight change in demeanor made it feel like he had confessed something he would usually avoid.

“But isn’t that a bit cliche’?” Annie asked in all honestly and by no means to tease. There were thoughts upon thoughts pushing themselves inside her head about all that Cherry and she were discussing. Her mind liked to think ahead of things, even if half the time it was working in complete gibberish.

“Unfortunately it’s the truth.” Cherry sighed.

He turned his eyes up to her once more; brightening, he asked her, “Shouldn’t you be getting some reference books to borrow?”

Annie snapped back to the present, momentarily sidelining all the characters in her head who wanted to tell her something urgent, all at once, all the time.

“Yes!” She exclaimed pushing back her seat and making her way to the shelves as Cherry followed after her.

She picked out books she liked and placed them in Cherry’s arms. The stack of books began to grow until Cherry was holding them up till his neck.

“Since when did I agree to be your official book holder?” He complained trying his best to balance them all.

“You didn’t refuse when I handed you the first few” Annie said to him crouching to look on the bottom shelf.

“Fair point. Alright I’ll carry these to the front desk for you when you’re done.” Cherry said taking another book Annie handed to him and placing it upon the stack.

“You can’t check out more than three books at once.” Her Papa told her.

“I told you, you were going overboard with the books and I’ve been carrying this many for no reason.” Cherry said to her after setting the large stack on the counter.

Anemone pouted and tried pleading with her grandpa to let her borrow more but alas her attempts proved useless.

“I’m sorry Annie, those are the rules. Pick out three you want to keep and give me your library card, I’ll fix everything up for you.” Papa said his gaze shifting from the books to Cherry and finally resting upon Anemone.

‘He’s asking about Cherry’ One voice from her head told her.

“Oh! Papa, this is Cherry. I met him a little while ago and he let me draw him and agreed to help me get better at art. He wants to be Botanist.” She said to him as Cherry smiled politely.

“Ah…quite ambitious are you?” Papa asked nodding his head.

Cherry placed a hand behind his neck and answered, “I try my best!”

Anemone had picked out three books in the meantime. One on anatomy, another on drawing poses and the third of facial detail. She handed them over across the counter.

“Did you have your lunch yet Papa?” she asked as he signed her in. Papa told her that he had.

“Are you going to head home now?” Papa asked Anemone handing her back the books after the library card was signed. She nodded and told him she would right after she re-shelved the extra books she had taken out.

“I’ll help you.” Cherry offered, grabbing the books off the counter and piling them in his arms once more.

Later that night, Anemone sat at her desk in the spare room with her sketchbook and reference books open. She drew for some time but then got tired and leaned back in her chair; staring around at her room. The room was not too big but it was comfortable. There was a single bed near the sliding window which stared out into the lawn and it gave her a fantastic view of outside.

Next to the door was a small dressing table and to the opposite wall was the desk she was sitting at, her back to the door. It was simply decorated since it was a spare room. Fluffy, white rugs and blue chiffon curtains. The wall with the window had been painted a Colombian blue.

Anemone smiled, she liked living with her grandparents. It had always been fun. She had called her father that afternoon after returning from the library to ask when they would reunite and was met with an unsure answer along with a long and unnecessary speech about how important her parents’ jobs were as project managers of the same company.

She had the whole speech memorized word for word and even mouthed them along sometimes whilst rolling her eyes.

Her gaze came to rest on her sketchbook. She skimmed through the last few pages she had just filled and stopped at her drawing of Cherry.

She giggled at the thought of his name. She loved it. She then tried to remember him in the moment when she drew him. She couldn’t picture his face exactly. This made her frown; she wanted to be able to draw him from memory. He was the perfect reference.

’Tomorrow; tomorrow she would try her best to take in his image so she could one day draw him from memory.

“Why are you staring at me like that? Are you mad at me?” Cherry asked slightly concerned as to why Anemone was staring at him with furrowed brows and a slight pout on her lips.

“I’m trying to look at you for long enough to remember your face exactly.” She told him from across the table. She had her sketching supplies and her borrowed books laid out while Cherry had a book about flowers and their meanings and a notebook with writing on it open in front of him.

“Why exactly?” Cherry said raising an eyebrow at her.

“I want to draw you from memory one day.” She said her face determined.

Cherry shook his head laughing and the pencil he was keeping behind his ear fell onto the table. “You really are something huh!”

“What’s so funny about it?” Annie asked slamming her hands on the table in a way that made the least noise-they were in a library after all.

“Nothing and everything all at once.” He said resting his chin on his palm.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” She protested but went back to drawing from her reference books. Cherry went back to making notes from the book he was reading.

Some time passed in comfortable silence when Anemone looked up once again. She stared at Cherry, which was easier this time because he was not staring back at her. Instead is eyes rested on his book, trailing the lines as he read on.

She took in every detail of his face. Her own eyes tracing his jaw and the soft lines of his face. The way the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned and how perfectly his lips were proportioned. The little bump on his nose and the roundness of his caramel eyes. The little arch of his almost straight eyebrows. The way his chestnut hair fell around his face and how soft it looked. She noticed something else-it was almost hidden by his hair.

She reached across the table and gently brushed Cherrys’ hair away from his temple. Under his left eyebrow, towards his temple were two small moles; one under the other.

Cherry looked up and met Anemones’ eyes; a little surprised by her sudden action. He didn’t move away from her hand.

“Oh-I’m sorry, it’s just I saw your moles. They’re cute.” Anemone told him retracting her hand; feeling a bit embarrassed.

“I get them from my dad, he has identical ones.” Cherry told her when he couldn’t think of any other way to respond to her statement.

“I see…”

This is getting awkward, why did you have to do that? You could have just asked him about the moles. Great now he’s going to think you’re weird. This wouldn’t have happened if you’d just stuck to drawing from the book. No wait, you wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t snooped in the first place. Are my cheeks burning up? Why is it so hot here? I’ll never be able to draw anything right; let alone Cherry-

“Are…you okay?” Cherrys’ voice broke her thoughts and she realized she had zoned out completely.

“Uh, yes…I’m fine.” She said her voice wavering

“Anemone are you sure?” Cherry pushed.

She regained full focus, “How do you know my name? I don’t recall telling you.”

Cherry spun his pencil between his fingers and grinned, “I happened to notice your library card yesterday. Quite the unique name you have.”

“Says the one named after a fruit- I could say the same for you.” She said to him with a smirk.

“Touché” Cherry gave in and chuckled.

“Alright, enough sitting around and stressing. I’m starting to think maybe drawing isn’t the best hobby for you; hobbies are supposed to help you relax, not make you stressed. Let’s go ask your grandpa if he needs help with anything.” Cherry declared shutting his books and standing up.

Annie thought better than to protest and decided she needed a break.

“Just some re-shelving needs to be done. People can be so inconsiderate; leaving behind books after taking them out. It would be a great help if you kids don’t mind.” Papa said to both teens as he cleaned his glasses with a cloth.

And mind they did not.

“I can’t believe I am once again holding a large stack of books for you.” Cherry mumbled to Annie as they walked between and around shelves; placing books in their respective place according to the number and alphabet given on their spines.

“I’ll treat you to whatever you want later.” She said to him nonchalantly.

“Well then, let’s work faster I say!” Came an enthusiastic reply.