Chapter 7

        Lizzy had been waiting for this day to arrive ever since she met Anna. She was Lizzy’s only friend at Birchwood, and Lizzy was very eager to go to the café, “The Tea Leaf” with her. At last, the school day was over, and she could finally get ready for this soon-to-happen event. It would be her first time going away from the condo without he Cadwell family. Or to be more generic, her first time ever going out to a main street in Oxford with anyone.

 She decided to wear her unruly curls up into a messy bun. She wanted to at least look like she was a regular at downtown Oxford. Thankfully, Anna was coming over to the Cadwell’s condo before hand, so she could instruct Lizzy with her outfit.

          After fifteen minutes had gone by, Lizzy decided to go downstairs and wait for Anna. She plopped down on her favorite swirl-patterned lounger to pass the time. Sylvia was still at her flower shop, Jerry was at the Primary building preparing the students’ fine arts night, and Gwen was at Hanna’s. Braden was somewhere in the house, but Lizzy was sure she wouldn’t see him until she and Anna went upstairs together. She really did not want to be with him, alone, at the house, with the possibility of awkward silences. In her book, there was nothing worse than those.

          Lizzy looked at the clock. It was four-sixteen, and she still had at least fourteen minutes until Anna arrived. She sighed. Maybe she could use her for-urgencies-only cell phone her dad and mom had given her to call Anna and tell her to come over early. But that wasn’t really considered urgent, even her mind.

          Suddenly, she heard some thumping down the stairs. It was one of either two things: Braden, who she really didn’t want to see on account of sounding stupid, or Rosie, who would probably ignore her anyway.

          Unfortunately for Bridget, it was Braden. As soon as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he walked into the Living Room. And that was exactly where Lizzy sat.

          “Hey,” Braden grabbed an orange out of a bowl in the center of a side table next to the couch. “What’s going on?” He asked to Lizzy.

          “Oh, I’m just waiting for Anna to come. I really have nothing else to do,” Lizzy replied, giggling a little.

          Braden laughed too. “Me neither. Vasquez and Robbins said they’d stop by to play football somewhere around five, so I’m just, well, you know, loitering around.” Braden said. He sat down on the couch next to Lizzy. She scooted over a little, out of nerves.

           “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’m doing, you know, since there’s nothing to do and all.” Lizzy sensed as soon as she starting talking there was going to be an awkward pause coming up. And there was. For a very long time. Thankfully, she knew Braden was eating his orange so; it wasn’t completely uncomfortable. But soon, he finished it, and it was still silent. Lizzy wasn’t really sure why he was still there, taking into account he wasn’t saying anything, and nor was she. He just continued to look at her, and occasionally he would look around. Even though this was probably the longest awkward silence she had ever endured, it was still very enjoyable.

He stayed there, although she was not talking to him. He didn’t wander around, he just looked at her. And she had to admit, it made her feel special. It was better than when you were bored out of your mind in social studies class, and you caught a guy staring at you from across the room. This time, she knew it wasn’t just a plain-old stare from some guy at school. It was a stare from someone who she liked, if not loved; from the moment she met him. It made her feel, even though she didn’t resemble one, like a beautiful goddess.

          Suddenly, a heavy breathing noise flowed into the room, disrupting Lizzy’s miniature nirvana moment. She snapped her head to where the noise was coming from, and saw Rosie toddle into the room.

“Hi, Rosie,” Lizzy rose from her seat and walked towards the incontestably adorable beagle. She knelt down on her knees and rubbed in between the dog’s ears. “Pretty girl,” Lizzy said to Rosie in the way most pet-owners talk to their animals: in that baby-like voice, that no one understands except for the owner themselves.

          “Looks like she’s finally gotten used to you,” Braden said, approaching the dog. He knelt down just like Lizzy did and starting petting Rosie.

          “Yeah, I think she finally has,” Lizzy said, still rubbing her. Rosie was enjoying all of this attention so much; she rolled over on her back, with her tummy upwards.

 Somewhere in the midst of Lizzy transferring her hand to Rosie’s belly, Braden’s hand brushed off the top of her’s. And for an unknown reason, his hand stayed right there, for what seemed like forever.

 Lizzy felt a rush darting all over her. The last time Braden had touched her was that night the whole family was at Fuchsia Rendezvous. Just this time, the feeling she felt was seven-times as big.        Lizzy wasn’t sure if she flinched or not when he touched her, but she knew that Braden’s hand was still there. And the atmosphere around them was absolutely motionless.

The first thing Lizzy saw move was Rosie. The happy beagle trotted away after they had stopped rubbing her, therefore, their hands separated.

 Lizzy felt hypnotized. She wanted him to touch her again, and this time, for it to be on purpose. And because they were both looking at each other for the same reason, Lizzy had a feeling Braden felt the same way she did about him. And that was too frightening to imagine.

          Finally, a single note broke apart their gaze. It was the doorbell. Lizzy cringed at the noise, but then rose to go get the door. Braden stood up, obviously just as shocked as she was at what had just happened.

          As Lizzy was making her way towards the door, she was thinking about what just happened. It was like they were drawn to each other: like magnets. They couldn’t pull apart. Lizzy was exhilarated, but somehow nervous. Could she look at him again without the same feeling occurring between them?

          Lizzy approached the door and reached for the handle. Only then did she realize that her palms were sweaty. She quickly wiped them on her jeans and attempted to open the door a second time. This time, she pulled down the handle with ease, and opened it.

There stood Anna, perky and energized, very unlike how Lizzy felt right now. 

          “Lizzy!” she said. Anna stepped inside, then looked around, and then looked back at Lizzy. She studied the expression on Lizzy’s face, and, although Lizzy was unaware of it, Anna realized that Lizzy looked nothing like herself.

          “Lizzy, um, is something, uh, wrong?” Anna asked, concerned.

          Lizzy shook out of her temporary state of being. Then she smiled. “Yeah, I’m all right. Just, um…” Lizzy looked up at the ceiling. “Let’s go upstairs, okay?”

          Anna nodded, still puzzled, and with her black eyebrows crinkled. Nonetheless, she followed Lizzy to the hallway, where the stairs were.

          Both her and Lizzy passed the kitchen first, where Braden was. Lizzy made a strong attempt to look away, but something made her eyes go in his direction. To her surprise, he was looking at her, too. Lizzy then made an even stronger effort to look away. This time it worked, and Anna and her made it up the stairs, safely into Lizzy’s room.

          “Wow,” Anna looked at the tidy room in awe. “It’s so...” Anna thought for a second while thinking of a word to say. “It reminds me of a chocolate sundae.”

          Lizzy smiled at the fact that they both regarded food when they saw the room.

          “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Back at home, we have this dessert called Boston Cream Pie, and it has all of the colors in this room: dark brown, light brown, white.” Lizzy looked around the room just as Anna did.

          “Is that right?” Anna said. She sat down on Lizzy’s bed and all of the fluff in the comforter puffed up around her.

          “Yes,” Lizzy said, walking to her closet. “It’s really good. Especially when you make it homemade.” Lizzy then opened the closet, revealing all of her clothes to choose from. She had brought every piece of clothing to Oxford, no matter if she would wear it or not.

          “Wow,” Anna said. “That’s a lot of clothes!” She ran her hand across the two racks of them. “Now I understand why you wanted help.” She smiled in Lizzy’s direction.

          Lizzy laughed. “Well, I just wanted to look normal. As non-American as possible.”

          “So, you want to fit in,” Anna half-asked.

          “Exactly,” Lizzy said.

          Anna smiled. “Well, I think I can help you with that. After all, I am British.” Anna paused. “Well, sort of.” Both she and Lizzy laughed as she picked up a piece of her straight black hair.

          “I get what you’re saying,” Lizzy said. “You’re definitely ‘in the know’ of what people usually wear.”

          And with that, they both started picking out various outfit possibilities. After a half hour, Anna picked out something just right for Lizzy to wear as a “downtown regular” in Oxford.

          “Even though in England we have basically the same styles as Americans, I thought this would look especially downtown-ish and typical of a person in a café.” Anna stood back and looked at what she pieced together. All together, Lizzy thought it looked pretty cute.

          The two soon went out the door and out of Foxglove Avenue. The main street was just around the corner, so they wouldn’t have a problem walking there.

          “Alright,” Anna said, as they stood in front of a cross walk that lead the to the left side of the street, where the café was. “Look for a tan building with dark blue lettering and a green leaf in the middle. It’s really new, so it looks all glossy-like.” She explained.

          “Okay, glossy-like building…got it…” Lizzy said.

          Both of them finally strolled across when the light flashed “go” to the pedestrians on the sidewalk.

          They passed various shops. From small boutiques for scarves and hats, to large art galleries, this main street included almost everything a person could think of.

          “This is probably the best main street I have ever seen!” Lizzy exclaimed, trying to look at every one of the amazing shops as they walked by rather quickly. “It is so neat and clean…and so…cool.”

          “Yes, isn’t it? My mother and I used to go down here all of the time.” Anna said.

          “I hope that maybe the Cadwells and I can go see that rest of it sometime while I’m staying here.” Lizzy said.

          “They probably will take you downtown sometime; there is so much to see here.” Anna replied.

          After a few more paces, Lizzy spotted it.

“There it is!” she said, pointing to, as expected, a very polished-looking building. Anna snapped her head towards it.

          “Aha,” Anna said, as she pushed the door open. A sweet bell rang in response.

          Immediately, the warm aroma of tea filled the air around them.

          “Wow,” Lizzy said as they passed a giant dark blue teacup, maybe about four feet tall, filled with boxes of various teas. “It’s so…relaxing.” Lizzy inhaled to emphasize her sentence.

          Anna smiled. “I know. I can’t believe how small it looks on the outside, compared to how big it is on the inside.” Anna remarked.

          The building was in fact, very long, and had three very long steps leading down to the second portion of the building. The floors were made completely out of maple wood, and dark blue city-esque lamps gave off a glow to the slightly dim room.

          “I never expected it to look like this.” Lizzy said.

          Both of them made their way to a small circular table next to a giant wall---completely made out of windows that were splashed with deep sapphire and dark blue splotches. Clearly, the main colors were accents of deep blue and brown. All together, it was just as impressive as Fuchsia Rendezvous. Just, you could lower your tipped up nose a bit.

          After they sat down in the latte-colored chairs, Lizzy and Anna brought out their small menus and looked at the various flavors.

          “Do we order up at the counter, or is someone coming over here to take our orders here?” Lizzy asked, in the midst of looking at the list of options.

          “Oh, someone will come to our table and ask us.” Anna said, sure of herself. “That’s what my cousin told me, at least.”

          A few moments went by when Lizzy had made her decision. “Wow, that pomegranate and cranberry tea sounds really good. I think I’ll have that.” Lizzy said, looking at Anna.

          “That does sound good. I think I might try the vanilla and blueberry. I have never heard of combinations so unique. No wonder my cousin loves it here.” Anna remarked.

          A waitress came by and picked up their menus and wrote down the orders. Now, it was time to sit back, unwind, and talk.  

          “I know this is a completely boring question,” Anna rolled her eyes as she spoke. “But, how is your stay going so far?” Anna leaned in, interested.

          Lizzy widened her eyes. “Oh, it’s actually quite good. I was worried that I might not make a friend, but I did.” Lizzy paused, while smiling at Anna, making sure she didn’t sound too cheesy. Judging at the expression on Anna’s face, she took it as a good, non-cheesy compliment.

 “But anyway, thanks for inviting me, it’s so cool here,” Lizzy looked up, admiring the interior of the shop.

          “No problem.” Anna said. “Actually, thank you for coming with me. As I told you at school, my father really doesn’t allow me to get out much.” Anna said, tapping her fingers on the table.

          “Yeah, you did say that…” Lizzy said. “Why doesn’t he let you go out much?” She asked, trying not to sound offensive to Anna’s dad.

          “Well, he’s afraid that if he lets Sean, my brother, who is almost eighteen, and I go socialize every single moment of the day we have free, we’ll lose family connections and become too distant with our relatives. Family is really important to my dad. And, to be honest, it’s important to me, too.” Anna replied.

Lizzy nodded. “I wish my family was like that. My dad and mom are usually too busy to focus on a lot of things like that.” Lizzy commented. Anna nodded.

Lizzy decided that topic was a little too heavy for a get-to-know you conversation, so she decided to ask another question. 

“How old did you say your brother is again?” Lizzy asked.

          “Seventeen.” Anna answered.

           “Oh, that’s how old Gwen is, too.” Lizzy half-laughed at the coincidence.

          Anna smiled widely. “Really?” Anna sounded as if she just solved a mysterious crime that had been put on the ‘cold case’ file for years.  “Okay, now it makes sense.” She had a satisfied look on her face.

          “What makes sense?” Lizzy asked, not having the slightest clue as to what Anna was talking about. But before Anna had the chance to answer, a blonde waitress placed a tray at their table. She put a hot teapot in front of each of them, as well as sugar, cream, spoons, and a teacup that looked exactly like the four-foot tall one in the front of the store.

           “Mmmm,” Anna said as she opened the pot and inhaled the vanilla and blueberry scent. She then poured an ample amount in her teacup. Then she sipped some.

          “Anyway,” Lizzy said, as she poured herself some tea, “What makes sense?” Lizzy didn’t sip any of her piping hot tea, since she really wanted to know what, in fact, did make sense.

          “Well,” Anna paused, stirring her tea. “Sean has had a crush on Gwen for a while now, and I just couldn’t think of what year Gwen was in, or even who she was. So it makes sense now that I know who she is.” Anna blew on her steaming tea. “Does that make sense?” She asked, giggling before she started to drink.

          Lizzy laughed. “Yeah…has he ever talked to her or anything?”

          “Yeah, he tries, but they never get really far in conversation. But he thinks she’s really pretty, and I know she’s smart, considering that she’s in all of my brother’s advanced classes.” Anna informed her.

          Lizzy looked at her tea. “Well, at the house, Gwen’s sort of mean… but sometimes she can be a little nice.” Lizzy said, finally taking a sip of her now not so scalding tea. The citrus taste of oranges and the strong flavor of pomegranates flooded her mouth.

          “Well, he says she’s nice. But that may be because he’s love-struck.” Anna rolled her eyes about her brother. “So daft,” she said, sipping her tea.

          Lizzy laughed. “But, it happens.” She said. “Everyone has experienced the whole ‘love at first sight’ thing.”

Anna laughed. “Yeah, especially with blokes. They see a pretty girl, they immediately start obsessing.”

Lizzy took another gulp of her tea. “So, your brother actually tells you who he likes? I mean, my siblings, though they’re younger, definitely wouldn’t tell me about any of this.”

          Anna smirked, and then paused. “Well, he doesn’t exactly tell me, but I do hear him talking about it with my cousin Danny. They live just one house over from us, and so they talk often.” Anna sighed. “I wish I had a cousin my age….Anyway, enough about me, how is life going with your ‘new family’?” Anna made quotation signs with her fingers.

          Lizzy smiled. There were so many different ways to say ‘how it was going’. Well, the family was sure polite, but Braden was a different story. A good story though. But not one she could totally unload on Anna. Not now.

“It’s been good, I really like their condo, and it’s really nicely decorated. Especially since Sylvia is a florist, she always had some sort of flower out to show.” Lizzy said, deciding on a simple answer for now.

          “Ace! A florist,” Anna smiled, nodding. “That’s awesome. Does she work at L’Arome? The flower shop in town?” Anna asked.

          Lizzy smiled. “Yeah, she does. I’ve only been there once, and it’s really cool. I love how they place their flowers in different painted ‘environments’, according to where they flower is from. It’s so amazing.” Lizzy said. Then she started to think: All of the shops here are awesome. Fuchsia Rendezvous, L’Arome, the Tea Leaf…

          “I agree. My dad gets a lot of Chinese trumpet lilies from there for every room in our house. He loves lilies.” Anna said, her face a little down toward the table.

          “Really?” Lizzy said, surprised that a grown man would be interested in flowers. “Did he see them a lot in China?”

          “Yes. A lot, actually. He likes them dearly.  They were my moth---‘’ Anna cut herself off. Then she shook her head, as if to get the thought out of her mind. Then she inhaled deeply, looking a tad disheartened.

          “Do you want to get going?” Anna asked, suddenly rising from her seat.

Lizzy snapped her head up at Anna’s sudden urge to leave. Nonetheless, she decided to go along about it anyway.

 “Um…sure.” Lizzy rose from her chair and followed Anna, who had already started toward the dark brown counter; where she would pay for the tea. So, Lizzy sped up.

After a few moments, Lizzy caught up with Anna and offered to pay for her share.

“No, no, no, it’s alright. I invited you, after all.” Anna said, while shuffling out money from her pea green colored wallet.

“Okay,” Lizzy said meekly. She knew that Anna wasn’t acting normal, so she decided to just go with the flow until either Anna returned to her normal self, or when she went home. She knew that Anna had said something about the Chinese trumpet lily, and how she had stopped in mid sentence about how someone had liked them, just like her father. Someone special. Lizzy thought. Someone who obviously meant a lot. If Lizzy had caught that last syllable where Anna had stopped, she would have known why she was acting so strangely.

They both left the café, and Lizzy tried to check her for-urgencies-only cell phone for the time. Luckily, she pulled it out of her pocket unnoticed. It was only 5:07. Sylvia would be back form the flower shop around six, and that is when Lizzy was planning to go home. Now, she would have to most likely go to the house, and talk to Braden. And if she did, it would be awkward. Really awkward.

As they both stood there in front of The Tea Leaf, Anna sighed and tapped her foot on the beige concrete.

“So, uh, do you want to come to the main street again? I mean, you don’t have to, but I thought it was fun. It’s got some really cool shops and I really want you to see them all.” Anna smiled widely.

          “Of course,” Lizzy smiled genuinely. She really wanted to come back, and maybe find out why Anna got so peculiar after she mentioned trumpet lilies. “I want to see that art gallery over there. That clothes boutique looks cute, too.” Lizzy said, scanning the stores from the front of The Tea Leaf.

          “Great.” Anna said. “And plus, my dad knows I’m on the main, so I am close to my cousin. That shouldn’t be a problem to get together again sometime.” Anna was returning to her normal self again.

          “I can’t wait,” Lizzy stood, there, wondering if Anna meant for them to go their separate ways or not. So she just waited for Anna to speak.

          “Alright, do you want me to walk home with you, or…?” Anna said.

          Lizzy thought for a moment. “Actually, I was thinking that I could probably go to L’Arome, and stay with Sylvia until it was time for her shift to end.” Lizzy said. “Is that okay?” Lizzy asked.

          “Of course. My house is actually closer to here than yours, so I can walk home really quickly.” Lizzy figured this was Anna’s way of saying ‘don’t worry about me’.

          “Cool.” Lizzy said. “See you tomorrow, Anna!”

          “See you, Lizzy. Bye!” Anna replied, waving as she turned a different way.     

          And with that, Lizzy walked about half a block down to the flower shop, where she could meet Sylvia. No matter what, she was not going home and seeing Braden. Especially when they were alone.

          As Lizzy entered upon the door of L’Arome, a cute little bell jingled. She wondered if all of the stores had these bells.

          Like all of the other places on the main she’d been in, L’Arome was beautifully decorated and was very neat and clean, but somehow not overly hygienic that you feel like you can’t touch anything. It was just plain out gorgeous.

          As she and Anna discussed, each type of flower was put in a certain section of the store that had a background of an environment. All of the walls in the store were intricately painted, every square inch of them, into a panorama of where that particular flower was from. If the flowers were from Central America, then maybe a tropical scene or a rainforest would be in back of it. If the flowers were from western America, then a prairie scene would be behind it.

Lizzy was glad she was seeing the alluring store for a second time.

          Lizzy wasted no time finding Sylvia, so she could inform her of why she was there. She ended up finding her in the middle, by the yellow daffodils.

          “Sylvia!” Lizzy walked up to her, giving her a hug.

          “Lizzy! What a nice surprise. So your appointment with Anna was short?” Sylvia asked.

          “Yes. But she needed to go home. Her, uh, brother called her.” Lizzy knew she was fibbing, but what else could she say? She didn’t really know what was going on in the first place.

          “Oh that’s too bad,” Sylvia said. “But did you have a nice time?” Sylvia asked optimistically.

          “Oh, yes. A very good time, actually. We got to know each other a lot better. And the tea was delicious. I’ve never seen so much variety!” Lizzy exclaimed.

          Sylvia nodded, as if she already knew. “I heard that they have some pretty diverse flavors over there.” Sylvia paused. “Well, I’m glad you had a nice time, dear.”

          After a few moments of silence, Lizzy spoke up.

          “Um, where are the trumpet lilies?” she asked.

          “Oh,” Sylvia said. “They are at the total left side of the store, in the middle of the Asiatic lilies. I’m sure you’ll see it. And if you don’t, well, you know where I am,” Sylvia said, smiling brightly. She was glad Lizzy was showing interest in flowers.

          Lizzy thanked her and headed all the way toward the left. She passed many types of flowers on her way, but only saw one that was particularly exquisite. It was a soft pink lily, with a burst of dark pink in the center. Lizzy picked the flower up, watching drops of pure, glistening water slide down its unbelievably smooth petals. It was the trumpet lily, the most beautiful of them all.

Lizzy held the flower for a while, breathing in its pure scent, and watching it. Watching it, because she was wondering. Wondering because she wanted to know. Wanting to know because she was curious. Curious about the story. The story behind the lily. 

Reviews

[compositionc]

That was gnarly. Seriously.
Lizzy and Anna are becoming such good friends. :D She's making friends! I hope Kristine and Nadine leave her alone. Poor Anna, it was her mother, wasn't it? D: Poor girl. Braden and Lizzy have something going on, don't they?
;)