Page 1 of Iris
Chapter One
When the alarm clock goes off, I reach out to hit it in an attempt to turn it off. My hand smacks down on the bedside table. It isn’t there. I groan as I lift my head and my blurry vision clears somewhat.
“What the…?” My throat is a little raspy since I snored throughout the night. How do I know that? My roommate, of sorts, never gets tired of reminding me that I do.
Speaking of said roommate, she is cackling from her place by the windowsill.
“Where did you put my alarm, Igor?” The noise is starting to get annoying. I swing my legs over the bed and pull on my fuzzy, adorable, oversized panda slippers before grabbing my glasses.
“What? I can’t hear you over the blare of your alarm clock!” Igor snaps at me gleefully as I stand up. Her short leaves rustle as she laughs.
You see, Igor is a venus flytrap. No, you didn’t hear it wrong. She’s a plant that’s alive; well, all plants are alive, but she’s alive like me. I’d been attempting a new spell to help extend plants’ lives during the seasons. It didn’t go as planned when I’d tested it on Igor.
“I’m not giving you the fruit flies I got in yesterday. You’ll have to fend for yourself today.”
That seems to get her attention. If she had eyes, I’m pretty sure she’d be glaring daggers at me.
“Fine. I moved it under your bed.” Her hiss is magic to my ears.
I shake my head at her before getting on the floor to grab the alarm clock. It’s in the shape of a teddy bear and was a gift from my friend, Buttercup, for Christmas last year. It takes only a second to turn it off and place it back in its rightful place.
“Igor, I know you love your pranks. You know I love you. Why are you always so grumpy?”
My bathroom is attached to the bedroom, so I go to take a shower and do my business. I keep the door open so she can follow. The shower doors fog up before I hear her again.
“I’m just bored.” She sighs, her leaves rustling. “I didn’t sleep. There’s only so much on TV to keep a girl occupied.”
“Ah huh.” I keep the shower short so she won’t get an idea to do something while I'm in here. Like writing obscene words on the mirror with shaving cream.
Igor is sitting on the counter next to the sink. She watches as I do my hair, teeth, and put on some Chapstick. My contacts are the last thing I put on.
“I’m serious,” Igor growls. She snaps her mouth at me. “You need to find me something else to do!”
“I’m not in charge of you. I’ve tried to get you things to do. You hated the playing cards. You shredded them up in my bed. You threw the chess set at one of my customers last month.”
“He was an ass. He wanted to give snapdragons to his girlfriend!”
She has a point. Snapdragons are beautiful, but he’d come in looking for flowers to apologize for some kind of incident but snapdragons mean deception, or lying, so it wouldn’t have had the kind of message he’d wanted to give.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell him that before Igor was throwing the chess pieces and the board at his head. I’d had to apologize multiple times. He’d left with a dozen of white orchids and a fifty percent discount.
“What do you want, Igor? I’ll be happy to get anything for you. You just have to tell me.”
My phone goes off with my reminder that it’s time to head out to grab a quick tea before it’s time to open the shop. I could make the tea here, but I really love the Mood Teas that Jewels Café offers. Plus, I want to see if Wes is there so I can set up a time for his company to come clean my shop.
Not that it isn’t clean, mind you. I just like to have it done professionally every six months. Igor always gets a hoot out of watching them clean, too.
“We’re not done with this conversation, Iris!” Igor yells after me as I go through the door that leads to the back of my shop. “What about my flies?”
“I’ll feed you once I get back with my tea. Would you please make some toast in about thirty minutes?” I yell over my shoulder as I walk out the backdoor, closing it before I can hear her snarky reply. I know she’ll do it. She is snarky, but we’re a team.
There isn’t a cloud in the sky as I get into my small green car. I love this car. It’s comfortable, which is surprising since a lot of smaller cars tended to be uncomfortable for bigger girls like me.
But there’s another reason why I love it even more now; the pretty graphic I had was designed by my friend, Sage. She runs Sage Designs. Sage had done a lovely job with the pictures of hand-painted flowers surrounding my shop’s name. She’d even put in a silly little line that catches a lot of attention when I drive around. When I visited her to approve the mock up so that I could send out the design to the print shop, she gave me a gift. She’d handed me a book called Love Blooms but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
FFS, you need flowers!
I giggle as I get into the car. The drive over to Jewels Café is uneventful except for a man who sneezes and suddenly shifts into a pegasus on the sidewalk. Just another day in the supernatural town of Silver Springs.
