I heard a knock on our door. I hadn’t quite finished gluing my false lashes on (they were short and “professional” looking), but I went out so I could be there when Gia met Juniper.
“Wow, Tahira was right. Youareadorbs,” Gia said.
Juniper was in a calf-length black pleated skirt and a sleeveless white collared blouse. Her hair was in a higher ponytail than yesterday, and she had pale gloss on her lips.
“Thanks!” she said. “You’re Gia, right? That dress is amazing! I love that shade of pink. I’m Juniper Jessica Johnston. You can call me June or Juniper.” She held out three small pink flowers. “I had Row bring rain lilies from the nursery for each of us...you can wear it as a boutonniere, or put in it a vase, or whatever. They symbolize big expectations, so I thought they’d be good for the first day at a new job.”
“Ooh, pretty!” Gia took a flower and promptly found a pin to affix it to her hair. I took a flower, too—but didn’t know what to do with it. It was just one flower, but I didn’t want my eyes watering.
“You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want to,” Juniper said as she slipped her flower into the elastic holding her hair. “Shar told me you’re allergic. It still works if you just look at it.”
“Still works for what?” I asked.
Juniper shrugged. “This is something my grandma did. She said smelling, or even seeing, the perfect flower could change your day. That’s why I gave you the welcome flowers. Did you know red tulips mean deeply in love? Like, real love, not just passion, like roses. And tansy flowers are given as a declaration of war? Grandma once had a bride ask for tansies in her wedding bouquet. Can you imagine? Grandma called it a declaration of divorce. Are y’all ready to go?”
“In a minute.” I handed Gia my flower, and she slipped it in her hair with the other one while I headed back to the bathroom to finish my face. I could hear Juniper telling Gia her pronouns, her age, her grade, and her favorite books. Clearly no one would be bored during slow moments at the store when Juniper was working. This girl saw every silence as an opportunity.
“It’s super cool that y’all are here this summer,” Juniper said as I slipped on my white platform sneakers. “I screamed with joy when Shar told me you were coming. I’ve never had a friend on the street. Row had Leanne, but she moved.”
“Aren’t you and Leanne friends, too?” I asked.
Juniper fidgeted with the locket necklace she was wearing. “Not really. She and Row have been best friends since practically kindergarten. I’m just the kid sister.” She put her hand on the door. “It’s a twenty-minute walk to the store, so we should probably go.”
“Ready,” I said, grabbing my blue suede hobo with my phone, iPad, and lipstick.
“So, your brother has been best friends with agirlsince he was five?” Gia asked as we walked down the street. “And they’re not together?”
Juniper shook her head. “Just friends. Leanne calls Row her brother.”
Gia grinned. “Ah. Give them time. Friends to lovers—I love to see it.”
Juniper scratched the back of her neck before pointing out the nearby flower-themed playground. Had Juniper been on the receiving end of the same snarky rudeness this Leanne had shown me at the nursery? It wouldn’t surprise me, and it would explain Juniper’s current uneasiness.
“I just started an Instagram for books,” Juniper said, “but I don’t have many followers yet.” After our chat yesterday, I was kind of used to Juniper’s habit of changing subjects quickly. “I want to learn to takebetter pictures. You have an Insta, right? How many followers do you have?”
“About twenty thousand,” I said.
Juniper nodded.“Impressive.”
“Mine’s nowhere near that high,” Gia said. “Tahira is therealdeal. I keep telling her she needs to get on TikTok or Twitter—”
“Instagram is enough,” I said. I was better off focusing my efforts on one platform and honing my craft during the time I would otherwise be maintaining multiple accounts or editing videos. I spent hours a day either sewing, drafting, or researching trends and techniques, and there wasn’t time for much else.
Although maybe Ishouldhave been working harder to build my platform—I still wasn’t getting the recognition that I needed. Maybe with more followers across different platforms, I’d get on that #IndieFashionWeekly page. Or maybe my designs just weren’t innovative enough, and I should’ve been working harder there.
We turned onto a busier street, and Juniper pointed out a drugstore, a small grocery store, and the building where her mother worked. The town was laid out like most small towns I’d been to, but it was way more...colorful. Many of the buildings had brightly painted moldings and doors, and the store signs were super vibrant. There were flowers everywhere. Hanging in baskets from ornate lampposts and dangling from the edges of the awnings on the patios. There were window boxes on most buildings, planters on the boulevards, and even long boxes filled with flowers on the tops of the fence railings.
“Who takes the pictures for your Insta?” Juniper asked.
“I usually take them myself,” I said. “Unless I’m modeling.”
“Lately she’s been modeling with Matteo a lot, so I take the pictures,” Gia added. “Thepower couplegets a lot of attention.”
“Who’s Matteo?” Juniper asked as she waved at an older man and woman across the street.
“My boyfriend,” I said. “He’s Gia’s cousin. He’s trying to build a following as an Instagram model.”
“Ooh,” Juniper cooed. “That is sooo cute that y’all work together! I prefer girls myself, but there’s slim pickings around here, so I’m single. Your boyfriend should’ve come up here, too. But Lord, there wouldnotbe room in that flat. Can I model sometime?”
