Fruits Forbidden

Chapter 2: The Graveyard Shift in Broad Daylight

“What did you buy this time?” I asked.

“Blue orchids, the chrysanthemums and lilies were all sold out.”

“Well, at least you bagged these little babies before somebody took them for their date.” I chuckled, nodding towards the flowers that were now hanging from the handle of his motorbike in a bag.

“There was this girl at the store; I think her name was Lydia. Nancy gave her a part time job at the flower shop for the season.”

At the mention of a girl, my ears perked up. Although I didn’t like the thought of other girls around him, regardless of the fact that I myself would never confess—not after I kept it inside for such a long time. Though I didn’t like hearing about these ‘girl tales’, I still listened. I was still his best friend and needed to make sure he would find the love of his life someday, even if it wasn’t me. He deserved that much.

“So, what about her?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could while climbing up on the bike behind him, but I knew; Daniel had to be a stupid f*****g clown if he didn’t catch onto the tremor in my voice when I edged around the topic of other girls in his life.

“Oh, her?? That girl was full-blown flirting with me!” he laughed. “I tried to give her hints that I wasn’t interested but she kept asking for my number.”

“Was she pretty?” My fingers gripped a little tighter on his shoulders, a million insecurities in my mind.

“She was! Silky straight blonde hair, blue eyes and a button nose.” Everything so unlike my curly hair, brown skin and sharp features. “But you know I’m just not interested in all of that right now.” Silly boy.

“Well, what did you do? Don’t tell me you gave her your number!” I gasped dramatically. “She could be a serial killer, for all we know!” His bike roared to life as he burst into laughter.

“Calm down, Tiger.” He turned behind to give me a smile and I turned his head towards the road again. “Before I could think of some excuse to escape, my phone pinged and that picture of you and me came up,” he chuckled and his shoulders shook against my fingers. “—the one that you sneakily put up as my lock screen?”

“Oh..!” It was laughable how much of a potential homewrecker I was becoming in his life, just by doing things unintentionally. “No wonder it felt like I was being strangled in my sleep. Girl must be a black magic or voodoo practitioner. My mom told me pretty scary stories about those kinds of people from back in India.” I feign-shivered, almost really shivering at the thought.

He snickered.

“Arey! They really are scary, what the hell?”

“Shut up, Mavey.” He elbowed my stomach slightly, his eyes still on the road. “I just told her ‘my girlfriend won’t like it’ and here I am,” his fingers ran through his hair as he turned towards the very familiar street. “With the flowers I apparently bought for my girlfriend.”

My heart fluttered upon hearing him associate those words with me. I was sure he’d freak out if he ever saw me gushing over him, but it is what it is. My emotions went haywire every time Daniel joked about us being anything more than the childhood best friends that we were. Even if it was just pretence, even if it was just to shoo someone off, it meant the world to me. That moment was everything for me.

“Martha would c***k up hearing this story.” A bittersweet chuckle made its way out of my mouth, my mind floating to the past, as we reached the all too familiar dirt path that led to our monthly destination.

A big, scraggly old gate stood in front of us, and we got down, walking the rest of the way to meet up with Martha, Daniel’s mother.

Silver meadows Cemetery, the words on the gate read as we passed by.

“Why would she? Because it’s so difficult to believe that her little boy is not only a gentleman, but also eye candy now?” he wiggled his brows.

“Whoever taught you that term?” I guffawed while Daniel scratched his head.

“It was Stacie who told me about it, but it really does mean good-looking, right?”

“Yes! But I am not surprised if you’re still having doubts.” I rubbed his back in mock consolation. “That girl is devil-kin.”

“No doubt.”

“More than anything, I think Martha would laugh at that terribly inflated ego of yours!” Daniel’s mother always made fun of him, even when he was the nicest, sweetest, the most innocent child one could ever have. It was always me and Martha, against Daniel and my mom, Priti.

“I’m not egoistic, alright? Those are just straight facts.” He huffed, his strong arm curling around my shoulders, making me all jittery inside. “Name one person who is as handsome as me.”

While I did know that—for me, there was no one nearly as perfect as him—the boy needed to be brought back to earth. I looked at him, a grimace lining my face and he considered that a win for himself, smiling triumphantly.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Wait, he did not take that as a stroke to his ego. My list of names would forever go down in history, reminding all egotistic boys that there were men, amazing men, who were better than them.

“Shawn Mendes.”

He looked at me, puzzled.

“Harry Styles. Benedict Cumberbatch.”

“What are you-”

“Tom Hiddleston. Chris Evans. Michael Jordan, Robert Downey-”

“Alright, shut–”

“Tom Ellis. Rahul Kohli. Kim Min-kyu. Kunal Nayyar–”

“Does this list not end?” He was getting tired, good.

“Shahrukh Khan. Shahid Kapoor. Vicky Kaushal. Ayushmann–”

“OKAY I get it!” he raised his hands up, the cloth bag that held the flowers now swinging along with his hands. It was comical. “You and your obsessive endless list of attractive celebrities.”

“But I’m not even halfway done yet!” I almost let out a bellowing laugh when he winced. This is what I live for. Oh, the pleasure.

“Shut up.” He stuck his tongue out at me and continued walking; ignoring me as I tried to list more names.

“What a kid you are, Nellie.” My only favourite kid.

Finally, we reached. The place was filled with a myriad of tombstones—out of which only one was decorated with a bouquet of drying lilies. It was her last wish.

‘Never let my grave be lonely. Keep it fragrant with all your memories.’ She had said.

And so we did. Each week, one of her friends or family would visit her grave with a bouquet of flowers. It would be laying there until the next visit that brought more flowers. Sometimes there were a dozen at once, but always at least one.

It had been eight years. Eight long years of living without Martha. She was the sunshine of all our lives and her death made a little piece of our heart become dark forever.

Laying the beautiful flowers by her grave, we both settled down cross legged, ready to talk about the past two weeks that we hadn’t visited.

“Martha, you wouldn’t believe what happened at the flower store today!”

Daniel groaned. It was going to be a long day for him.