Gen 1 ~ Crescendo Orchid ~ Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Consequences

Okay, so maybe today didn’t go exactly as planned…

“You’re getting WHAT?” My best friend, Ice Chill yelled, cutting off any peacefulness the park could’ve offered us. Some berries nearby turned their heads to stare at us. “To WHO?”

“Keep your voice down, Ice,” I shushed her, looking around and awkwardly smiled and waved at the people who were staring at us. Yes, I know they were going to find out, but I wanted it to get out later in the day…preferably after I told the essential people first.

Earlier today I called up Ice and my other best friend, Zest, to the park to tell them about Kale. They were the first two people I was planning on telling, the only people I thought would have my back through everything…

“I will not keep my voice down! What you’re doing is insane!” She pinched my arm after she was done screeching at me.

“Ow! What was that for?” I demanded after I slapped her hand away, I started to rub my arm where she had pinched me.

“For not telling me you had the hots for Kale Crusta!” She shouted, and all the other berries around us gasped. I could feel my cheeks starting to flush a brighter shade of pink. Yep…this was definitely not working out so far. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this! For four years!”

“Hey, hey, chill out,” I said, holding my hands out in an attempt to calm her. “I was going to tell you…eventually…I just needed to know you had my back…”

“Crescendo, you’re going to cause a rebellion here, you do realize that, right? This is totally absurd and unheard of and…” she trailed off, almost too mad to speak. I bit my lip.

“Look, I know your angry at me, Ice…” I started, but she cut me off.

“ANGRY? Angry doesn’t even cut it!”

“Ice, Kale seems to get me. Can’t you be happy for me?” I pleaded, silently hoping she wouldn’t back out on being my friend because of this. I turn my head towards the water, knowing that she’s just going to yell at me.

“Crescendo! He’s orange! Your pink! You two berries never cross paths, ever. Opposite ends of the marriage wheel. It never works out, that’s why there’s a marriage…suggestion.”

“But I love—”

“DON’T you dare say Kale! I can’t believe you did this!” She screeched at me, and I flinched. Her words cut past my barrier, and I wasn’t prepared for it.

She  stormed away, out of my life, clearly beyond mad that I didn’t tell her that any of this was going on while it was happening. But I had a nagging feeling that something else was seriously bothering her, and it had to do with Kale and I.

I sighed and looked over at Zest, who hadn’t said anything throughout my whole confession. I wasn’t prepared for Ice’s reaction, but I instantly guarded myself for Zest’s.

I couldn’t stop the words from flowing from my mouth. “Are you going to persecute me, too?”

I could tell by the shocked look on his face that my words stung. I knew, deep down, that he wouldn’t do that. He was the nicer of my two best friends, but I couldn’t help the words. Ice and Zest were supposedly my best friends, and Ice already walked out…I couldn’t help the anger and hurt I felt. I couldn’t help but thinking that Zest was going to walk too.

Maybe Kale was right, and I wouldn’t like the fallout…

“No, Crescendo,” Zest’s voice snapped me back into reality and out of my mind, “I’m not going to persecute you. But…Ice is right, you’re asking for trouble. And…with Kale no less.” Something in his tone upset me, especially the way he said Kale’s name like it was a dirty word that shouldn’t be spoken. Ever.

“What do you mean, ‘and…with Kale no less’?” I quoted, my defenses already starting to pick up, tense for a fight. If anybody messed with Kale, they were messing with me from this point forth.

He holds up his hands, showing that he meant no harm by the sentence. “Crescendo, you know as well as I do that I didn’t mean anything by that sentence,” he said, and I didn’t respond. I wouldn’t let my defense system down that easily.

“All I meant was, if it had to be an orange guy…I happen to know somebody who’s single and really good looking,” he joked, and I forced myself to laugh.

I wasn’t blind; I knew Zest has feelings for me. Half of the time I’m so torn on what to do…I can’t just stop being his friend, but whenever he flirts with me I just feel so…awkward. I tried to brush it off the best I could. I didn’t want to embarrass him by saying it was obvious that he had feelings for me. So, the best I could do was play it cool, and that’s exactly what I did.

“I suppose that fellow is you, ey?” I asked, laughing.

“Possibly.”

I sighed loudly, changing the subject. “If everybody’s going to react as bad as Ice did…Kale and I just might as well skip town,” I said, although I didn’t mean a word of it. I wasn’t going to run away from my problems, I was going to face them…no matter how hard they were going to get.

He whistled, already predicting the aftermath of everybody else’s reaction as well. “No matter what happens, you’ll always have…Kale…and me throughout this whole thing. I won’t abandon you.” I could hear the hesitation in his voice before he said Kale’s name again.

“Thank you, so much Zest; you don’t know how much this means to me.” I could feel myself becoming teary at the end, and thankfully he ignores it and just pats my arm. “You’re going to become a town outcast too, you realize?”

“Yes, I know,”

I was blessed to have him as one of—er, my only—best friend.

“Have you…set up a date for the wedding yet?” He questioned me, his eyes down casted. I bit my lip—I knew how much this stung for him. But I had to respond. I didn’t like seeing him in pain—and it stung even worse knowing that I was the cause of all this pain.

“Nope…but we hope it’ll be soon to shock the berries out of everybody twice in a row. Might as well kick ‘em while their still down, right?” He looked up at me and smiled now.

“Ahh…rule-breaking Crescendo, welcome back. I haven’t seen this side of you in a while.” I grinned back at him.

“You don’t need to attend, if you don’t want to,” I said, I mean, of course I wanted him there, but if it was going to cause him pain…

“Don’t be crazy, I’m going.” He insisted, and then afterwards there was a dead silent period.

I decided to break the silence. “I should probably go announce the news to other people so then they can spread the word, ey?”

I hugged him before my departure. “Thank you, for staying by me,” I whispered.

“Just returning the favor,” he said smiling, reminding me of grade school when I stuck up for him when he was being bullied. In fact, that’s how we became friends.

“Good luck,” he called after me as I started to walk away. It sounded like he wanted to say something else, but he held his tongue. Or it could have just been my imagination. I mean, my imagination was the one who told me that Ice would be okay with this…and look how that turned out.

“Thanks,” I yelled back. I was going to need all the luck I could get.

~~~~~~~~~~

“I can’t believe he fired you!” I yelled, angry. Kale held up hands in a gesture telling me that it was alright, but it wasn’t. Apparently after Kale told his boss that he was getting married (and when the boss found out it was me) he fired Kale on the spot! He used some totally bogus excuse saying that Kale’s been late too many days to work and he had to be let go.

“Love, it’s alright. It was just a stupid job. You told me that I could do better, and now I have the chance,” he said. But I doubted that anybody in this stupid town would hire him after our announcement. In fact, just walking on the way home people were already starting to gossip, shooting me strange looks.

I disregarded them, at first, but their whispers got way too loud to the point where I was forced to look over at them.

But when I did they just stared at me and didn’t say anything, acting like they were perfect little angels that weren’t just whispering about how far-fetched it was that a pink and orange berry were getting married and openly defying the unspoken rule—which acted like it was a law. But, when I turned around again, I heard their whispers. In less than two hours the news was spreading like wild fire. There were rumors floating about that I was pregnant, that’s why I was already moved into his house and we were getting married.

I’ll admit, some of the things they said actually stung, but I reminded myself that I had Kale and that’s all that really mattered.

“Love, c’mon. I have a surprise for you,” Kale said, and I raised my eyebrows. “I guess you can say it’s an early wedding present.”

“Two surprises within twenty-four hours? How did I ever manage to score you?” I said, getting lost in his eyes captivating eyes. He was the only one who could get past my defense, or make my anger disappear in a flash.

“You had me the first moment I saw you smile.” He laughed, and took my hand and led me outside.

“Alright, close your eyes…” he paused for a few minutes after I obediently closed my eyes. “Are they closed?”

“Kale.”

“Right, right, okay, you can open your eyes now.” I opened my eyes.

“Oh my rainbow!” I gasped.

“He’s so cute! Where’d you find him?” I demanded as I rushed up to pick him up out of Kale’s arms. He was so adorable that it was overwhelming. Kale started to laugh—whether at my reaction or how quickly I was over by the dog, I couldn’t tell. The cutie barked sassily at me as I picked him up—he appears overly friendly.

“He was a stray I walked by in the park today, after I was fired. He looked so lonely, and I remember you saying how much you wanted a dog that wasn’t pink, so I figured he’d be good first addition to our family,” he said, and my heart fluttered when he said ‘our family’.

I snuggled the dog, trying to calm my heart. “You were right,” I said casually, trying to play it cool.

“What do you suggest we name him?”

“Riptide,” the name came to me suddenly, and I looked up to judge Kale’s reaction.

His eyebrows were raised. “Riptide?” he asked, skeptical. I just simply shrugged, and then looked at Riptide’s blue fur. I was just about to argue my point, but Kale beat me to speaking first. “I’m almost afraid to know what kind of names you have in plan for kids,”

I beamed at him. “You’ll have to stick around to find those out.”

He smiled his best smile at me, his eyes shining. “Trust me, I’m not going anywhere.”

My heart started beating erratically in my chest, reminding me that I managed to capture a little bit of heaven to call my own.