The Addict
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As Mayla rested her forehead against the counter, a long, over exaggerated sigh left her chapped lips. The sound of traffic was not muffled by neither the front door of the shop nor the quiet music of the vintage record player in the corner. The flower shop was dimly lit but beams of light passed through the two front windows of the building every time a car drove by, which only made the pounding in the young woman’s head worsen. Her eyes squeezed shut, almost painfully so, and she tried to drown the world around her. Why the hell did the shop even stay open this late? Every now and again they’d get some man who pissed off his wife/girlfriend and thinks flowers are a quick fix but other than that, nothing. Just the owner’s black cat, Gorge, and Mayla. Which, was perfectly fine with her. Much better than the other jobs someone with her record could ever score. Much more peaceful… Well, almost.
A very old record player- that often skipped but was there for 'aesthetic reasons'- sat in the corner, surrounded by hanging vines and shelves full of various plant life, suddenly gave off a horrid sound. One that not only startled the young woman but also made her wince as the sound hit her ears. Mayla’s head quickly jerked back up, her dark green eyes snapping to the corner of the shop.
Broken pieces of flower pot and fertilizer were scattered all around the record player, which continued playing despite the broken pieces on the, now broken, but still spinning record. Quickly hoping down from her chair behind the counter, Mayla rushed over to stop both the machine and the god awful sound. She roughly pulled the plug out of the wall before closing her eyes again. What she’d give for some painkillers right now- ‘No.’, she steadied herself and pushed that thought out of her mind. She was fine. She just needed a second was all. She sat there for a moment, bent down with her hand against the wall and her eyes shut. She was fine. Taking a deep breath, Mayla stood back up and glanced up at the shelves above the record player.
“Aw, come on.,” She groaned, rubbing her temple with a sigh as she walked over to one of the shelves. She very soon realized what had pushed the flower pot off but she couldn’t bring herself to be angry. “We’ve talked about this, Gorge.”
The cat, now comfortably laying where the flower pot once sat, just let out a soft ‘meow’ in response before stretching. In the low light of the shop, the black cat could have easily been overlooked had Mayla not been so close. Gorge, who looked unbothered by the scolding, let out another ‘meow’ as she carefully picked him up off the shelf.
“I know, I know, but you could really get hurt.,” She explained as she carried the cat away from the broken shards that could easily cut the small creature. Should anyone walk in, Mayla was sure they’d assume she was insane; talking to a cat often got you labeled ‘crazy' and ‘insane’, after all. Though, she hardly cared. Wasn’t the worst thing people have said about her.
“Now, stay.,” Mayla ordered, sitting the cat onto the counter before heading into the backroom to get something to clean the mess with. She could not be mad at Gorge, even if he made her job harder. The owner brought him into the shop when he was just a kitten, alone and abandoned in the back ally behind the shop. She had just started working there... She and Gorge were the same back then. Alone and afraid.
Letting out a sigh, she got to work cleaning up the broken pieces and fixing the record player. Damn, she hoped this migraine would go away before she did something stupid.