iv. CHRYSANTHEMUM, CHRYSANTHEMUM, CHRYSANTHEMUM

tuesday, january 12th

∘₊✧────────────✧₊∘

AWSTEN'S PHONE BUZZED, AND HE looked away from Lula.

  "Shit," he cursed. "This is my buddy. I was supposed to meet him ten minutes ago."

  "Oh, shit. I forgot about that. Sorry," Lula apologized as Awsten stood up. "Well, I guess I have your number now. So...I'll text you?"

  "Yeah, yeah," he nodded. "You'll text me, I'll text you. Yeah, I'm sorry. This is shitty timing."

  Lula stood up as well, and brushed non-existent dust off her jeans. "Okay, tell your buddy I say hey — Actually, don't. He doesn't know who I am."

  "Alright," Awsten laughed. "Bye Lula. Wait, is that short for something? What's it short for?"

  "Um...Tallulah. It's short for Tallulah." She looked up at the Christmas lights on the building and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "God, I don't know why I just told you that."

  "You don't like it?" His jaw dropped a little bit and Lula shook her head. "Well, I like it."

  He gave her a sloppy grin that made her face hot. She wasn't sure why it made her face all hot, but if he asked, she'd just blame it on the cold. "Here, let me walk you to your car."

  "Tallulah...Tallulah...Tallulah..." Awsten went on and on, saying her name over and over again as she walked him to his car, putting emphasis on different parts of her name.

  "Wait..." he paused. "Tallulah...Tally...do you people call you Tally?"

  "Naw, no one calls me Tally. At least...no one's called me Tally in a really long time."

  "Can I call you Tally?" Awsten raised his eyebrows and sent her another sloppy grin. "Or am I only allowed to call you Lula until level 100 of our friendship."

  She smiled. "You can call me Tally if you want."

  They were at his car now, meaning it was time to say goodnight, obviously. Yet another sloppy grin. "Alright...Tally...have a good night."

  "Night, Awsten."

  As Awsten drove off, he laughed about the 'joke.' Night, Awsten. Awsten Knight. Lula obviously didn't know why that was funny, and he wasn't going to tell her.

  He didn't really want her to know that he was kind of famous. That is, if she didn't already know.

  There was a small part of him, deep down, that was afraid she already knew who he was and she was just going to use him.

  It hadn't even been 24 hours, and he was already this paranoid.

  He arrived at his friends apartment building and sat in his car for a few minutes. With his head resting on his steering wheel, Awsten Knight ran through his head everything wrong that could happen with Tallulah.

  Tallulah. It was such a pretty name. He wanted to say it for the rest of his life.

  He sighed and finally got out of his car, walking into the building and towards the elevator.

  Knocking on the door, her name played through his head. Kind of like in the book 'Chrysanthemum,' how she just writes her name over, and over, and over again.

  He loved the way it sounded when she first told it to him outside Beck's Coffee Shop.
  He loved the way it sounded when he repeated it in his head over and over again on the drive over here.
  And he loved the way it sounded when he whispered it to himself in the elevator.
  Tallulah, Tallulah, Tallulah.

  The apartment door opened and Jasper Beck grinned immediately as he saw who was on the other side.

  "Hey! You're back! Come here!" Jasper pulled Awsten in for a hug, and the two of them walked into the apartment. "Where were you?"

  "Ahh, just got caught up with some girl," Awsten explained. "Sorry about that."

  "Oooh, what's her name?"

  "Tally," Awsten smiled. He looked down at his shoes, trying to hide the blush spreading on his face.

  He was almost 29 years old, and he was blushing like a little kid over a girl he met this morning.

  "She sounds cute."

Back at Beck's, Lula sat in the parking lot in Beth's car.

  on my way, Lula texted her. bringing your car back

  Her car had finally broken down completely a few weeks ago, no saving it. So she had been borrowing her best friend Beth's car to drive to work.

  She would drive to Beth's place, and Beth would drive Lula home.

  This usually meant they would catch up on everything that happened in the day. That or they'd listen to some playlist made by Spotify featuring Avril Lavigne.

  "You talked to Jasper today?" Beth asked as they drove.

  "Nah." Since she left Beck's, all Lula could think about was how crazy it would be if Jasper and Awsten were hanging out right now. "He's with one of his friends tonight. Tom thinks it might be a girl, I don't know."

  "What about Winn?"

  "Sick."

  "Sucks."

  "You wanna watch a movie tonight?" Lula looked over at the driver. They hadn't really hung out in a while, just the two of them.

  So Beth shrugged. "Sure. What movie do you wanna watch?"

  It was Lula's turn to shrug. "I dunno. We'll figure it out."

  She turned to look out the window. Watching the blur of headlights, streetlights, and Holiday lights, Lula Sparrow wondered if she should ask Beth to help her out in texting Awsten.

  She knew it had been one day, but she was starting to develop a teeny little crush on him.

oh my god, did i tell you my mom bought me a 2021 calendar in hopes it helps with my "time management" and it's star wars themed, so there's shots from the movies and concept art.

and january is luke on hoth, and october is all boba fett and oh my fucking god it's so cool.

i feel 9, and it's great.