Tahira in Bloom

by Heron, Farah

  Boy, did I know what it was like to be blindsided by someone you thought you knew. Now I fully understood Rowan’s dislike for people chasing internet fame. “Poor June. Why did they leave negative comments, though? Wouldn’t lots of gushing help the algorithms, too?” I paused. “Do you think it’s because she’s Black?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe? But June was teased for years in school. She used to be very gullible and earnest, so she was an easy target.”

  “She’s still earnest. It’s what I like best about her.”

  “She stopped YouTubing after I told her it was Addie and her friends behind the comments. Addie said she’d stop, but the whole thing was soured for June.”

  “And she’s not getting the same harassment on her Instagram?”

  “Not as far as I know. I’m checking it regularly.”

  Ugh. I felt terrible for Juniper. This explained a lot about her moodiness. A thought occurred to me. “Hey, was Cameron one of the harassers on YouTube?”

  “I don’t think so. It’s not really Cam’s style. The comments were kind of . . . subtle, you know? Cam’s not one for passive aggression. Anyway, it was just Addison and the girls she hangs with who admitted to it.”

  “Leanne, too?”

  “No, of course not. Leanne was as pissed as I was when we found out.”

  I was skeptical. Leanne had kinda grown on me, but there was something awfully mischievous about her. I remembered her fixation on June’s bookish prom dress. “Are you sure? I mean, the commenters were anonymous—one of them could have been your best friend.”

  He shook his head emphatically. “Leanne would never do that to June. Trust me.”

  I wasn’t so sure. My instincts were telling me that something wasn’t right between Leanne and June. Maybe Rowan was too loyal to his best friend to see it. But then again, maybe I was wrong. My instincts had failed me recently with Matteo.

  My thoughts flashed back to Addison. She was the villain here.

  “I can’t believe Addison expected June to teach her flower design after doing that to her.”

  “Yeah, me neither.” Rowan balled up the paper bag the pizza came in. “Ready to add some purple to the painting?”

  “Yeah, let’s do this.” I smiled. “By the way, I misjudged you, Rowan Johnston. Maybe it’s because there are no smiling plants on your shirt, but you’re an okay guy.”

  He shook his head, chuckling. “Thanks, I think. I hope you’ll still like me when I’m back in regular clothes.”

  I laughed as I picked up my paintbrush.

  15

  BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE POO

  The photo shoot at the nursery was a few days later—Thursday evening. The painting at the store turned out fabulous, and I was excited to photograph people wearing the Lily pieces in front of the full-size mural. Leanne and Rowan were working at the nursery until seven, so we had Shar drive Gia, Juniper, and me there after the store closed. The sun was setting so late lately that I wasn’t worried about having enough light for the pictures, but we still needed to hustle a bit to get them done in daylight.

  Juniper had been pretty quiet on the way out—I still had a sinking feeling that she didn’t want to be doing this. Even though she had let me pick her outfit for the shoot, she didn’t squeal nearly as much as I expected at how amazing she looked. And she barely talked about whatever book she was reading on the way.

  But Gia squealed as she got out of the car in the gravel lot at Wynter’s. “Ah! This place is adorbs! It’s exactly as I imagined. Too bad Cam’s not working today; he could have totally taken our pictures—he’s really good. Eee!” She rushed toward a display of garden gnomes painted in unusual colors. “These are the cutest. We need some shots with them. Garden gnomes are my favorite!”

  I was able to corral Gia away from the garden-center stuff, with some effort, and toward the barn, where Rowan and Leanne were meeting us.

  I stopped short when I saw the mural again. Yeah, I’d been looking at a photo of it while Rowan and I were painting, but seeing it again in person sent the same chill up my spine as the first time. It was even more striking because there were no bags of manure anywhere in the vicinity. And because I knew the artist behind it. See? Here was proof that appreciating the artist increased my appreciation of the art.

  “Hey!” Leanne waved as we got close to the building. She and Rowan were still in their work clothes. Which of course meant jeans and ironic shirts. Leanne’s was pink with a picture of a realistic-looking rabbit wearing thick red eyeglasses, and Rowan’s was a black T-shirt with a vintage-looking drawing of succulents. It said WHAT THE FUCKULENT? on it.

  I shook my head, laughing. “Okay, that’s my favorite,” I said, indicating the shirt.

  “I’ll put it into heavier rotation,” Rowan said.

  “Wow, Junebug.” Leanne came close to June. “You look amazing. I love that color on you. And your hair!” I’d put June in a long orange modern floral-print spaghetti strap dress with a purple shirt under it. I’d asked her to wear her hair out, so she had a lot of tight, defined curls skimming her shoulders. Gia had helped her with her makeup, and let me say, no one rocked winged liner better than Juniper. She was breathtaking.

  Juniper took a step back from Leanne and looked down. “Um, thanks?”

  There it was. There was definitely something going on that Juniper wasn’t telling me. Maybe Rowan was too blind to see this vibe, but it was clear as glass to me.

  I needed to defuse this. Maybe I could keep them apart until they actually had to be in pictures together? “Why aren’t you dressed yet, Leanne?”

  Leanne flipped her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “I didn’t want to get the fancy new clothes dirty. I don’t think I’d look as good covered in shit as you did, Tahira.” She grinned. “I’ll go change. Be back in ten.”

  While Leanne was gone, I gave Rowan a literal three-minute lesson on my SLR camera. I had no doubt he could manage it—I already knew he had an artist’s eye. And Gia and I were here to help.

  “You got this?” I asked after showing him the focus and zoom.

  “Yeah, no problem. Here, let’s test it.” He lifted the camera and told me to smile.

  I laughed as he took the shot. It turned out pretty good. There was a big sunspot on my face, but the picture was well framed, and my expression was so happy. He definitely had an eye. I looked up at him. He was watching me intently as I checked out the photo, a tiny smile on his face. He had the warmest eyes when he wasn’t scowling. So deep. I mirrored his small smile before looking away awkwardly. We needed to get to work.

  The photo shoot turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Juniper seemed incapable of looking natural when the camera was pointed at her, and she was especially stiff when Leanne was anywhere nearby. Leanne, for all her easy good looks and lightheartedness, was pretty wooden, too.

  “All right,” I said, “let’s get a shot of us tight together.” I positioned us with Leanne on the end, and me, Gia, and then June next to her, all with our arms around each other. Rowan managed to get a few decent pictures. Even better were the candid ones he snapped of everyone laughing while I tried to smooth Gia’s hair and keep June’s dress from blowing out. I took the camera to get some shots of Leanne, and then Gia alone. The light was perfect by now, the hazy evening glow matching the urban-yet-country vibe of the Lily collection.

  Leanne squeezed in next to Juniper. “Can we do one of me and June together? What do you say, Junebug? Since we’re the only actual Bakewell residents in this modeling thing.”

  Juniper nodded before I could object on her behalf, and she was quickly enveloped in Leanne’s arms from behind. Leanne rested her chin on Juniper’s shoulder, and June tilted her head toward Leanne and looked straight at the camera, unsmiling. I took the pictures quickly. This picture, with Leanne’s bright-auburn hair whipping around June’s face, was spectacular. As good as any top fashion spread.

  “I think we’re done,” I said after putting the camera down.
After a slow start, I had no doubt we had more than enough shots to fill the Lilybuds social for a while. And I was conscious of going easy on June and Leanne—they weren’t used to these shoots. I didn’t want to overwork them, especially given the tension between them.

  As we walked back toward the garden center, Leanne said, “Hey, wanna all go to Hyacinth’s to hang out or something? Or for a walk at Bell’s Pond? It’s early.”

  I didn’t much feel like running interference between Leanne and June anymore. “I can’t. I want to edit these so I can start posting them tomorrow.”

  “Oh, okay, then.” Leanne shrugged, getting into her pickup truck. “I wish I still lived in town with y’all instead of out in the sticks. Another time?”

  Leanne seemed genuinely sad, but Rowan had specifically asked me to protect Juniper from the people bugging her. And today, that appeared to be Leanne.

  Back at the tiny house, I did some photo editing on my iPad while Gia straightened her hair on her bed.

  “Pictures are good?” she asked.

  “Yeah, they’re great. I didn’t expect much, especially with that weird vibe between Leanne and Juniper, but the ones of the two of them alone turned out awesome.”

  “You noticed that, too?” Gia asked. “What’s the deal with those two?”

  I shrugged. “No clue, but I have suspicions. I’m going to talk to June about it when I see her next.”

  Gia tapped the window with her hair iron. “She’s right there. Looks like she’s picking herbs.”

  I chuckled. It certainly was weird that the people I was thinking about the most lately were literally in my own backyard.

  “I’ll go see if she wants to come in,” I said. “Hopefully she doesn’t mind the smell of burned hair.”

  Juniper, as expected, didn’t mind singed hair at all and was thrilled to come in for a chat.

  “I was just getting some peppermint for my tea in the morning,” June said as she took her shoes off in the little space. “Wow! It looks so awesome here. I haven’t been in since Leanne moved away. Granny Langston sure loved her knotty pine, didn’t she? Oh, LOL, you put up a picture of Chris Pine . . . this is from A Wrinkle in Time, right? I always loved the book, but that movie was even better. I don’t know why it wasn’t more popular. I like how you decorated with clothes, too; is that a fashion-designer thing?”

  I laughed. “No, it’s because there is literally nowhere else to hang our clothes.”

  “Ha! It’s like you’re living in a closet! Reminds me of this book with a portal in a closet, not The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but a newer book . . .”

  It was like June was a completely different person than earlier at the nursery. She sat on a chair and told us all about the portal fantasy book, and then about two more portal fantasy books, before telling us that she wasn’t really a fan of portal fantasy and much preferred urban fantasy lately. “I don’t think you invited me to talk about books, did you?”

  I chuckled. “No, actually. We were just wondering: Was everything okay with you today?”

  “Yeah, totally fine. Modeling was fun. Was I okay?” She winced. “I didn’t blink and ruin the pictures, did I?”

  “No, no, you looked great. I totally want you to model my own stuff at some point. But . . .” I glanced at Gia.

  “You seemed uncomfortable as sin,” Gia said. “Especially around Leanne.”

  June froze a few seconds. Then her lip quivered. “You noticed that?”

  “It was obvious. To us at least,” I said. “Look, if Leanne has ever done something that upset you . . . I mean, like Addison did . . .”

  Gia’s eyes shot to me, but it wasn’t my place to tell her what Addison had done to June. I shook my head at Gia.

  “No! Of course not!” June said. “Leanne isn’t like Addison!”

  “But you don’t like her, right?” Gia asked.

  June was uncomfortable. Honestly, this would all have been a lot easier if the girl were better at hiding her feelings, but she was the most unaffected person I’d ever met.

  “Is it Leanne’s teasing?” Gia asked. “Is that what’s bothering you? Because even I think she goes too far sometimes.”

  June shook her head vigorously. “No. Of course not. Leanne’s fine.” Her voice cracked a bit there.

  “Is it because she calls you Junebug?” I asked. “You hate it when people call you Junebug.” Juniper’s expression was pained. I’d hit the nail on the head. “You should ask her to stop,” I said. “I mean, she’s a troublemaker for sure, but she seems respectful for the most part. If you’re not comfortable, I can ask for you, I—”

  Juniper sighed and put her face in her hands.

  “Now we’re harassing her,” Gia said.

  I cringed. I didn’t want to upset June more. “I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s fine. Forget it. If you have no beef with Leanne, then all is good. Let’s talk about something else. How—”

  “I don’t have a problem with Leanne calling me Junebug,” June said quietly, face still in her hands.

  “What?” Gia asked.

  Juniper finally lifted her face. Her eyes were wide and glassy. “I don’t have a problem with Leanne calling me Junebug. Like, at all. I have a problem with anyone other than Leanne calling me Junebug.”

  It took me a second to understand. When I got it, my hand went to my mouth.

  It all made sense. June was in love with Leanne. The evidence was all there. She couldn’t seem to speak properly around her, and she put up with Leanne’s constant teasing. Even going back to the beginning of the summer, when June was determined not to be on the Bloom team with Leanne and her brother. Clearly June found it uncomfortable to be around her unrequited crush. It was totally self-preservation.

  Gia must have realized, too, a few seconds after me, because she suddenly turned to me and shrugged. “Honestly? I ship it.”

  I squeezed my lips together, trying not to laugh.

  “She’s pan, right?” Gia asked June.

  June nodded.

  “Then go for it,” Gia said. “Crushing on your brother’s friend is a tale as old as time. It’s no big deal. Just tell her.”

  June threw her hands in the air, frustrated. “You don’t get it. I did tell her. She told me she’d never see me that way.”

  I leaned forward. “You told her? When?”

  “At the Snowbloom Ball in December. I’ve had a crush on her for, like, forever, and then at the ball she asked me to dance, so I thought I’d shoot my shot. But when I said something, she was all, ‘Oh, that’s cute, June, but you’re like my sister.’ She said she only asked me to dance to shock the church ladies, but no one cared. I made a fool of myself. At least she’s never told anyone. That’s why I try to avoid her.”

  “But you’re still crushing?” I asked.

  Juniper nodded. She looked like she was going to throw up. She had it bad.

  “Honestly, I think Leanne is into you, now,” Gia said. “She’s always, like, sitting next to you, and happy to see you and stuff. You should tell her you’re still feeling it.”

  “She’s Row’s best friend.” June sighed. “We grew up together. She feels bad for rejecting me and is being extra nice to make up for it.”

  I wasn’t sure. Leanne was mighty weird around June. Hell, what about the way Leanne looked in that photo? That wasn’t just guilt-motivated affection.

  I pulled the photo up on my iPad and showed it to June. “That doesn’t look like someone not into it.”

  Leanne had her usual massive grin in the picture, but there was something more than the usual twinkle in her eyes. Affection? Comfort? In fact, neither June nor Leanne was nearly as wooden as they had been in the other pictures.

  Juniper shook her head. “No. Leanne is going away to university in, like, a month. All the way to Guelph for their veterinary program. She doesn’t see me that way. Please don’t tell anyone.”

  I reached over and patted her shoulder. “It’s fine. If you don’t want her or
anyone else to know, we can keep it a secret. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine. She’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

  Gia nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine. Girls aren’t my thing, but you have great taste, Juniper.”

  Juniper put her face in her palms. “This is very embarrassing,” she said into her hands.

  I laughed. “Don’t even. Let me tell you about the time that Sohil Sharma found the secret Instagram account Gia made that was all photoshops of him and her—”

  “Can we not?” Gia interrupted.

  I laughed. “I’m texting you this picture, June. Put it away until you’re old or something. Or stare at it every night when you go to bed. Then we’ll never speak of this again.” I texted her the picture.

  I was relieved that June’s weirdness wasn’t because Leanne was harassing her. If June didn’t want to make another move on her brother’s best friend, or even talk through these feelings ever again, I could respect that. But I had to agree with Gia—I kind of shipped Juniper and Leanne. That would be an adorable couple.

  16

  IT’S A BET

  Over the next week, my time was so packed between Lilybuds and getting ready for the Bloom that I really appreciated Mom’s calls every two days reminding me to get enough sleep and not neglect my social media content. Also, she reminded me to check in with Dad and my sister, which I did. Nilusha and I texted a few times, too—she helped me decide which shots from the Lily photo shoot I should use for the store’s marketing. Shar and I went to prayers again on Friday night while Gia and June worked at the store. But it was all fine—I loved being so busy.

  Dr. Johnston’s new antihistamine was working like a dream, so I managed to make a small-scale floral sculpture honoring my destroyed suede boots using a combination of chicken wire, flowerpots, and red marigolds. Not perfect, but I was getting the hang of floral sculpture. Just like with fashion design, I found myself drawn to monochromatic, muted color schemes in floral design. Simple and minimalistic. Lots of focal flowers with little filler. It was in contrast to Rowan and Juniper, whose tastes ran more to vibrant and colorful, with lots of different flowers in busy configurations. I liked their designs, too, but mine were more me.