Organic

[KoréÉ]

Annelise stood in the vegetable aisle, debating over which veggies to put in her wicker basket. The organic tomatoes looked obviously healthier than the other kind, but they were painfully more expensive. And she didn't have much money, and her own tomatoes had turned out like shit. Sighing, she set both down and moved on to peppers, digging her thumbnail into the skin a little bit to test it's crispness, picking the brightly colored ones, as they were more ripe. Annelise turned the corner to the fruit aisle, immediately grabbing a large amount of gala apples, oranges, and grapefruits. Weighing them all separately, she cringed. Darn, she was really going to have to advertise her flower shop a lot more. Maybe she should start selling her jams and potpourri sachets... but she hadn't yet perfected either yet. As she put them into her basket to move on, she bumped into someone very hard, and fell down.
"Oh jeeze, I'm so sorry!" she replied as she picked up her belongings.

[admin]

Joel was fairly tall, coming to stand just an inch or two short of six feet. As usual, his blonde hair was a mess, like he had forgotten to brush it in the morning. Which, to be honest, he probably had. All the strands fell in just the right way though, making the look seem rather attractive, like maybe he had done it on purpose. Of course, he hadn’t. Joel didn’t have time to be styling his hair. Just run a hand through it and that was good enough. Behind his messy hair, a set of guarded eyes peered out. The irises were a misty blue with little green flecks surrounding the edges, making them seem an almost deep sea color.

He was only here because he needed food. He had a bad habit of stealing stuff from the little carts that lined the street outside. It was so easy. The humans were always so distracted they never seemed to notice. And if they did, it wasn’t like they were actually fast enough to catch him. All the same, Joel felt a little guilty taking things like that. So, today he was trying to be a good citizen and actually pay for something. That was why he had entered the store. He figured with all the people around him, he would be less tempted to take anything for free.

He picked up a pound of packaged meat from the deli. He walked away, eyes studying the beef that was once some poor animal. It wasn’t very appetizing when it wasn’t fresh, but it would do. Normal food didn’t do much, but it helped his hunger a little. If he ate enough of it, it seemed to lift his lightheadedness for a while. It seemed that he suffering that more and more lately. He knew that could easily be fixed, but he refused to take off the charm around his wrist. As long as he wore that, it was safe. That’s what he had been told by the hunter anyway. Then again, could he really trust a hunter?

Joel’s mind was elsewhere, so he failed to see the girl that was headed right for him. Usually, he would have moved out of the way in time, but he was so distracted that he ended up plowing right into her. He jumped a little, immediately coming back to his senses. The collision hadn’t affected him much. He had only stumbled back a step or two, surprisingly sturdy for his slim build. His eyes darted around, searching for what had hit him. A look of embarrassment crossed his face as he saw a girl sitting on the ground in front of him. "Er... Uh... Sorry about that," he mumbled, eyes flickering awkwardly off to the side. He hesitated, but then slowly kneeled down next to her and picked up a stray apple. He held it in his hand for a moment, examining the blood red surface. Then he dusted it off on his shirt, and cautiously extended his hand to the girl, holding out the apple to her.

[KoréÉ]

Annelise brushed back stray strands of her pale blonde hair behind her ear. She sighed, tugging at her failure of a ponytail. Jeez, was she a mess today or what? She wore an oversized black and green baseball tee with light grey skinnies and untied black converses. It was her go-to outfit when she didn’t care to be seen by people. And here she was, running into people and throwing her things all about her. ”Oh wow, I really am sorry…” she said again, standing up and brushing off any dust on her butt. Annelise picked up her whicker basket, counting up everything to be sure she had everything. Wait… she was missing an apple. Now where did it get to?

”Er… Uh… Sorry about that,” Annelise finally looked up at the man she ran into. She smiled at him. ”Oh, non, non, Monsieur. Do not worry about it.” She flicked her eyes side to side, looking for the wayward apple before she saw that the man was holding it out to her. Annelise laughed, taking it from his hand, then shaking it. ”Thank you very much” Looking him over, she saw that he was handsome, in a rugged, i-don’t-really-care-what-i-look-like kind of way. He had soft but guarded blue-green eyes that reminded her of the sea outside the levees in the Netherlands just before a storm. She would have guessed that he was of German descent from his strong chin and jaw lines and square-ish face.

Annelise stepped back to introduce herself. ”I’m Annelise Felicia De Witte. But you can call me Annelise, or any nickname to that.” She playfully curtsied, holding out a pretend skirt. ”I run a flower shop down the street,” she told him, digging for a business card, then handing it to him. ”I sell flowers, jams, soaps, satchets, all things natural.” Annelise blushed a bit before laughing. ”Sorry, trying to advertise. That’s how business is.” She rolled her bright blue eyes, before she realized that she’d taken over the conversation. ”Oh, I’m sorry. Once I get talking, I can go on forever.”