Ballroom Garden: Poppy

The lounge was empty, except for Orchid staring at his phone. He had been in there for hours, all by himself. He was so bored and tired, he hadn’t seen any flower at all that day. Just a full day without any sort of trouble, or positive stimulus. Orchid opened his contacts and started scrolling. That’s when his thumb hovered over her. Trumpet Flower. His face was blank, but all he could think of is how he missed her. It had been so long since they had talked. It’s not like she could talk anymore. He kept scrolling and saw Poppy’s number. His eyes lit up with curiosity.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been with him.” Orchid had broken off from Poppy just before Trumpet Flower had passed away. He remembered how lively Poppy was so he decided to sent him a message.

“Hey man, you wanna meet up again?” Orchid didn’t even have to think about the message or sending it.

Poppy responded immediately, “Hell yeah! I’ve got something new this time, you’ll love it man. Get to my room asap!!!” He was just as eccentric in text as in person.

Orchid smiled, excited to see what this new activity was. He got up and put his phone in his pocket. He walked out of the lonely lounge into the secondary dance floor. Everyone was standing around since there wasn’t a DJ up by the music set up. Orchid bobbed and weaved through the motionless crowd with ease and waltzed into Flower’s Hall. At the end of the hall was Poppy’s room, the door had all sorts of teen spirit crap on it, posters and stickers galore.

Orchid didn’t even knock as Poppy opened the door. “Bored or pissed?” He grinned at the shorter flower.

Orchid shrugged, “Bored mostly.”

“I’ve got the cure to what ails you regardless!” Poppy took Orchid’s hand and closed the door behind them. The room was atmospheric in a sense, the lights where colored dark purple and nearly every inch of wall had been plastered with some poster.

Orchid took a deep breath. “Whatcha got this time man?” He looked at Poppy with a smile.

The flower walked over to the beanbag chairs in the corner and fell back into one of them. “Have a seat and look at the table bro.” Orchid took a seat, there was a pill bottle on the nightstand between them. He picked it up and read the label.

Lorazepam tablets

0.5 mg, 100 tablets

“Dude this is just my anxiety med.” He put it back on the table.

“Oh it’s not just your anxiety med, it’s a benzo dude!” Poppy opened the bottle and got four pills out. He handed Orchid two of them.

“Wait really? I have a fucking benzo?” Orchid felt excitement creep into his mind as he looked down at his hand. The tablets were tiny, way smaller than the average flat lithium battery.

“Yeah man! Come on let’s pop ’em.” Poppy took the medicine and sank into his chair, waiting for Orchid.

The other flower didn’t hesitate to follow him. “Takes like half an hour to feel anything right?”

“Yup, but it lasts about 5 hours!”

“Damn and we have 100 in there?”

“Well, 96 now.” He laughed.

“Oh shit yeah.” Silence followed them until Orchid felt his eyes grow slightly heavier, his heart seemed to flutter and slow down, his mind calmed down. He laughed lightly, “Oh shit! That hits different!” He leaned back into the beanbag and giggled.

“Hell yeah man! You got the good shit!” Poppy was more reserved in his giggling.

“Dude, this fuckin rocks the boat, man.” Orchid put his arms up above his head. “This is so good.”

“Yeah man.” They both looked up at the ceiling for a while.

“Bro, you know what’s weird?” Orchid broke the silence.

“What dude?”

“My aunt is dead. Like she fuckin-“ He made a face with his tongue sticking out to the side and laughed.

“Yeah that’s so fuckin’ weird! How’d she do that?” Poppy laughed with him.

“I don’t know!” Orchid kept giggling. “You know what else?”

“What?”

“I’m gonna die too!”

“We all do!”

“Oh my god! What?” Orchid cackled.

“I wonder what that’s like dude.”

“No idea bro.”

“What about like the fuckin’...” Poppy got lost in thought.

“ Put some music on.” Orchid pointed upwards.

“Oh hell yeah!” Poppy got up and played a random playlist from his phone speaker. “This shit man.”

“Oh damn that slaps.” Orchid nodded to the slow beat of the song and closed his eyes. Nothing could be any better right now. He nodded off to sleep as Poppy sat back down.

Orchid woke up in the lounge on the couch. He checked his phone to see a text from Poppy.

“Carried you out to the lounge man after you fell asleep for the second time. Nice ass btw ;)”

“Oh shit-“ Orchid couldn’t remember being with Poppy at all. He got up and ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. His hair was a mess. He pulled down his shirt collar and his neck was decorated with hickies. “Fuck.” It happened again. It fucking happened again. He pulled up his collar again and stared into his eyes. “It’s what you asked for dumbass.” He knew what he did, but he couldn’t make himself regret it. At least, not this time.