SparkleHeart
Enby Mess
July 4th. Juniper had seen a lot of representation of the holiday in the over Americanized media. Movies and TV shows are full of celebrations. Fireworks, hot dogs, and the stars and stripes. Stars and stripes everywhere. It seemed every porch, window, storefront, car had a full plumage of red, white, and blue. If they were honest with themselves, Juniper hadn’t given the day a second thought as they dressed this morning to enjoy the sunshine, and get out of the house for the day. They didn’t expect the parade of families in the streets, occupying a lot of the park.
'Well, there goes my plan for the day,’
Juniper sighed to themself. Their boots crunched the gravel as they turned and walked away from the park. There wasn’t much to do here, especially with everything closed for the day. Juniper had no problem with grabbing some snacks and hanging out in the backyard at their house, preferring to keep away from the crowds of rowdy Americans. Juniper had lived in many places, but never in America until now. They felt extra out of place. Let them have their day.One store was open.
Well, this store was always open.
A small structure with chipped paint walls, contained a fairly comprehensive convenience store. Evident by the large sign that flashed ‘STORE’ on the roof. The ‘E’ at the end had been burnt out since Juniper arrived in town. Clearly, repairing it was of little priority to the business.
The bell rang as Juniper entered the air conditioned store. The summer heat here was very different to the summers Juniper was used to, and the denim jacket and red leather hot pants were a poor choice, regardless of how good they looked. “Darrell”, or so his name tag read, watched Juniper weave in and around the aisles, picking up a bag of chips, and a KitKat bar before approaching the counter.
Darrell smiled as his eyes scanned Juniper uncomfortably. Juniper just smiled and shrugged their jacket off playfully, letting the denim rest in the crooks of their elbows. There was a collection of pipes for sale behind Darrell, and today was the day that purple marble glass pipe was coming home with them. They leaned on the counter top and played with a strand of orange hair.
“Hi Darrell - Do you think I could see that gorgeous pipe right behind you? The purple one?”
Men were so easy.
Flash a smile and they’re putty. Use their name and make them think they can be useful to you, and they’ll forget to ask for age identification. Juniper had been employing this method to purchase cigarettes for the last few years, though they found proprietors in America to be very strict.
Darrell handed Juniper the pipe, practically drooling.
“Let me know if I can get you anything else, yeah?”
His eyes lingering too long on their thigh before moving on to help the next customer. Juniper decided to only refer to him as 'Creepy Darrell' from that moment.♡coded by uxie♡
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