scene girl is watching a caterpillar crawl across a leaf. scene girl thinks of umbrella girl. scene girl thinks that maybe, vaguely, umbrella girl appreciates tiny life in the same way she does. the way she walked straight through the parking lot with her umbrella, not looking at any of the cars. scene girl was sure of it.
scene girl had always had an interest in plants, ever since she was very young. she thought grass was beautiful. she still thinks that. she's never loved flowers the same way as other plants. they seemed too perfect to her, almost suspicious. she would rather sit under the old, old oak tree and fall asleep reading "a primer on the native plantlife of new york state" and feel content as tiny ants crawled onto her body.
scene girl made a loose plan to create a field guide to the plants of albany, new york and give it to umbrella girl. her friend button-up shirt boy had told her that umbrella girl would be at the acoustic show in the vegan cafe next week. she made a loose plan to be there, too.
when scene girl was fourteen she had her friend give her a tattoo. it was a tiny clover on her ankle, but she had to think for a long time about it. she was a little bit high when she got it, but she does not regret it. thinking of it now, watching the tiny caterpillar meet a tiny millipede, she touches her ankle. the clover has three leaves, because scene girl thought having a four-leaf clover tattoo would be 'totally fucking hackneyed'.
scene girl draws a sketch of a small fern in her notebook. she looks dreamily at the sky and it seems more like a very high-up ocean. she pretends it is an ocean, and she feels light, like she could think something relevant, or irrelevant, and it would be perfectly cohesive. because scene girl is a dadaist at certain times, and she doesn't believe in real cohesion, or something else to make her sound interesting at a party. scene girl closes her eyes and falls into the grass.
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scene girl approaches the vegan cafe like it is an angry dog. cautiously, but trying to look like she knows what she is doing. scene girl puts her cigarette to her mouth. button-up shirt boy waves at her and tilts his head toward where umbrella girl is sitting.
scene girl waves back tentatively. she looks at umbrella girl. umbrella girl has a tattoo on her left arm. the tattoo is a nearly bare tree, with long stick figure arms and one or two brown leaves on the side of a few of the branches. scene girl feels a sudden desire to write a very long poem.
there is a thin handmade book in scene girl's hand. she begins to walk over tentatively, trying to seem detached without seeming like she is trying. scene girl is not good at hiding her nervousness.
scene girl sits down at umbrella girl's table, straight across from her. the two of them are the only ones at the table. umbrella girl begins to say something but doesn't. she just looks at scene girl and then looks at the book and it seems like she knows exactly what's going to happen.
