"Kyran," she said, surprised to see a familiar face in this store. "What are you doing here?"

        "I've been exploring the mall. Just walking into all the stores, seeing what they have." He sighed in wonder again, catching sight of the rows of plants above Jacquie. "This is the 32nd store I have visited today, it still fascinates me how many unique stores like this are in this mall."

        Jacquie smiled. "Yeah, this place is... something else."

        She watched as Kyran darted around the stands and racks of scented candles and clothes with the gleeful nature of a kid in the toy section of a Target. His face remained impassive, not saying much beyond 'potential customer', but the sparkle of wonder was on full display in his bright blue eyes. 

        His attention went to a row of polished stones placed underneath the geodes. His eyes grew wide, not from wonder, but confusion and genuine surprise. 

        "You... have these on display?" he asked Jacquie. Jacquie took another look at the stones. They didn't seem like anything rare or valuable, like rubies or diamonds. Just bins of smoothed crystals polished into tiny orbs. 

        "Yeah, nothing special," she said. Kyran picked up one orb made of tiger's eye, bronze and striped with deeper browns thin bands of gold. He held it up to his eye, rolling it between his forefinger and thumb, fascination twinkling in his eyes.

        "So they haven't been infused yet?"

        "Infused?"

        "Yes. You know..." Kyran mimed something, holding his left-hand palm facing up and his other hand right above it, fingers waggling like crazy. His mouth made an "O" shape as his eyes crossed so they focused on his fluttering fingers.

        "No?" Jacquie said with a laugh, unsure if he was talking about some healing crystal jargon she didn't know about. Kyran nodded and seemed to understand something in her response that Jacquie did not. With a sudden jerking motion, Kyran threw the tiger's eye, almost striking Erik in the process. It made a sharp CLANK against the wall behind the counter. 

         "Why did you do that?" Jacquie asked. 

         "I thought there was a beetle on my hand," he said, nonchalantly, "They really scare me." 

         Jacquie knew he hadn't been scared at all. He'd watched it fling against the wall with intent, like it was meant to happen afterward. 

         Erik scowled behind the counter, picking up the intact rock and hurling it back at Kyran. He caught it much to Erik's chagrin. "Don't pull %&$# like that in here again," Erik said sternly, glaring Kyran down with a look that could scorch a cactus. Kyran locked eyes with him, keeping a similar fire in his gaze until Erik backed down. 

        "Anyway," Kyran said to Jacquie, "I didn't get to ask why you were here." She sighed, remembering that she still hadn't found a gift good enough to bring to the party. 

         "Well, I was looking for the perfect present, but—"

         "There's no such thing as perfect?" Kyran finished.

         "Yeah, surprisingly."

         "Why look for one then? If you know you won't find it?"

         "I— it doesn't really have to be perfect, it just... has to be really, really, really good. Good enough for someone to notice."

         Kyran nodded with a look of wisdom on his face. He did that a lot, the nodding, Jacquie noticed. It made it seem like he was always learning something new and profound about the universe. "So you haven't found anything good enough?"

         "No," Jacquie lamented. "I've been going through stores all day and everything I could get is too boring, or it’s not interesting enough, or not everybody likes it or it’s—"

         "Not tall enough, not blue enough, not as fragrant enough," Kyran rattled off. When he said it like that, it did seem like Jacquie was nitpicking every attribute of every possible gift. But it's not that they aren't good, it's that they could be better. And better's what I need, what I need to be if I want to talk to anyone besides Johnathan for the rest of my school life. 

         Jacquie watched as his blue eyes drifted up to the shelves lining the walls. "Why not get a plant?" he asked.

         "Well, because..." Her mind was drawing blanks for an excuse to not buy one. Plants were always praised for being good for the environment, added green to whatever room you put it in, and you could theoretically have one forever as long as you took care of it and used its seeds to make more plants. Oh, she thought, finding the hitch. She turned back to Kyran and told him, "Because you have to keep them alive."

         "Why is that a reason to not get a plant for someone?" he asked.

         "Well, since you need to keep a plant alive, you need to put in work. Depending on the type of plant, even just a small mistake could kill the poor thing. And then once it's dead you feel bad because you were responsible for its death. And you'd probably feel even worse knowing that you'd have to throw it away, just like any other piece of trash, like it was nothing."

         Kyran mulled over her words for a few moments. "It wouldn't be another piece of trash though." 

         “Well of course it would, why—"

         "A plant that you earnestly tried to take care of and yet still dies, wouldn't mean nothing to you. You'd still remember it for what it was. Plus, if you are going to throw it away, it should be done with some honor. It lived, then it died. That's worth something." He paused, then added, "Although if it truly bothers you, a fake plant would do just as well." He waved his hand across a nearby head scarf, patterned with rows and rows of detailed morning glories. "All the looks, none of the dying."

         Jacquie was convinced Kyran had reached some other state of enlightenment. Maybe it was the way he spoke, with more full proper sentences or the ever-present look of knowing just a little bit more in his eyes. He was confident and wise with what he said and it made the most sense to Jacquie. A plant.

         Her eyes gazed upwards to the rows and rows of plants. Some of them melded with the background, viny leaves spilling out of their pots. Others were tall with sprinkling blooms of cherry reds and pale violets. But there was one plant and one plant alone that struck Jacquie by its appearance.

         “Hey, can I buy that one?” she asked Erik. “The one between the pink orchids?”

         He nodded and went into the back room, emerging a few moments later with a ladder. Erik carefully retrieved the big flower pot and placed it in Jacquie’s arms. “Is this what you want for the party?” he asked.

         Jacquie nodded with conviction. She had been convinced the pen was the best she could settle for, but she was convinced this place would be the best gift at the party. Even better than Johnathan’s really cool lava lamp.

Erik rang it up and Jacquie left the store, beaming at the flower heads of her new plant. Her heavy new plant. She waddled down the expansive mall interior, with the opposite side of the store seeming more and more like the other side of the universe.

         “Need any help with that?”

         Kyran was walking alongside her, rocking with the backs of his heels to mimic Jacquie’s awkward gait.

         “Yeah,” she admitted, “But I don’t want to put this on you.” Her last sentence went disregarded as Kyran had taken the plant into his own arms. Jacquie’s arms swung limply in relief, as they walked without saying anything, the steady hubbub of the mall making all the noise for them. Still, Jacquie found the silence between them awkward. She wanted to know more about Kyran and didn’t know what to do with all the clamoring thoughts and questions in her head. Pulling the easiest one to say, she said, “Thank you.”

         “It’s not that heavy,” he shrugged or at least tried to without dropping the plant.

         “No, I mean about helping me in the store. I’d been stuck on my party gift for hours and you just swooshed in and solved it.” Jacquie mimed that with the appropriate “swooshing” gesture.

         Kyran chuckled. “Glad I could—”

         “Are you going?”

         Kyran’s eyebrow arched.

         “To Maize’s party. It’s happening tomorrow,” she added as casually as possible.

         “I wasn’t invited.”

         “Well, Maize invited everyone weeks ago, and you weren’t around then, so she didn’t get a chance to invite you,” Jacquie said, hoping the threads of her newly formed plan would work.

         “Oh.” The single word was dripping with disappointment.

         “That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to go,” Jacquie added, “Loads of people that don’t go to our school show up just to have fun. You could go there by yourself. Or…”

         “Or what?” Kyran asked.

         “You could come with me,” her last sentence rushing from her mouth, already regretting this. It’s too bold, we barely know each other, I don’t—

         “Okay.”

         “Really?”