Greenhouse || Xavier Thorpe x Male Reader

camera || chapter 20

whilst i was writing this, i opened youtube to get some new music to listen to and was met with bowser x luigi content. if my tone shifts while writing this, it's from while i was still listening to my usual playlist v.s. after i was jumpscared by bowigi

no hate to the ship tho, the chemistry there is immaculate

 After class ends, I walk to the quad to eat dinner with Xavier. The cool air rushes through my hair, and I shiver slightly. Still not warm enough to not wear a hat in the evening.

"Oh, I had a question for you," I tell him, suddenly remembering my need for plant pictures. "Could you lend me your film camera? I need to take pictures of my plants for cataloguing."

He nods. "What are you cataloguing them for?"

"Shipping in May or in case I sell some before then. I want to know what I have and keep track of them," I explain.

"As long as you don't work yourself to death, you can use the camera for whatever. I picked it up pretty cheap at Uriah's Heap last year for reference photography, you might want to check there for one in the future," he responds. I kiss his cheek softly before sitting down on the bench with him.

"Thanks, Xavier. Would you mind coming with me there this weekend? I haven't been before."

"Of course. It'll be fun to get off school grounds again."

"Where are we going this weekend?" Enid asks, appearing from nowhere.

"Xavier and I," I correct her, "are going to Uriah's Heap to look for an inexpensive film camera."

She makes a face. "Uriah's Heap?"

"That's why you're not coming with us, Enid," he tells her. She frowns.

"Fair enough. Hey, Wednesday!" she calls to her girlfriend from across the quad. Wednesday walks over.

"No need to scream. What is it?" she says flatly.

"They're going to Uriah's Heap this weekend. What if we went to Jericho as well and then met up at the Weathervane after?"

"Who said we were meeting you-" I begin before getting cut off by Wednesday.

"That sounds horrific. What time?"

Enid practically glows with excitement. This weekend just got a lot longer, and not in the good way.

"We'll meet there at noon. Before that, I thought we could look around at some of the shops and maybe go for a walk..."

Xavier and I look at each other. Neither of us had anticipated this change in plans, but neither of us are going to crush her spirits. Wednesday would have us dead before the end of the day.

~=~

"Meeting them was a horrible decision," I lament as Xavier and I exit Uriah's Heap. I have a small bag with a good quality camera in it dangling from my wrist, and it was a good price for the quality. We walk down the road to the Weathervane and I see Wednesday and Enid already in a booth.

"It was, but you know Wednesday will make sure it doesn't drag on too long," he tells me. I nod and push open the door. The two of us slide into the seat across from them, a barista comes over to take our order.

"Hey, I haven't seen you two guys here in a while," the Galpin boy says to us. Enid clenches her jaw, clearly trying to withstand violence against him. She still hasn't forgiven him for flirting with Wendesday a few months ago. "Quad, iced oat milk latte, and... What is it you order again?"

"White chocolate mocha and cappuccino. Please," I remind him. He nods and writes them down.

"Right. I'll be right back, then."

When he returns with everybody's beverages, he scans the dynamic of the table, trying to pick up social cues between the four of us. In his adolescent normie mind, he seems to jump to one conclusion. Two guys, two girls, all at a table together... nevermind the fact they aren't sitting together and came in at different times.

"So," he begins, trying to sound nonchalant and failing, "Are y'all dating, then?"

Enid's face begins to get even more red. "Who are you asking?"

"N-no one in particular, just figured, double date at a Cafe..."

Her face lights up in a way I normally only see on Wednesday before she goes in for a kill. Malice, such a rare sight on her. "Well, you'll have to ask those two yourself, but I personally never miss an opportunity to spend a nice day in town with my girlfriend."

Galpin looks as though someone pressed his 'reboot' button.

"Enid, he was only going to give me information if he thought I was interested in him," Wednesday tells her softly. "If I ever want something on Jericho again, I'll have to get it from his father."

"Well, look at him, maybe that's better. He found out gay people exist and it blew his nervous system," she remarks. I wish I could say she was wrong.

"Do we still have to pay with a broken barista?" Wednesday asks us. I shrug, and she downs the rest of her coffee. "Let's go, then. He'll be fine tomorrow."

~=~

The afternoon sun shines through the foggy greenhouse glass as I take pictures of the plants. My new camera works surprisingly well for the fact that it was extremely cheap and that I bought it after it sat on the shelf for years. I work my way through photographing every plant, starting from an Allamanda cathartica, or Golden Trumpet, a vine plant native to Brazil and northern South America.

Since I am still getting used to the camera, I only make it through the Dicranopteris linearis, or the Old World Forkedfern. The fern with blueish purple fiddleheads is native to Hawai'i, and has begun to take over a small portion of the greenhouse wall.

The dinner bell tolls as I finish taking pictures of the Forkedfern, so I put the camera in my bag and head to the quad. When I arrive, everyone is already at a table.

"So, have any luck with the camera?" Xavier asks me as I sit down.

"Yeah, it's working really well," I respond. "Thanks for the tip."

"No problem. I moved the ice-skating painting up to the dorm, by the way. Paint dried ages ago, but I kept forgetting to move it."

The conversation expands to recount the day's events to Ajax, from the Jericho incident to what we were all doing in our free time after. Wednesday had been writing while Enid and Thing were giving each other manicures, Xavier was painting, and I was in the greenhouse.

"I just slept," he sighs. "Maybe I should do more with my weekends."

Xavier laughs. "You miss out on a lot, man."

As we fall into a conversation of Ajax's sleeping habits compared to the rest of ours, I realize why Wednesday was always so good at picking apart the dynamics between people. The absence of this behavior, even for such a short time, has made me begin to see two people interacting differently than they used to. For Wednesday, then, growing up without this may have helped her in seeing the connections people had shift. She can definitely do it better than I can, but I'm beginning to see just how she was able to identify the change in Xavier and my interaction.

When you aren't so blinded by the conversations and emotions you feel, it's easier to see the emotions and interactions between others. She's never been particularly good with emotions, so it makes sense that she would see purely the interaction. On a more childish level, I can't help but wonder if it's another side effect of the psychic ability. I know that plenty of normies can do it, but somewhere inside of me is a desire for something more than just plants. Desire, though, can lead you to look at skills or coinicdences through rose-tinted glasses.