The Shop

Theodore liked working in the flower shop. Liked how in the mornings the first sun rays spilled into the small shop, liked how the evening sky changed to color of the normally orange begonias. But what he despised about his job was when he moved a flower pot and a yellow garden spider crawled out from underneath or when suddenly a grasshopper found its way onto the wall behind him. Insects were the worst, they were just ugly and disgusting and Theodore didn’t understand their purpose. They crawled around on their too many legs, just a moving picture of horror, feeding off of the waste of people to survive. Their lives were pointless, just crawling over the earth, working, eating, reproducing until they met their maker.
As the sun filtered through the dusted windows, Theodore wrote down the current stock until he saw movement from the corner of his eye. Beside the counter an enormous beetle lazily crawled over the dusty floor towards him, and Theodore jumped onto the counter, papers wrinkling beneath him and the pen falling to the floor. On his hands and knees he watched the abomination skitter across the tiles, over the dropped pen, which Theodore would never touch again, as he curled into himself, muscles taut. The ringing of the bell let him shiver, and he looked over, wishing for someone to fumigate the shop, instead he looked into a familiar, puzzled face. “You totally lost it now?” The raised eyebrow taunted Theodore, and he tried to find the words to describe his hopeless situation, but he could just point at the insect and Holden stepped around the counter, still looking at him suspiciously until his eyes widened. “Neat. An elephant beetle.” In horror, Theodore watched him crouch down, flat hand in the dust and slowly the bug heaved its limbs onto Holden’s palm and Theodore shivered as the beetle almost covered Holden’s whole hand. Theodore jumped down, feeling false safety with the counter between him and Holden with the beast. Holden ignored his makeshift barricade completely and just came closer, stones crunching underneath his boots and Theodore took a step back. “Come on, he just wants to be your friend.”
“He’s disgusting! Just kill him!” Holden stopped in the middle of the shop, holding the beetle up to his face and frowned at him. “Did you know that they are pretty important for the environmental cycle? They eat dead or decaying organic material. I know they seem creepy to you, but they are just helping, even if they don’t deserve living in your eyes.” The beetle crawled onto the back of Holden’s hand, and he turned it upside down, looking Theodore in the eyes. “Your life would be pretty sad without all of those disgusting creatures.” Theodore swallowed, frozen with one foot still behind himself.
After this it became normal for Holden to chase Theodore around their apartment every time he found an insect and Theodore would try to flee from whatever Holden held in his hands as if it were something precious, bombarding Theodore with facts about them. From time to time Theodore ran less, only taking one step back when Holden brought another potential “friend”, and before he knew it, he started examining the pink gradient on the sphinx moth’s wings or the thorax like pattern on the wolf spider’s back as they rested on Holden’s hand, always so still when he held them as if they felt that he didn’t present any danger. Every time, Theodore dared to take a step closer, bringing his face closer to them, feeling an urge to see them.