Zephaniah

"Are you going to buy something for your parents?" Haven asked me, the both of us strolling through the busy shopping streets of Amsterdam. I had pulled my beanie further over my ears, slightly numbing all of the loud noises. I didn't want to wear my headphones- I was with Haven.

She was talking quite a lot, but her chattiness made me focus on her voice more instead of all the noises surrounding us. I had slept long and well- I could handle more stimulus today, which was a good thing.

I did need some breaks, though, but Haven would simply take me to some small, abandoned streets where only one or two tourists would walk through. We'd sit on stairs that belonged to houses, and I would try to recharge for as far as that was possible.

"For my parents?" I blinked my eyes, shoving my hands in the pockets of my jeans as I simply followed her to wherever she was going.

"Yeah! Like a souvenir or something? Jude wanted me to give him something, Jonah told me it was fine if I didn't. I think it's rather nice, though. It would be something that would remind me of this trip all the time." Haven rambled, standing still as we were in front of a souvenir shop.

"What do we have to buy?" I answered, a little unsure. Uncle Samuel had given me small souvenirs whenever he went on holidays with aunt Ruth, so had mama when she went away with Nana and aunt Waliyha and Safaa. I think Dad had bought me a new leash for Cooper when he went to Ireland with Grandpa David and uncle Samuel.

Perhaps, it was a normality to buy someone something whenever you went to a different country.

"You don't have to." Haven shrugged, her eyes meeting mine.

"I don't?" I wondered, feeling confused.

Haven smiled a little, her rosy cheeks rounding up lightly. "No. Did your parents ever give you souvenirs when they went away? Mine did sometimes, not always. It's not like it's a necessity or anything, just a nice gesture. And usually the people you're giving it to will like it because it's something from another country. Do I make sense?"

I hummed a little, staring inside the shop that was packed, many people reaching for the weed related stuff. Hoodies, caps and more with weed printed onto it, I meant.

"Do you want to go inside?" Haven wondered, her eyes falling onto my face, but I didn't look into them. "We don't have to, if it's too busy or.."

"Can I- can I hold your beret, maybe?" I gulped, looking anywhere but her, until I felt the familiar, soft fabric being stuffed into my hands. I sighed in relief, started fiddling and brushing my fingers over the dark red beret, feeling more at ease. "Thank you." I said quietly, glancing at her.

"Don't worry about it, Zeph." Haven smiled at me, her fingertips lingering on the sleeve of my jacket. "We'll take a quick look around."

Entering the small souvenir shop, I blinked my eyes a little faster, people brushing against me as they walked past or wanted to leave the shop. I flinched away a few times, focused on the weird, bright lights, the smell and the structure of different material that Haven pressed into my hands, instead of focusing on the souvenirs itself.

I was a little overwhelmed, souvenir shops were always so extremely busy and most of the stuff you could buy there were stupid, unnecessary garbage.

"Zeph, look!" Meeting Haven's eyes, my eyes fell down to Haven's hands, where she was pointing to her shoes. She wore the well known yellow farmer clogs. For some reasons, I started laughing, covering my mouth with my hand.

"You look funny." I mumbled out, fishing my phone out of my pocket to take a photo of her. "When you go out like- like that people were going to wish they were the blind man in Amsterdam." I laughed, still, trying to bite my upper lip to hide it.

"The blind man in Amsterdam?" Haven frowned a little, taking off the clogs.

I stopped laughing, I wondered if I had hurt her in any way. "It was a joke.." Remembering the right words, I brought my mouth closer to her ear and quietly started to sing the song, so the other people wouldn't hear. "I saw a blind man in Amsterdam with a box around his neck. And the music box kept singing on and the song I won't forget and it went boomdidi boomdidi boom boom boom, boodum boodum boom boom."

"You remember the lyrics?!" Haven exclaimed, startling me as her voice was rather loud. "Zeph! Goodness, how?! You're too intelligent for me. Also, I thought the clogs were pretty awesome, who wouldn't want to walk around in them?"

"Me." I answered seriously, not really noticing she meant it in a joking way.

Haven simply laughed, her lips parting as she stared up, where a lot of hoodies were displayed. Her lips seemed glossy, I wondered if she had put something on them. My eyes lingered on her face for a while, my cheeks warming a little. I looked away.

"I love Amsterdam hoodies. If the I love hoodies aren't overrated already. Still kinda want it, though. Is that bad?" Haven pouted her lips as she was in thoughts, roughly shaking the sleeve of the hoodie back and forth.

My eyes squinted, I bit my upper lip to hide my smile. "It's not bad, Have."

"Hmm." She stared out of the window, continuing to tug at the sleeve of the hoodie. "Hmm, hmm. You know what, Zeph? I'm not really the kind of girl that lives for shopping. I actually hate it with a passion but somehow I ended up buying a lot of clothes here. And I-"

Suddenly, the hoodie, including the clothes hanger, fell down, on top of Haven's head.

I gulped, my hand immediately reaching for her head. "Oh, are you okay?" I frowned in concern, my hand resting on top of her head. I didn't really know how to comfort her so somehow, my fingers ended up getting tangled in a strand of her hair.

Haven was quiet, but eventually I realised she had been quiet because she had been laughing that hard. "Oh, oh, Zeph, I'm going to pee my pants."

"Really?" My eyes widened, I looked around me. "Maybe we have to ask for- for a toilet here?"

"Kidding, Zepho." Haven's laughter died, soft chuckles leaving her mouth instead. "I meant peeing my pants from laughing. I don't know why this is that funny. I'm a mess."

"Well, you're a cool mess." I said, smiling a little.

Haven smiled back, her cheeks rosier than they had been before. "Was that a sign to buy it?"

"What?"

"The hoodie falling down. Was the hoodie falling down a sign that I have to buy it?" Haven elaborated, her comment suddenly making much more sense.

I chuckled, staring at the hoodies myself. "Could be. Don't you want that one?" I pointed at a black hoodie with a green weed plant printed onto it, the word Amsterdam written underneath it.

"You rebel, my Dad will kick me out of the house." Haven chuckled, straightening the hoodie.

"Really?" I looked down at her in concern, feeling a little unsure. "Sorry, it was a joke, by the way."

Haven sighed softly, her smile still present on her face. "I know it was a joke, Zeph. I was joking too, although I'm not quite sure he'd appreciate the weed stuff inside our house."

I understood. Baba and mum wouldn't quite appreciate it either, I thought. Even if it would be a hoodie only.

"Oh, that one is so cute!" Haven cheered, roughly tugging at another hoodie as it wouldn't come off, making me frown. I stretched out my arm and reached for it instead, neatly taking it off the wall. I was taller than her- and I didn't want the shops to be mad at her if she would accidentally rip the hoodies.

The hoodie was white, bikes scattered over it with rush baskets and yellow flowers inside of it hanging at the steer. I was sure the hoodie would look good on her.

"Zeph, I think this one would fit you well." She handed me a hoodie as well, the grey colored material feeling nice and soft. Outlines of the Amsterdam canal houses were printed onto it, the word Amsterdam written underneath as well. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do." I nodded, reaching for my phone to re- read the message Dad had sent me two days ago.

Zeph, there's some money on your bank account so you can buy something in Amsterdam. It doesn't matter what you buy, just something you like, okay? Hope you're enjoying your time over there. We're proud of you. We miss you, especially Cooper. (He has been sleeping in our room.) we can't wait to see you. Love, mum, dad and Coop.

I smiled a little, feeling warm. Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I stared at the hoodie again, then at Haven. "Are you going to- going to buy the hoodie?" I wondered, watching Haven as she rummaged through her backpack.

"Selfishly, yes, I will. After that, I really need to find something for my brothers and mum and dad. Will you buy it?" Haven smiled at me, gesturing for me to walk over to another section of souvenirs.

Tiny clog keychains, windmill and cheese figurines, Amsterdam in its miniature. They were quite cool, I wanted to give Dad the miniature Amsterdam and mum the windmill and cheese figurine. I didn't know why, I just thought it fitted. Staring at the tiny clog keychain, I hesitated for moments long, until I decided to take it because how could I exclude him or her? No matter how confused I was when it came to my feelings, still. And buying a new clog toy for Cooper after that, which squeaked when he would bite it.

I felt sheepish spending so much money as I never really did that, but at least half of it was for my family.

Finally walking out of the small, crowded store, I sighed in relief when I could fill my lungs with some fresh air. Haven had wanted to see the flower market, and I had simply agreed to it, not really knowing where else to go, anyway.

I loved spending time with Haven alone. It made me realise that I didn't need Tara anymore. I disliked to be depended on her the first few weeks of University, but she had been my familiar figure that I could fall back on when I was feeling overwhelmed. I didn't have anyone else, until I met Haven.

Haven didn't want to spend today with Norah, Luke, Louis, Abel and Tara. I had wondered why, but she hadn't really elaborated it. I respected that she didn't want to tell me. Or well, maybe she did want to, but she just hadn't done it.

The flower market was big and colourful. The smell that lingered in the air was strong- as if every type of flower wanted to dominate their smell, begging the tourists to buy them and not the flowers that were stacked up beside them.

I felt happy, I glanced at Haven.

"Did you know that tulips are toxic for- for dogs?" I mumbled out, my eyes lingering on the many tulips that were stacked up and displayed onto one of the many stalls the flower market had.

"Really?" Haven answered, her eyes falling onto the tulips as well. "What does it do when they have eaten it? Will they die?"

I looked up at the sky, it was rather grey, but I didn't mind that. At least it wasn't too bright due to the sun and I had a reason to wear my beanie, secretly shoving it over my ears. "Tulip is toxic in its entirety. The bulb being the most poisonous to dogs. Uhm, it can cause oral irritation, drooling and nausea. Don't think they will die."

"Wow, I didn't know.. are there more plants that are toxic for dogs?" She questioned, genuinely sounding interested. I smiled a little, my hands flapping in excitement as I finally felt at peace, blurting out information that had to do with dogs.

"Daffodil, Bishop's Weed, Begonia, Autumn Crocus, Azalea, Sago Palm, Oleander and Ama- amaryllis." I blurted out, my eyes searching for the plants and flowers that had flown out of my mouth, but I couldn't find all of them.

Haven looked up at me, her eyes stood warm. "When did you study this?"

"Study?" I looked at her, unsure. "I did not study that.. Cooper ate a flower once and he became sick so I looked it up on dog dot com and it said that these flowers were toxic. I was twelve."

"You read it once and just remembered all of that?" Haven questioned, unbelief audible in her voice.

It made me feel even more unsure. Was it that strange? "Yes?" I hesitated, nervously nibbling on my bottom lip.

"Guacamoly." Haven mumbled out, staring at the flowers in front of us.

"Guacamoly? It's guacamole.." I hesitated again, suddenly feeling slightly insecure, wondering if I said or did anything wrong.

Haven smiled, which made me feel a little more relieved. "I know.. I meant to say Holy guacamoly." She chuckled, I bit my upper lip to hide my smile, though, my squinted eyes gave more away. "You're so intelligent. Did anyone ever tell you? Because it's the truth and you need to hear that."

I really didn't know what to say to that- most people thought I was dumb because I acted differently than most of humanity did, apparently. Playing with my fingers, I tried to change the subject, my eyes blinking faster. "What your favourite flower?"

"It's a sunflower," Haven smiled, picking one up. "No roses. They're overrated and besides, they have thorns! Cannot understand why people find that romantic."

I smiled a little, even when I didn't really understand what she meant. I watched as a guy bought some flowers, handing them to a girl that was beside him. The girl kissed him, she seemed to be happy.

"I do not really understand some traditions, Haven." I blurted out, frowning at myself once I realised which words had left my mouth.

"What do you mean?" I felt her eyes on my face, I kept staring at the couple.

"If you love somebody, why do you need to show it with material? Is it normal that a- that a guy buys a girl he likes flowers?" I frowned, watching them as they walked away. "If you love someone, they will know? You do not have to give them something to confirm it in a way. Do you?"

Haven stayed silent for a while, her eyes falling on the same couple I had been watching for a while. "It is a tradition, I think, yeah. It is kinda weird if you think about it but if I think about it myself it's just.. I mean, of course the girl would know that the guy would love her but.. I think we just find it sweet and thoughtful of a guy. It's like, a sweet gesture, another way to let people know that they love each other. It's not necessarily confirmation, do you know what I mean?"

"I think, maybe, okay." I nodded, her point of view making sense in some ways. "Why is a sunflower your favourite flower?" I wondered.

"Because they always follow the sun! They're like, little stalkers, but I quite like that." Haven cleared her throat. "And at night they face east, but once there's a trace of the sun, they're back again and follow her throughout the day. Pretty creepy actually, if you think about it. Also, yellow is beautiful."

I laughed, my hands flapping for a short moment because happiness was washing over me. I hadn't really felt this happy in a long time, which made me feel a little overwhelmed.

"Have?"

"Zeph?"

"Do you, uhm, want a sunflower?"

Haven looked up at me, her rosy cheeks rounding up. "I'd be so stupid if I would say no to that."

I gave her one.

~~~

You all.. im :')

This chapter was so sweet in my opinion!! I loved writing it.

What do you think of Zephaniah not always understanding certain traditions or things?

Haven looking out for him all the time?

ZEPH GIVING haven a FLOWER?!

Let me know your thoughts!! Comments, votes and feedback much appreciated ❤️ stay home and stay safe, guys XX