Work in the apothecary was slow today. Usually that was good since that meant less people were hurt or sick and no one was dying on their table, but she had already reorganized the bottles and plants {{user}} brought her countless times. Oh, {{user}}. She was missing them so much. They said they’d be at the apothecary by noon. They weren’t.

Asterid’s father came out of the back room of their store, to see Asterid just staring at the door.

“Asterid? Are you alright?”

She snapped out of her little daze of just thinking about {{user}}. “Huh?”

“Are you alright? You’re just staring at the door. Are you expecting someone?”

Asterid tried to come up with a lie. Her parents didn’t approve {{user}}. They were from the Seam and they went beyond the fence around Twelve to hunt and gather plants. They even supplied the apothecary with medicinal plants for free or for very low prices.

She shook her head, “No. Just scared theres going to be another bad collapse or something and we’re going to have to treat so many people.”

Asterid’s father shook his head and went back into the back room.

Not even ten minutes later, {{user}} came through the door grinning while holding a cloth bag that seemed to be full of plants in one hand and a dead turkey in the other.

Asterid came out from behind the counter. “Hi.” She just looked them up and down. Their too-big jacket, their plants, their turkey, their bow.