Seymour slunk into Mr. Mushnik's aged, beaten up, dingy white Toyota Corolla, still able to sense his angry glare even as he directed his gaze downwards to avoid seeing it. A moment later, said glare was followed by an exasperated and world-weary sigh that he could hear even through the car door, then the sound of the driver's side door opening and slamming shut. Seymour sheepishly offered up something that hopefully resembled a "Sorry," looking up hesitatingly after Mr. Mushnik hadn't responded even after starting the car and maneuvering it out of the parking lot. He had a scowl plastered across his face as usual, but, for once, Seymour felt some hope that it hadn't been inspired by him. Although with what it probably had been inspired by, he would've immensely preferred it to have been inspired by him if that would mean that Audrey hadn't gotten literally tied up by Orin and missed Mr. Mushnik's AP Environmental Science class… she had said she didn't want to miss another class, how many had she missed because of him? How long had she been there? How long had he been planning on keeping her there, in the left wing… whatever that was?!
Mr. Mushnik's voice, low and steady in a way that superficially suggested calmness but really signaled danger, scattered Seymour's panicked thoughts and brought out additional instinctual fear in him. "That Orin is not a good, clean kind of boy." He looked at Seymour to the exclusion of the road for a little bit too long, realizing something with an additional sigh. "He's this student… I've never had him in one of my classes, thank God, but he's been seeing this girl who's taking AP Environmental Science with me, the same period you're in." Despite the horror of the situation, Seymour perked up at the mention of her. "Audrey?" Immediately, he shrank back down, realizing that he had interrupted Mr. Mushnik, who luckily did not appear to take offense at this breach of his subordinate role in their relationship this time. "That's it, Audrey." He thought for a moment before continuing. "Is she in your AP Physics 1 class? Is that how you met her?" Once again, Seymour's decision to take Botany instead of AP Physics 1 inserted itself into the list of things he felt guilty about, even despite the fact that it would mean more time with Audrey. "...I have Botany seventh period, not AP Physics 1. But yes… Why…"
He struggled to formulate one of the many questions at the forefront of his mind due to the sheer absurdity of it needing to be asked in the first place. "...Why hasn't anyone done anything to stop him from- from hurting her?" Seymour flinched, expecting Mr. Mushnik to pick up on and be angered by the implication of that question that he himself hadn't done anything to help Audrey, and slowly relaxed far from completely as he answered him with offense seemingly directed entirely or at least mostly away from him. "Mrs. Scrivello is one of the school's bigger donors. Has the money for him to get him the lead role in every play and stay out of trouble, but not to get him back into the school he got kicked out of, it seems." He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, causing his knuckles to turn even whiter. "I don't want to know what he did that was bad enough for her vast fortune to not foot the bill." Seymour only realized that he was digging into the passenger side car seat with his nails when one of them ripped through it. He looked up at Mr. Mushnik, hopefully not too guiltily, ensuring that he hadn't seen the damage he had just done to his car and belatedly removing his hand from it.
"That's… that's awful…" Seymour mentally grasped at straws, trying and failing to think of any possible course of action that could justify a statement of the question of "Is there anything we can do?" on his part and eventually giving up… for now… as Mr. Mushnik continued. "I'll admit, he's the only one of the school's thespians" He said that word as if it was an insult. "...who can carry a tune in a bucket. I'd give him Tevye after auditions tomorrow even if he wasn't royalty by the standards of Skid Row. Plus, rehearsals should give Audrey more time away from him until he finally graduates this semester." The car jerked to a stop on the street outside of Mushnik's Skid Row Florists, and Mr. Mushnik exited it, turning back towards Seymour while still holding the car door open. "Oh, and Krelborn?" Seymour exited the car as well, closing the passenger side door at the same time as Mr. Mushnik closed his. "Yeah?" Mr. Mushnik affixed an exasperated, almost piteous gaze upon him. "You don't have a shot with her." He strode towards the store's front door without missing a beat, pausing at it as the woman he had hired to run the store and make the few orders for floral arrangements they got while he worked at the Skid Row School For Teens exited it, exchanged a few words with him, and left to her car, and Seymour followed him a moment later, embarrassed that his love for Audrey had been that obvious but not at all surprised or in disagreement with that evaluation.
Said love and the questions of if she or Orin would notice it and which scenario would be worse ran unfettered through Seymour's mind, completely distracting him from the questions about Mendel's laws he was attempting to answer at the desk in the storefront… wait, no, this was Honors Chemistry homework… and the questions were about balancing reactions… that wasn't even close to Mendel's laws! Just as he wasn't even close to figuring out what he was going to say the first time he saw her tomorrow, either in AP Calculus AB or AP Environmental Science or, God forbid, Botany again. Not that there was anything he could say to get her to like him, or to save her from Orin… Through a battle with his powers of attention that felt Herculean to him but would probably be nothing to someone who was competent at being a student and a person, Seymour slowly managed to get some equations that were hopefully correct and legible onto the paper in front of him and some questions he could ask Audrey into his plan for the day ahead of him.
Questions that, for now at least, avoided the leather-clad elephant in the room in favor of more pleasant and less risky topics such as what she liked to do after school… although, if she was anything like him, she didn't have much of a life outside of school… and what she was planning on doing after high school. She probably had plans that were better than his of just kinda staying at the shop his semi father figure owned and wishing he was dead; she seemed way more put together than him from what little of her presence he had been graced with thus far. Seymour finished his homework before ten p.m. for what he knew would be one of the only times this semester and started the long but enjoyable process of getting all of his plants the water and minerals they needed, daydreaming about a future where pigs flew, plants talked, and he was a part of Audrey's post- high school plans.