The Neighbour

Chapter - 7

From there we proceeded along, dinner came and went and soon another day was over. As I laid in bed, with Leaf clawing at the covers, before settling down into a comfortable position. My inner voice was having a loud conversation with me, more less trying to convince me there was no reason to be on edge about things. What seemed to become an argument of self beating up verse everything is fine I wanted my inner voice to give me some peace. After hours of trying to wield myself to sleep, morning had soon come again.

Today we needed to do grocery shopping. I found myself weary trying to stay awake as we walked through the aisles at the supermarket. Tess was busy searching for food off the list, as I was assigned the role of pushing the cart along. The sound of a young baby crying a couple aisles away caused me to wince high pitched wails. The whole place was driving me insane. I wanted to ditch the cart and go outside into the heat.

"Tess, are we almost done here?"

Tess grabbed a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes off the shelf and dumped them into the cart and she looked at me, the bags under my eyes were becoming a little more noticeable.

"Monte, maybe you should consider taking some sleeping pills you're looking terrible. We should stop by the pharmacy, if you don't feel like going to see the doctor." 

Tess touched my arm for a moment before she went back to searching the shelves.

"I don't think the idea of me taking pills is going to make me feel better Tess, I'm already on medication for my anxiety. I just fell into old habits."

We kept walking down though there was a sudden commotion at the front of the store. At that moment, the sound of a rowdy bunch of local teenagers entered the store.

"Ok Monte, just worry about you..."

Tess' voice trailed off as she turned noticing the group of teenagers had stopped us in our tracks.

"Vale hello."

Tess said in her usual friendly tone as Vale stared us down intensely with a smirk on his face.

"Nice to see you Tess, Mr McDermott...can't get over the fact you two live together. I would cringe if you're like a couple."

"Vale, why don't you just move along okay." Tess said in a firm tone as she asserted her dominance whilst I remained cowardly behind the cart.

"Oh your very feisty lady, would you consider going out with me?"

Vale leered forward trying to invade Tess's personal space, maybe this will give Tess an idea how aggressive he is. I kept my eyes staring downwards and focused on the groceries. I didn't feel like making eye contact with anyone around me.

Tess said in a firm tone as the Vale expression went a little sour he arched a brow refusing to move.

"Play hard to get it huh?. I wish you would reconsider my offer. I could show you a good time, hmmm."

A wave of sickness was churning inside my stomach, why can't this kid just take no for an answer?

He had to prove his ego to the group that was surrounding us awaiting for a successful catch. If Tess wasn't here I felt like I would be easy prey to these hungry wolves.

"Step aside and go find someone else to bother ok." 

Tess grabbed the end of the cart and pulled me along out of the fray of teenagers, Vale laughed maniacally along with his friends.

"Tess, can we just get out of here."

Tess sensed my distress moving from the front of the cart over to my side, latching her arm around mine. We kept walking towards the checkouts at a rapid pace, the urge to get out of here was all I wanted to do right now.