A little too late (A Pete angst Story)

Chapter 14

Pete POV

"What are we to get here?"

"She only said to stock up on Ramune drinks, Truly drinks, cap'n crunch, and banana bread"

"All of my favorites, I naturally liked those but if I needed to stay up those were my go-to items"

"Seems like she didn't want this to be hard or painful for you. Overall she is trying to comfort you from beyond the Earth. It's interesting, maybe this is why she sent all of us so much money"

"What do you mean?"

He starts loading the cart with a few cases of Ramune and then goes to look for Truly.

"For like a week straight she sent Danny, Nick, Brandon, and I a grand. No description or reasoning. We weren't able to call her and get her to talk to us live but we were all sure she was watching us making sure it went through"

"Really? She didn't get to hang with all of you as much as she wanted so she probably didn't know what to get you all"

He gets to the truly's they have and put some in the cart.

"In the letter, she told me to use it to make my dreams possible no matter what they were. She told me to live only to be happy and work towards happiness. As depressed as she was she was all about everyone else being happy and maximizing on that"

"Yeah, she was big on keeping smiles on people's faces and keeping people laughing"

He grabbed a few different boxes of cap'n crunch and we headed to find banana bread.

"I think in everyone's letter although I have not read anyone else's her main themes were wanting us to be happy and us knowing that it was none of our faults. She didn't tell us how bad things were because that would not let us be happy and we would feel bad if we couldn't help her"

"I have so many questions and I will probably never get those answers but I kind of hope that I get some kind of sign showing me why things happened this way because it still doesn't make sense to me"

He grabbed a couple of loaves of banana bread and we head to check out.

"I think I would be freaked out if I thought I heard or saw her but it would be nice to feel some type of warmth or calming feeling to know she's still around us and helping us work towards being happy. She's a travel guardian angel now, she has to help the five of us and her mom. She needs to stick around her mom"

We check out and head out loading the trunk. We get in and head back to my house.

"Knowing her, she will keep busy trying to look over all of us. Maybe she'll come back as an emotional support pet"

We laugh and discuss the good memories that we have of her as we head home and load things into the house. A little after that Nick arrives and Arny decides he'll stay home so we can have our time to process and then we come back and eat dinner together. We get in the car and drive off.

"I could have got these items and just brought them to you in a box but I needed to drive and clear my head. I am struggling to be my bright bubbly self so I apologize for taking us on this trip to a few different stores"

"It's more than fine, I need to clear my head too"

"We are off to pick up some shoes she got you first"

"Sounds like her, she was always good at paying attention to detail"

"I remember any time we were hanging out she would try to match my chaotic energy and I know it would drain her but I appreciate her trying for me"

"Do you hate me?"

We parked and headed into the shoe store.

"No, why would I?"

"I feel like she would have been here if we were still friends. Things took off for me and I just left"

"I don't hate you because you didn't do anything. She left when she thought everyone was genuinely happy and succeeding. If I would have know that's how she thought then I would have opened up more and we would have all grown old"

He went to the storefront and asked the cashier for a package under her name, he presented his ID and the lady went in the back. The lady came back with the shoes and showed them to me.

"She got me these?"

"It's what she requested, you always cosplay him so might as well have some nice shoes to go along with your cosplay. Oh, I do have one of your gifts in the car. It's a mug but she said you have to add something hot in to see the surprise"

"Thanks"

We check out and put them into the car and head to our next destination. He tells me my mug is in the back seat in a white bag so I grab it and bring it to the front. I take it out of the white box and see a tall and wide black mug trimmed in gold. I examine it and notice that my name is engraved on the bottom of it in this fancy cursive writing. The handle changes to a gold color as I hold it and I see the word Sunshine in black cursive letters. I was always her sunshine. I sit there staring at the cup when I see water droplets on it, that's when I realize I am crying or at least letting tears fall. Nick parks at our next location which is like a regular mall and lays back with his eyes closed giving me my moment. I collect myself and tell him I am ready to go and we head into this store. Nick asks the guy at the desk about where the anime section of the store is and he points in their direction. We head towards that area and I feel like crying again but instead, I laugh.

"She's helping you with some cosplays"

"We were at the mall one day looking around and for some reason, I kept coming back to this inosuke mask and his swords. She said his character didn't really fit me and for some reason, I felt sad so I didn't get them even though I really wanted them. I can't believe she got this for me, I had secretly looked every so often but never actually bought them."

"Well, you will finally get them"