Junia Baker's Journal

Chapter Eleven

Benji and I enter the grocery store together, both of us strolling slowly. For the first time in a long time, things feel ordinary between us.

"Okay, so your mom said we need all the usual vegetables. So you get those stuff, I'm gonna go grab a case of beer and some juices you like." He states, taking off to the right of the store to grab a carriage. I go left to get the vegetables.

I wandered around, taking my time to locate all the needed vegetables, using the little disposable plastic baggies to gather them. For some reason, I feel eyes on me and I feel compelled to check who's looking at me. I peak over my shoulder, seeing Benji grabbing cartons of juice, juggling them in his arms - his eyes directly planted on me. It's like he's in a trance, he can't look away.

He notices me looking and he quickly looks back to the refrigerators. I ignore what just happened and I continue to pick out some vegetables. Why was he staring at me?

He eventually makes his way over to me a couple minutes later with the carriage, all the liquids he picked out sitting inside. He has two cases of Corona in the carriage as well. I guess he's stocking up for the week.

We continue to walk through the store, picking out random little things here and there before we stop at a stand with free samples of crackers. They don't look that appetizing, but nonetheless Benji seems interested. "Oh! Let's try!" He says excitedly, steering the carriage over. I follow him and he smiles at the man standing behind the stand, picking up the little paper cup with the cracker in it. He takes a bite and chews, nodding his head. "Yeah, that's a good cracker." He states.

I chuckle at him but raise my eyebrows when he places the other half of the cracker close to my mouth. "Try." He says, pushing it even closer to where it's touching my lips. I look in his eyes and open my mouth, unsure if he wants to feed it to me or if he expects me to take it with my hands. I mean, he's practically already shoving it into my mouth.

I slowly lean forward, our eyes locked, and I take the cracker from him with my lips. I purposely let my tongue dance on the tip of his finger as I take it, but only for a split second before internally yelling at myself - telling me not to be an idiot. I chew and walk away, not saying anything except for just nodding my head. I'm nervous, nervous to see what he's going to say or do next. I shouldn't have teased him like that. We put that behind us and here I am trying to conjure something back up - and for what? I don't know.

I still feel him staring at me, before I hear him hurry over with the carriage, the wheels squeaking over and over again.

I find myself feeling impelled to do these things to him that I know I shouldn't do - but he never stops me. He never acts uncomfortable with them. In fact, he acts like it's so normal. I liked the reactions I got from him, hence why I always find myself wanting to do them more, even though we discussed that we shouldn't. It's almost like I want to test and see how far I can get before he finally snaps. Part of me wants to see what that'd be like.

When we get home, we start to unpack the groceries, our arms ever so slightly brushing against each other every couple seconds, even accidentally bumping into one another at times because of how close we are. The closeness feels good.

After we finish, he cracks open a beer, the sound snapping my attention over to him. He takes a sip and looks at me, leaning against the counter behind him. I hop up and sit beside him, swinging my legs a little. "Can I have a sip?" I ask him softly.

He looks at me and smiles, hesitating slightly before handing it over.

I take it from him and start to take big gulps, before he quickly snatches it back from me while laughing. "Jesus little lady, you said a sip." He chugs the rest of the can and places it in the sink.