"carrots."
"cereal."
"cheese-its."
"Just carrots, cereal and cheese-its." Charlie whispered to himself over and over again, whilst tying his mint green converse, and gathering his scarf and jacket.
"1 trip to the store won't infringe with my anxiety right? I just...i just have to get the carrots and...and the cereal and the cheese-its." He pulled out his crayon colored map of the Kroger and sat on his bed. He studied his blue outlined route of where his groceries were located..He wanted to just get what he needed and get the hell out of there as fast as possible.
"I'm 19 fucking years old" He nervously laughed while he crumpled up his map and locked the door behind him as he left his college dorm.
The college transport bus stopped at the closest stop to the grocery store and charlie exited with staggering confidence about his ...normal...adult...shopping trip. A grin formed on his face as the cold wind braced his soft skin. "Im a real adult now...heh...lOOK AT ME NOW MOM" He shouted at the sky a little louder than intended . He started down the cracked sidewalk up to the crowded parking lot.
Charlie wished he hadn't crumpled his map because he completely froze and lost all sense of confidence as he grabbed a red basket and entered the large glass doors. "shit" he mumbled under his breath and stood still in the doorway, intimidated by the large colorful isles. He was sweating immensely at the though of every person in this store was probably staring at him and his stupidity. He started to what he believed to be the vegetables and fruits. "carrots carrots carrots".
He stumbled to the orange vegetables and awkwardly reached over a middle aged mom to grab himself a plastic produce bag. "s..ssorry" he stuttered as he attempted to apologize for his reach. She just gave him an odd stare and continued to tend to her whining children. He grabbed 3 healthy looking carrots and smiled at them, knowing he had done something without completely dying of anxiety. Charlie turned to put his prized carrots in his basket when his nose abruptly brushed up against a tacky brown and teal jacket, presumably belonging to a tall man. "...no shit" he whispered as he looked up to apologize only to realize it was...patrick.
Charlie's face grew a large smile as he went in for a hug. "pATRICK!!!" He screamed excitedly into patrick's jacket. Patricks long arms wrapped around charlie's perimeter and pulled him in close. "cHARLIE?!" He squeeled but then was quickly cut off by his own thoughts. "wait...charlie i thought you were allergic to carrots?" Charlie looked up at him "uh...not that i know of...where did you hear that?" He laughed and pulled out of the hug. "oh nowhere....sO MAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE..HOWS LIFE..." he smirked "sAMMM???" Charlie gave a worried and awkward smile on his face "...sore subject." Patrick nodded and patted him on the back " its ok buddy"
Patrick looked around and then looked down at charlie while excitedly bouncing up and down. "this might sound spur of the moment but...do you wanna come over and hang out for a while... i mean if you're not doing anything, its been a while man" Charlie couldn't refuse his adorable smile "yESyeAH" the way Patricks face glowed with happiness made it worth it. He scratched the back of his head and looked down at his carrots "oh yeah...groceries" charlie scoffed. Patrick didnt seem affected "i CAN HELP YOU shOP IM LIKE THE BEST AT THESE THINGS" He grabbed Charlie's list and his hand and pulled both of them across the store stopping for charlie to grab his food items. By the time they got the cheese-its charlie was out of breath and heaved over in the middle of the isle. Patrick bounced up and down "fUNFUNFUN...SEE I TOLD YOU IM GREAT AT THIS" He looked down proudly at the full basket. Charlie let out a breathy laugh and followed patrick to the checkout.
Half way across the store Patrick became oddly fascinated by a foil balloon with the words "its a girl". "LOOK THIS BALLOON IS ME CHARLIE" Patrick ran to charlie, balloon following behind. "this is my favorite...buy me it." "patrick i swear to god" Charlie playfully shook his head and tied the ballon to his carrots while he placed all of the rest of the baskets contents on the conveyor belt. Patrick pushed hair out of his face and kept himself with the various flavors of chapstick on the shelves near the checkout isle. Charlie payed and grabbed his bags, and returned to patrick.
"So did you drive here, or did you take the crusty bus?" Charlie gave a guilty smile "You fucking cheap ass hoaR" Patrick laughed and rammed his shoulders into charlie as they walked to his truck.
