42 Days, 15 Hours, 7 Minutes

42 and a Half

I push the door to get into the supermarket and I see how empty and lifeless it is. Hey! We have something in common, supermarket.

I walk around and my stupid sense of empathy makes its way to my body when I see an old lady being unable to carry her 3-but-almost-20 bags. Her hand cramps and she drops her stuff to the ground. The rest of the people in this fucking place just stare. I can't take it so I go in.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry, can I help you with anything?", I ask politely. I mean, sometimes people don't want help.

"Thanks for asking, dear, but I'd really like to think I can handle this myself".

She tries picking up everything from the ground and her knee snaps. She looks at me and I know she's a bit helpless so I ask again.

"Ah, let me help you with that", I say and I pick up her stuff from the ground. "Please ma'am let me help you carry your stuff or something. Your basket at least".

"Oh, dear. Thank you", she makes really long pauses when she speaks which kind of drives me crazy. "You should meet my grandson. He'd really like you", she says as she hands me her basket. They're unsurprisingly out of karts here so I'm all she gets.

"Oh, I'm SURE he would...", I whisper to myself. He wouldn't. I don't know her grandson but he wouldn't like me. Well, maybe like me as in 'she's nice' but definitely not like me as in 'wow'.

"Dear, now that you're helping me, I'm going to bore you with a bit of talking to lighten up such a day. What's your name?", She starts, and soon we embark on a very long talk on dogs and puppies and how to make stew and how to clean corners. This, I think, is better than laying around in my bed. Or at least it can't be worse.

A few minutes go by and someone rushes towards us. A tall, muscular guy with beautiful gray eyes and short brown hair...and a very charming short beard.

"Grandma, why's your phone off?", he asks with a deep voice.

"Boo-boo! My bad, there are some things a lady my age cannot get used to. Boo-boo, meet Olivia, Olivia, this is my grandson Lachlan" she says enthusiastically.

"I'm sorry, my grandma tends to take over you a bit. Thank you a lot", he says.

"My pleasure", I say smiling.

"Oh, no honey. I'd like you to stay. We've come so far..."

"Grandma, I think she might have somewhere else to be".

"If such is the case, we can keep her some company on her way home. I'll just pay for my stuff and we can go, Darling, Olivia, how would you like that? I'm not letting you walk alone in the dark in such a crazy town. Boo-boo, you should know Olivia really likes dogs..." she starts. I don't even get a chance to answer.

I stick with these two strangers out of not having enough balls to leave. We line up and I feel very awkward standing there next to them. Lachlan looks very stiff too. His grandma though keeps talking on and on. I don't even pay attention to what she's saying anymore but I focus on Lachlan's shoulders and back. They're thick. He must work out. He definitely looks like he does. I like his back. I really like his back. I wish I could touch his back.

I'm suddenly interrupted in my daydreaming with a very unexpected comment. Oh, no.

"Boo-boo, can you please call me a taxi? I'm feeling pretty tired...", she says.

"Grandma, but what about Olivia?"

"You can walk her home and then visit me. You're a grown man, Boo-boo".

She pays finally when we get to the front of the line and Lachlan calls her a taxi. I can see in his face that he's not particularly happy about this. I somehow am. I'm not walking alone and better yet, he's walking with me.

The taxi takes almost no time and Lachlan's grandma gets on her taxi and leaves, saying a very polite good-bye. Then it's just an extremely attractive and older guy and me.

"So... Boo-boo?", I say breaking the ice as we stand alone.

"Ha, that's just... she, uh. She pretty much calls me shit, you know? Boo-boo is what I used to say when I had to go shit and then it became what I would say instead of saying 'shit' so she took that in and she's called me that since I was five. It's stupid, I know" he says as we begin walking.

"I think it's cute. My grandparents never took enough time to call me anything special. I mean, there's ten of us so..." I say. We begin talking and chatting and to be honest, I like it.

We walk our way to my place. I think about it. He could perfectly be a serial killer with an old lady as an accomplice but then again I am a stupid 16 year old girl and he's hot. So no, he can be whatever he wants. I don't care. I mean, a serial killer wouldn't talk about his dog and shit, right?

It feels pretty weird just to walk around and chit chat with this guy. It gets awkward once or twice. He really didn't have to do this. He could've just stayed with his grandma but instead he's walking with me.

"You really didn't have to do this, you know?", I say after the last awkward silence.

"Oh, trust me, if grandma says something, I have to do it", he says and I laugh. We make a right and I see my house.

He walks me to the door.

"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you and your grandmother today, Lachlan" I say.

"It was a pleasure meeting you too, Olivia" he says. He steps back a bit and I open the door.

"Wait," he says.