Saving us from ourselves

Maddie's POV

"Red or blue?" I ask Phil. He looked at the two shirt options I was holding up towards him. He studies the options and looks at me. "Both," Phil says, "I'll buy them." I laugh, "Phil. It's one or the other. I'm paying. It's only six dollars." Phil looked back and forth at the choices before saying, "The red one looked the best on you, so red." I smile with my victory, "Thank you, Phil."

I hang up the blue shirt and walk over to Phil. He takes the shirt to carry if for me, and takes my hand in his free hand. We start to walk towards the book section, because I'm such a nerd. I look around the shelves until I spot the second book in the series I'm reading.

Phil lets go of my hand so I can grab the book to look at it. I pick up the book and turn it around to check the price: $9.99. I look at Phil and smile a huge smile as I walk back to him.

"How much is it?" Phil asked. "$9.99," I respond. Phil raised his eyebrows at me. "Isn't that a lot for a book?" he questioned. I laughed and said, "Phil, silly. This is a great price for a book. Most cost more than this." With that, Phil took my hand and we went to look for some new albums.

Phil walked me towards some albums and I quickly scanned the shelves for Panic! At The Disco. I found their most recent album fairly easily and Phil found the album he was looking for.

We were going to the checkout aisle when someone shouted, "Phil! Maddie! Wait up!" Startled,  Phil an di turned around to see Kaeli. "Kaeli," I called, "get over here!" She starts walking towards us. We all walk to the checkout aisle. "Put everything together," I say, "I will pay for it all."

Phil and Kaeli quickly object, but I take their items and run towards a checkout lane. I went to the lane farthest away from them. Lucky for me, the lane was completely empty. I slowed my pace and set everything down in front of the cashier. He started ringing everything up.

By the time Phil and Kaeli got to me, I had already paid the cashier and was waiting for my change.

"Wait," Phil called to the cashier, "how much was the album?" The cashier looked strangely at Phil and said, "umm...$13." Phil reached into his wallet and handed me $13. I didn't take it. He decided not to argue, and put it back in his wallet.

We walked out of the store to find Dan and Andrea sitting on a bench waiting for us. We get to them, and I hand my shopping bags to Phil and turn to Andi. "Andi," I say quickly, "I have to pee. Come." She gets up, grabs Kaeli's arm, and follows me.