Zita (Niall Horan AU)

Five: Organic Dirt

Five

I now picked up my gaze and sure enough the same pair of blue eyes I'd come to know so well this morning were staring right at me. He smiled when I looked at him, I weakly did the same, still well aware of my Mum's harsh, disapproving eyes searing into my skin. Niall slightly squeezed through the gap between the trolley and the shelves of tins on the aisle, my Mum still watching his every move and then mine, as if in an endless cycle, just so she could see my reaction. He lifted his basket over the trolley due to the very small space between the shelves and our trolley, (damn you, supermarket I don't know the name of and your small tightly populated aisles), and with one last smile in my direction, he walked off.

"What was that?" My Mum quickly scolded me as I quickly became interested in a display of Heinz tomato soup. Is 80p good for two tins of soup?

"What was what?"

"Do NOT play dumb with me, Rozita, I saw that." She whisper-yelled, remembering her morals.....and the fact that we were stood in the middle of a store.

"There was nothing to see..." I replied truthfully, turning to face my Mum to make her fully aware she was overreacting by giving her a look of visual honesty from my face.

"It didn't look like nothing!" I rolled my eyes at her comment, attempting to turn back to the shelves before my arm was grabbed by my Mother and she harshly pulled me closer to her. To anyone else around us, it'd look like we were just stood a bit closer than expected, as a Mother and Daughter would. But this was a bit more than that, my Mum still tugging on my arm, her face fierce.....much like her grip actually.

"You listen to me, Missy. I have raised you for two decades and had barely any problem doing so. If you think you're going to pick now to bring my whole world tumbling down, you're sorrily mistaken," she seethed, her voice like acid, each word trickling from her mouth. Wow, how dramatic could one person be? I wasn't trying to ruin her life, as far as she knows, all that happened was a guy smiling at me...after I hit him with a shopping trolley. I haven't reported her to social services for being a terribly rubbish parent or blabbed to the world about her secret life. All I did was barely speak to one person, and she knows nothing about that. To be honest, I dread to hear her reaction if, and only if she ever found out about that, never mind me going to University. Conversing and laughter were her two least favourite things, it was as if she wanted me to be unhappy.

I nodded weakly, the pain of her long nails digging into my skin becoming more prominent. She smiled innocently, letting go of my arm and taking the trolley from beside us, carrying on searching through the aisles as if nothing had gone on. I rolled my eyes as she put the can of soup down that she was still holding from before, I knew she would eventually put it back. She's never bought a tin of soup in her life. Why would she buy food when we usually get it bought for us?

//

It'll be over soon. Just think of something happy.

Happy place.

Happy place.

I tried to distract myself as I attempted to swallow the mouthful of food I was currently chewing. I'd had this one forkful in my mouth for at least five minutes now, the rough texture only becoming even more difficult.

This was almost intolerable.

Who was I kidding? This was definitely unbearable.

I tried a different tactic, swirling the food around in my mouth so I was able to chew it a bit more. The strange organic rice blocks or whatever they were refused to break, each one making a cracking noise but still not crumbling, hard as rocks. No doubt that cracking noise will eventually become worse as dinner goes on, and it'll probably be my teeth. I pulled a disgusted face at the noise, somehow catching the attention of the chef for the evening who was still cleaning up. She gave me a knowing smile, to which I tried to return as politely as I could - with my mouth still remaining closed of course. I wasn't going to force her to look at the mess of over-chewed food which currently inhabited my mouth.