Zinnia And Me

Day 10

I had nothing better to do than help Mom go grocery shopping. Danny has been pulling Liam out the house all week just to help him out with chores. He's been getting on him about responsibility, but Liam isn't having any of it.
Greg is by my side, and we're Moms little helpers. She's a health nut, and tries to go to the store every two weeks. She even tries to make up a game, like scavenger hunts around the store. Sometimes their a little babyish, but I really enjoyed her games.

"Greg, can you find the radishes? And Zach, can you find the tomatoes?" Mom asked.
Greg zips off quickly to find the radishes while I had no problem finding the tomatoes.

I grab a plastic bag and put the tomatoes in gently. I put the bag in a knot and put into the shopping cart.
Greg comes back with radishes and puts them into the cart. Mom lets us play healthy food scavenger hunt, which wasn't a bad thing at all. We had to find the remaining vegetables and grains on the list.

I'm busy looking for the bag of bread when I see Zinnia appear. She was with her older sister, Heather. Heather had long blonde hair that was cut into a pageboy. The ends were curled and hid underneath her chin. She was just a bit taller than Zinnia, and she looked just like her, too.
"Hello, Zach!" She calls from the diary section.
"Hello," I say, waving. I try to smile, but the memories of the other night appeared in my mind. Gary, the dance, the kiss. It all hurt my feelings and my heart.

Zinnia happily skips over to where I'm standing and hugs me.
"Aren't you excited about the dance?"
I nodded.
"It's in a week, you know. My parents and I are going shopping this weekend for a new dress."
"Cool," I say, trying to hide the jealousy over my smile.
"You've got your suit and tie yet?" Zinnia asked.
"No, not yet," I replied.
"I see. No need to rush. The dance is only a week away."

I focus back on the bread, still having to choose the whole wheat kind.
"After we leave the store, Gary and I are meeting up at the Royal Blue dance studio to learn how to dance. He even admitted that his dancing was a bit rusty, and so is mine."
Zinnia giggles. "You're welcome to join if you'd like, since you've told me you weren't a dancer either."
"I might," I mutter.
Zinnia's smile is replaced with worry.
"Is everything okay?" She asked.

I sigh.
"Yeah, everything's fine," I reply.
"Are you sick? Are you feeling like your getting ready to have an anxiety attack?"
I take a deep breath.
Lately I've been having anxiety attacks. They're even worse in the winter time and I ended hyperventilating in the beginning of December. And that wasn't fun at all.
"I'm fine," I say, smiling.
A lot of people say I look just like my father. The smile, the dimples, and a twinkle appears in my warm chocolate brown eyes.
Zinnia stares at me for a second, but then snaps back into reality.

"I'm glad your feeling okay," she says warmly. "I have to go. See you around, okay?"
"Sure," I say. As soon as she's gone, my smile disappears. I quickly snatch the wheat bread off the shelf and go find the wheat noodles, which happens to be the next 3 shelves down from the bread.

Greg and I later meet up in the checkout line. He can see the pain in my eyes, but doesn't want to say anything. He knows the feeling. I've been near Zinnia again.
Zinnia appears in the checkout line next to us, and when Greg sees her, a frown appears on his face.
"Is that the girl you were wanting to go to the dance with?" He whispered.
"I don't want to talk about it," I hissed.

Greg sighs and goes back to putting things on the checkout register. We don't say anything else to each other. It's hard for me to let things go and Greg knows it.
Go with Sonya, my mind tells me. I'm sure she'll love to dance with you. Remember that time in 2nd grade she kissed you on the cheek when you played with her during recess because nobody else did? Choose her.

I quickly shake my head. I didn't want it to give me anymore ideas. I wanted to go with Zinnia, she was my friend, my companion. I cared for her, and I had feelings for her. I just wanted to go to the dance with Zinnia, and nobody else.