Just in Case

Grocery Stores Make Great Meeting Spots

I believe in true love. I believe that in the moment, when two people meet, and lock eyes with each other for the first time, they decide then and there if there is potential for a future. I believe that love is real, and tangible, and magical. But most of all, I believe that true love, someone's first love, is the greatest kind of love there is. It sparks easily, burns bright and red hot, and can fade just as quickly leaving behind some of life's most valuable lessons. Unfortunately I understand that not everyone experiences a first love. Many people will settle for what is safe, or for what meets their needs at a specific time before uprooting their lives for another who will meet new needs. I also understand that many will never get to experience true love. The kind that binds two people, heart and soul together, in a lasting relationship that can withstand the test of time. I am lucky. I have experience true love, and I have experienced a first love, and since I am so lucky, they were one and the same for me. Justin is an incredible person inside and out. He is the guy who brought me to life and in one whirl wind romance was able to teach me more about myself and the world around me than I have learned in a life time. This for you Justin, and all the men like you, who have given the gift of your heart and your love and your passion to the world. Thank you for being my Just in Case.
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Grocery shopping blows. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love food and eating as much as the next person, but there is just something about the redundancy involved in the grocery shopping process that really gets under my skin. You get to the store, load your cart with all of the delicious morsels you plan on consuming only to unload your cart at check out, to then be reloaded for the trek out to the car for you to unload  once more for your journey home where you will once again, you guessed it, unload. By the time you plop down for dinner that food has been handled more times than you can count and makes consuming said food about as interesting as picking out which clothes to wear. Don't worry, I won't launch into a tirade on the redundancy of laundry. I'll save that for a later date. But these were the exact thoughts scrolling through my mind as I meandered slowly up the meat aisle of Wal-Mart. My parents insisted upon grocery shopping every two weeks on Saturday like clock work. They'd get paid, and we'd go to Wal-Mart. Granted I didn't have a particularly interesting life at this point. I was sixteen, had a small handful of friends, who all had social lives much larger than I did, and unless I was at a school function I really didn't have anything else to do. So Wal-Mart it was. As I casually glanced from cooler to cooler looking at the various brands of chicken nuggets available for purchase I sighed inwardly.
"I should have stayed home to do homework." I muttered as I scraped ice off the side of one of the coolers with my index nail. My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans as I made my way, slowly, from nuggets to prepackaged burgers. Seeing it was Chel, my best friend and soon to be savior, I answered a little more eagerly than I probably should have.
"Hello?" I answered, trying to contain my enthusiasm as possibly being able to leave this hell-hole early and get out of "helping" unload when we got back to the house.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Chel asked energetically. Chel always spoke as if she had chugged five energy drinks back to back. I had no idea where her energy came from, and on most days it was all I could do to keep up with her. Even then, I usually needed a nap after hanging out with her. But I was willing to take my chances today. Anything to get out of Wal-Mart and away from my parents.
"I'm at Wal-Mart, grocery shopping with my parents. What are you doing?" I sighed again, looking down at the imitation burger meat in its colored packaging.
"Grocery shopping again? Didn't they just do that like a week ago?" Chel asked. I could hear Avenged Sevenfold playing in the background and smiled to myself. She has turned it down just enough to talk to me.
"Yeah, they did. It's what they do, Chel, you know this."
"Yeah, I know. Listen, Steve is here and we are going to Wal-Mary to get hair dye."
"Hair dye?" I asked scrapping yet more ice with my finger.
"Yeah, I'm gonna dye it black this time I think."
I rolled my eyes. Chel had incredibly thick brunette hair that she always dyed these fantastic colors. My parents wouldn't let me dye my hair. I envied Chel, greatly. She had more than just amazing hair too, she was much shorter than I was and more petite, which always made me feel like a fat blob when I was around her. She also had Steve. I never could figure out why Chel was able to pull these amazing guys. They were super hot, but also sweet and kind, and they seemed to fawn all over her. Granted she was gorgeous, and she was energetic, and smart, and hilariously entertaining. She was everything I wasn't. I didn't really know why she was friends with me to be honest.
"That'd be cool." I said.
"I know. You wanna come hang out? You could help." And there it was. It took all I could not to fist pump.
"Yeah, sure. Let me ask though." I hung up with Chel and made my way over to the pork section. Mom was pulling a selection of pork chops from the cooler and dad was talking to her about something to do with work. They both sold air plane parts from small shops on the airport. My dad was the outside salesmen and my mom was the in-house parts woman. I didn't know what they were talking about half of the time.
"Hey mom," I started as I approached the cart, "Chel just called and I guess she's dying her hair, but Steve doesn't know how to do it and she wanted to know if I could come over and help?"  A bold faced lie. Not the worst one I'd told, or would tell though. Mom turned to me and smiled. She was my best friend. My confidant. She kept her brown hair short, but feminine and just recently started putting highlights in it, "because she wants some of her blonde back that I sucked out of her." Mom stacks the pork chops
On top of the other meat on the cart and peers over at my dad.
"What do you think, Dave?" She asks as she stacks and organizes the items in the cart to make more room. My dad looks at me and shrugs.
"I don't mind. Is she going to come pick you up and bring you home?" He asks. I pause. I hadn't thought of that and she didn't say which Walmart she was going to.
"Let me call and ask." Hurriedly I dial Chel's number. Steve answers for her,
"Hey-o Steve's morgue here, you kill 'em and we chill 'em! Steve speaking." I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but crack a smile.
"Hey Steve, which Walmart are you guys going to?" I asked. Avenged Sevenfold was screaming in the background and I could hear the roar of the wind through the phone. Chel's car sounded just as wild as she was.
"Uh, I'm not sure hold on." Steve moved the phone away from his mouth to prevent from screaming in my ear. I could hear him ask Chel which Walmart they were headed to and before I could hear her response there was some jostling of the phone on Steve's end a few muttered curse words and then Chel came on the line giggling.
"Steve dropped then phone and spilt his Sobe." Chel said in way of greeting.
"Oh," I forced a laugh. It sounded terrible.
"We are headed to the BVL Walmart," Chel said. My shoulders slumped. They were headed to the store on the other side of town.
"Oh," I said.
"Why?" She asked. I could hear her shifting again as if she were taking off from a green light. It was a surprise I didn't hear her tires squeal as well. I explained that I hadn't driven to Walmart, but had ridden with my parents and as such I would need her to come get me and take me home later when we were done. Steve shouted something obscene into the phone, amped up on sugar from his Sobe no doubt.
"We can come there. I'll see you in ten." Chel disconnected before I could says thanks and as soon as I clicked my phone shit I instantly felt guilty. But I was also desperate to get away from my parents if for only a few hours. Looking back at my parents I told them that Chel and Steve were on their way to the store and would meet me here, and take me home later that night.
My mom shrugged, mimicking my dad's gesture earlier, "Okay, just be home for dinner." My insides swelled with excitement. It's not that I hated my parents or anything. We had a really good relationship. I was their only child, aside from my half sister from my dad's first marriage, and they spoiled me as such. I always had more than I needed, but for some reason I always felt different. Like I was living one way for my parents, but on the inside I was a totally different person.
"Oh, and hey babe," my mom started. I looked back at her from my phone, "I didn't grab hamburger meat, can you go grab me a couple of packs?"
"Sure, mom." I was free in ten minutes. I could literally hear the clock ticking. Counting down. I walked back to the cooler with the prepackaged beef patties and began sifting through hamburger meat. They all looked the same to me. I had watched my mom many times before linger over the cooler looking for that perfect package, but they all looked the same. Annoyed at not knowing which package to grab, and being there in general, I grabbed the top two packages and spun around. There was a small family blocking my path to my mom and her cart so I stood idly by waiting for them to move so that I could make my way back over to my mom. Eight minutes until Chel, until I could leave. When the family moved past the cooler on to the next I stepped out into the aisle way and was about to turn towards my parents when I flicked my gaze to the freezer section. I have no clue why I looked over there. Maybe I was dreaming of ice cream. Or maybe I was hoping my mom would get those dinner rolls I loved so much. Either way, when my eyes landed on the aisle that held the freezers full of various desserts, my mind was no longer focused on Chel, my parents, ice cream, or beef because I was looking right at him, and he was amazing.