Life with Sam Fendon

Chapter 1 - The Convenience Store

Chapter 1 - The Convenience Store

In life, you meet new people every day. Some days those people make an impression on you, and usually you’ll make a point of seeing them again. Or at least talk to them again. There are those other days when you meet someone and you know you wish never to see them again. For me, that happened with Adam Leverton. We met, and I then steered clear of him as long as I could. But then he started working at the convenience store at the end of my street, and I saw him almost every day.

Adam Leverton was what most people would call a classic jock. He did all the football stuff at High School, had the build, all of that. I however, was not. You could have said I was the opposite if I’m honest. I had a job in a book store – that made him laugh more than watching those stupid YouTube videos that got passed around school every day. One day in his store, which was where I bought almost everything, he was walking past me, and pushed me as I went to get something off the shelf. I dropped the things I’d been holding, and then I had to clear it up.

He just laughed at me. Which was a normal thing when it came to the relationship between myself and Adam Leverton.

I don’t normally let these things get to me, but that day it did. I flipped out, well as much as I think was a ‘flip out’, and he freaked and got the manager. I protested; I really didn’t like this kid. He was fired on the spot – the other guy obviously didn’t like him either. Then I felt bad. I watched as he left the store, then rather than celebrate the fact he’d gone, I went after him. I was stopped as I still had some groceries in my hands, I left them and walked out again.

I found Adam Leverton, the guy I had never actually wanted to talk to before, sitting on a bench near the store. I said I was sorry and he grunted in response. I sat there for a while, and he didn’t move. He looked handsome, looking across the parking lot, desperately keeping any expression from his face. After I don’t know how long, he turned and placed his hand on mine, which was resting between us. He said ‘thanks Sam,’ and left. And at that moment, I decided he had made an impression. I wanted him to still be working in the store. He knew my name, and I thought he just thought of me as the kid who walks into his store every day. Who he could laugh at.

I let him leave that time; watched as he walked back past the store and down the street towards where I assume he lived. Later I found out it wasn’t where he lived, but where his girlfriend lived. That made me sad for a bit – but I’ll get to that.

I left the bench about ten minutes later and walked home. It was only around the corner, considering this was my local store, so only took a minute. I thought about why Adam would thank me, and why he would place his hand over mine. We’d never really said a kind word to each other since that first meeting on the football field a few months ago. At that point he’d pushed me as well – apparently it was an accident. In the store it wasn’t. I’d wanted to push back, but he’s a hell of a lot bigger than me. And he had all that football gear on as well. A little nudge of a punch from me would have only made the situation worse as he’d have realised just how pathetic I am when it comes to doing anything physically challenging.

I got home not long after my Mom got in from work. She’d been in all day and just wanted to collapse in front of the TV. I then remembered why I’d been in the store, and realised I’d have to go back again. We have no food in this house at all. Ever. And I’m the one who’s meant to go shopping, considering the fact that my Dad is almost always working, and thinking about it, so is my Mom.

I don’t even say hi to Mom before leaving the house again, heading back to the store. It’s a crap store, but it sells pizza, a staple food in our house. Quick, easy and everyone likes it. Well, I think they do. I do. But I’m a teenage boy – isn’t that kind of a given thing?

At the store I tried to hide from the manager who was behind the counter, rather than Adam Leverton. As I walked into the store, I did miss seeing Adam standing there. I shouldn’t have, but I did. The manager recognised me, however, so I had to talk to him, even before I picked up the pizzas.

‘You alright?’ He asked.

I nodded, and sidestepped further away from him, so that it didn’t look like I wanted to get away from him too much.

‘Back again?’ He asked.

I nodded again, and ducked behind the nearest aisle. I didn’t want to talk to him about Adam Leverton, I wished I hadn’t protested. Now that he wasn’t there anymore, I realised that the impression was made that day on the field, not that day on the bench. And the only reason I became the family grocery shopper was so that I could go into that store and maybe see him. I tried to shake my head of that thought.

That is in no way cool. I annoyed myself sometimes.

I grabbed a couple of boring pizzas – they were never exciting ones, due to the fact that the store was crap. I’d walked back to the counter slowly, and pretending to browse other shelves. The guy had been staring at me.

‘I saw him bothering you before.’ He said when I’d placed the pizzas on the counter.

I’d decided by that point to act dumb, and pretend to be oblivious to the encounter the three of us had had not thirty minutes ago. ‘Who?’ I’d said, looking into my wallet for some money. I didn’t have a lot; I had to count the total out of coins.

‘Adam Leverton.’ He’d said, putting the pizzas into a brown paper bag.

‘Oh,’ I’d said, not doing a good job of talking to him. I never did a good job of talking to anyone, really.

‘Anything to add, son?’ He asked. My ears had, sadly, pricked up at the word son. My Dad never called me that. I don’t think anyone had actually, until that day.

I’d shook my head again after handing over the money. He’d frowned at the mountain of coins he’d been handed, but didn’t bother counting them out. Just threw it into the register. He’d then stared at me, still holding onto the bag. I went to reach for it. He’d frowned.

‘Is this your dinner?’ He’d asked, and I’d been shocked, all I knew of this guy was that he had just fired Adam Leverton, and guy I thought I’d hated until that exact action had been taken.

I’d nodded again, and tried to take the bag.

‘I think you need to eat better.’ He’d said.

I scoffed and finally got the bag off him.

‘Seriously, son.’

I scoffed again and walked out the store, pissed off that a shitty old shop worker was also questioning me on my eating habits. Adam Leverton had done that as well. It had pissed me off then too, but after the manager had, I wished Adam had been the one to say it.

I arrived home for the second time in the last twenty minutes and placed the bag on the table by front door. Mom had instantly told me to un-pack it in the kitchen. She was like that; everything had to be in its place.

That night, Dad didn’t get back till midnight or something – I was in bed by then. So I ate pizza in my room whilst Mom ate hers in front of the TV. She hadn’t complained that it was pizza again – I think she secretly liked it as much as I did. I ate most of that boring pizza from the crap convenience store at the end of my street, where just over an hour ago, Adam Leverton, who I thought I hated, had worked. I enjoyed its blandness.

I’d watched some TV too, and then I’d got out of my clothes and under the covers. TV got really boring when it was something you didn’t actually want to be doing. I’d thought about what Adam might be doing at that time. Maybe telling his parents that he was fired. Maybe still walking home – I didn’t know where he lived. Maybe he was sitting down on another bench, touching another boy’s hand. For all I knew, he could have been doing anything.

What he was actually doing, was having sex with his girlfriend of six days. He wasn’t really enjoying it, and neither was she. But it happened, and then he did go home. Late enough to not have to tell his parents about his lost job. I’d fallen asleep about the time he’d left her bedroom. She was asleep too. But he was wide awake.