What Happened After

Chapter 28

Chapter 28.

          That Friday, Anna and I made our monthly trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the dorm. The grocery store we usually went to was considerably far from Berkeley, and took longer on the subway than we liked. Since we didn’t have super high amounts of cash between us, and there wasn’t a lot of space on the train for our groceries, we bought only the essentials, plus Anna’s required bag of frozen pizza rolls. She had just found her favorite pack and tossed it into our cart, me shaking my head, when we heard a small sound from the other end of the frozen foods section. It sounded like a muffled giggle.

          I glanced over in that direction and was surprised to see two little girls, about six years old, in matching patterned dresses—one orange, and one blue. The interesting thing about them wasn’t their dresses, however. It was the fact that I had met them before. In fact, these two were Ruesso’s twin sisters, Daisy and Holly. What were they doing down here and not at home?

          “Holly? Daisy?” I heard a women call out from behind me. I turned around to face her and the girls hid behind my body, still giggling. “Oh! Rayn!” the woman exclaimed. This woman was Ruesso’s mother, and I had met her once before. She was pushing a shopping cart, with Ruesso’s little brother, Matty, sitting inside of it. Not the part up top, where people usually put their toddlers, but the larger, lower part—the part designated for groceries. “What a surprise seeing you here. I didn’t realize you lived down in this area!”

          “Oh, yeah, I go to Berkeley. We don’t really like the stores there so we come here each month to do our big shopping.” Realizing Ruesso’s mom didn’t know who I meant when I said ‘we,’ I quickly turned and pointed Anna out to her. “This is Anna,” I explained. “My roommate. Anna, this is Ruesso’s mom.” 

          “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

          “And you as well.”

          “Oh,” I said, “And in the cart there is Matty, his little brother, and I could have sworn he had some sisters, but I don’t know where they could be…” More chuckles came from behind me. I swiveled around sharply only to be met with short squeals from the girls as they ran out from behind me and into their mother’s arms. “Oh, there they are!” I joked.

          “Hi, Rainbow!” One of them said. I still couldn’t tell them apart, but I figured I would learn someday. “How come we haven’t seen you in so long?”

          “Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t been home in a while. The next time I come home though, I’ll make sure I go straight to your house to visit you, okay?”

          “Okay!” the other twin grinned.

          I turned to Ruesso’s mom. “So what brings you guys down here?”

          “Oh, we thought we’d surprise Ruesso by coming down to his school to visit him. The girls really missed him and even though Matty over here hasn’t said anything, we know he misses his big brother too.”

          “No I don’t,” grumbled Matty. I chuckled. She went on.

          “He doesn’t know we’re here yet though, so don’t tell him anything!”

          “Don’t worry, I won’t,” I promised. As if I would call up Ruesso for no reason, just to warn him about his family. He genuinely loved his family, and I wouldn’t want to ruin this surprise.

          “You should come with us to Ruesso’s school!” the second twin spoke up. “He would be so happy to see you!”

          “Oh, I’d love to, but I’m really busy grocery shopping with Anna here and I have to go to work later on—“ I looked over towards Anna for help, but she was just looking at me with her eyebrows raised, her head shaking slightly.