Mr. Smiles and Mr. Badboy ✔

Chapter Twelve: Home

Reese P.O.V

I followed behind Beckett, pushing the shopping cart with slight force in order to keep up with the small teenage boy. It was insane how fast this boy could walk with those short little legs of him. I wonder if he's ever thought about joining the track team . . . probably not.

I thought he was going to head to a line so we could wait to be checked out but he kept walking past the Walmart lines and walked to one place I've never touched or entered. Self Check Out.

Maybe it was a stupid fear, to be afraid of the self check out lines but I am. I've always been afraid that I would break it and the alarms would go off and the world would end because I couldn't scan a shirt the right way. I always seem to over think the idea of self check out but still. It's a natural fear of mine. It's okay to be afraid of things, like parents, that's a more common fear that a lot of people don't realize exists. I'm used to that fear being in the back of my mind, even though the fear is addressed towards one parent over the other, my father. I actually haven't seen my father in a few days, it was . . . odd. He usually came back even if he was drunk. I actually wish he never came back, not with the way he is.

I sometimes wonder if dad left if my family would change some of their ways. Like my sister, maybe she wouldn't be a slut. Then again, with my sister, it made me wonder if she would have been more civil like if she had a caring father figure growing up instead of an alcoholic like she has now. Then again, I'm not sure my mother would change if she was given the chance.

I walk slightly slower, hoping that Beckett would realize I wasn't following him as quickly anymore but he simply turned to look at me before his face distorted to discomfort before a cute kitten like sneeze happened. I was about to aww at him before he whimpered slightly. He turned away from me before continuing towards the self check out, a new quickness in his steps, most likely due to his soreness and fatigue due to his cold. I personally wouldn't want to be out and about if I was sick, so I can't imagine him really wanting to be in the Walmart right now either. Maybe that was why he was choosing self check out, so we could get out of here a whole lot quicker than waiting in a line that had an older woman who would take forever to scan the previous person belongings just to say her shift is over right when it is our turn, which actually happens quite a bit.

When we arrived at the maybe twelve machines that were called 'self check out' Beckett went to one of the empty machines, me following him, wanting to make sure he got home sooner than later, regardless of my fear. I just wouldn't touch the machines, yeah, if I don't touch them then I can't break them. I handed the items to Beckett and he scanned them as quickly as he could, occasionally sneezing or coughing, things I knew he couldn't help but wished he didn't have to do. I would honestly have done the entire check out if he asked me to. Once he finished bagging everything, he pulls out two twenties, since the total was a little bit over twenty dollars. After putting the two twenties in and getting his change, and counting said change to make sure he got the correct total, Beckett nods at me and we push the cart to where I parked my vehicle. Putting the few bags into the back seat and putting the buggy in one of the outdoor buggy racks, I get into my car to see Beckett already opening one of the cold medicine bottles and checking the numbers to see how much he needs to take.

Once he saw me looking at him with shock on my face, his entire face flushed red with embarrassment. He looked down and out the window in a poor attempt to hide his face from view. Cute.

Putting the key into the ignition, I started the vehicle, ignoring Beckett's bright red face, due to embarrassment and a slight fever and began to drive once Beckett took his dosage of cough medication. Beckett leaned his head against the passenger seat headrest, looking ready to fall asleep. I didn't have to ask where to go because I remember where he lives from the one time I went to his house to work on the project given to us by our science teacher. That was honestly one of the first times that I didn't just hand the project over to my peer and actually assist them in the development of the final product. Usually, I let them do it all by themselves and a few of them wouldn't have let me help if I even tried. Some people take one good look at me and consider my reputation and decide that my help wouldn't be useful anyway. It hurts that some of my peers automatically see me as a mean bully who most likely has an IQ of a dumb potato, but I wasn't dropped coming home from the hospital, I have a brain. I'm not stupid.

I was smart enough to know that Beckett shouldn't have been wasting his time by including me to help work on the project when I have no doubt he'd be able to finish it twice as fast if he just did it by himself. Which is why parking outside his house, handing him his bags and watching him walk through the doorway and closing the door behind him I also realized another way I knew I wasn't stupid.

I was smart enough to know Beckett was rather attractive.