Letters To My Mate

Chapter Twenty-Four

Twenty-Four

As soon as I woke up I hurriedly put on the clothes I placed next to my mattress and brushed my hair, leaving it down to cover the fading bruises on my neck. I checked that I still had the money in my pocket before rushing outside. As I made my way outside I saw a bus making its way to the stop, causing me to run as fast as my weak legs would allow me so that I did not miss the bus – If I missed it I would have to wait another half an hour until the next one arrived.

Luckily the bus driver saw me running and kindly waited at the bus stop. I paid for a return ticket before sitting on one of the back seats that was hidden from everyone’s view. The journey to the supermarket was not that long; after around ten minutes of sitting on the bus I pressed the ‘stop’ button and carefully walked to the front, careful not to fall over as the bus halted to a stop as we reached the supermarket. I quietly thanked the driver and stepped off of the bus, walking into the store and picking up a basket; the shopping carts needed a pound coin to be inserted and I had used all of my change to pay for the bus ticket – the basket would have to be big enough for everything I needed to purchase.

***

“Rachel!” I heard as I placed a tin of baked beans into my basket. I turned around upon hearing my name and saw Freya sauntering towards me.

“Hey!” I greeted with a smile as she reached me.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, tilting her head slightly.

“I’m doing alright… What about you?”

“I’m great, thank you!”

“Did you want to come to the hospital with me?”

“I think you should go on your own, I don’t think it would be right if I was there…”

“Oh, alright… When Ethan wakes up, though, you will have to meet him.”

“Yes, I’m planning on having the whole ‘hurt her and I’ll hurt you’ conversation with him.”

I laughed at Freya, although we both knew that she really was being serious and she would have that talk with him when he wakes up. I know that Ethan would never hurt me intentionally, though. Freya’s phone went off, notifying her that she had a message and she typed something before apologising, saying that she had to go home. We hugged and said our goodbyes and walked our separate ways – she walked out of the store and I walked towards another aisle to continue shopping.

Soon I had collected everything I needed to buy and went to the checkouts where there were not many people – not surprising as it was only seven in the morning and the shop had only been open for just over an hour. I loaded all of my items onto the conveyer belt and put my basket under it where there was a pile of others. The woman at the checkout smiled and made small conversation as she scanned my items and passed them to me, allowing me to pack them into carrier bags.

“That’ll be £47.60, please.” I handed her the fifty pound note and she gave me my change and receipt. I put the change in my pocket and the receipt in one of the bags before attempting to carry everything – six bags of food was hard to carry for one person, especially when you have weak arms like I do.

“Do you need help with them?” A familiar voice said from behind me.

“Logan!” I exclaimed as I turned around to face him.

“Here, give me some of them.”

I passed Logan half of the bags and he led me out of the store before he stopped and started sniffing the air. What was he doing? I know Ethan once described how much Logan loved his food, but I doubt that he could smell some kind of food right now.