DONE ✔️ (UNDER EDIT)

Chapter Nine.

Chapter Nine.
*************

"What the fuck is rhubarb?" Marie asked, squinting at the paper list like it was written in another language.

"Vegetable." I muttered, reaching over and grabbing two potatoes before dropping them into her basket.

She stared at the paper again, lips pursed and moving it closer to her face like squinting would somehow make it legible.

"Your brother can't write for shit."

Tell me something I don't know.

I rolled my wheelchair a few inches down the aisle.

"Next?"

"You get the corn; I'll get the tomatoes." She said with a sigh, wandering off.

I rolled my wheelchair forward, scanning the shelves and refrigerator displays. I'd always hated grocery stores with the hum of the freezers, the flickering lights, the sound of a thousand tiny lives going on like the world hadn't ended. This one was worse. Too bright. Too clean... Too normal.

I grabbed what we needed, plus a few extras Caleb would probably lecture me about later and piled it onto my lap. He'd been on a cooking streak lately, insisting we take turns getting the groceries. It was fair, sure, but it didn't mean I had to like it.

Doing this with Marie though wasn't so terrible, but it wasn't great either. I'd rather deal with her than be Savannah's partner. Kimmy came back from that grocery trip crying from laughter because apparently Savannah couldn't tell a zucchini from a cucumber. I still wasn't sure whether to laugh or feel bad for the poor store clerk who had to explain it to her.

Marie met up with me again before she wandered off again, mumbling something about grabbing 'a few things', which I knew meant she was heading for the beauty aisle. I just nodded and kept moving, ignoring the stares from people trying to squeeze past me with their carts. You'd think they'd never seen a wheelchair before.

I turned down the next aisle and slammed straight into a cart.

"Ouch." I hissed as the metal edge clipped my toes.

Pain flared up my leg, sharp and immediate.

I looked up, ready to bite someone's head off, instinctively reaching for my gun for half a second before remembering where I was. And why that definitely wasn't acceptable here.

Then the world, my world, stopped.

Brad.

My breath hitched. My hands locked in place, dropping uselessly back to the wheels. For one disorienting second, I was sure my mind was lying to me.

He was frozen too. Eyes blown wide. Fingers white-knuckled around the cart in front of me, like it was the only thing keeping him upright.

"Sydney?"