The Candace Clique

Chapter Eleven

Anastasia bounced inside the house, her keys jingling as she extracted it from the door. She went straight into the kitchen, finding herself hungry after just eating two slices of pizza for lunch, so she went to go make herself a peanut butter jelly sandwich, only to find Barbara sitting around the dining table with her feet up on the table and a tobacco in hand and a magazine in another. When Barbara finally noticed her presence she closed her magazine a smile on her face, “How was your trip, honey?”

       She smiled at her mom, shrugging as she went straight to the refrigerator to grab a peanut butter and strawberry jam, “Well,” she looked over at her mom as she swiped the bread knife carefully over the bread, “I’m getting my books published!”

       Barbara Cortez literally jumped out of her seat, her eyebrows almost getting lost around her hairline and a gigantic smile was glued to her face, her chubby hands were wide open enveloping her daughter into a breathtaking embrace, “Oh, honey, that is marvellous!” she held Ana in an arm’s length, looking at her daughter who’s got so much achievement in an early state of life, “oh dear, why don’t we celebrate?”

       Her daughter laughed, shaking her head, “I’ll go buy us some poultry in the market, then.”

       The older woman nodded, tracing her daughter’s face with a chubby finger, “And we’ll have it grilled tonight—oh, and how about some wine,” Barbara babbled, her fingers flying to her open mouth, a thought catching on to her, “I think I’ve got one to age pretty good,” then she was off waving her behind back at her daughter who was left laughing to stare at her fumble around the cupboards in search of an aged wine.

       Before long, the brunette was huddled in a coat and was out of the house, walking to the nearest supermarket. Whilst arriving, she immediately took a basket and went straight into the poultry section. Her eyes scanned the many beheaded, naked chicken in front of her, their bodies displayed in all their glory—some were wrapped into a plastic bag and some just hang there open. She grimaced as a butcher knife slammed across a chicken’s neck, its helpless head lolling to the other side of the chopping board as the one who cut it lifted the chicken up and inspected it. He gave it a satisfactory smile before placing it down on the counter for display.

       The man smiled at her across the huge glass container and she gave him a smile back, looking back at the chickens as quickly as possible. She picked up a chicken that was wrapped in  plastic that looked equally delectable as the others and soon stalked off to the rest of the labrynthine supermarket.

       She was down isle fourteen, fingering through the mounds of chocolate bars when she noticed someone looking straight at her from the other shelf. She almost jumped a mile, bumping into an elderly woman and almost screaming “Jesus” before she had collected herself. She nodded sorry at the woman before retrieving her basket and glaring at the so familiar green eyes across from her. His baritone laugh echoed around the isle as she watched him turn around to where she was and was clutching his stomach, doubling over with laughter directed at her.

       “What the hell, Jake,” her eyebrows creased.

       He laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling, making his eyes shut close, “Did you see your face?”

       Anastasia was taken aback by the sudden loss of her friend’s eyes, just noticing how chinky Jacob’s eyes are, “Woah, there. Where’d your eyes go?”

       Jake popped them open, but a smile was still on his lips, “Right,” he pointed at his eyes, widening them in emphasis, “here.”

       “Wow,” she turned around, taking a bar of  chocolate and some cookies before stalking off, followed by Jake, “I didn’t notice your eyes were so...small.”