Skins & Needles (COMPLETE)

Late Night Groceries Part 3

Arsen

"That was incredible," I admitted upon finishing my meal, "and I have no idea how you managed it with what nonsense I have in my pantry. But you have convinced me that a pit stop to your apartment and a late night grocery run are both good ideas, so as soon as you're ready..."

"Yes!" she cheered, and turned off the stove. "I'll box that up when we get back. I just really need my stuff, and you really need more food."

We were out the door a few minutes later, after I removed her anklet, and on the road with the radio blasting. Somehow, no matter what channel I chose, Charlotte knew every single song, singing along to all of them in a wonderful, spirited, slightly off-tune voice and dancing as much as her ribs allowed. I imagined the wine she'd had was helping her pain a little, but I wanted to know how she danced when she wasn't injured.

"Your place first?" I asked somewhere between songs, and she gave me an address. It was almost the exact address of the tattoo shop, and I was already making note of the location.

"I'll be in and out in no time," she assured me, and jogged up the back steps to the third floor. I watched the door the whole time she was in the building, counting the time she was gone in case she tried to run. It was only three minutes, however, before she came back out, now wearing denim shorts and a hoodie.

"Told you I was fast!" she grinned as she hopped back in, this time with a backpack covered in scores of colorful buttons.

"I underestimated your power," I teased, taking her bag and tossing it in the back. "Now to the store?"

"You know it."

I saw her holding a cellphone, and paused before driving out of her parking lot.

"I, under no circumstances, should let you have that," I told her, and she looked up at me with wide eyes.

"I was just..." She held her phone up for me, and I saw a text beginning. No, not a text. A note.

"Onion, tomato, bread, eggs, rice, avocado, roast sauce..." I read off, and glanced back at her. "You've been kidnapped by people you know are professional criminals and the first thing you do with your phone is make a grocery list?"

"No," she said, lowering her phone to type on it again. "I checked my art Instagram first."

"Of course," I muttered, but my face cracked into an amused grin. "Anything good?"

"People liked Adrian's new tat!" She switched windows on her phone to pull up the photo, which had several thousand likes below it.

"You're really talented." I scrolled through photos of her tattoos, seeing a myriad of placements and subjects, and it dawned on me that this was a way of life for some people. A way of self expression beyond what I had thought in the past about just getting them to be "cool" or "edgy" or "tough."

"Want one?" she asked, and I lowered her phone to see her smiling at me coyly.

Yes. Maybe.

"No way," I said, and turned back to the wheel. "I don't know what I would get, and I don't need anything visual to tell my story."

"Your call," she said softly as we drove, and I glanced over to see her tracing the designs around her ankle. I wanted to ask what it was for, but something stopped me. It was the same thing that had stopped me from pushing her about it last night. If I couldn't share my secrets, I wouldn't demand hers.

We reached the nearby grocery store at almost eleven o'clock, and I was glad to see only a few cars in the parking lot. People didn't need to be getting ideas, especially since Charlotte would be missing for a few days.

"What's our budget, here?" Charlotte asked as we entered the store. "I can get all the stuff, if you wan—"

"Bullshit!" I interrupted, and looked down at her incredulously. "Really, all things considered, you're still going to offer to pay for groceries? For my house?"

"Uh, I mean..."

"No way. You pick whatever the hell you want to make while you're there, and I will cover it. Jeez, Charlotte. You're so strange sometimes."

"Oops," she said smally, and gave me an innocent shrug. Yeah right. I've heard enough of your offhand innuendos to know "innocent" is not in your dictionary.

I followed behind Charlotte as she danced through the aisles, starting from the back of the grocery store and working forward. I wasn't really paying much attention to what she was putting in the cart. Instead I was fixated on the way she twirled through the aisles, humming to herself as she went and tapping her feet to the songs on the radio. She was a being of pure, living energy, and it made me want to have her near me that much more. I was in a damn grocery store and I was having a blast just being around her. Seeing her pick out things she thought would make fun meals made me want to learn to cook. And the way she would smile back at me, or point out something that looked interesting in the produce aisle, or laugh at the face I made each time she held up a mysterious vegetable...

What the hell was wrong with me? It wasn't like I'd never been with a girl before. I'd dated enough to know my way around a relationship, but I had never been captivated by any of them. It wasn't as if I'd never been with anyone outside of my world before either, so it couldn't be the forbidden aspect pulling me in. It was something more, and I needed to pinpoint it before I let myself think too much about what my life would be like if she was there every day when I got home from work, or every time I went grocery shopping.

For fuck's sake, we'd never even kissed.

"I think that's it!" Charlotte cheered, and motioned to the cart in a "tah-dah" sort of manner. "But I kind of want popsicles."

"Popsicles?" I asked with a frown. When was the last time I'd had a popsicle?

"Yeah, you know," she began with a sly grin, "the long, hard, sweet desserts that you suck on?"

"That wasn't even subtle," I scolded, and she laughed and spun the cart toward the frozen food section.

"Wasn't trying to be," she sang back. Tease. If I was a betting man, I'd say she didn't give a damn about the barriers between our worlds.

And that was fucking dangerous.

When she had picked out whatever random flavor of frozen dessert, we headed to the checkout. On our way there, Charlotte pulled her hood up over her head, and I gave her a look.

"I'm trying to be incognito," she said, with a mock-serious look. "No one will know it's me."

"Except all the store cameras," I reminded her, but she just shushed me with a finger to my lips.

"No one."

I turned away from her before she could see my smile and proceeded to check out. The damage wasn't terrible, considering my kitchen was almost empty before the trip, but it was a solid amount of food. Whatever Charlotte had planned, I was ready for.

Charlotte was quiet for the trip back, as opposed to her spirited singing, and I finally asked her what was on her mind when we were putting away groceries.

"Oh you know," she said, "not much." She was quiet for a moment as she stacked a few sauces into my pantry. When she finally spoke up, her voice was softer and filled with hesitation, but her words pierced my chest with unexpected force. "I just haven't had that much fun in a while."

I paused in what I was doing to look at her, but she kept her back stubbornly facing away from me. The eyes I so desperately wanted to look into were locked onto her task at hand, the windows to her soul hidden away.

"Neither have I," I admitted in a whisper so soft she'd never hear.

Two souls, too many secrets.

---

Two Souls, Too Many Secrets.

See you soon <3

-Haybails