Before He Cheats (Watty Awards 2011)

Before He Cheats - chapter 4

Chapter 4

"We are not getting pickles, Rhiannon!" Grayson all but screamed at me as he struggled to get the pickle jar I was holding out of my hands. I tightened my grip on the jar and stepped on his right foot, causing him to let go and curse loudly.

"Don't mess with me and my pickles, Grayson," I hissed at him. "You know how much I love them." I hugged the jar to my chest tightly.

We were standing in the middle of the local grocery store and fighting at the drop of a hat. Some people were glaring at us for making too much noise and others found it very amusing. I knew that I should have come here alone but Grayson refused to let me, because apparently my taste was 'disgusting' and he would starve to death if I did all the shopping.

"Fine, but I'm taking out your Coco Pops." He told me sternly, reaching over into our shopping cart before I slapped his hand away and gave him a death glare.

"Do not touch my stuff."

He returned my angry look and I knew that he was contemplating taking everything mine out of the cart and chucking it out the window, but instead he sighed and turned around to walk away "I'm not paying for any of this, so I'll just go wait in the car while you take care of it." And with that he walked away and left me alone with the cart full of food.

I cursed under my breath and headed to the cash register to pay for it all. It really wasn't fair because most of the food wasn't mine. I mean, who eats broccoli and spinach anyway?

I paid for the stuff and after putting everything into a couple of grocery bags I walked out of the store and over to Grayson's car. It still amazed me how beautiful it was; it was newer and way shinier than the one I ruined and from what I could tell it was also much more expensive. Grayson didn't even let me touch it when I saw it earlier. Considering what I did, I couldn't blame him.

Once he saw me, he got out of the car and opened the trunk. I waited for him to help me pile all the bags into the back, but he just crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the side of the car. I bit my tongue to keep me from screaming at him and slowly placed the heavy bags in the car. Grayson closed the trunk and we both walked back to the front of the car and got in.

The ride to the apartment was awkwardly silent but both of us refused to speak. I looked down at my left hand and remembered how he always used to hold it whenever we were going somewhere and how we used to talk all the time about anything and how now we seemed like complete strangers.

When we got back to the building, Grayson parked his car in my parking space and we both got out of it quickly. I followed him to the back and he opened the trunk once again. I took three of the bags in my arms and surprisingly Grayson took the other two without complaining.

We took the elevator up to the apartment and I waited for him to open the front door when we got there, but he leaned up against the wall and just stared back at me.

"Would you open the door already?" I finally snapped after a minute of silence.

"No." He answered, making my arms tighten around the bags I was holding.

"What do you mean 'no'? I gave you the key didn't I?" I was getting really annoyed by now and I could see that he found it very amusing.

"I don't know, did you?" He smirked and I took a deep breath to calm myself down and when I finally spoke my voice came hard and threatening.

"If you don't unlock this door in three seconds, I swear my foot is going to go so far up your ass..." A load chuckle cut me off and I turned around to see where it came from.