𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝜊𝑛¹

shopping but nothing is easy

I never knew shopping could be so difficult but Kevin managed to make it a chore. I felt like I was babysitting, except the child was 25...and kinda hot. Sorry, that was weird. He's not a child, definitely not. Jesus.

"Hey, Y/n!" I heard him chirp from the other aisle, the cereal aisle, I already had no doubt what was coming. "Can we get these?" He grins, holding out a box of rice crispies, "they remind me of my childhood."

"Kevin." I gave him a warning tone, shooting him a look that made him pout but put the box back.

"How come I can't get cereal but you can get those?" He grumbled, pointing to the snacks in my hand as I toss them into the basket he was carrying.

"Because, Kevin, you don't need more cereal, I need more snacks."

He scoffed with a roll of his eyes, "next you'll try to buy soup or something." He carried on walking down into another row of shelves and ran his hands along the assortment of sodas and various other high-sugar drinks.

"Ooh, soup sounds nice actually, I could make some for dinner!"

He stops where he's standing and turns to face me, a serious look on his face, "take that back."

"What?" I laughed.

"You heard me, take it back."

"Are you not a fan of soup or something?"

He pulled a face, as though he was disgusted by the very mention of the word and the implication of possibly even being a fan of it.

"I will kill you." He steps towards me, menacingly, "I will kill you if you don't take it back."

I raise a brow, partly curious as to what he'd actually do if I pushed on with the topic, but realising we'd been stood glaring at each other in the middle of this convenience store for 2 minutes I figured I'd drop it. "Fine," I hold my hands up in a surrendering position, "You've scared me straight, soup is the food of the devil."

The wide goofy grin that spreads across his face makes my head spin and my stomach twist in all the right ways, "I'm glad to see you've come to your senses y/n, I would've hated to have to of tortured you."

"And, just out of curiosity, what would that torture have entailed?"

He gives an awkward chuckle, "tickling mainly," I snorted, "hey don't laugh! I'm sorry I'm just not a violent guy."

My smile falters lightly at that, not quite sure what he's implying and I see his face drop when he sees my mood shift. "I'm er, gonna get some orange juice, is there anything else you want while we're here?"

I shake my head no and we walk in awkward silence to the chilled section for his juice.

The silence is only broken when we reach the checkout by a fake jolly voice that quickly turns to shock, "hey! Do you need any bags?- Oh my god, y/n!"

I lift my head to look at the cashier, my manager. A girl a few years older than me, she's a lot like me except she's prettier, funnier. In fact, she's better in almost every way. I probably should've mentioned to Kevin that this was where I worked. I probably should've mentioned that I hadn't called in sick this morning and just ditched. I probably should've suggested a different store when I realised the direction he was driving in.

"Oh, hey Kaylee," I mumbled, Kevin looks between us with with a quirked brow as she begins to scan our items.

"Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to be in like two hours ago? Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm sorry I forgot to call in, I can't work my shift today."

Kaylee sighed, "And who's this?" She points to Kevin.

Kevin's eyes widen as he looks toward her, smiling awkwardly, "Oh hi, you can call me-"

"Kevin, his names Kevin, he's a friend." I cut him off.

"You ditch work to go food shopping with all your male friends?" She looks him up and down.

Kevin's jaw tightens, the tips of his ears and the apple of his cheeks flushing slightly at the implications hidden in her tone.

"Obviously," I mumble, she was also a nosey bitch, did I mention that?

"Is that something Craig is comfortable with?"

Kevin's body stiffens on the spot.

"Can you just ring those up?" I point to the groceries, "We are kinda in a rush."

"Rushing to lose your job?"

"I'm sure if you listened to her you'd know she has a reasonable excuse." Kevin butts in.

"And what's that?"

"I-" I didn't know how to answer.

"Me, I'm the reason she missed her shift."

"Oh, I'm sure you are."

"It's not like that," Kevin snapped, "I was in an accident, she's been helping me out."

"You seem like you're doing fine to me." 

"And you're a doctor?" Kevin challenges, it's the first time I've seen him genuinely irritated like this.

"Kevin-"

"That'll be €36."

Kevin pulls out his card and pays.

"Oh, and y/n, don't bother showing up anymore."

The drive home is quiet, awkwardly so, when Kevin mumbles a quick "sorry." He shouldn't be sorry, it's not his fault, and I shouldn't think of his apartment as home, I've spent two nights there.