Hummingbird

Chapter 2 - A Symphony of Spaghetti, Composed by Seth Y

Trying to play it cool, Seth crouched down like a cat-- a very awkward, unbalanced cat. He crawled closely to the line of cars leading up to the supermarket. Weirdly enough, every few cars he went by started honking and firing off alarms which could only mean that there was a car robber fast on his heels and he had to hurry!

Now he was a cheetah. A very slow, big boned cheetah.

Seth peered around the last car in the line, the one parked closest to the store until he saw her go inside.

SHE WAS HERE. The Little Black Haired Girl!

Once the sliding double doors of the grocery store swallowed Gabby whole, Seth unskillfully followed her in.

He grabbed at the first shopping cart he saw in a genuine attempt to make himself fit in with others in the store. Seth watched an old couple stroll by with their noses in their air. He did his best to mimic the, sticking up his own nose. He straightened his mouth into a line and made a frown. He strutted along, channeling his inner old man.

Well, that was no fun.

Seth looked down at his shopping cart and realized upon finally looking at it that he had grabbed the coolest cart ever; a cart with a little car on the front of it complete with plastic steering wheel and plastic doors.

Score!

He didn’t know they made designer shopping carts these days. Once the momentary shopping cart distraction passed, Seth became a little panicked upon realizing he’d lost Gabby in the aisles. However, fear not. After a little while spent peeking and dodging like an unskilled World War II soldier on the front line, he finally found the very aisle he was looking for-- the one with sauce, pastas, and a Gabby. Seth felt accomplished. There were only two grocery display casualties along the way. Who’d have known driving a designer shopping cart while stalking and mock shopping would be so difficult?

This was actually the fastest he had managed to find Gabby, thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web. A facebook status and a tweet later, here he was at the supermarket and she had no idea. Gosh, he was so smart. So skilled. So pulling one over on her this whole time. He was so happy he could have started Snoopy dancing right there but he didn’t want to give himself away. There were rules to stalking, you know and dancing was not permitted.

Gabby reached forward, that unsteady feeling she kept getting returned. She came to the store to pick up the ingredients for cupcakes and a few grocery items. You couldn’t go wrong with pasta, it was easy to make and a lot of it. But she was being pulled out of the lovely realm of food that was so magical because it was back.--

That paranoid feeling that you get when your unofficial sixth sense starts going off. That moment where you wish you were like your mother and actually had eyes in the back of your head. You know without a doubt that you are being watched. Gabby had been experiencing this feeling all week and as much as she didn’t want to seem egocentric, she couldn’t help but think someone was watching her at random points during the day. She couldn't deny it.

It happened on her way to class earlier in the week. On the walk to and from her band practice. While she was going to her car three days ago. When she was re-reading Grimms Fairy Tales in the park, sitting underneath a random tree that provided an adequate amount of shade. It wasn’t her favorite tree, she didn’t have those. When she finally couldn’t take the paranoid feelings anymore, she drew her nose out of her book and looked around. Nobody but a few kids playing here and there and their assumed parents. At the library when the feeling resurfaced, same deal. She found everyone around with their noses either in their own research books or asleep and no apparent monsters, stalkers, serial killers, or talent scouts.