begin again [reus]

vierzehn: goodbye

MIA

I pushed my shopping cart along the frozen food aisle. I dumped in some stuff into my shopping cart and continued walking.

I crossed off some stuff from my shopping list and looked at the last line on the paper - string cheese.

String cheese was a definite must.

As I was going back to tour in a week, I wanted to spend the last few days in Dortmund with my friends and my family. I also wanted to spend it binge-eating before I had to start going back to the regular routine of eating quick meals on tour.

I pushed the cart towards the dairy section and saw the last few packets of string cheese on the shelf. I walked over and grabbed the last two packets and plopped them into my shopping cart. I smiled triumphantly at the thought of snagging the last two packets before anyone else could.

As I turned around to make my way to the cashier, I spotted a familiar head of blonde hair.

"Not today, please," I begged under my breath. I moved forward to get a closer look and that's when that familiar head of blonde hair turned around, giving me a good view of his face. I cursed softly and backed up a little bit to try to get behind something to hide myself from Marco.

Instead, I crashed my shopping cart into a stand full of juice boxes.

The sound of a stand crashing to the ground along with 50 juice boxes got his attention - the last thing I wanted.

I quickly got on my knees, pretending that I was picking up the juice boxes. I hid my face from Marco as best as I could behind my long hair and the rack that I was hastily trying to get to stand up again.

As I got the rack to stand up, I started putting the juice boxes back on the rack. A pair of hands started helping me and I wished that it was an employee helping out. When all the juice boxes were back on the stand, I finally looked at the pair of hands that helped me.

"Thanks." I said, still sitting down on the ground.

"Don't worry about it," Marco shot me a smile. He stretched his hand out and I took it. He pulled me up swiftly and pulled my shopping cart towards me.

I stared at him and he stared at me back. It felt like year since I've got a proper look at him when in reality it's only been a couple of weeks.

"Anyway," he said, breaking off the awkward staring contest. "I'm looking for string cheese. Do you know where they keep it?"

I looked at the two packets of string cheese in my shopping cart and awkwardly put some stuff over the string cheese so I wouldn't have to feel bad and give him a packet.

"No, I think they're out," I lied.

"Oh, okay then," he said. He slowly backed away from me and gave me a small smile, "I'll see you around then, Mia."

I nodded.

I wanted to tell him that I was going to be gone in a week and we wouldn't be 'seeing each other around' for another few months or so. But, I just couldn't find it in me to say anything. I felt like I've hurt him too much.

I sighed and grabbed my shopping cart and pushed it towards the checkout aisle before proceeding to pay for everything.

+

"I honestly think that you should tell him you're leaving," Ava told me. She popped some popcorn into her mouth as we watched a movie together on my couch. "I mean, it'll be even worse if you just disappear. It'll make it even harder to patch things up."