In our stars (Break)

Chainsaws and the Extra Absorbant Kind- 17

He could tell she was holding back laughter. She raised her hands in mock defence. "Nothing, nothing. I'm not judging."

Carter was about to question further when he saw what she was holding in her hands.

For the first time in weeks, he laughed. He actually laughed. It was a deep, full body belly laugh that reminded him of happier times. He had almost forgotten the feeling. It felt strange to be laughing. A sound that was an integral part of his being had become so foreign. How had he let that happen?

"I meant to grab pop-tarts." He said, answering the hidden question in her eyes. Now he knew he was in need of sleep. 

The girl smiled and shook her head. "I was wondering why a grown man would need a jumbo box of extra absorbent tampons."

The rule was with Carter, that if you shared a laugh with him, you were immediately friends. It was inevitable and instantaneous. Usually, he was the one making someone else laugh, but the reverse worked too. Being with people was how he recharged and for the past few weeks, his personal battery had been running on negative numbers.

He felt some of his old self- bubble to the surface, like a glimmer of something that had been waiting to break free. "Hey, I might have just been on my man period."

The girl walked to the pop-tart shelf and retrieved the correct box. She held it up in the air and shook it in his direction for approval. Her laughter that echoed through the store brought some warmth to the place. She cackled like an animal and it made Carter grin.

"You definitely aren't the weirdest nine o' clock purchase I've ever gotten, so don't feel too embarrassed."

"C'mon, you gotta tell me the weirdest ones?" The loose promise of a laugh and a good conversation made him want to stay a little longer. The girls' reservation towards him had disappeared the second he handed her the box of tampons.

She returned to the counter and tapped a finger to her chin. "Let me think..."

Her whole face brightened as a memory came to her.

"This guy came in a few weeks ago and bought one spoon, a pack of rubber bands and anti-dandruff shampoo....even though he was bald"

Carter covered his hands with his face in laughter.

"Omg, and once there was this lady. She was old, like way past her expiry date old. She came in and bought a chainsaw and two scented candles."

Her human expressions and hand gestures reminded him of Cassidy. A sad feeling pricked his heart.

Carter looked at her in disbelief as he registered what she said. "Why do you sell chainsaws in here?"

She looked into the distance and pressed her lips into a thin line. She shook her head, "We don't anymore...but that's another story."

Carter looked around the store and outside. His motorbike was the only sign of life that he could see. That and an evil looking crow that was getting way too close to his shiny metal baby.

He carefully considered his words before speaking. Something he wasn't used to doing.

"I don't think you're getting any more customers tonight and I got time." Being in this store, albeit dingy and claustrophobic was better than being outside, spending the night directionless, with the cold wind biting his face.

And so that was how Carter found himself an hour later, sitting against a box of bouncy balls, absentmindedly bouncing a green glittery one, on the glass of the frozen food section, while Alina sat opposite him, cross-legged and halfway through the story of the chainsaw massacre of 2003. It involved blood and a lot of squirrels.