Heart To Heal

VII.

All of a sudden, she gasped and snapped her fingers. "Chips Ahoy cookies, the red velvet kind!" She exclaimed. Zealand scrunched his face up in disgust.

"Those are so nasty." He said, making his little sister narrow her eyes at him. "They're good Zee."

He shook his head, "If you say so." Zealand went over to the cookie aisle, grabbing the pack of cookies that she wanted.

"What snack are you gonna get?" Harmony asked, moving a ponytail out of her face.

"Probably some flaming hot Cheeto puffs."

"All the kids at my school eat those, are they super hot?"

Zealand shrugged, "They aren't that hot to me. I'll let you taste some later on." He told her & she nodded.
Harmony had never eaten any type of hot chips. They didn't really spark her interest until the kids at her school started bringing them for lunch.

He pushed the basket down the aisle that held all of the chips, crackers, and other dry snacks. Zealand grabbed a bag of the hot puffs, then tossed them in the basket with the rest of the items. "Alright, I think we're ready to check out now." He said.

They went to an open lane, and Harmony began helping Zealand place all of the items on the conveyor belt. As the items moved on the belt, the cashier began scanning them. Once everything had gotten scanned, Zealand waited to see what the total would come out to be.

"Alright, that'll be $26.03."

He pulled out the card, handing it to the cashier to swipe. The man swiped it, and it began processing the payment. A beep came from the card machine, and the cashier shook his head. "I'm sorry but it didn't go through. There's only $15 on here."

Zealand furrowed his brows. "Are you sure? There should be more than-.." he paused. "Wait, what's today's date?"

The guy looked at him with a blank expression. "It's the 10th." He said dryly.

"Shit." Zee whispered to himself. The money on the food stamp card didn't get re-loaded until the 13th of every month. He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "Um, can you just give me a second to-"

"I got their stuff covered." A familiar female voice said from behind him. Zealand whipped his head around, his eyes landing on Xavia. He was confused as hell. Where did she even come from? Had she been in the store the whole time?

"What? Oh no, you don't have to-"

"Here you go sir." Xavia handed the man a crisp fifty dollar bill to pay for Zealand's things, as well as her own. In all, the total was $41, so he handed her back $9 for change.

"Hey, I remember you from Saturday!" Harmony exclaimed, smiling at Xavi.

"I remember you too, pretty. How you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, thank you. How are you doing?"

"That's great! I'm doing fine as well." Xavia smiled, pinching her cheek.

Zealand grabbed his bags of items, and Xavi grabbed hers. As they headed towards the exit door, he looked over at her. "You really didn't have to pay for our stuff, Xavia." He said.

Xavia rolled her eyes. "I wanted to Zealand."

It was in her nature to help people out. Her grandmother and mother had always taught her that if you bless other people, it will bring blessings upon you in return. It was called sowing a seed.

"Why are you so nice to me?" He blurted, catching her off guard.

Xavia stopped walking, pausing to look over at him.
"Am I supposed to be rude or something?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Nah, but I mean..I wouldn't blame you if you were. Technically I was rude to you on the first week of school."

She sighed, "I told you, I'm not mad about that. I've put that in the back of my mind and haven't even been thinking about it. It's cool."

Zealand said nothing. He looked down at his feet as he walked.

"Look, I'm just a naturally generous person. I like doing things for people. Don't take it the wrong way."

He nodded, "Thank you. I promise, I'll pay you back when I get the-"

"No." Xavia held her hand up.

"But-"

"Aht!"

Zealand smacked his lips. "Are you always this stubborn?" He asked.

"Me? Stubborn? Not at all. You're definitely the stubborn one here." She chuckled.

He cracked a small smile, before sighing. "Well, once again I thank you. Me & Harmony gotta head home. My pops is waiting on us."

Xavia nodded, "You're welcome. See you tomorrow."

"Fasho'. Harmony, tell Xavia bye."

"Bye Xavia!"

Xavi waved, "Bye pretty." She said, watching as they headed down the sidewalk. Zealand held three bags in one hand, and held his sister's hand with the other.

Xavia headed to her car, placing her bags in the backseat. Once she got in the car and strapped herself in, she called Arnecia on speaker phone. The phone rung for a while, before her cousin finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Niecey, you'll never guess what I just did."

TBC...

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Thoughts?

Excuse any mistakes.