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Adventures at the Supermarket
Sometimes you have a revelation; you look down on yourself and ask, what have I wasted the past sixteen years of my life doing? It is times like these that you can truly see everything you haven’t achieved. I am a sixteen-year-old man, in the height of my youth. My brain should be working top-notch.
Instead it gets me lost from my mom in the super market. The same super market I have been visiting monthly since before I can remember. It wasn’t even my fault really; I just happened to have my back turned to look at the cereal selections when my mom abandoned me. No, “Goodbye Todd,” or even a “Meet me at the check out line”. She just left me here, standing in the cereal aisle with my arms full of Special K –for her, it’s not like I would ever eat that old lady cereal- looking like some sad two-year-old who lost his mom.
That’s exactly what I am though. I begin to make my way over to the end of the aisle, and in the process of doing so slip on the freshly waxed checker floors. Do they not have signs for these things? Luckily, I catch myself by grabbing onto the nearest shelve –we just avoided a major lawsuit here, thank you very much- and continue to drop all of my Special K boxes and knock over whatever cereal laid on the shelves. The result of which was a huge crash, and then many people peeking their heads into my previously empty aisle, staring at me standing in a pile of cereal.
Looking around and noticing my precarious position of having to pay for all the damaged cereal boxes, I quickly scurry around the boxes, kicking them under the shelving units and out of my path as I hurry out the aisle. I cut the corner past the big beef jerky stand on the end cap and fly into the aisle on the other side, slamming into some ladies cart on the way. It is when I turn into the aisle that I find my biggest surprise however. As I slide into the aisle I am struck by the body of another person, leaving us both sprawled on the ground, along with the now dented soup cans the other person had been carrying.
“I-I’m so sorry! It’s the old noggin’ here, not sending the right signals to my feet and what n-“ I begin to say, but stop when I look up and am met with the backside of this person, this girl, whose skirt happens to be ridden up ever so nicely, and wow, are those her real legs? I can’t believe the luck I ha-
“It’s no biggie. I was, like, totally not watching where I was going.” She says, cutting off my train of thought. Her back is still facing me as she begins to pick up the cans and wow, I really should help her instead of blatantly staring at her.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. We can call it equal blame and whatnot.” I say, and then quickly look down at one of the dented soup cans, checking out my distorted reflection. What I see is the same short, bland brown hair, a set of two light blue eyes, and basically all around boring old me. I look at myself and then back at the girl, who is still facing away from me for some reason, and see the obvious differences in attraction between us.
The girl has light, blonde hair that just reaches her shoulders, a pair of ruby red boots, and a matching shirt and skirt combo, of which I could say many things about that would probably earn me a few choice words from my mother. She is stilled turned away from me, but for some reason keeps this dying conversation going anyways.
“So, like, thanks for helping me pick up my cans. That was totally awesome.” She says, as she turns sideways, digging through her oversized red purse. Really, how many things do you need to carry with you at one time? The girl’s hair falls in front of her face, blocking it from my view.
“Yeah, no problem.” I stutter, trailing off awkwardly. It is then that I notice we are both still crouched on the floor, huddling over a pile of soup cans in the middle of the aisle. I stiffly stand up, knees cracking, and wait for the girl to do the same –minus the knee cracking. “Well, I’m Todd. I haven’t seen you around here before, so you must be new? I mean, at the super market, not around town, cause’ it’s not like I’ve been watching you or something. No, that would be creepy, what I meant was, do you come here often? No! That’s not what I meant either. I just…” I ramble on, my sentence trailing off along with my dignity. I smack my forehead with the heel of my hand, suddenly aware of how utterly idiotic I sound.
The girl however just giggles. That’s right, she giggles at my terrible mess that is trying to communicate with people. Rising up ever so gracefully, she whips her hair back, revealing her beautiful fa-
Not what I was expecting. Some how when I saw long hair, a skirt, and an oversized purse I automatically envisioned a girl to go with those things. When I looked now, I saw all those, but definitely not a girl. No, this was not a girl at all. She, I mean he, has an obviously lack of some girl attributes. Also, when looking at his face, you could instantly tell that he was, well, a he. Not to say that he was ugly, because he sure wasn’t, but there was something about the curve of the jaw being more angular, and just the overall face shape that was a big clue in.
It was the rest of him however that led to this confusion. This guy was really rocking that skirt. He could probably wear a skirt better than half the female population. Another thing I must point out are his boots with the sky-high heels. How he manages to walk in those without tripping over – I mean come on, I slipped in just sneakers- I will never know.
“Hello? Something wrong?” He says, waving his petite hand in my face, instantly jarring me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah.” I say slowly, pausing slightly to take in this guy once more. “I mean, no. Nothings wrong, nothing at all.”
He giggles again. “You’re like a little awkward puppy. How adorable.”
I gape at this, unsure of how to respond to that comment. Stuttering nonsense, I stand there, my brain-dead expression probably resembling that of a Neanderthal. This conversation had turned from dying to being beaten alive with a stick in a matter of seconds. For some odd reason however, the only thought in my mind is wondering how a guy’s legs could look so smooth.
Following my line of sight, the man gave me a questioning look, and then flashed me a smile so bright, I swear it could cure cancer. Not, that I was thinking about how nice his smile or legs were, because that would be weird.
“Here’s my number.” The man says after a while, whipping out a small index card from his purse. “Just in case you… Want another look.” With that, he sticks the card into my hand, gives me a wink, and then turns around, walking out of the store and leaving her pile of cans on the floor. I stand gaping, again, staring at where the automatic doors had just closed, blocking my view from the man. I glanced down at the card quick and saw not only a number, but also a name, Isaac, and a small heart, all in pink ink. I was about to walk out of the store and look for this mysterious man, but was stopped short by the sound of a very familiar voice.
“Todd, where have you been? I have been waiting in the check out line for five, no eight, minutes! You get here right now young man, and you better have a good excuse as to why you left me waiting!“ Yells my mother, who was waving frantically at me from the farthest right check out line.
I look back down at my card once more, quickly shove it into my jacket pocket, and then begin heading over towards my mom, who was still flailing about. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, mom.” I say when I get towards her line, and then promptly turn around, and walk out.
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All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. <br /> Walt Disney <br /> <br /> If you can dream it, you can do it. <br /> Walt Disney <br /> <br /> It takes a lot of work (and rework, and rework and rework) to get it right.<br /> Pete Docter