Page 55 of Don’t Be A Stranger

Walking being relative.

Lucky for Summer—and very unluckily for me—the grocery store isn’t too far away. In fact, it only takes us a matter of fifteen minutes to get there. I eventually have to get off my skateboard and Summer drops my hand as we head into the store. Within seconds, I miss her touch.

“Alrighty.” Summer grabs a cart and I drop my board in. “What’s on the list?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, you have it.”

Summer stops abruptly, causing me to bump into her. Her hair whips me in the face, hitting me with her sweet scent.

“No.” She narrows her eyes. “Moose gave it to you.”

I feel around the pocket of my jeans and even look in my wallet. “Yeah, I don’t have that.”

“Well, do you remember what Moose and Beth wanted?” she asks.

“Not a clue.”

I’m still trying to remember even being given the list of snacks.

Tonight is game night. Summer, Moose, Bethany, and I occasionally play a couple rounds of Mario Kart every few weeks or so. We’re all too competitive for our own good but apparently, we’ve decided that game night means serious business. Tonight, though, Moose’s younger brother, Thatcher, is joining in on the party. I think he might be inviting somebody too so that the teams are even.

Summer’s and my one job was to get the snacks for tonight and somehow we’ve already failed. Well, technically I have but Summer and I are a duo right now, so I have no problem dragging her into this failure.

Summer sighs, leaning her elbows against the handle on the cart. We begin to walk in an aimless direction just so we’re out of the way of other people trying to enter the store.

“Should we admit defeat and text them, or should we just wing it?”

“Summer, sweetheart, have you met me? We’re obviously going to wing it.”

Her smile is wide and bright. It warms my chest in a way only she seems to be able to know. “Alright, fine, where to first?”

I grab a random box of bakery cookies and toss it in the cart, quickly getting started.

“That entirely depends. What kind of snacks are we thinking? Granola bars? Protein shakes? Fruit tray? Or maybe you’re feeling a little frisky and we go with Halo Top.”

“Halo Top is good,” Summer defends her ice cream choices. Not that it’s bad but I’m sorry, it just can’t beat the real thing.

Summer nudges my shoulder but surprises me by adding her own sweet treat into the cart. Brownies.

“No.” Summer smiles. “Tonight I’m joining the junk food train.”

I pull back on the cart handle just a bit to get Summer to stop pushing it. “You know I’m only teasing, right? I want you to eat what you feel comfortable eating.”

I fully expect Summer to look disappointed or flustered or to even brush me off, but instead she continues to smile.

“Treating myself every once in a while isn’t a bad thing. I guess I’ve just been so busy I forgot and besides, I’ve been craving Nutter Butters for a whole year now,” Summer admits.

I want to make sure she knows I genuinely don’t care what she eats. I know she keeps track of nutrients and meals so closely that she can perform her best in the water. I want her to also know that it doesn’t need to take over her life.

Summer turns into the chip aisle. I’m already scoping out her childhood favorite.

“I’m not doing it just because you tease me.” Summer crouches down, reaching for the familiar orange and green bag. “I just think that since coming to Ellingbrook, I’ve been a little…stuck up.” She laughs at herself. “I mean, you, I, and Lily used to get into all sorts of trouble. I just miss how we were when we were kids.”

When we were kids?

People would probably have described us as reckless. Loud. Troublemakers. Maybe even a little annoying.

Then we had Lily, who never initiated the troublemaking but she sure as hell played along when needed.