When the checker greeted her, Liona looked up, prepared to exchange the typical pleasantries that were almost always the polite check-out chit-chat. What she didn't expect was the dumbstruck expression of the boy that she had played with earlier in the week with her cousin and friends at the park, when she raised her head.
"Oh! Hello! It's nice to see you again! Erik, right?" Liona asked with a pleasant smile. Her earlier planned polite smile went out the window as she greeted the boy. In its place was a genuine smile for the rather cute guy. He looked a little flustered, which brought out the slight pink tint to his ears over his closely cropped brown hair that was shorter than the last time she had seen him. His pretty peridot green eyes were shining in the harsh light of the grocery store as he seemed to be grabbing and scanning her items on autopilot.
"Ye-yeah." Erik managed to agree.
Thinking that he was really cute the way he stuttered a bit, made Liona want to tease him a little. "So, you work here now? I should come here shopping for my dad more often. That way I can say hi, now and then. So how are you finding our town? Have you and your siblings found out which school you'll be going to yet? I haven't heard of any new students coming to my school yet, but then again, my Aunt wouldn't divulge that information even if I had asked her!" She laughed as Erik's ears turned a darker pink, with a hint of red on the apples of his strong cheekbones that stood out a little too much on his face.
"Ye-yeah, I work here… Uh, oh, right! I'm supposed to ask about your rewards card. Do you have one?" Erik asked her.
Smiling as he still seemed a little flustered, Liona gave him her rewards card number for him to input. She didn't know what it was about this boy, but his mannerisms and his speech, along with his slightly skittish behavior, intrigued her. He seemed to be very hesitant to say anything that wasn't work related right now. It was understandable, he was at work, so she should respect that, but she was still curious.
"Hey, what time do you typically get off work? Want to hang out with my friends and I again sometime? If it's a reasonable hour, Alli, Chloe, and I can get to know you better when you aren't working, that is. We all had fun playing with you and your little sisters at the park. It would be fun to just, you know, hang out and go to the movies or go shopping together or even just hang out and chat over lunch. Of course, your sisters would be welcome to join us too…" Liona suggested.
Seeing a few emotions flicker across Erik's face that she didn't understand, Liona had this urge to push Erik for an answer, but ultimately chose not to. That was due to the one emotion that she saw on his face that she understood and that prevented her from asking. It was the emotion of fear. She had no idea what he was scared of, but he didn't speak to her again until her groceries were fully checked and bagged.
He then rattled off her total and she automatically put in her payment. When she took her cart by the handle again and was about to leave, she saw what looked like a manager hovering nearby. She smiled brightly at Erik and thanked him for being nice enough to bag and put her groceries in her cart for her before she left. She never got an answer to her questions, or suggestions for that matter.
As she was leaving, she heard the manager berate Erik for chatting too long and warning him that he would have his pay docked if it happened again. That infuriated her for reasons she didn't understand. So, she turned around and prepared to berate the manager for yelling at Erik, but the look on his face halted her in her tracks. He was mad, but he was holding it in.
His body language looked like he was trying very hard to hold back saying anything, especially as he clenched his fists behind his back as he spoke politely to the manager. Seeing this, Liona couldn't help but admire Erik for the self-restraint that he displayed. It made her think about how she was just about to jump in and not hold back her words in this situation. She tended to be a lot like her mom and a little outspoken when it came to her opinions.
Turning around, Liona decided it was best to leave things as they were, and that Erik would figure things out on his own and stand up for himself if it were necessary. He didn't need her to step in and jeopardize his job if she were to say something in the heat of the moment. It was curious that she felt this need to even interfere when she barely knew the guy. She had never really thought about or paid much attention to others before, but then again, it wasn't as if she encountered these kinds of situations normally.
After putting the groceries in her car and selecting home as her destination, Liona tried to figure out what, about the situation, had called that manager to scold Erik, and why she had wanted to get in the middle of it to stand up for him. He was just another guy, and he wasn't even someone she was dating. She had only met him earlier in the week, and sure he was cute and a little odd at times, but what about that triggered her protective instincts?
It wasn't as if he was family that she had to stand up for, not that her siblings needed her to stand up for them anymore, they were all pretty good about doing that for themselves now. It was very rare that anyone harassed or looked down on her or her family, but did that apply to other people? She had been taught that it wasn't acceptable to look down on others for their life situations, but was that something that people still faced? She didn't really know. Maybe she would ask her mom about it. Her mom knew a lot about that kind of thing, but then again, so did her dad.
As she was pulling into the driveway of her home, her siblings were getting home from their after-school activities, as well as Chloe and Alli just arriving in their cars. That pushed the thought of Erik right out of her mind as she greeted her best friends.
"Hey! You guys made it!" She greeted them.
"Yeah, did you think we were going to miss a girl's weekend?!" Chloe exclaimed.
"We wouldn't miss this! You know we love hanging out with you, but we had to check in with the parents and I had chores to take care of before I could come." Alli explained.
"Same here, I had to run an errand for my dad. My mom had a bad day at work today, so he took her for a little getaway. That means I'll be cooking this weekend for us and my siblings." Liona explained as she grabbed a bag of groceries from her car.
"Woot! We get Liona's cooking!" Alli jumped excitedly in the air before helping her by grabbing a bag of groceries.
"What's this about mom and dad being gone?" Noah, Liona's little brother, asked.
"Did Dad take Mom away for another of those weekends?" Nolan, Noah's twin, asked.
"Ugh, you boys are so stupid, it's probably Mom's heat that Dad took her away for." Ariel, Liona's sister, proclaimed.
"That's what he just said, Ariel!" Aurora, Ariel's twin, jumped in.
Liona sighed. Sometimes being the oldest meant that she had to defuse her sibling's inevitable spats. "None of the above. Mom lost a patient at work and needed time to decompress, so Dad took her away to de-stress. And it's not nice to tell Nolan that he's stupid, Ariel. You all are better than resorting to name-calling."
After all the groceries were unloaded, and put away, Liona got to work, making dinner. With the help of Alli and Chloe, she didn't have to worry about her siblings' attempts to raid the fridge while dinner was cooking. She could swear that her siblings would eat them out of house and home if given the opportunity, with how much they ate. Even at her most extreme growth phase, she had never eaten as much as her siblings did on a regular basis.
Once the meal was ready, they all sat in the dining room to eat. Liona was praised for her cooking, as her friends and siblings gobbled everything down. By the time they were finished with the evening meal, there wasn't a hint of leftover food. She put her siblings on dish duty, since she and her friends had cooked. That left them free to go and pick out the movie they wanted to stream tonight.