We had made it to the store after a car ride full of music of her taste, I didn't dislike it, unlike other music that I can't stand. Seems like we have a few songs we both enjoy, but I didn't tell her which ones I had enjoyed.
"So what do you usually get?" She asked as she picked up a shopping cart.
"Believe it or not, I have a list of things I have to get no matter what."
"You're so discipline Daniel, if only you used some of that discipline on cleaning your house."
"For a moment I thought you weren't going to mention anything about my trash filled house. It kind of hurt my feeling you know?" I said sarcastically.
"I can tell by the way you talk that you're not the kind of person who gets hurt by those kinds of words."
"Wow you're so blunt."
She proceeded to scene the aisle while putting a verity of items that weren't on the list I had given her in the cart, that included: sweets, feminine products and a tooth brush?
"What are you doing?"
"Grabbing the essentials to live with you of course."
"No, put them back." At first, I thought she was joking, but her expression seemed serious.
"Who exactly told you that you could live with me?"
"What? You wouldn't let your amazing wife live with you?" seems like she's gotten comfortable with me, her way of talking has changed drastically from the first time we talked.
"Come on stop playing with me. Put the unnecessary things back, you can keep the sweets and snacks though."
"No, I'm going to live with you." she was dead serious. It didn't matter what I thought, her living with me was a big problem for me in all aspects. As I started putting the unnecessary things back like a mother who noticed her child put a toy in the cart without permission she shouted.
"THIS MAN IS HERE TO MEET A 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL!!" I almost busted out in laughter until I realized how bad this looked for me in the perspective of boomers and why did she decide to decrease her age more than it already was? So, I quickly covered her mouth with my hand, which made me look even more suspicious, luckily no one was around at the moment.
"You really want me to go to jail, don't you?" she was giggling taking the situation lightly
"Okay okay Daniel, I'm sorry. It's just the more time I'm with you, the less I want to go back home."
"Is your family situation that bad?"
"Ya my dad ummm.. hits me and my mom uhhhh... gambles and uhhh I'm making all of this up..."
...
"Really?" although she was joking, her expression showed the opposite. There was possibly some truth in that lie. I stopped putting the things back, but my mind was already set on not letting her live with me.
"I won't put the things back if you tell me why you don't want to go back home. If it's a good enough reason, I'll let you live with me." It was a lie, but once I know why she doesn't want to go back I'll be able to solve it in some way or another.
"Well, my mom got back with my dad and basically removed all privacy I had before because she moved into my room"
"Why isn't she sleeping with your dad?"
"It's complicated. They're together but not at the same time."
"Wow, I almost thought it was something serious."
"Oh, come on! That is serious! It's so annoying to have that woman nagging at me constantly-" As I heard her complaints about her mother, we made it to the check out. After getting all the things I needed and what she needed... in the end I bought everything she had put in the cart.
"-and she had the nerve to take away my laptop for not teleporting instantly when she shouted me for me to go do something."
"So you have mommy issues, wow how unfortunate."
"Can you stop being sarcastic? I hate that woman."
"Would you kill her?"
"What's that all of a sudden? I don't like her but I wouldn't kill her. That's too much Daniel."
"Then the situation isn't as bad as it seems. Although it's annoying, that's not something unsalvable, Emily."
"Ughhh, you don't get it..." We started walking back to the car, packing the groceries into the car before driving off.
"Uuuuuh I want some coffee." she said as she pointed at the nearby coffee shop"
"Why the hell does a bundle of energy like you need coffee?"
"Cause I like the taste, teehee!"
I looked at her with a disgusted face before saying "Never do that ever again"
"Why not? Is it not cute?"
"Ya sure, anyway we can't go get coffee, if you wanted coffee, you should have said so from the beginning. We have things that can go bad in the trunk."
"It will be fine! There not gonna go bad from 1.. or 2 hours of drinking coffee."
Emily was careless. I didn't notice this at first but her personality was one that I'd usually find annoying, which isn't a surprise, after all, I find almost everything annoying or not worth the trouble.
"Fine we can go in for 30 minutes."
"Booooo, how am I supposed to enjoy my drink when I'm in such a rush?"
"Deal with it, you're lucky I even considered sitting down. I would rather order it to go, for you to drink at home."
We walked into the coffee shop. While Emily rushed to the bathroom, I was greeted by a cashier that was way too friendly for my liking.
"Hello sir, what would you like today?"
Shit, I wasn't thinking. I should have waited for her to come out of the bathroom. I have absolutely no idea what she wants. Well, I guess I'll prank her. she's been a real pain this whole time.
"Can I get 2 black coffees to go?" I ordered one as well, even though I despised anything bitter, it would make it more believable if I needed to say I simply ordered what I usually get.
"Anything else for you?"
"No" Not long after that, Emily finally came back from the bathroom, with a annoying expression her face.
"I'm back, did you miss me?"
"Nope."
"You're so bland, anyway what did you order?"
"What I usually get." I purposefully made my words ambiguous, not enough to make it suspicious, but just enough to be convincing. After 4 minutes of unbroken silence, the two black coffees arrived.
"Oh my god no way.. How did you know black coffee is my favorite."
"She has to be bluffing." I thought to myself while smirking, waiting for her to take a sip and eventually not be able to act anymore.
I gulped my coffee in one go to get the bitter taste over with. The strong taste brought back a memory from my childhood where I tasted the coffee my dad had made. Instead of it being a pleasing memory, I remembered what had happened after "Puto cabron." he slapped the back of my head. "Why are you drinking my coffee ahora te lo acabas cabron (now youll finsh it you piece of shit)" That guy can't be for real. After simply tasting his coffee, he got that mad? After being lost in thought, I noticed how Emily was fully invested in enjoying her coffee, but she was also staring at me. Was she waiting for me to say something?
"..."
"Why are you always spacing out Daniel?"
"Cause I got a lot of things on my mind, anyway you actually like this shit?"
"Huh? You don't? I thought you ordered it because you also liked it."
"No, I thought you were going to hate it. I took you for the kind of person who has a raging sweet tooth and likes their coffee packed with sugar."
"Well no, I love the taste of coffee."
"Weirdo. Anyway, are you going to be done with that anytime soon? We need to go."
"Why are you in such a rush? I know it's not because of the groceries, you said 30 minutes and only 20 have passed. You need to relax. Come on, take deep breathes."
I ignored her instructions of inhaling and exhaling but I did stop to think; why was it that I couldn't be calm in places like these? I even felt nauseous. Had the isolation really affected me that much?
"You know, since the supermarket, you were also rushing to get things. You hardly tried enjoying it. I took it that maybe you were just straight to the point but I'm a bit concerned. It seems like your paranoid."
"No, your delusional, I'm not paranoid."
"Really? Even now you're checking your surroundings five times per minute - that's not normal Daniel."
"Okay and? That's not a bad thing."
"You even choose to sit in a place where your back isn't exposed."
"Shut up" I glared at her with empty eyes. She stopped talking after that; it seems like she noticed my change in tone. "Is it really that obvious that I'm broken?" No. She's been observing me this whole time, it's not something that's obvious, it's just obvious to her. She's seeing throw me.
"Come on let's just go go." I said with a lack of expression. It seems like the progress we had made in socializing had faded away a bit. She was dead silent on the way back to the car. The car ride was equally as quiet, she didn't even bother to put on her music. We entered my house and she helped me put the groceries in their correct place then she suddenly grabbed my hand and dragged me to the living room.
"Can you finally tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"how you ended up like this.."
"...."
I saw this coming, but not this soon. she had finally asked the question I didn't want to hear"
"Nah, your dating sim level with me isn't high enough to ask me that question." I tried to brush her off while joking, but she squeezed my hand tighter.
"Please, I just want to help. Talking about it could help you."
"Talking won't change anything."
"You won't brush me off this time. Just tell me a little? Please?"
"What if I said I just don't find any point in life is that bad?"
"There's a lot of that people think that but don't go on with it like you do."
Emily keeps surprising me. She has a keen mind for her age, or maybe I just underestimate everyone.
"Fine, I'll tell you a bit of my tragic backstory."
"Stop saying it as a joke, come on this is serious."
"Well, here it goes. I'll now transmit my trauma to you, how fortunate for you." In the back of my mind i knew this wouldn't help me.