The Hours We Have

chapter twenty-nine

Ezra groaned dramatically. 

I was tempted to spin around and throw my fist into his face. He had been groaning for a solid three minutes as he followed me around the grocery store, which was the most childish thing he could possibly do for his age. 

After we discovered bare cupboards, and the twins thought they would die without breakfast, I needed to make a trip downtown. Every month, I made one of them come with me to help carry the groceries since Mikeal was usually at work. When Mikeal went with me, it was a plus because we just took the car. 

I was pushing the cart, picking out the items that we needed, and Ezra was nothing but an annoying, groaning deadweight that kept picking up unnecessary things. I swear the next bag of chips that he dumped in the cart was going to end up in his face. 

"Can you please keep your attitude to yourself?" I finally snapped at him without turning around because I didn't want to see his smug face. 

"Oh, sorry, am I bothering you?" 

"Yes." 

"I'll make sure to turn the volume up." 

I exhaled harshly through my nose. "Don't you dare." 

He sucked in a breath in preparation to be embarrassingly loud and I grabbed a cereal box from the shelf next to me, throwing it directly at his head. He yelped. "Ow! What the fuck?" 

"I told you to shut up!" I hissed and then I wanted to hide my face when I saw a few people staring at us from the beginning of the aisle. As if we weren't seen as the outcast kids enough, our public sibling rivalry wasn't helping.

 Ezra scowled at me, the cereal box fallen at his feet while he rubbed his temple. "You do know that those boxes have incredibly sharp edges, right?" He said lowly. "You don't just grab them and throw it at people like a weapon." 

"I only throw things at stupid people." 

"Oh, is that so?" He rose an eyebrow. "So what do I get to throw at the world's most annoying sister? Huh? You literally almost poked my eyeball out with a cereal box."

I gave him my signature smirk. "Nothing because I'm not being a baby like you." 

"Mikeal isn't here," He stated as if it was a matter of fact. 

"I'm sorry, was that supposed to be a threat?" I rolled my eyes at him, my tone honeydew sweet with sarcasm, "Because it was lame and you could do better." 

"I could always sit on you." 

"We're in public."

"So what?" 

I blew out a frustrated breath. "Can we just get this over with?" 

"Great because I've been bored since we left the house." 

I rolled my eyes but he didn't see it because I turned my back to him. I began pushing the cart again. There wasn't much in the cart because we couldn't afford a lot but I grabbed the essentials and within another ten minutes, we were in the check-out line. 

When Ezra made no move to help me bag the groceries, I jabbed him in the side with my elbow, and he grunted in annoyance but began doing a sloppy bagging job. 

We didn't say anything to each other because the cashier was already giving us a weird look. Why do people have to be so judgemental? Can't siblings just fight in peace? I mean, it seemed pretty normal to me. But, I pretended not to notice the cashier, even though I caught Ezra scowling at them.