✅ My Sister's Problem

2. Shopping

Author's note: I have no idea where this chapter came from; I didn't plan this conversation at all, but it came so naturally. Do you think this should class the story as 'mature'? This is about as far as it's going to go in that direction. I really hope nobody is put off by this.

As soon as we were out of the school gates, I gave a sigh of relief. Sure, I was glad to be out of class and in a space where I wasn't expected to know the sixth conjugation of a reciprocating verb. But I also couldn't really feel like myself in a space where everybody was talking over each other about who had been seen holding hands, or just allegedly holding each other's gaze for the tiniest fraction of a second too long. When my friends' names came out of the rumour mill, the stories were always so egregiously inaccurate that I didn't want to hear them. And today I was just peopled out, and needed a space that wasn't quite so full of life.

Nadine could understand that. That was why she was probably my best friend. She was full of life and always had something interesting to say, but she was able to be calm when it was called for, and she could see when I just wanted to hang out without the pressure to say anything. That was why we were getting lunch together today. She'd nodded at me as we came out of Geography, and I nodded back. Five minutes later we were at the gates, the crowds all behind us. We weren't technically supposed to be out here; the gates were open for the benefit of students who lived close enough to go home for lunch. But nobody cared, and it wasn't exactly uncommon to hit KFC or somewhere in the town centre.

Those places would be just as crowded as the canteen, which was why we ducked down the little alley between two shops, up a half dozen steps, and appeared in the middle of the Merriman Arcade, right outside a little place with the name DRÜGSTØR emblazoned above the door in a weird baroque font. It wasn't really an appropriate name; there was a little pharmacy counter in the back, but ninety percent of the shop floor was filled by two long aisles of hair colours in almost every shade you could imagine, as well as almost as many different types of shampoo. And, the part that mattered to us, a chiller cabinet by the door where we could pick up a couple of boxed sandwiches and be sure of not having to stand in line. We both grabbed baskets for our sandwich, drink, and little baggie of fruit pieces. I picked a BLT on rye today, accompanied by a can of some unidentifiable energy drink and a handful of grapes. As we walked through the aisles I picked up a bottle of conditioner as well.

"What?" I said with a shrug in response to Nadine's quizical glance. "I'm almost out of the nice mint stuff, better get one while I remember."

"Yeah. There's something I need to get as well." she ducked to one side, into the next aisle over, and I followed dutifully. I didn't know what she was looking for; we'd just passed all the nice-smelling bath stuff, and now she was walking right past the little display of security tagged ibuprofen as well. Another three paces and she half turned, grabbed something off the shelf while trying to look like she hadn't even glanced towards it, and tossed it behind her into my basket.

"Hey," I protested as I picked the packet up and looked for some identifying marks beyond an unfamiliar brand name. "If you want me to buy you something, you– Wait, condoms? Are you serious?"

"You look older than me. Think what my mum would say if I was buying them."

"Well, yeah," I had to concede the first point. Out of all our families, my mum was the least likely to have a hissy fit if she somehow found out I wasn't sticking to the rules. But that answer only opened up more questions. "But why do you need them? I mean, have you got a boyfriend who doesn't come from the Internet now?"

"No. Yes. No. I mean... I've got a proper date, right? I'm actually going to meet him. And–"

"And you're planning to–?"