50 Things I Hate About You

I Hate That Half the Time You Don't Remember My Name

I'm not sure why I'd assumed Onyx would stay in the car while I ran in to grab my mother's groceries; I guess I'd grown so used to Michael throwing a fit anytime he'd accompany me anywhere because I made sure to go up and down every isle to ensure I didn't forget anything. My friends and mother had poked fun at it my entire life, but it irked me anytime I was rushed or my routine was disrupted. Having Onyx trailing along behind me was sure to cause all of the above.

I leaned into the cart, staring down at the sticky note and raising a brow at some of the necessities my mother had thrown on to the list. I'd just made it out of grabbing some fruit in produce when Onyx finally spoke up.

"You are one of those people aren't you?" he grumbled, falling into step beside me as I wheeled the cart down the cereal isle.

"What do you mean?"

He heaved out an overdramatic sigh, "You go down every isle and sometimes even circle around to it a second time."

Feeling attacked, I shrugged a shoulder and avoided his knowing look and whispered, "And?"

"And I do not want to be here for hours, Sky."

"Well, nobody is stopping you from calling yourself an Uber, Hayes."

It wasn't until he raised a brow that I realized just how light and fine they were; they were hardly visible.

"If we're going to be here a while, I need to grab a few things."

I made a gesture toward the cart in front of me, "By all means. I just hope you know I'm not paying for them."

He flashed a quick smile before he shook his head and disappeared to the other end of the isle and out of sight entirely. I'd made it through most of the store before I quite literally ran into Erica as she had appeared out of nowhere and in the millisecond from me glancing down at the list to make sure everything had been checked off to the end of the isle, she'd slowed to a stop.

I expected a loud, bitchy remark about me watching where I was going, but someone must have talked to her because she only stood there and stared at me for a few minutes without any emotion.

She looked far different than the cheerleader that was always parading around school in her uniform or short skirts and shirts as she'd thrown on an oversized hoodie that swallowed her entire body, her usually straightened hair thrown in a messy, tangled updo.

"I'm sorry." I was taught to be the bigger person no matter the circumstances. "I didn't see you."

She shrugged one of her shoulder and shifted the basket from her left forearm to her right. "It's fine."

I leaned forward on the balls of my feet, ready to move past her, when she spoke up again.

"You and Ty, are you getting pretty serious?"

I immediately wanted to snap some kind of cruel remark to make her feel at least a fraction of what I'd felt walking through that party smelling like a distillery, but seeing the sadness residing in her eyes, I decided to continue to keep my head held high. "We haven't even been out on a date yet, not that it's any of your business."

"Look, Rory, Ty is—" she started but the words fell flat as tension started to fill the air between us. I waited a couple more seconds to see if she was just struggling to get the words out or she wasn't going to finish her sentence at all, then followed her intense gaze to something, or rather, someone, over my shoulder.