Connected: Family, Together, Forever

-Chapter 5-

"We're out of toilet paper, I'm going to the grocery store. Anyone wanna come with me?" Mark asks, grabbing his car keys, and looking at us expectantly.

"I can," I say quietly. Mark has given me some worksheets I could do before I started school so I could be a bit more caught up, so anything other than doing those sounded exciting.

Mark smiled at me, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Charlie was about to say something, but stopped when I did, looking disappointed.

"Wanna come too, Charlie?" Mark asked her, probably noticing too.

Charlie nodded eagerly, so after telling Ethan to look after Lily, we set off to the grocery store.
"Mark, can I get this?" Charlie asked, shoving a candy bar in his face, only 30 seconds after we had entered the store.

He shook his head firmly. "No Charlie. We're getting toilet paper, some milk, and that's it. We have candy at home," He tells her, taking the bar from her and tossing it back where it was.

She frowned but didn't say anything as we walked to the dairy aisle. Mark put a carton of milk in the basket, and we continued shopping wordlessly.

As I saw Mark putting a six-pack of toilet paper into the basket, a realisation struck me- I was going to get my period soon, and I had no pads or tampons.

"Mark!" Charlie called.
"What is it, Charlie?" Mark asked with a sigh.

"Can I get this lip gloss?" She asked, showing him a tube of sparkly pink lip gloss.
He glared at her. "What did I tell you?"

She rolls her eyes. "That we aren't getting anything- but I just want this one lipgloss, I won't ask for anything else!" She insists.

"No Charlie, put it back," He grits, clearly struggling to stay patient.
"Ugh!" She exclaims, violently throwing the lipgloss back on the shelve, causing a few people to turn their heads in our direction.

Mark turns red, and grabs her hand, glaring down at her. "Do we need to make a trip to the bathroom?" He asks in a loud whisper.

Her face flushes red with embarrassment. "No sir," she mumbles, avoiding his gaze.
"Good. Don't make me warn you again." He hisses.

She put on a pout as he walked us to check out.
"Uhm, Mark?" I say hesitantly.
"Hm?" He asks, turning around to face me, still looking irritated from Charlie's antics.

I gulp. He looks mad.
"Uhm- I just need to go to the bathroom," I say awkwardly.
"Alright, hurry up then,"

I walked to the feminine hygiene aisle and picked up a small pack of tampons.
This is the first time I'll be getting my period here. I've never needed to ask Mark to buy me any supplies. I'm not sure why, but the idea of me asking him to buy me some tampons was making me cringe. It was just... embarrassing.

I stood there, contemplating what I should do. Mark was already mad at Charlie for asking for stuff, what if he got mad at me too? I mean, she was asking for candy and some lipgloss, but still.

I'd managed to stay out of trouble since I got here, but I was very well aware of how Mark deals with misbehaviour, and I did not want to be on the receiving end of a punishment from him, anytime soon. At the same time, I needed these tampons.

"Savannah!" I hear him call out to me, after a few minutes of me just standing there, tampons in hand.
I'm not sure what came over me, but I immediately stuffed them into the large pocket of my hoodie and tried to walk casually back to checkout.

"Sorry I took so long," I say, after seeing Mark with the filled bag in his hands, waiting.
"It's okay," He says.

"Where's Charlie?" I ask, looking around.
He rolls his eyes. "The girl managed to sneak the lip gloss past me. I sent her to put it back,"
"Oh," I say as I watch Charlie walk back to us with a sulk, dragging her feet.

"Have a great day!" The pretty cashier said with a smile, handing us the receipt.
He smiled back at her. "You too," He said, as we walked out of the store.

The second I stepped out, an alarm went off, and the three of us froze.
Somehow, in my panic, I completely forgot about the existence of security alarms. Oops.

The cashier, seeming caught off guard, quickly stopped us and told us to walk back inside. Both she and another employee proceeded to check our bag, which only contained the items we purchased.

"I'll need the three of you to empty your pockets, please," She tells us, and Mark silently glares at Charlie as he empties his pockets, containing nothing except his phone, keys, and wallet. "I thought I told you to put it back," He hissed.

Her eyes go wide. "I did! Why are you accusing me?" She shrieks, dramatically emptying her pockets, only pieces of wadded tissue paper falling out.
"Then why did the-" Mark begins to scold her, but I interrupt. "I did it," I whisper.

Mark snaps his head towards me. I expected him to look furious, but he just looked confused.
"What?" He asks slowly.

"Charlie didn't steal, I did," I clarify.
"See!" Charlie shouts, clearly upset after being accused.
He sucks in a breath. "Explain yourself, Savannah."

A chill went down my spine after hearing his tone. I often hear him use that with the others, but never with me.
I gulp, slowly taking the packet of tampons out of my pocket and showing both Mark and the cashier.

"I'm really sorry, I-I don't know what I was thinking," I explain quietly, putting my head down.
"Savannah, why would you steal tampons?" Mark asked, his tone softening again.

"I-I don't know, I needed them but you said we weren't getting anything else other than the toilet paper... and then you got mad at Charlie. I guess I was just embarrassed," I blabber on, feeling even more humiliated.

Mark doesn't respond to me, but he instead apologises to the cashier and the other workers. Thankfully she sort of understood the situation, and didn't take it any further.

"You two, wait here," Mark tells us sternly, before disappearing into one of the aisles.
"Course I'd be blamed," Charlie mutters angrily under her breath. A minute or two later, Mark returns.

I look up at him in astonishment as he dumped a bunch of period products on the checkout counter. More tampons, some pads, even a menstrual cup. "Could we get all of this too, please?" He asks her.