Sweetly & Home Economically ✔

Dragon Fruit Slayer & Theo's Castle

~ Dragon Fruit Slayer & Theo's Castle ~

~¤°*°*°*°¤~

If eating lunch together in the cafeteria was hard to imagine, grocery shopping with Theo was a whole other level of unimaginable occurrences. Yet I found myself imagining just that on our way to the store. I thought Theo would refuse to go or at least complain about it. I was wrong. So very wrong.

"Hey," Theo stopped in the middle of the parking lot and grinned, motioning to the cart. "Do you want to ride in the basket?"

Withholding a groan, I locked my car and shook my head. "No. I want to go over what we're making for the assignment."

"Something I can't burn?"

"Impossible."

He smirked. "Then we have a lot of options."

It seemed we would need all the time given to us since my mom gave us the day off. I hoped to get done early enough to help her close up, but she insisted that my dad could help her if she needed it. I begrudgingly agreed, though I didn't have much of a choice anyway.

I thought about recipes as we strolled into the store. "Burgers and tacos are the easiest to make healthy, so those are out."

"You want a challenge then." He nodded, "I like it. How 'bout pizza?"

My mind ran with ideas from his suggestion. "We could do a whole wheat crust, and make a sauce..." I trailed off, slowing down as we reached the fresh produce. My shoulders dropped as I realized the flaw in that idea. "Pizza dough is better after it's been refrigerated overnight."

"Well, if we make the sauce and dough tonight, we can just throw it all together tomorrow after work."

"We can do that," I said, pulling the cart and Theo along with it over to the tomatoes. After shaking out a bag, I began searching the pile for the ripest ones because they made the best sauce.

Theo observed me as he leaned over the cart. After a few minutes, he got impatient and asked, "Does it really take this long to pick out some vegetables?"

"Fruit. Tomatoes are fruit. And yes, it does," I smiled. "I used to have the same bored expression when I shopped with my parents. My mom taught me how to pick out the best fruits and vegetables. So I won't settle for anything less."

"We're gonna be here a while." Theo sighed and took off his leather jacket, hanging it over the side of the cart. He cracked his knuckles and sidled up next to me.

It did take a little while to find enough ripe tomatoes, since most of them weren't even close. The other produce we needed was gathered quickly in comparison. We were just about to go to the next section of the store when Theo stopped. His interest was piqued by a carefully stacked display.

"'Dragon fruit.' That sounds badass." He picked one up and weighed it in his hand.

I didn't know how he managed to do it, but I was horrified and--for only a brief second--so was Theo. It was like watching it happen in slow motion. There was nothing we could do to stop it.

The entire display came tumbling down. The pink and green fruit rolled off in every direction. It caught the attention of everyone in the vicinity, including some unhappy employees.

"Lords and ladies, I give you Theo the Dragon Fruit Slayer," I muttered only loud enough for him to hear.

"Really, T? Do you know how long it took me to stack those?"

We turned to see Eli standing with his arms crossed. He wore the same uniform as the other employees. Looking at the carnage, he tsked disapprovingly.