Emotions

Chapter 12: The Errand

We decide to bring Mana home. With forced smiles on our faces, we soon make it to her front door. We ring the doorbell and her mother opens the door.

''Oh dear! What happened?!'' Her mother gasps, covering her mouth in shock.
Lido panics and answers; ''Eh... She... She tripped!''
''Really smooth Lido.'' I whisper teasingly in his ear.
''That's right!'' Mana agrees, going with the flow of Lido's answer.
''Well, hurry and come inside Mana! We need to use some ice to reduce that swelling!'' 

Mana gets dragged inside by her concerned mother, her walking stick falling on the ground in front of us.
''Please, be careful.'' Mana pleads, her voice trembling as she looks back one last time.
''Don't you worry about a thing!'' Lido replies full of confidence. I playfully jab him in the ribs with my elbow.
''Yeah, I will keep him out of trouble.'' I say as I wink at Mana to assure her. A tiny smile appears on Mana's face as the door quickly closes behind her. 

Lido is still a bit grumpy about what I said.
''What do you mean by; ''keeping me out of trouble''?''
''Oh, nothing. Let's get some food and drinks from the store while it's still open.''
"Fine." He grumbles after me, trudging behind.

We run towards the closest store, ''Smiley''. 
Lido looks up and says in disgust: ''Ugh... that sign with the smiling face on it will always be creepy as hell.''
''True that...'' I agree with a shiver. 

As we head in, we bring forth a big smile on our faces, heading to the food aisle. 
Skipping through the aisles, we already deflate after seeing the high prices. 

Lido turns to me with a disgruntled sigh, showing the few 'Smiley bucks' he owns.
''How many Smugs do you have on you?'' He asks.
''Uhm...'' I scruffle through my pockets, pulling out anything that feels like money. ''About this much?'' 
Lido looks at the few Smugs, feeling discouraged.
''That sure isn't much...'' 
''We should've asked Mana if she had any she could spare.'' As soon as I said this, Lido faces the ground, clenching his fists. 
A sad and soft toned response followed; ''Yeah...'' 

I place my hand on his shoulder. ''Are you okay, Lido?'' I ask concerned.
''What? Of course I am!'' He answers perplexed by my question. But, I know him longer than today. Something is definitely up. 
''But you-'' Before I could finish my sentence, Lido cuts in.
''Come on, let's hurry and grab the food packages and water we can afford!'' 

He then rushes to a different aisle to get the water we need. I choose to let my suspicion slide. He obviously is bothered by something, but I don't want to pry.

I pick the cheapest and most filling food packages I could find and join up with Lido, who's already holding a pack of water bottles. We double-check if we have enough money. Luckily, it is just enough.

We rush to the cashier, who is eagerly awaiting us. He then scans all our items. Afterwards, he says with a high pitched voice:
''That will be 10 Smugs please!'' He looks at us with a twitching smile. Lido and I both knew that this guy was also brainwashed. But again, there was nothing we could do. 

We hand over the money and set off with our supplies in Smiley bags. 
''Have a smiley day!'' He says, setting us off with a smile from ear to ear. 

Only one last hurdle left, we  need to go through the happy port before we can leave the store. There is only a tiny portion of happiness needed. I go through easily, having all the supplies in my hands.
Lido follows suit, but the port suddenly sounds an alarm. The system shouts in a robotic voice: ''ERROR. ERROR. GUILT DETECTED! GUILT DETECTED!'' 

Lido then collapses to his knees.