Mine, To Begin With!

12. Feelings and Friends

       Beam pushed his shopping cart ahead and walked along the aisle that had dairy and baked goods. He added Kit’s favorite cookies and Phana’s favorite banana bread to his cart in addition to the waffles, biscuits, chips and brown bread that were already present in the cart. He checked the product details and expiry date of cheese and butter before adding them to the cart.

      “Hey!!”, a low whisper near his left ear startled Beam when he stopped his cart near the fruits counter.

       Beam turned around to find Forth standing behind him with a sheepish grin.

       “Didn’t mean to startle you”, he said scratching his head.

     “Forth, what are you doing here? Weren't you going somewhere?”, Beam asked surprised.

     “Well.. I was passing by when you messaged that you are shopping here. So..” , Forth shrugged with a faint smile.

     “So, you stopped by to see me?”, Beam raised his eyebrows with an amused grin.

     Forth coughed awkwardly and scratched his head again, “I have things to buy too".

      “Yeah? like what?”, Beam asked with a smirk.

      “Hmm.. fruits..I came here to buy fruits", Forth answered pointing to the aisle that had fruits.

    “Owhh.. okay go ahead", Beam said pushing his cart near the aisle.

     Forth cursed himself internally and looked at the fruits with hatred. He really hated eating fruits. He was okay with having fresh juice or bottled juice but raw fruits were not his cup of tea. He looked at the fruits reluctantly when Beam tapped on his shoulder.

    “Is apple okay?”, Beam asked seriously and Forth shook his head fast.

     “What about pomegranate?”, Beam asked and Forth cringed at the suggestion.

      He hated pomegranates more than anything in this world.

      “It’s really healthy and contains more antioxidants than green tea. It boosts up your RBC count, you know?”, Beam continued ignoring the troubled look on Forth’s face.

      "What count?”, Forth asked confused.

      Beam chuckled and added the pomegranates to his cart followed by tangerines and bananas. Forth wanted to protest but he didn’t want to be obvious so he just decided to buy them and feed everything to Lam.

     “What else you need?”, Beam asked pushing his cart ahead.

     “Nothing much. I am fine", Forth replied with a heavy sigh.

     “Where were you going anyway?”, Beam asked stopping near another aisle.

    “My bike is acting up. So I was on the way to leave it at the workshop for servicing", Forth replied following Beam.

     “Oh, how will you get back to your dorm? Do you want me to drop you?”, Beam asked jumping at the opportunity.

     “I can get a cab back", Forth hesitated.

     “No problem. I insist", Beam smiled and walked ahead leaving no room for  Forth to protest.

     Beam queued at the billing counter and insisted to buy the fruits for Forth. Once done with the shopping, both walked out of the convenience store to the parking. Forth started his bike and drove towards the workshop while Beam followed behind in his car.