Everyone's attention was somewhere else by the time that David arrived at Walmart. Kaylon was now listening to music through his headphones, tapping his fingers on the door to his side, imagining himself as a DJ with a Launchpad for fun. Luca, inversely, was still staring out the window at whatever the window could encapsulate outside. She would usually stare outside anyway, even if the phone was charged. It made her feel better looking at the passing cityscape on a screen then looking at the passing elements on a screen. There was always something about it that made her interested.
The parking lot did have plenty of empty spots, since it was the late afternoon and most people didn't usually go to the supermarket on a Sunday. Finding a parking spot under a tree, he maneuvered the SUV into the space little by little, before activating the parking brake and shifting the clutch to park.
He twisted the keys out of the ignition switch and looked back at Kaylon.
"Hey." David said.
No response. He tapped Kaylon's shoulder, who paused his music, took out an earbud and looked back at David's eyes, then his nose.
"Are you coming?"
"I'm fine," Kaylon said, "I'm good."
David nodded. Looking at the rear-view mirror, Luca was still in the backseat looking out the window.
"Hey," David spoke out, aggressively.
Luca looked back at him. "What?"
"You want to go with me?"
In the slightest second, she answered with a simple "No". But it was without emotion or significance, making it one of the most monotonous uses of the word that David ever heard.
He breathed in and exhaled with a imperceptible, bitter bite to it. He then rotated his upper body back forward and turned on the car. He tapped Kaylon again, still in his fantastical DJ set, to regain his attention.
"You want to stay here?" David asked him again.
"I guess," Kaylon said, slightly unsure of what David's reaction was going to be, "I don't really want to go inside. But if you want me to go, that's fine."
David turned to Kaylon. "No, you don't have to. Just lock the car when I get out."
Kaylon nodded. David subsequently glared a malignant look back at Luca through the rear-view mirror before opening the car door and closing it behind him. He walked towards Walmart in a rather serious and malefic way, becoming the unrealistic embodiment of Ledger's Joker. The sound of machinery moved into place with the sound of a million steps behind him as he continued on.
Kaylon continued to listen to his music, the seat almost touching the edge of the rear seating. Luca continued sightseeing from the window, paradoxically bored. She saw Kaylon, just relaxed and looking up at the roof of the car, but continued to look out the window. He leaned his head towards the left and saw Luca, who still had a blank expression. But her eyes told a different story, one that Kaylon could not read. Not even what her body was even saying. Nevertheless, as if he seemingly read her, he took off one of his earbuds and paused the music, leaving the phone on top of his left thigh.
He tilted his head towards her. "Hey, uh..?"
Luca looked at him, ready to strike. His curious look simultaneously abated her aggression toward him. "What?"
Albeit her lessened mood towards him, he still felt a little intimidated by her and stopped. He steadily moved his head back up towards the ceiling and put back in his right earbud. "Nothing."
"Oh. Were you trying to talk to me?"
Kaylon did not answer.
She unbuckled herself and then leaned towards him. She poked him, digging into his skin in a confrontational way.
"Hey." Luca said. He looked back at her just as she went back to the seat. He pulled out one earbud.
"What?" He answered, quite hostile.
"Did you want to talk to me?"
"I did, but then I forgo.." Then, a switch. "Oh, I remember now. Did you really live near Sky in Prescott?"
"Yes."
"That's cool. I never heard her talk about you before, so I didn't know."
"Kaylon, are you and Skylar really dating?"
"Say that again, please?" Kaylon asked awkwardly.
"Are you and Sky dating?"
"Yeah. But, I'm sorry. I don't really feel comfortable talking about it."
"Why, though?"
Kaylon begin to look back up at the roof. "Well, we just met right now and I need some time to get used to this. So, yeah."
"I see. Well, can you at least tell me how she's doing? We haven't talked in a long while and I'm not sure if she remembers me...."
Kaylon looked back at Luca. "You two must have a complicated relationship."
"I wouldn't say that. But I guess you could say that."
Kaylon then looked back up at the roof. Both were quiet for about half a minute and Luca continued to stare at Kaylon, who kept looking at the roof. He could feel her gaze in a tingly way, as if they were grazing the nerves in his skin.
"She's doing fine," Kaylon replied, "If you want to know, she does miss you and wishes she could be there for you. I believe she still has your phone number or something like that."
"Hmm." Luca hummed.
"I have to also ask you, what do you think about David so far?"
Luca looked at the entrance of the Walmart where David went in and revisited the focus of Kaylon's face once more. "David. He seems like a nice guy, but.. he seems off."
"Yeah, I noticed that." He then reclined his seat back up halfway. He then scooted his body over to the left, having a more relaxed neck to see Luca. "When he opened the trunk for you and asked if he could get the trunk, you instead did everything yourself as if to show off. I also noticed when he came in, he was more serious than when we met up."
"So, what? I angered him?"
Kaylon shifted gaze to the driver's window for two brief seconds. "I can't really tell, but I believe what you did pissed him off."
"Why?"
Kaylon was about to say something, but stopped.
"What's wrong?" Luca asked
"It's just that.... He's....." He instead left her hanging with only two words.
"Never mind."
—
As he checked over the shopping list twice on his phone, David only had the milk, toilet paper and laundry detergent left. After that, his phone was returned to his pocket and he grabbed a gallon of milk from the refrigerator. With his right hand, he lowered the weight a little ways above the cart before dropping it in.
Walking out of the milk aisle, he looked up at the signs of the different rows of select, miscellanea that the store had stocked on. A few more down, he easily found one sign saying toilet paper aisle and got what he wanted strolling down there. Another aisle he went down, afterwards debating on what detergent he should buy. But thinking was too much, he chose Tide from the row before heading down to the checkout.
As he neared the lines, he then remembered about the cable and wall charger for Luca that he said that he would buy. He almost forgot such a trivial act of kindness, if you could call it that, that he promptly turned around the cart in such a haste and headed for the electronics department.
To sum it up, it was full of technologies, some on display to showcase themselves for the public to hopefully buy. Something like E3 or the Consumer Electronics Show, but more direct and blunt. he searched through the multiple accessories in one aisle, he found a USB Type-C to Type-C cable that was standard enough, but what he didn't want to buy since he couldn't find a Type-C wall charger anywhere. He eventually put a Type-A to Type-C cable in the cart, as well as a standard Type-A wall charger. Once that was done, he finally went to checkout.
At the cash register, he put his items carefully onto the conveyor and watched as they moved towards the cashier. The cashier's hands were quick, swiping their hands and clutching onto the various items on the belt and sliding them by the scanner quickly. Every beep piled the items onto a progressive list with a number that couldn't decide what to be. Finally, the cashier stopped after the final item and read out loud his total. He inserted his debit chip card into the payment terminal and waited for authorization. The sound of paper being printed into the conditioned atmosphere was present for a few seconds, then once more before becoming silent. David took the receipt from the cashier and put the plastic bags into the cart.
"Thank you, sir," the cashier said. "You have a nice day."
"You're welcome," said David, "Same to you."
Albeit placing a little strain on David, he pushed the cart out of the store exit and back to the SUV, a few rows to the left. Hastily, he stopped it near the trunk of the car. He grabbed the keys out of his right pocket and unlocked the car. The mechanical locks let out the familiar step David was accustomed to and opened the trunk, only to remember the luggage there.
Thinking of a plan, he then closed the trunk door and opened the right rear door. He put the groceries there, awakening Kaylon but not getting much of a response from Luca. Kaylon yawned, half-awake and half-asleep. He started rubbing his eyes to try and stay awake. Luca was, well, Luca.
David tapped Luca's shoulder with his hand. She looked back at him.
"Hmmm?" She chirped.
He offered her the cable and the wall charger, to which she took with the same blank expression. "Thank you."
"Welcome." David said, slamming the right door closed. He entered and sat the driver's seat with a serious look on his face.
"We're going." David said to Kaylon.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm putting the groceries here because the luggage is in the back."
When he was done, he closed Kaylon's door for him and ambled to the cart. As the last thing to do, he pushed back the cart to a nearby corral and shoved it in there. He slightly plodded across the near-barren row of cars to the SUV. He sat, muscles tense, on the seat and switched in the keys on the ignition switch.
It wasn't long before the vehicle reversed itself onto the road and left the complex.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
