The "Stand By"

***

After school, I changed into a beige button down shirt and black slacks and walked over to the grocery store. Once I was there, I put on the permanently mandatory black apron and the temporarily mandatory red heart sticker that encouraged people to donate to a children's charity. You know, 'hey while you're buying candy and balloons for your girlfriend, give a dollar to the children in need so that they can maybe get a sandwich'. Excuse my language, but society is just fucked.

So I was standing at the cash register, looking dreadfully unattractive in my outfit, while lines and lines of young guys purchased the 'stand bys' (the chocolates, the teddy bears etc.). I wanted to warn them that their girlfriends would be secretly pissed, but most of them looked like they were doing this as a last resort, not as a first choice. Poor bastards.

When I'm at the grocery store, pretending to be a hard working cashier, my mind wanders while I go through the well rehearsed motions of my job. I thought about my dad a little. Sometimes I can go for days without thinking about him and then when I do think about him, I apologize for not having thought about him.

I feel like my dad can hear my thoughts, wherever he is, so when I think to him, it's like I'm talking to him. Well, most of my thoughts he can hear. For some reason, I think he can't hear the swearing or the occasional sexual thoughts I have. You know, about Channing Tatum or Bradley Cooper or the hott, popular boys at school. Yeah, dad doesn't hear those.

So then, after awhile, I started thinking about Jason Downey. I couldn't help it. Lori had to go and bring up the possibility of him liking me and since it was Valentine's Day and all, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I'll admit, I was kind of secretly hoping for a surprise, nice gesture from Jason. Something a little romantic and, I guess, out of character for him. I tried to keep my hopes down, though, because if I got too worked up, I'd just be disappointed when nothing happened.

It was nearing the end of my shift when something threw off my working motions. I had a customer, but they hadn't put their stupid Valentine's gift on the counter for me to ring up.

I looked up and blinked, shocked. Grandpa Dean was standing on the other side of the cash register, looking exactly as he always has: still tall, white-haired, and strong-looking despite his age. And because he was standing there, he had clearly busted out of the old folk's home and therefore was still my bad ass grandfather.

"Hi, wha-" I began to say.

"Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart," He said and took his hands out from behind his back. He handed me a card with a small bouquet of purple hydrangeas, flowers he'd sneakily stolen from the greenhouse at the old folk's home. I felt my heart melting as I took the flowers and card from him.

"... aww. Awwww! Thank you, grandpa," I said, my appreciation building in leaps and bounds. I leaned over the counter to give him a hug. He rubbed my back in the comforting way that he has since I was four. When we parted, he gave me the crooked grin that probably made my late grandma fall in love with him all those years ago.

"Are you almost done your shift?" He asked me, looking at his silver link wrist watch.

"Not quite," I said regretfully. I wanted to run around with grandpa while he was an escapee.

"Shoot. I was hopin' to take you for ice cream or something before I get dragged back into lock down," He echoed my thoughts, making me laugh.

"Oh get out of here," Someone said behind me. I turned around. My supervisor, Mrs. Crown, was grinning at me tiredly.

"Really?" I said, smiling.

"Yeah, beat it," She said and gave my charming grandpa a smile. He smiled too, his eyes excited again. I yanked my apron off my head and went around the cash register. Grandpa Dean offered me his arm and I linked my arm through his.

As we were walking out of the store, someone came walking in the store, running into me.

"Careful there, son," Grandpa said, nicely but protective.

"Oh, I'm sorry- Sadie?" It was Jason Downey.

"Hey Jas," I said. I looked down at his hands in time before he hid them behind his back. He was carrying two 'stand bys': a little teddy bear and a single rose.

"Uh hi," He said, embarrassed.

"Oh, Jason this is grandfather, Dean Montgomery. Grandpa this is Jason, a friend from school," I introduced quickly. I love grandpa's name. It sounds like an old Hollywood leading man's name.

"Hello Mr. Montgomery," Jason said shyly.

"Nice to meet you, Jason," Grandpa replied. Grandpa and I looked at each other and he raised one furry, white eyebrow at me.

"Darlin' I think you should go ahead and hang out with Jason here," Grandpa said. Even though he uses it correctly enough, Grandpa Dean never sounds quite right when he uses modern slang like "hang out".

"... um I kind of got this for you Sad," Jason muttered and thrust the dollar store teddy bear at me. I hesitantly took the teddy bear.

Here's the thing. I know I whine about Valentine's Day for a lot of reasons, mostly because I hate being single and having my singledom held up for everyone to pity. And Jason, in his lame teenage boy way, was offering a nice gesture and a Valentine's date that could lead to something more.

But Grandpa Dean had stolen flowers and ran away from his old folk's prison so that he could "hang out" with me.

Jason was just going to have to keep it in his pants a little longer.

"This is really nice, Jason," I said. "But... I have plans with my grandpa tonight. Do you wanna hang out tomorrow?" I offered, even though it wouldn't be Valentine's Day tomorrow. Jason looked at me, glanced at grandpa, then looked at me again.

"Sure Sadie, just text me," He said and then grinned like a goof. He stole the bear back.

"You can have it tomorrow," He said and then went into the grocery store. I chuckled and sniffed the stolen and infinitely more thoughtful hydrangea flowers.

"Well. If I'm not the luckiest old coot this side of the Atlantic," Grandpa spoke up. I grinned at him.

"Come on. I'll make you a Valentine's Day spaghetti dinner... since I can't cook anything else," I said and giggled. Grandpa Dead escorted me down the sidewalk.

"Sounds perfect, Valentine," He said.

.End..