I Liked it Better When They Were Young

Friday 16th September 1:37pm
The next time I saw Billie was in Safeway's on my lunch break. He pulled me out of the crowd of school kids off for their lunch and into a remote corner of the store. It was a very unexpected, very nice surprise.

"How 'bout a game?" He said, his green eyes sparkling mischievously. Hi to you too, Billie! I sighed nervously. I imagined that Billie's games very rarely consisted of playing snakes and ladders or dominos. But this was the liveliest I'd seen him for a while now. The vivacious young boy I knew so well was flashing in and out of focus once again. I'd missed him. I never played snakes and ladders anyway. And I hated to stop Billie from having fun. His eyebrows arched as he waited for my responce. I nodded.

"A game, huh?" He nodded excitedly, looking pleased that I wanted to join in.

"What are the rules?" I asked. Billie scoffed.

"My games don't have rules, Soph. You know that!" I shook my head, shrugging.

"I've never played a game with you." Billie smiled and took my hand, leading me away from the swarms of Pinole students.

"Well, you're in for a treat! This ain't no pissy sports game we play in PE, mind. This tests your nerve. He stopped by the automatic entrance doors and picked up a metal basket. I did the same almost instinctively. I then followed him through the fruit and veg. Billie picked up a bunch of grapes and a small sack of potatoes before moving swiftly on. I left the fruit and veg alone, running to catch him up.

"Billie, what are we doing?" I asked unsurely, as he strode confidently through the toiletries, picked up a packet of sanitary towels and some tampons and threw them casually into his basket. He had uttery no shame. He just didn't feel embarrassment. He then paused and picked up the towels.

"In fact, you take these. They're lighter, and therefore easier..."

"What are we doing?" I asked again. Billie winked and turned my face in the direction of an abandoned trolley. I frowned.

"What? Are we gonna do trolley racing?" Billie scoffed and nodded sacastically.

"Yeah, that's why we're going around collecting tampons! If you win first place, you get them and the grapes!" I tutted at him.

"No, of course we're not doing trolley racing!" He continued, looking around, "This place is way too small for that. You have to know your terrain, Soph! Now, watch and learn..." He picked up the sack of potatoes and sauntered over to the trolley. The owner of it was browsing thoughtfully through the various herbs and spices, blissfully unaware. Billie dropped the potatoes casually into the trolley and walked briskly on, beckoning behind him to me. I walked after him. The lady carried on looking at the range of spices. I caught up with Billie, laughing my head off.

"Oh my god!" Were the only words that would come out. He flashed me a devil-may-care smile and handed me the grapes.

"Your turn!" He said, raising his eyebrows three times. I gaped at him.

"No way!" He rolled his eyes at me.

"Come on! Step up, Soph! I did the potatoes! And they were the hardest. Look!" He pointed to a vacant trolley in the dairy isle. This time, the owner was a bald man, picking up pints of milk, struggling with more than he could carry. Billie gave me a little nudge.

"Go!" He mouthed. I tried mouthing "No!" Back to him, but he shooed me off to the trolley, mouthing, "Hurry!" I bit my lip and walked up to the trolley. No, I couldn't do it! I put the grapes back in the basket. I looked back at Billie. He didn't try and get my to do it this time. He just looked disappointed that I wouldn't play with him. His disappointment motivated me. I picked up the grapes again. Then I realised, to impress Billie, I could do more. So I put the grapes back again, and instead of using the grapes, I picked up the sanitary towels, dropped them silently into Mr Baldy's trolley and quickly ran away, not quite believing what I'd just done. Billie caught up with me, grinning broadly. He held out his hand and we took a high five.

"Nice one, Soph!" I found myself grinning too.

"Look, if we get caught doing this..."

"We could get thrown out, I know. But we won't!" He said, laughing and rubbing my shoulders to reassure me. "Come on, let's get some more stuff!" He grabbed my hand and lead me through the alcohol isle. He picked up a bottle of vodka before moving on. I rolled my eyes.

"I take it that isn't for our game?" He grinned.

"That's where you're wrong! Pick up whatever you can, you never know what might come in handy..." I took his advise and picked up some curly straws. We then moved back to the toiletries. I found an extra large pack of condoms. I nudged Billie and pointed to them. He nodded, smiling.

"Nice..." I laughed and put them in my basket. We then headed for the bakery. Billie picked up a packet of custard creams and I picked up a cherry pie. Billie stopped and surveyed the sutuation.

"Right, that should do us. Now we just have to find the ideal victums..." I laughed and looked around for abandoned trolleys. I then spotted one that belonged to an extremely large man. I pointed to it as subtly as I could.

"I think we have our custard cream man." Billie followed my finger and grinned.

"Oh yes! You or me?"

"You! I don't wanna get kicked out of this supermarket!" Billie scoffed.

"Excuse me, madam, but neither do I! This is the only place I know of that doesn't ID you for booze!" I rolled my eyes.

"You're just full of interesting facts, Billie..."

"Amn't I just?" He snatched the custard creams. "Ok, fine. Since they are my custard creams..." He waited until Custard Cream Victim 101 was busying himself looking at the special offers on crisps, then tiptoed over and dropped the custard creams into the trolley. He then hotfooted it out of the crisps isle. I walked briskly behind him, stifling giggles. I obviously wasn't doing a very good job.

"Shut it, you!" Billie hissed, shoving me, "You wanna get us thrown out?" I consoled myself.

"Ok, ok, i get it. Underage drinking hangs in the balance." Billie flicked me on the nose and grabbed my arm.

"Come on, let's look for our next victim!" We disappeared into the shopping isles, looking for stationary trolleys. We found one in the frozen food isle. It belonged to a young, (ish) girl and her mother. Billie grinned.

"I think we've found our condom victim!" He whispered. I laughed. He handed me the condoms! I passed them straight back.

"Get lost, Bill!"

"You were the one who picked them up! And I did the custard creams..."

"Custard creams are no WAY as bad as dumping condoms in someone's trolley! And the guy we did the custard creams to will probably use them..."

"Ho do you know she won't use these?" Billie asked, indicating the girl. I shook my head, laughing.

"Oh my god..!"

"Well?" He said, laughing. He passed me the condoms again. "Come on, neither of them are looking. Go!" I sighed and quickly swooped in, placing the pack of condoms in the trolley. I then turned around and walked slowly away. Running was a dead giveaway. We stumbled into the non alcoholic drinks isle, bent double with silent laughter. Billie gasped for air.

"Oh God! Ok, what's next?" He looked through the contents of our baskets, still laughing his head off. "Ok...." he tried to avoid looking at the vodka, but he couldn't help it, as it was the only thing left in his basket. I smiled falsly at him.

"Well, I guess that's game over." He frowned at me, then he smiled.

"No it's not! I still have this to get rid of..." I scoffed,

"Yeah, like you'll get rid of that, Billie!" He stared at the ground, looking a little hurt. I pointed to a large vacant trolley that obviously belonged to one of the staff. It was full to the brim with bottled water. The vodka could easily be mistaken for one of them.

"I dare ya." I said dangerously. Billie raised one eyebrow very slowly.

"Don't dare me unless you mean it..." I folded my arms across my chest and looked at his basket expectantly, to show him I meant it. Billie picked up the bottle by the neck, then slid his hand down so he had a better grip of it.

"Right..." He strode up the to trolley. While "Brian", as it said on his badge, was busyng himself placing bottles of water on the shelves carefully, Billie sneaked the vodka into his stash of Evian. I smiled, not surprised in the slightest. I knew once Billie heard the word "dare", there wasn't anything he wouldn't do. That's why I'd said it. I was pleased with myself. The vodka that had been nagging me through my whole afternoon with him was gone. Billie came jogging back to me.

"I win!" He said, grinning. I frowned.

"I win! I emptied my basket first!" I squinted at him.

"What?" He smiled slyly.

"Whoever empties their basket first is the winner." He said, very slowly and clearly, as if talking to an idiot. I scoffed.

"You didn't tell me that!"

"I know, I never tell people the aim of the game until it's over." He smiled proudly. "That's why I always win." I shook my head at him. He laughed, gave me the loser sign and grabbed my hand.

"Come on, let's get out of here." I brandished my basket in front of him, which still had the cherry pie and the curly straws in it.

"I still have these to get rid of." Billie let go of my hand, picked up the curly straws and threw them into a trolley as it passed, like he'd been doing it for years. Which, now that I think about it, he probably has. He then picked up the cherry pie.

"As for this, my treat to you." He said, getting out his wallet, "For playing with me. But make sure and save me some. After all, I am the winner..."