She Will Be Loved

“Onward trusty steed!” I exclaimed, finger pointed forward with my left foot on the rim of the cart. Jimmy obliged, running off down the aisle. I squealed, leaning down the grab the front edge of the cart. I knew Jimmy was getting a full view of my ass, but luckily he wasn’t one of the perverts who would openly make a comment about it.

“Where are we going?” Frank asked from the rack below the cart. He had wanted to come along up top, but I refused to make room for him for this exact reason.

“Shut up undercarriage. We’re plotting,” I scowled, stomping on the bottom on the basket. Jimmy chuckled at me which just caused me to grin widely again. What is going on, you might ask. Well we went to an amusement park, aquarium, and then got ice cream cones. The guys wanted to pick up some things for a movie night since it was about nine now and the three of us were hyper. So while everyone was getting stuff in an orderly fashion we were getting things in a not so orderly fashion.

“Candy aisle!” Jimmy shouted, pulling a sharp right. We were all left to marvel in the wide selection of candy Target offered.

“Oh my God, I want this!” I shouted, hugging the clear tube filled with white chocolate covered pretzels. Frank appeared out of nowhere, hugging me and it in one.

“Can we just buy this whole fucking thing?!” I exclaimed, turning to give Jimmy my puppy eyes. He grinned at me and began looking into his wallet.

“I think I can. You and Frank start filling up bags.” Frank and I high fived each other before I made Frank hold open a bag so I could begin pouring pretzels in with the scoop in the container. On bag two Bob and Johnny came down the aisle.

“What the hell are you three doing?” Frank and I froze in our actions as if we got caught doing something bad. We looked over at Jimmy who had on his amazing poker face. We slowly looked back at the two new arrivals and smiled.

“Nothing.” The two rolled their eyes in sync and we continued with our deed. On bag four we had finally finished off the container. I climbed into the cart with my legs crossed Indian style, all four bags in my lap. Frank again climbed underneath and Jimmy ran off, leaving Bob and Johnny in the dust. On the way towards the front Jimmy also put in four four-packs of Green Monster.

“What have you guys done?” Matt sighed when he spotted our cart’s contents. In the cart that everyone else had filled had popcorn, a few DVDs, some candy, a few blankets, you know, normal stuff. I looked down at my lap and frowned.

“Should we get more stuff?” I asked curiously.

“No, that’s good enough,” Brian interjected. I sighed dramatically but nodded. All of a sudden Ray, Johnny, Bob, and Zacky – the missing people from the group – came from the general area of electronics. When they, Zacky and Ray that is, saw our ‘loot’ they sighed.

“Please tell me no one is stupid enough to buy them that,” Zacky remarked.

“I’m buying it myself, thank-you very much,” Jimmy scoffed, pushing the cart in line ahead of the other cart. Frank decided to climb out from underneath, standing next to it instead. I looked around myself to notice there wasn’t enough leg room to climb out with the stuff inside. I shrugged, leaning back and getting comfy in my spot. There was still there was still three buggies ahead of us.

“So I heard a little secret.” I whipped my head over to look at a smirking Frank. I glared suspiciously at the mischief twinkling in his hazel eyes.

“And what would that secret be Anthony?” Frank grinned. One of the things everyone learned was that when I’m being serious I use middle names. That is why I took it in me to interrogate everyone for their middle names. It worked. I had gotten names without bloodshed. Got close with Ray, I’m not sure why. Manuel isn’t that bad.

“I heard that a Miss Westan - ” He suddenly dropped his voice to a whisper before continuing. “Likes a certain Mr. Baker.”

My face instantly blushed and I covered my face with my hands. “Do not!”

“Not with that red of a face,” Jimmy remarked. I bit my lip before slowly pulling down my hands to reveal my eyes.

“Is it that obvious?” I muttered. I turned to peek past Jimmy to look at the other group. I caught Zacky’s eye and ‘eep’ed, turning back around. We moved forward as one cart took their bags and left.

“Just a wee bit,” Frank replied, holding his thumb and forefinger about two centimeters apart. I smiled a little and slapped his shoulder playfully. Damn smartass.

“You’re not going to tell him, right?” I asked quickly.

“Well no, that would be your job. Eventually,” Jimmy added at my horrified face. I let out a sigh of relief. “It’s a damn wonder why he hasn’t noticed yet though.”

“You know the exact reason Jimmy,” Frank remarked, his arms crossed over his chest.

“His ex-girlfriend,” I finished the thought on everyone’s mind. It lapsed into silence until the next buggy left. “What did she do to him exactly? Why would he be oblivious to my liking because of her?”

“Dakota, stop.” My mouth formed a straight line as I turned to look up at Jimmy. His blue eyes seemed to turn cold at the thought of this unnamed girl. He shook his head wordlessly. “Just, don’t. That is a story better left alone for now. Don’t try barking up a tree you don’t need to be in. Gena is none of your -”

“Gena?” I butted in, curious. Jimmy winced as if he had slipped up.

“Just drop it, alright? His mind is not ready for a new girl. He just sees her everywhere. Leave it.” With that we pulled up one last time to check out. I passed Frank the items and sat back as Jimmy pushed the cart forward. As Jimmy checked out and then the guys, I was lost in my thoughts. There were so many things I had to learn about this girl. Like how to get her out of the equation of me and Zack.

I groaned to myself. I didn’t just think that, did I? I need to get a grip on myself. I’m seventeen, he’s twenty-one. He’s legal and I’m not. I need to get over myself this second. If he’s not ready, that’s fine. I probably need to crush over someone my age and my legalness anyway. But let’s face it, at this rate when will I be able to even meet someone my age? It was fall, maybe I should just talk to them about school.

“Earth to Kota!” I jumped, grabbing where my heart was beating a million miles per hour. I looked up to see Brian giving me a strange stare. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just lost in thoughts.” It was then that I noticed we were outside by the cars. Luckily we had all parked in a row so there wasn’t much walking. But that was just a huge sign that I was definitely deep in thought. I didn't even notice us leave the store. He held out a hand which I gratefully took to stand up in the cart. I raised my foot up to step out of the cart, but failed and almost face planted it. It was a good thing Brian was there to catch me. I laughed nervously in his arms.

“Are you naturally this clumsy?” Brian mused.

“Sadly,” I laughed back. He helped me balance myself before taking the cart to all the others. Suddenly Val grabbed my hand, dragging me to her Jeep. I followed her silent command to climb into the passenger seat as she got into the driver’s. She jerked out of her parking spot, making Brian, who had rode with her earlier, curse at our retreating vehicle. I laughed, tossing my hands into the air as we tore down Pacific Coast Highway.

“So my little, pretty, redheaded fury -” I raised my eyebrow at her strange nickname but stayed silent as she paused to roll up the windows since the cover on the backseat was on. “Who do you like?”

“Why is this suddenly everyone’s interest?” I sighed, running my hands roughly down my face. Val giggled.

“I’m assuming that Jimmy and Frank ganged up on you.”

“Did you put them up to it?” I asked suspiciously. The blonde just smiled, her eyes hidden by her sunglasses. I groaned, gently slapping her shoulder. “Why did you do that?!”

“I just wanted to see where your heart is. I mean, at first I was pretty sure it was just Zacky you liked. Every since you and Brian had that secret talk I hadn’t heard about, you two have been pretty close.” I narrowed my eyes. Had we really?

“I haven’t noticed,” I said coolly, turning my attention out the window.

“Really now?” I let out an ‘mhm’ which Val laughed at. “I think you have noticed my friend.”

“No idea what you’re talking about,” I stated, waving it off. Val just smiled to herself as she pulled into the house’s garage. She climbed out, me following suit.

“Go change before the guys get back. They can do all the work.” I laughed before running upstairs to do exactly as she advised. Tonight would be fun, I can tell already.