"Oh no, oh no, oh no..." Mine worried as she scrambled through the aisles, knocking over bottles of chocolate syrup and cases of gluten-free sprinkles. Not thinking very well under pressure, she did her best to (or hence try to) keep her composure as she struggled to get the ingredients for decorating a pre-made vanilla cake.
"That girl is going to be the death of me," Mine claimed while tiptoeing to reach the icing shelf, "Haruka has to start organizing her life better. I mean, I love her and all, but giving us a day to plan Sol's birthday? We're not even - ah!" She then proceeded to trip over a bag of unrefined flour.
"You're getting too far in over your head, Mine," Ari sighed, helping the little ball of stress to her feet, "Everything's going to be fine. It always is." Sighing yet again, she felt bad for the girl in front of her. Having watched her run into shelves of who-knows-what, Ari did have to acknowledge Mine's dedication.
"You know, I don't understand how you can be so carefree in a dilemma like this," Mine stated while speedwalking, eyebrows furrowed both in bewilderment and panic.
"Dilemma?" Ari said to herself, dumbfounded and exasperated.
Nearing the checkout lines, the girls heard a loud crash from behind them. Turning around, Ari rolled her eyes.
"Sirius, stop crushing that poor worker," she said blatantly, as if it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
The tall figure quickly shot up, thoroughly apologizing to the man he all but sat on.
"Sorry man, but you see, I'm in a bit of a rush, you see, and, you see..." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
The girls refused to believe that the teddy bear in front of them was the same giant who single-handedly rescued a group of middle school girls from a hand of thugs. Of course, the girls were just as scared of him as they were of the thugs and ran away without thanking him, but who really pays attention to the details anyway?
"What a poor, poor employee..." Mine said to herself, gazing upon the crumpled body before her.
"It was an accident!" Sirius pleaded, voice uncharacteristically shifting a few notches higher. "I was trying to get the last bag of ketchup chips, alright? You know they're Sol's favourite!"
The girls left shaking their heads in disappointment, with Sirius pathetically following them clutching his beloved bag of ketchup chips. Eventually, the employee was helped back to his feet by his colleagues.
"Do you think he'll like the red or purple balloons better?" Bright blue eyes glanced at a figure leaning against the wall.
"Hmm?" Alexis forced out, looking up from his phone for a second, then quickly reverting back to thinking. 'Luca's house is approximately 15 minutes away and the party starts in about an hour. That'll give us enough time to get these balloons and order a couple of large pizzas. And after that -"
"Alexis!" Luca exclaimed, knocking the bespectacled introvert from his thoughts.
"What is it?" Alexis half-asked, half-spat. "I do hope you know I'm just as busy as you are," he stated teasingly, tapping away on his phone, "Oh, but not looking like an utter idiot doing so." With a slight smirk, he darted his eyes up from his phone to see his friend's reaction. He was dumbfounded at what he saw.
Luca was leaning against a tank of helium, puffing his cheeks and taking in large breaths of the gas.
"Hey Alexis," the teenager called, his amusingly high voice made evident, "You wanna try?"
"No, I most certainly do not wish to try, Luca." The high pitch made it increasingly difficult to concentrate. "Just hurry up and get those balloons. We have to get the pizza."
"I asked you already Alexi-chan. Red or purple? I can't decide." Luca pursed his lips and forced more air out of his mouth, attempting to blow helium into a deflated balloon.
"Get off of the ground and focus, Luca. You're acting like a child," Alexis chided, sighing, "Why is it that I'm the one accompanying you during times like these, and why is it that you make it an effort to act thrice as annoying when we're alone? My word, even after all this time, I still refuse to believe we're related."
Alexis huffed and stared down at his phone. 45 minutes until the party. 'That pizza guy had better know how to do his job.'
"Luca, just take the red ones and let's -" Looking up from his phone for only the second time that afternoon, he realized something was off about the scene in front of him. Firstly, the helium tank was back in its respective place along the side of the wall. Secondly, after he had just witness a certain someone tear up a countless number of packages and blow up an even bigger number of balloons, there was absolutely no mess whatsoever. Everything had been neatly put back onto the shelf, or made its way into the trash can in the near corner. Oh, and Luca wasn't anywhere to be found.
'Do not tell me I have to buy these balloons and order the pizzas myself while searching for an idiot at the same time.' Could this be the day the great Alexis Mercier finally loses his cool?
Ha.
Not a chance.
Hearing a familiar laugh coming from the direction of the checkout lines, Alexis heaved a sigh of relief.
"Alexis!" Luca waved, jumping, "I ended up getting both red and purple!"
If someone could describe the look of utter hopelessness on dear Alexis' face, they would say it reminded them of something between a tired cat being pecked repeatedly by a parrot, and a teenager forced to stay home to watch over their younger sibling whilst hitting their head against the nearest wall.
Walking towards Luca, with a smile forcibly plastered on his face, Alexis questioned, "Oh, did you now."
Unfazed, but clearly aware of the facade worn by his cousin, Luca smirked, "You wouldn't listen to me."
And after knowing well how Luca's troubled, genius mind worked, Alexis thought to himself, 'I had good reason not to.'
"Shoot, shoot, shoot, it's him, it's him!" Mine exclaimed, showing her friends the name on her phone.
"Sol! What do we say?" Sirius asked, clutching the now paid-for ketchup chips tighter and tighter.
Ari apprehensively took the bag from the panicking structure beside her and turned to Mine, saying, "Answer it and improvise."
"Oh, are you sure? Maybe you should take over Ari," Mine mumbled, which resulted in Ari taking the phone from her, pressing the answer button, and ramming it back in the space between Mine's ear and shoulder.
"Hi, Sol! What a surprise! I mean, there's no surprise. I mean, how are you?"
Ari and Sirius slapped their foreheads simultaneously. The voice on the other end began his string of replies.
"I'm doing alright. Do you know where everybody is? I tried reaching Alexis and Luca but both aren't answering."
Ari and Sirius took note of Mine's switch in tone with her response.
"Oh, I'm not sure. I tried calling them too. Have you tried calling Sirius? Maybe they're on some type of family trip."
Ari smirked, recalling the times Mine's acting skills and two-faced personality got them out of many a sticky situation. 'When she's comfortable, she'll act like a klutz, but when it comes down to it, she'd make you believe she's really something else.' She heard Sol's voice respond.
"Yeah, I guess. It's the 14th, right? Is there something going on today? Maybe a birthday, I don't know."
The three internally smacked their foreheads, all thinking the same thing, 'Can this guy be any more obvious?'
Out of the blue, they heard a loud yelling coming from behind them.
"Mine, hi!"
Said girl turned around and was greeted to see a mass of balloons on the other side of the window. A head found its way out of the bundle.
'Luca?'
'No, no, shh, stay away!' Mine swatted the air, telling the boy to be quiet.
Luca tilted his head, confused. 'What's going on? Are they not happy to see me?'
He was just about to say something when a dark presence found its way beside him. Ari, all in a span of ten seconds, made her way out of the grocery store, through a mass of people in front of said grocery store, and stopped right in front of the teenage heart-breaker only to harshly cover his mouth, preventing him from screaming any louder.
Sol could be heard on the opposite side of the glass.
"I swear I just heard Luca. I mean, no one is as loud as him. Well, maybe Haruka but I doubt her voice is that masculine."
'Hey, Luca's voice isn't that masculine either, buddy,' Sirius thought, but obviously only to himself. Anyone who met Luca knew that although he seems childish when he presents himself, he hides a darker, sadistic part in him that no one but Alexis talks about. And nobody questions it.
But considering we're talking about the same guy who's propped up against the window by a girl nearly half his size, holding multicoloured balloons, you couldn't be blamed if you didn't believe in the whole "sadistic nature" gist.
"Hmm? Luca?" Mine recreated her best laugh, "No, he's not here. Wish he was though." She grimaced, biting her lip.
On the other side of the window, Ari was rather comfortable holding the loudmouth down. Looking up for a second, her view of the clear sky was obstructed by an array or red and purple. She quickly moved to an even more comfortable position, looking up a second time. She saw blue. Shit.
Luca had made his way out of her hold and began walking backwards towards the grocery's entrance, sticking his tongue out at her in the process. He would've made it in too, even with the haul of balloons, if he didn't sense the darkest presence he'd ever known.
Alexis was behind him holding two boxes of steaming hot pizzas with a look of anger on his face. To be honest, anger would be an understatement. Alexis was smiling. And when Alexis smiles at Luca, kids, we know that inside, he is fuming with the wrath of a thousand suns. Of course he'd never admit it, as he has to always keep his cool, but it's happening alright. A supernova inside the mind a super genius.
"You know I should commend you," Alexis said through gritted teeth.
"For what?"
"For being the only person capable enough to drive me to the brink of insanity."
"I swear I hear the cousins, Mine."
Impulsively, Sirius raised the ketchup chip bag Ari had initially thrown back in his face and began crunching it.
'Ah, what the heck, why not,' Mine thought, working with the improvisation.
"Sol? Where are - are you in - tunnel? I can't - you. I - breaking up. Bye."
"Wait, I'm not in any tunnel. What's going -"
The line went dead.
"Real subtle, Sirius." Mine smiled, shaking her head as she put her phone away. Half an hour to decorate a cake and get to the party? She'd need a miracle.
Mine and Sirius exited the grocery store to be with the others. They walked in just in time to see a scolding of Luca by none other than Alexis.
"And what did I say about going off when we're running errands?" Alexis asked a sullen and defeated Luca.
"That we shouldn't do such a thing because it causes more trouble for you and because you already have to deal with me on a daily basis."
'They really do have a father-and-son-like relationship. It's kind of creepy,' all of the bystanders thought unanimously.
"I have to decorate this cake, so we have to go. And I mean go as in right now." Mine, being the only one ever permitted to, grabbed Ari by arm and dragged her in the direction of a bus station.
A sexy-ass minivan pulled up.
"Get in, guys."
Haruka, showed up with her brother, shades on and all. The automatic door opened at a painfully slow rate, but revealed just enough seats for the five of them.
"My timing's gotten better, hasn't it?" Haruka asked, smirking as she took off her sunglasses.
The others dismissed her.
"Yeah, you see, you still only told us of this surprise party today, so no."
"I honestly don't believe your planning's gonna get any better."
"I mean, and why a minivan?"
"Okay!" Haruka exclaimed, fed up with the negativity, "I get my planning's not the best."
"Or even decent," Alexis had to remark, earning a chorus of approval from the others.
Earning a glare from the girl riding shotgun, she retaliated, "Can we just get back to my place without getting into an argument? Sol will be there in 20."
With a couple of pizza boxes burning his lap, Alexis vowed to have the last word.
"Oh, now when did you think of this plan? My dear, I do hope it doesn't fail like all of your others."
"OH, SHUT UP!"