Chapter 4
"Now, why is it you need me here again?" Tom asked his new friend and roommate, Carter. He had been dragged by Carter to the New Town pharmacy in search of a 'Get Well' card for his sister. "I don't see why you can't do this on your own. It's your sister after all." He wrinkled his nose. The room was stuffy and smelled like a mixture of paper and cough syrup.
"Heh, knowing me, I'd just end up getting Beth something stupid. You'd be better at this than I am. C'mon, help me look." He picked a card off the top shelf. "Ok, what about his one. It has a dog on the front and inside it says 'My love for you is greater than the sun and the moon, so I hope that you will get well soon'."
"Um, probably not."
"Yeah, you're right; it's dumb." Carter put the card back and grabbed another. "What about this one? It says 'Dios te bendiga y te alivie pronto…'"
"Your sister speaks Spanish?"
"No."
Tom shook his head. "You weren't kidding about not being good at this." He turned around to a display of candy behind him and grabbed a rather large box. "Look, just get her some candy. She'd enjoy that more than a card anyway." He looked at the box of cheap chocolates he held in his hand, and suddenly he remembered……..
'This is the life,' thought Tom. He and Daria sat on her family's couch, eating Quinn's chocolates with their shoes kicked off. "Happy Non-Anniversary," he said to Daria with a grin.
"Happy Non-Anniversary to you," said Daria.
"Are you sure Quinn won't mind?" asked Tom.
"Nah. Celebrating anniversaries was her idea."
"Yeah, remind me to 'thank' her for that later," said Tom with a wicked smirk.
"I'll help too. You want me to provide the tar and feathers?" asked Daria.
"How about Chinese water torture instead? Less mess."
"Or better yet, let's teach the guys in my school your technique of dating and convince them that Quinn really likes to go to drugstores with guys to read greeting card poems."
Tom stopped in mid-bite of his chocolate caramel. "You don't like that?"
"Sure I do," Daria quickly amended. "But Quinn wouldn't. Why?"
"Just checking… 'cause if you wanted to, you know, I could plan normal dates, like going to that French restaurant, Chez Pierre."
"You want me to eat dead snails and frog legs? What kind of boyfriend are you?" deadpanned Daria.
Tom smiled suddenly and stared at Daria. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "What?" she asked.
"Nothing, it's just… I think that's that first time you've ever actually called me your boyfriend."
Daria's eyes got wide for a second when she realized what she had indeed done. "Well," she finally said. "There's a first time for everything."
Tom smiled. "Yeah, I guess there is."
"Tom, what about this one? It 's got a bunny on it and says 'Wishing you a rabbit recovery'," Carter suddenly said.
"Go for it," Tom said half-heartedly, never taking his eyes off of the box of chocolates.
"This is just too easy," thought Cupid. He tucked The Slingshot of Thought into his weathered bag and left through the store's front door.