Chapter 3.
Jules did a double take as she saw Buck pull out the list Cooper had just been holding. "Ok. We need dish soap, dishwasher soap, and hand soap. And spray cleaner." "Are you gonna take forever reading everything again?" Jules asked, only somewhat jokingly. "Nope." He waved the list around. "Eugene was very specific." "When isn't he?" Cooper laughed. Buck tossed a quick smile over his shoulder at his friend before focusing on the shelves.
"Huh."
"What?" Bridget asked. "They don't have the soap that Eugene put on the list." He looked at the shelves around them. "Any of the soaps on the list." Jules went and peered over his shoulder. "None of them?" she asked. "Nope." Cooper scrunched his eyebrows. "So what do we do?" Buck sighed. "Hang on; I'll text Eugene, see what he wants to do."
He whipped out his phone and pulled up Eugene in his contacts. "Is that... a deer?" "Hmm?" Bridget pointed at his phone case. "A deer?" "Oh; Yeah. It's a buck, specifically." The sheepish grin on Buck's face held a strange pride. "I saw it one time when I went to the mall with Jules. It's fitting, don't 'cha think?" Jules rolled her eyes as Buck's phone dinged.
Buck stared at his phone in silence. "What's wrong?" Cooper asked. "Nothin'. It's just easier to translate to English from Eugene in person." Cooper leaned over Buck's shoulder. After a moment's scrutiny, Cooper said, "Okay. So what he's saying is to make sure the hand and dish soaps are free of these, and spray cleaners are free of these, but contain these." Buck sighed again and rubbed his temples. "This is so complicated. I don't even know what half this stuff is."
Cooper laughed. "I know strictly because my parents buy the exact same things." "You wanna know what Mr. Skint's criteria for soap was? Cheap and doesn't smell super frilly. That's it." Jules wrinkled her nose. "How can something smell frilly?" Buck made a face. "That's not the right word. I'd say perfumy, but that's not right, because he wore that real smelly 7 dollar cologne. Maybe flowery's a better word."
Bridget had mostly been quiet during the shopping trip, standing off to the side, but she took her own step forward to stare over Buck's shoulder. "Wow, Eugene even listed preferred scents." Buck offered what was supposed to be a smile. "That's Eugene for ya. He's very... thorough." Jules scoffed. "That's an understatement."
"Does this smell like rosemary?"
Cooper pulled his head away from the soap that had been unceremoniously shoved under his nose. "Ummm." "Eugene said to get rosemary-scented dish soap," Buck interrupted. "I don't even know what rosemary smells like." "I don't know. I guess it does." Buck still seemed unsure, so he said, "Just tell Eugene that this was the closest to smelling like rosemary that you could find." "I guess," Buck said. "I still don't know what rosemary smells like," he mumbled as he walked towards the cart. Cooper shook his head with an affectionate chuckle as he turned back to the dishwasher packs.
"How many things of hand soap did we say we needed?" Jules hollered from the other end of the aisle. "Six!" Both boys called back.
When the girls got back to the cart, Buck shoved the soap in their faces. "Does this smell like rosemary?" Jules pulled back while gently pushing the bottle away. "I mean, I don't know. What does rosemary even smell like?" Buck shrugged. Bridget got a thoughtful expression on her face. "I bet they have the rosemary herb somewhere here in the store. You could smell that and compare the two," she suggested.
"As much as I'm sure the store would love you mutilating their herbs, I wouldn't recommend it." Cooper popped up out of nowhere to share that piece of wisdom. He placed his soap choices in the cart and leaned against it. Buck shook the bottle of soap. "I need to know if this smells like rosemary," he insisted. Jules gave him an amused look. "I'm sure it does Buck." "But I need to know." "Why?"
Buck sighed and shoved his free hand into the front of his hair. "Eugene said it's supposed to smell like rosemary." Jules opened her mouth before closing it. She knew there had to be a reason that her best friend was getting near-panicked because of soap. "Buck, do any of your soaps at home rosemary scented?" "The dish soap." "And does the soap you're holding now smell like the one at home?" Buck wrinkled his nose. "I guess? I don't really pay attention." Jules took the bottle from him and screwed on the lid. "So if this smells like the something at home that's Eugene-approved, then it's fine."
Bridget and Cooper gave each other quizzical looks, but said nothing. She and Buck both leaned into the cart to arrange some stuff. Very quietly, Cooper heard her ask Buck if he was good. He watched Buck take in a deep breath before murmuring, "Yeah, I'm good." Jules turned to look at the other two. "Ready to keep going?" They both nodded, unsure as to what had just transpired.
A/N: Sorry if Buck seems a little OOC, it will (hopefully) be understood in the next chapter. Have a great day!