237,59. That's all the money we had down to the cent. Thankfully there was a sale in a small, family-owned supermarket in the outskirts of the town we were in. No one to ask questions, like "Why is that 1X year old buying food for the month alone?", or "Why is that girl who's a good foot taller than him acting like a kid?".
I made sure to make a list of everything we needed to buy, making sure to cross out any junk food Gwen added when she thought I wasn't looking. So much junk food… Pushing the cart was a bit hard with only one hand, it would always drift to one side or the other, and here I thought I had this "only having one arm" thing down to a T, guess I was wrong, oh yeah, I gotta buy bandages!
I've looked online for a few tips on how to save money when buying groceries, one of them was to always go for store brands, they were right, the difference is fucking enormous! Why are brand names so expensive?! There's literally no fucking reason for this!
- Ben! – My eyes widen as I hear Gwen's excited voice and heavy thumping that were probably her running towards me.
- Wha-?! – Is all I can get out of my mouth before I see her jump high in the air and fall on top of me. We fall to the floor with a loud CRASH sound, I groan in pain as I open my eyes, only to see her own dull green eyes, filled with excitement and a goofy smile I've never seen before.
Ah, there's a loose stitch on her cat symbol… Fuck, I gotta buy thread now. And people are looking at us, they're giving us weird looks, I don't like that…
- Gwen, what did I say about jumping on me? – I say in a calming voice, to make sure she knows I'm not mad, I learned that she doesn't like when I raise my voice at her when I got mad at her for wasting shampoo. I pat her head as she giggles.
- I know, I know! But! – She bounces up and down on top of me and hugs me- There's a new Sumo Slammers cereal! The one that has the golden cards! Can we pleeeeease get it? Pretty please? – She makes that puppy eyed expression that she learned on TV, she's been doing that whenever she wants something. But I won't give in this time, I won't!
… I was weak, there goes a good 20 bucks. I sigh as we head to the cashier to pay for everything, she hugs my torso tightly from the left as we use her left hand and my right to guide the cart. She's been getting more and more, intimate? Cuddly? She's been touching and hugging me quite a lot. Which is not exactly a bad thing, it's apparently called "Touch starvation"? I'm not a doctor, so I can't say for sure.
Push it back into your mind Ben, the cashier's looking at you, leave that for later.
Gwen and I set the groceries for the cashier to scan, Gwen not so sneakily sneaks a chocolate bar under two tubs of toothpaste, I chuckle weakly and let it be, I'll tell her later that she can only eat it after dinner. After she finishes scanning and I pay, she asks if I need a hand. I deadpan at her, then give her a weak chuckle before saying:
- And an arm too if you don't mind – I say, lifting my stump for her to see, I can see the color drain from her face before reassuring her – Hey, don't worry, I'm still not used to it either.
We leave the store, I can see Gwen still glaring at the cashier, she doesn't like when people mention my arm, or lack thereof.
We're back at the Rust Bucket, I'm making microwaved food again. I can't cook yet, and I'm NOT letting Gwen handle a knife.
She asked where Grandpa Max was… Again. It's been a few weeks since he… Vanished. I haven't told Gwen yet, she thinks he's out with some old friends, I've already gave up on finding him.
I've been messing around with the Rust Bucket and found a few weird panels, stuff you wouldn't find in a normal van, including a map, GPS thingie that shows the location of more Plumber bases all over the country. We've been going from base to base, trying to find a way to fix this damn watch so Gwen goes back to normal. No luck so far.
I'm the responsible one now, Gwen would say that this is ironic… Does she even remember this word? Every time she uses the watch, her mind breaks more and more. I've prohibited her from using the watch unless it is to save herself, she got mad at me for the first time since this whole thing started, saying how we could help people.
I don't care, right now my priority is her safety.
This isn't the time to play hero.
Budgeting, cleaning, cooking, bathing her, researching the few blueprints I got from the damn watch and messing around with parts we get from the bases we visit. It's pretty hard, I've cried plenty of times after Gwen fell asleep. I mean, how the HELL am I supposed to handle this? I'm just a kid! Oh well, the world won't stop just because a brat's complaining, right?
I wonder, what's for breakfast tomorrow… Maybe pancakes…
