"Candy, breakfast bars, and cookies," Jules said, reading the sign overhead. "One of these is not like the other," Cooper said. The girls laughed. Buck remained oddly silent; shoulders raised up somewhat defensively. He dodged the people leaving the aisle, eyeing them distrustfully. "Protein powder an' stuff's in here too," he muttered. He avoided eye contact. Jules shook her head as he walked off.
Bridget turned to Jules. "So, All-Knowing-One, what's up with him now?" Jules shrugged. "No clue." Cooper raised his hand. "It's because he called Katrina "Mom". He tends to call them Mom and Dad around the team, and I'm actually pretty sure that's what he has them as in his phone. But he's afraid to slip up in front of anyone else though." Bridget half-smiled. "That's actually kinda sweet," she said.
Jules frowned. "How come I never knew that? We're supposed to be best friends." "Well, don't shoot the messenger, but from what I've observed, sometimes your friendship is more focused on you or your phone than whatever Buck's trying to talk to you about," Cooper said, choosing his words carefully. Jules took in a breath, ready to defend herself, before letting it out with a sigh. "Yeah. I know. I'm working on it." Cooper smiled. "It's all anyone can do."
Buck came back to the cart with an armful of protein powders, two boxes of Pop-tarts and a 12-count box of granola bars. "What?" he asked, looking up from the cart. "You know none of us are going to tease you about calling Katrina 'Mom' right?" Cooper asked, nudging Buck's foot with his own. Buck looked back down, face turning pink. "'Cause, we're not," Cooper continued, giving the girls a meaningful 'jump in at any time' look.
"I think it's kinda sweet," Bridget offered, only somewhat awkwardly. "Yeah," Jules said, taking a few steps toward him. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that if you called her that to her face, she'd cry. Or Eugene, for that matter."
"You think Eugene would cry if I called him Mom?"
The quiet, serious-but-amused delivery of the question made the others laugh, and eventually Buck too. "I know what you mean. And thanks. But," he looked at them with pleading eyes. "Please don't tell Eugene and Katrina. I don't, I," he took a deep breath. "I just, really want this to work." The other three nodded seriously. "Promise!" they chorused.
Buck nodded once then tossed a container of protein powder at Cooper. "That's what you get, right?"
As the boys faded off into a conversation about protein powders, Jules headed for the cookie section. "I know Connie put chocolate chip cookies on the list," she said to Bridget. "Unfortunately, none of these store-bought ones will compare to Connie and I's homemade ones." "I thought Connie can't cook?" "She really can't. But she can bake, I'll give her that." Bridget chuckled, reaching for a package of snickerdoodles. "My mom is the complete opposite. She's a great cook, but she can only bake if it comes in a tube."
Bridget shot a glance over at the boys. "So, when did you and Buck become friends?" Jules' brow furrowed as she grabbed a box of chocolate chip cookies. "Well, we met when Buck first moved in with the Meltsners, y'know, when he got out on parole. But I guess we didn't really become 'friends' until I moved to Odyssey a few months later." She glanced over her shoulder. "Why?" Bridget shrugged. "Just curious." Jules raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.
Bridget scanned the shelves for the Oreos that Cooper had mentioned at some point earlier. "You just, seem to know him pretty well." Jules turned back to fully face her. "Well, yeah. I do. He's, different, than the friends I had back in LA. He's, the best friend I've ever had. No offense." Bridget shrugged a shoulder. "None taken."
"The girls are talkin' about us."
Cooper gave his friend a skeptical look. "What makes you say that?" he asked as he skimmed the different candies. "Well for one, they keep lookin' over here, but not like they're talkin' to us, y'know?" Buck said, sliding out of the way of the tattooed hand that came from behind him to grab a bag of Skittles.
"And, Jules has her 'I'm talking to someone about someone in the room' look." Cooper raised his eyebrows as he grabbed M&Ms and Reese's Pieces. "Jules has an overly specific gossip face?" Buck nodded, keeping an eye on the other two. "Is this that weird people reading thing you do?" Buck turned towards the shelves. "Probably." He shrugged, then laughed as he picked up a box of candy. "Hey, I should get these for Mom and Dad." Cooper laughed. "Nerds."
Buck put the candy back. "I… don't think they eat candy," he said. "Never?" Buck shrugged. "I've never seen it." Cooper scratched his chin as the girls approached, cookies in hand. "Have you guys ever seen Eugene and Katrina eat candy?" Jules and Bridget both shook their heads. Buck grabbed a box of Raisinettes. "Well, these are healthy, so."
Cooper laughed as Buck threw it into the cart. "Getting anything for yourself?" Jules asked. He made some sort of confirmation noise in the back of his throat and grabbed Mike and Ike's. "You girls want anything?" Jules grabbed some sort of chocolate, and Bridget, caramels.
"That should be everything, right?" Jules asked, dropping all of her stuff in the cart. "For this aisle, anyway," Cooper said, arranging said stuff in the cart.
Bridget glanced around. "What's next anyway? And why is it so cold in here? I'm freezing!" "No clue, and because it's mandatory for grocery stores to be freezing to torture the customers." Buck laughed. Jules didn't. "That actually would not surprise me."
The teens leaned against the cart for a minute, people watching in silence.
"There's the guy who's cart you tried to take over," Buck said. Jules rolled her eyes. "Accidentally." "So you say." "Oh geez."
Jules took a deep breath before moving away from the carts. "Ready to go rejoin the chaos?" she asked. Bridget shrugged, Cooper shook his head, and Buck stretched. "We really don't have much of choice, do we?" he joked.
"Alright," Cooper said. "Let's go get," he pulled out the list, "produce? Are we out of dry stuff?" Buck ticked off his fingers, tallying a mental list. "…I guess so." "Good! So, produce?" The other three nodded, and, steeling themselves, left the aisle.
A/N: Wow, it has been a hot second since I've updated this. Sorry! The holidays and life and everything got in the way. But hopefully, I'll be able to update more consistently now. And I'd also like to say thanks to everyone who's stuck with me and the story. Y'all are awesome. See y'all in the next chapter!