"At times I wonder how some of you got this far..." he went quiet for a moment staring at them in abject disappointment "You all are borderline daft" Ina, the short, buxom girl in her class flinched at the coldness of his words. Cara on the other hand was almost not even listening, too many things were on her mind for her to pay utmost attention to the senior consultants insults... too many.
After the class, she was out of her lab coat and in a cab on the way back home before most of her mates were done gossiping about the days happenings
The sound of a notification popping up on her found roused her from her thoughts. It was a message that simply read
"He tried it again" she sighed and dropped the offending device on her lap and went back to leaning her head on the car window watching the rain pour down relentlessly
Just as the driver made the turn down a street, she jumped up
"Please stop at the mall!" She had forgotten she was meant to buy a gift for a friend, her birthday was the next day and like everything else, she kept postponing it till the dying moment.
She paid the cab driver before tossing the hood of her jacket over her head and plopping open the door. She was out of the car in seconds yet the rain was far too ferocious for a few drops to not end up in the car. Clutching her tote bag, she dashed to the doors and was in the brightly lit mall within seconds. Rain has a way making an athlete out of anyone.
She nodded at the polite doorman while looking around silently wondering what exactly she was going to buy.
Her friend, Viola was a mere six months younger but they were so far apart in character she would be sorely mistaken to use herself as a prop for gifts.
The aisles, mostly empty due to the rain stretched on showing different varieties of everything possible which was one of the greatest advantages of such establishments but in her case proved to be more of a bother. Not knowing what to buy was never helped by having six varieties to be confused about.
She glossed through the jewellery section then the clothing section and just walked past appliances. Like her, Viola was also a student but she lived with her parents and so had no need for appliances.
Passing the packaged food aisle, she remembered she had a need for mayonnaise. It always got finished. She walked down reading signs and directives before she found it, or rather seven different brands of it without funnily enough, the one she preferred as a part of them. Her eyes caught on a familiar brown and orange label, the one she grew up using. It brought back so many memories...
Growing up, mayo was like salt in her house. Her dad loved it on his bread, her mother was a sucker for salads, her elder sister put up with it like she did everything else but her younger brother, he had mayo on everything. Rice, potatoes, cake, bread, it was like cheese to him.
Her younger brother... not as much a baby as he was when he had his mayo craze but he still showed traits of his baby habits. His addiction to mayo evolved when he became an adolescence to one for Nutella. Her mother had often complained bitterly about it for she saw nutella to be a far greater danger to health than mayo. He did stop, his addiction for mayo that is but that just left space for a new addiction. By 14, he was using cocaine like it was perfume.
Till today, in her house, the main drive for seeking out rehabilitation for him was guilt. Not one of them could understand how exactly he got addicted to it. How did it happen under all their noses? Watching him, caring for him, loving him... how?
Now at 18, he should have been graduating from high school, moving to college, making friends, having crushes, finding himself. Yet instead, he was kept in one rehabilitation center after another_ he never lasted long in any. He either tried to kill himself or kill another. She wondered which it was this time... "He tried it again". Tried what exactly, to be a murderer or a corpse?
The sound of her phone ringing cut through her mind like a razor pulling her out of her somber thoughts to the bright, packed shelves of honey, butters, gelatatto powder and of course... mayonnaise. Disoriented, she shuffled through her tote bag for her phone... Henry
"Hello?"
"You called me?"
"Did I?" she asked picking up a random jar to inspect the ingredients to see if it was a viable substitute
"Would I lie?" he countered and she sighed. Why was he always so defensive? And so sensitive? And childish? And... and... She stopped herself
Recently, she had developed a high propensity for picking faults with him as the day of their wedding drew closer. It was no secret that she didn't pick him, that she would never pick him but she had made peace with the fact that some how, he had been picked and she would become his wife, or so she thought
Deciding to just take the bloody mayo, she made to put it in her basket when she realized she hadn't even picked one "It was probably a mistake"
"Oh, okay" she knew he'd hang up in the next second
"Wait.." she made her way down to a cluster of baskets "Could you come pick me up, I'm at the mall and it's a torrent over here" the hand hooked in another basket's
"What happened to your car?"
"Mechanic" she shuffled her bag and held the phone between her shoulder to free up her hands
"I can't make it either because I'm also stuck..."
"Who's that?!" She snapped letting the basket drop
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"You know I'm not a fool. I heard a woman's voice in your background" he just kept silent. She turned around with an experience of amused disappointment and saw a man a good 10 feet away staring at his phone, he looked up at her as she asked "Henry, are you cheating on me?" The man's brows rose and she turned away and scoffed "Are you even real?" she laughed, a high pitched sound of mockery
"And if I am? Aren't you sad, that I could do something as such. The great Cara Vilcaf was cheated on... shocking right?" She turned and picked up her basket, gently putting her jar of mayo into it,
"No..." She walked past the stranger who was back to his phone "perfect"