Chapter Five:
Groceries
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"If I were a drink I would be champagne." Primrose hummed, handing Syd the gallon of milk. "What would you be, my handsome Stanley? What about you, my dear Sydney?"

"Uh-"

"I'd be tequila." Syd cut Stanley off, nudging Primrose with a wink. Stanley chuckled, stepping forward to be next to Primrose as she scanned the chips before picking a bag up and tossing it into the basket.

Primrose giggled, "At least everyone loves you."

"Oh, ho, ho." Syd mimicked, walking down the cereal aisle and tossing a box into the basket. "This is a very boring shopping experience."

"I think it's pretty nifty. We're bonding." Primrose said, readjusting the flower in her hair.

"Yeah, it's pretty great. Pretty great." Stanley said, catching up with Syd as she placed the basket on the register counter.

"So, what kind of drink would you be?" Primrose leaned on the counter, looking up at Stanley. The specks of brown in her eyes appeared to be golden because of the sunlight cast on her through the window.

"O-Oh, um.. I don't know." Stanley shrugged, "I could be anything."

Primrose sighed, bumping him with her arm. "Oh, my sweet Stanley... I think you'd be... coffee. Because you're so energetic, but not plain bitter coffee.. like mocha.. or vanilla.. But I prefer mocha, so I think you'd be a mocha latte."

Stanley blushed as he looked down at the basket. "Thanks, Primrose."

Primrose grinned, taking the coin out of her pocket and flipping it with her right hand and taking out a piece of gum with her left.

"Okay, that'll be 67.99." The cashier said, causing panic to flood Syd's eyes.

"Uh, can you ring it up again? I think you overcharged me.." Syd said awkwardly, looking over at Primrose as she mumbled heads or tails.

"Which item, hon?" The woman asked kindly, looking down at the food items.

"All of 'em."

"Yeah, it's gonna be the same. Are you gonna pay or what?"

"Do you need me to spot you?" Stanley asked quietly.

"No, Stan. I'll just put it all back, it's fine." Syd said, pulling the milk and orange juice from the basket and angrily walking back to the back of the store.

"Stanley Barber, nice to meet you." Stanley smiled kindly, outstretching his hand to the woman.

"Primrose Wilder. Heads or tails?" Primrose grinned, holding up the coin so that she could see it.

"Uh, tails?"

"Interesting. I think it'll be heads." Primrose said, catching the coin in her hand. "It's heads."

The loud sound of items crashing to the floor caused Primrose to jump and run towards Syd, followed by Stanley.

"What happened, Syd?" Primrose asked, concern lacing her tone as she stepped over the items to get to her.

"Woah.. Syd?" Stanley looked up from the items on the floor to Syd. Before Primrose could make it to the other side, Syd had already darted away.

Primrose sighed, turning around and carefully stepping into the spots where the floor showed through the the boxes.

She quickly rushed past Stanley and out the door once she made it past the food. "My dear Sydney?"

She poked her head over the wall, frowning when she saw Syd sitting alone against the wall with her head in her hands. "Oh, no.."

She sat down beside her, gently patting her on the back. "It's okay, my dear Sydney. It's okay."

"It's not fucking okay."

"But it will be." Primrose replied, blinking slowly as she folded her hands together in her lap.

"Hey.." Stanley said slowly, taking a seat next to Primrose and Syd. "Panic attacks, huh? My uh.. My mom used to get those. I mean maybe she still does. I don't know. But I-I mean it sucks that you get them too. I'm sorry about that."

"Why are you still talking to me?" Syd pulled her head from her hands and turned to look at him.

"Because almost everyone else in this town's boring." Stanley chuckled, pulling a joint from the metal container in his pocket.

"Uh, I've never smoked before." Syd said slowly, glancing at Primrose who had her eyes focused on a bird, trying to figure out if that was Davenport or Feathery Styles.

"Do you wanna try?"

Primrose perked up, nodding excitedly, "I always want to try new things, my sweet Stanley."

"Do you, uh, do you want me to go first?" Syd nodded, glancing at Primrose who had also nodded. Stanley placed the joint between his lips before leaning over to hand it to Primrose.

She took it from him, examining it briefly before placing it between her lips and inhaling. "Holy shit that felt weird.."

Seconds after she handed it to Syd, coughs racked her body as Stanley laughed loudly.

"Don't be... don't be mean to me, my handsome Stanley." She coughed, shaking her head.  "I'll sick.. Aphrodite on you."

"Please don't."

~~

Primrose blinked slowly, staring out the window as she pressed her forehead against it. "I can feel the vibrations of everything in the entire car. Am I walking? I feel like I'm walking.. what's going on?"

Syd laughed looking back at her, "We're driving.."

"Do you guys wanna go to the football game?" Stanley asked, his voice soft an airy as he pushed up the sunglasses he wore.

Primrose wrapped her arms around the seat, pulling the glasses from his face and slipping them onto hers. "I'm filled with pep right now."

Syd chuckled, shaking her head, "Absolutely not."

"Stop the fucking car!" Primrose suddenly shouted, slamming her hands against the window. "Let's get milkshakes!"

~~

Primrose swayed to the beat of adore you as the cheerleaders excitedly shouted their cheers. "Just let me adore you.. ma na la.. la la."

"Surprised you even come to this stuff." Syd sighed, sipping the drink she held in her hands. "It's so lame."

"It's the opposite of lame, Syd." Stanely shook his head, jostling his drink as he looked at Primrose who stared blankly ahead at the game. "It's theater. It's live theater."

"The entire world is theater, my handsome Stanley." Primrose grinned, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Westinghouse Memorial High School on a Friday night." He continued, smiling to himself from Primrose's proximity. "What could be more tragic? More Shakespearean?"

"Us losing if we don't get our shit together." Primrose sighed, shaking her head. "We're getting completely destroyed out there."

"Think about it.. the moment the lights come up on Hamlet, you know it's not gonna end well. Take uh.. Mr. Bradley Lewis. His best case scenario is, what, managing some regional sales company? Where he gets to, I don't know, call the shots on employee of the month? I mean, these are the people that will actually attend the five, ten, twenty year reunion, because, aside from this, nothing else noteworthy is gonna happen."

Primrose blinked slowly as she raised her head from his shoulder, "That's a grim view on life, my handsome Stanley. Very grim."

He shrugged, "This is as good as it gets for them. And I like watching them, like Hamlet, when everything goes to shit in the end and everyone dies. It's the best theater in town."

Primrose winced as the sound of crunching resonated throughout the field. "Ouchies.. ouchies to the max.. Oh, at least he's getting up."

"Yeah, Bradley! Go, Bradley. Whoo!" Stanley cheered, clapping his hands together.  "Hey, do you guys wanna go to my house after? We can listen to Blood Witch?"

"I.. gotta feed Santa and cuddle him." Primrose lied, blinking slowly as she watched a flock of birds fly above her head.

Stanley's shoulders slumped as he frowned, "You sure?"

"I'm sure." Primrose nodded.

~~

"Hello!" Primrose greeted, waving at the cashier from earlier.

"Hello again." She furrowed her eyebrows, watching as Primrose disappeared and reappeared in and out of the aisles, filling two baskets full of food.

She smiled, dropping two containers of peanut butter in the extras basket. She had two baskets, one for things she knew Syd and her family needed, and things she knew Syd would like. Primrose wanted to make Syd feel better, she deserved it the most after everything.

She stopped in front of the candy aisle, wondering what Syd would like more. Her eyes scanned the aisles as she tossed the coin in the air. Primrose shrugged, deciding to get her a few different kinds of chocolate and candy.

"Weren't you here earlier?" The woman asked as Primrose placed both the full baskets on the counter.

Primrose nodded, "My amazing friends Syd and Stanley were here too. Syd couldn't get any of this, but she's the actual best and deserves all of it so.. I'm here again."

The woman nodded, ringing each item up as Primrose sang quietly to herself.

"Heads or tails."

The woman chuckled, looking up from the cash register. "That'll be 119.81, and.. I think I'll go with heads."

"Tails." Primrose said, fiddling with her wallet. "I'm good at the coin thing. It's.. intuition and lady Tyche."

"You gonna be able to carry all of this?"

Primrose shrugged, "Syd's important to me. I'll find a way."

"Do you wanna borrow a basket? We can spare one or two.." She continued, pointing at the two baskets.

"Oh, no thank you! I'll be okay."

The ringing of the door signalled that it had been opened. The moon lit her path as she struggled to hold all of the bags in her arms. "I should've taken the basket."

Primrose's lungs burned as she struggled to walk up the hill, ducking to the otherside so that Sydney and Stanley wouldn't see her if they were looking out the window.

After what felt like hours, she finally arrived at Syd's house. She kicked the door gently, hoping someone was home to open the door for her.

"Prim?" Liam tilted his head, "What's all this?"

She stepped into the house, dragging her feet to the kitchen and dropping all the bags onto the floor. "These are groceries, my little Liam."

Her legs and arms felt like jelly as she toppled over, sprawling her limbs out on the kitchen floor. Liam looked down at the seemingly unending sea of grocery bags in shock. "This had to cost more than fifty bucks."

"It did." Primrose mumbled, "You guys deserve it, though. Syd's been going through it, and I love her so much so.."

"You're acting different."

"I'm high, my little Liam." Primrose giggled, "But sh.. don't tell anyone."

Liam laughed, searching through the bags and putting the groceries away, stepping over Primrose in the process.

"Hope your favorite candy is still reese's pieces because that's what I got you."

Liam's face lit up as he searched through each of the bags until he found the orange box. "Yes!"

He moved the bags to the side, laying beside her and opening the box up. "Want some?"

"Thanks, my little Liam. I'll help you put the groceries away in a few minutes, but then I'm gonna go home."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

{ A/n: When she buys Syd's groceries for her + extra to make her feel better >>>> }

{ Edited: No }