Chapter 21

He was also eating from a packet of Doritos and seemed at peace with himself. "Okay...uh...what?" I question as I point at everything, "How did this happen?" "Well, you see, in our defence we were left unsupervised." Noah shrugs while swinging on the back of the cart. "For three minutes!" I hold up the same amount of fingers at them, "Fine, here's what we're going to do. You each pick out three items you want but put the rest back. Okay?" "Yes ma'am!" Noah salutes me before turning the cart around. "Onward Sergeant O'Conner!" Levi points as Noah pushes the shopping cart out of the aisle. I laugh at them as I shake my head and return to looking at the pasta. I could feel Spencer staring at me from the corner of my eye. I turn to him with an impassive look. I shrug, "What?" "Nothing," Spencer shakes his head as he smirks, "I just realised how badass you would be as a mother." "Pfft, me as mother? Nice joke, Spenc." I shake my head as I pick a brand of pasta, mostly because I wanted to get the hell away from this conversation. "I'm serious Hayden. What? Don't look at me like that." Spencer shoves me playfully as we turn and he begins to push the cart we had for all the serious stuff, "Did you think about it when you were still with Chase?" "Of course I did." I sigh as my eyes scan over the shelves in case we missed anything, "I had a whole damn list of names on my phone. Boy, girl, unisex and ones from other languages." "What about Chase?" "He had one name." I explain as Spencer glances at me with utter curiosity, "I found it when I opened his phone and his notes were open...It was Harlowe." "That's a beautiful name." Spencer grins softly at me. "I know!" I groan as I cover my face with my hands. I drag my hands down to my shoulders in frustration, "And I can't stop thinking about it. I love it so much and it made every other name I thought of pale in fucking comparison." "I'm living for the tea, trust me I am, but if you don't get back together with Chase, your new best friend is going to come along and swipe h—" Spencer stumbles to a stop as we turn the next corner and almost ram into someone. Spencer grins instantly, "Emily!" "Oh, hi guys." Emily waves at us as she places the two cans she held onto the shelf, "Is it just you two?" "Nope, Levi and Noah are somewhere here too. We're sorry for whatever fucking mess they make." I laugh awkwardly as I fold my eyes, hoping to hell that the boys don't break anything I'll have to pay for. I swear I could see a flicker of disappointment cross her face, "I don't really care. I hate this dumb job anyway." "I'm glad that we came tonight because I actually wanted to talk to you." I explain as Emily frowns in interest and I glance at my cousin, "Hey, Spenc, could you go find Noah and Levi and make sure they're not destroying the store? That would be great." "But—I—uh—fine." Spencer sighs as he shrugs his shoulders and struts off. I turn back to Emily with an awkward grin. "What did you want to talk about, Hay?" Emily questions with a sweet smile as multiple things run through in my head in the moment. Did you really pretend to drown at the beach the other day? Why the fuck did you call Chase 'Everett' when I'm the only one who does that? "Chase." I state simply as Emily gulps, "I know I said he was just a friend but you deserve to know that Chase and I...we dated. Well, it was more than that really since we were together for just over two years. But I wanted you to know that there's nothing between us anymore so don't feel awkward to follow your feelings or anything." "Oh, I don't want to overstep my boundaries." Emily shakes her head as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, "If it's going to make you feel awkward then I won't—" "It's not going to make things awkward, Em. Trust me I do a pretty good job of that by myself already." I chuckle as she laughs along with me, "Chase and I are just friends." "Well that's....good." Emily smiles and I gulp, "Because I really like him." Like him? You've barely even talked to him you incompetent bi—I take a deep breath in before my thoughts soon become reality. "He's just so good looking and kind and I was honestly worried because I thought there was something between the two of you. I mean, you guys get along so well and sometimes the way he looks at you made me sad but now that I know it's nothing I feel better." Emily grins as she continues to put away the cans that were in her cart, "Thank you for telling me Hayden." "No problem." I say through gritted teeth as Noah, Levi and Spencer round the corner and meet us. "Hey guys!" Emily greets as she smiles at them. She then glances at the trolley, "Hi Levi." Levi glares at her and remains quiet as ever. His stare alone would most likely send anyone with a heart condition directly to the ICU. "You'll get use to him." I smile at Emily as I pat the top of Levi's curly hair, "Well, we'll let you get back to work." "Wait, I was wanting to ask if you could give me Everett's phone number?" Emily grins at me and Levi looked damn ready to jump from the cart and onto her like a goddamn monkey. I nod, "Sure, I'll text it to you." "Great, I'll see you later." Emily waves at us before we make our way into the next aisle and Levi glances up at me as I silently walk alone his cart, too busy processing all the thoughts in my head. "Can I light her house on fire?" "No." "Can I light her parents house on fire?" "Also no." "Can I light her grandparents house on fire?" "Levi..." I groan as I glance down at him to see a smile cross his face, "Give it a few weeks and I'll let you know." "Yes!" Levi pumps his fist into the air like the beautiful sociopath he was.