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"Oh my god he's in the bathtub and he's crying. Oh no he has no pants on, oh honey. Lina he has no pants and he's eating a tub of ice cream my poor baby."
Carolina looked up from her television to see York, on the other end of their Skype call, eating his own tub of ice cream and staring wistfully at what she guessed was his television. He was catching up with their favourite show and insisted that even though they're both away for school now, that they can still chat with it. Carolina however was keeping it a secret that she had actually already watched the whole season the week before. What York didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
Carolina heard her stomach growl and realized how late it was. She hadn't had much for dinner and was running on empty. And with York eating his own tub and eyeing up the ice cream on the show, she developed a craving. "Shit now I want some Ben and Jerry's and I have none here, thanks York. I'll have to walk to the store but I'm not sure if I want to."
That was promptly followed by York chanting "do it, do it, do it," over and over again. Eventually she caved and paused the show. "Alright, I may or may not be going to go get ice cream. You can keep watching, I'll catch up later. I blame you for this craving you know."
York was laughing as she threw on a sweater and grabbed her wallet and pocket knife. She felt it was always good to be prepared, especially at night. "You know you still love me." He followed the statement with his signature charming smile. She mocked a smile at that before closing her laptop in his face. She headed out of her room and down the stairs and was just leaving her residence when she got a text from York, which was just him exclaiming, Rude.
The walk to the corner grocery store wasn't too long and it was a Monday night so there wasn't too many people out. If anyone shifty came close to her, she would adopt a pose that would assert her as being the dominant one and they would leave her alone. At least tonight I won't have to change my "x days since someone made a creepy comment about me" poster. She reached the grocery store and entered, smiling and waving the female cashier working there whose brown eyes lit up as she smiled and waved back. An older man came up to her register and she gave him her attention. Carolina knew that the girl was in one of her classes but they had never really talked. She felt her name was Vanessa.
While still thinking about it, she went to the freezer section and grabbed some half-baked. Once she had the prize, she headed to the register where she found the older guy was still hanging around even though his groceries were all bagged up. Vanessa looked really anxious from what Carolina could see, and when she got close enough to hear, she understood why.
"Come on sweet cheeks, take you break and you can show this nice man a good time. Or I can always wait around until you shift ends." The guy was getting really close to Vanessa and was reaching over the counter and Carolina caught Vanessa's eyes and knew she had to step in. Part-time positions were hard to find these days and if you lashed out at a customer, you could lose your job.
Carolina rushed up to the register ready to exclaim her arrival and remove the creepy old man from the equation. "Vanessa! Oh my god, I didn't know you worked here!" Carolina hoped she would play along and this guy would get the picture.
"Ya I've worked here for a while, since the start of the semester. It's nice to see you outside of the classroom Carolina. How's your weekend been?" Vanessa knew how to act well, Carolina gave her that. And she was about to reply until the old guy spoke again.
"Oh you know, I do have a thing for black girls, and white women too. I could show you both the best time since you seem to be such good friends." The man then did the last thing Carolina would have expected and grabbed her ass, and it was the last straw for her.
Carolina grabbed the mans head and forced it onto the counter to the point that she hoped it bruised the next day. She sunk her face to where she was holding his and grinned. "Listen up 'sweet cheeks'. If you ever try anything like that again, I will find you and beat your ass. If you ever show your face here again, the cops will be on your ass faster than you can believe. And who are they going to believe? The store tapes and the words of two highly decorated University students, or the words of a sad old man who looked creepy to begin with? Got it?" The man was nodding as much as he could before Carolina pushed him towards the door and he bolted. There goes my creepy comments poster.
She remembered Vanessa was there and looked over at her embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I kinda let my temper flare. You're not going to get into trouble for that are you?" Carolina couldn't read her until she laughed.
"Wow Carolina, I knew you were smart but I didn't know you were a badass too," Carolina blushed at the compliment and Vanessa kept going, "Wow, I'm still taking that in and I'm sure I'll be scared later and thank you profusely next time we have class, but all I can think right now is just wow." Carolina laughed and agreed and they continued on talking. First about the situation and then about class and then anything. They talked until another customer came in and Vanessa remembered she worked here. She rung up Carolina's purchase while they were still stealing glances and smiles at each other.
"You sure you'll be okay later after your shift ends?" Vanessa nodded and thanked her for the offer but mentioned that she felt she'd be fine.
"Thanks again though. I don't want to think about what would've happened had you not been here. I guess you'll be my little saviour if I'm ever in a bit of trouble," Vanessa wrote something on the receipt before putting it into the bag with the ice cream, "The one I can always call and count on. Anyways, have a good night. I'll see you later?"
Carolina smiled back at her before leaving. "Definitely." With that she waved a goodbye to Vanessa and left. Halfway home, she remembered the receipt and looked at it, finding Vanessa's number and a heart. Carolina smiled wide and couldn't wait to tell York about the fateful encounter.