grocery adventure (tagged, mica)

MICA JAYLYN RAYEN

"Im nothing more than a chalk outline"

It felt way too early for Mica to be awake and moving around. But here she was, dressed, showered, hair done, shoes on, ready to run a few errands. It felt odd to go out during regular business hours. Usually she just did her errand-running just before she went to work, and most places seemed to close just before then.

Since nightmares of her brother had kept her up for most of the day (since she worked at night, she usually spent many of the daylight hours sleeping), she had given up on sleeping and decided to just go out and check out the city of Newport during the day. She'd seen plenty of it at night; why not see it in the day, too? It seemed a good idea, since she had recently been debating on if she would be able to find a job that wasn't stripping that could support her sufficiently. Maybe a waitress gig would work well.

She had walked the few blocks from her motel to the grocery store, hands slung in her pockets loosely. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she was out of food. Well, at least she didn't have to go to work hungry. She'd done that a few times, and it was never fun. Dancing on an empty stomach was much less than pleasant.

Pausing just inside the doors to the store, Mica oriented herself to the location of various foods. The coolers that had milk and the like seemed to be toward the back. She didn't have a fridge in her motel room, so there was no point in getting anything like that. Hell, she couldn't even microwave stuff. She went toward the aisle of boxed foods, hoping there would be something that was somewhat healthy that wouldn't require cooking. Slowly, she was saving up enough money to rent an apartment. She had enough for a deposit and a little more; she hoped within the next week or so she would have enough for a first month's rent and utilities, and food. She didn't want to jump into renting a place without being prepared for all the expenses. Getting into debt as bad as her father's was not an option.

Wandering down the aisle slowly, she let her eyes travel over the boxes lining the shelves, sighing. None of the things seemed to be edible without being cooked. Maybe she was in the wrong aisle. Turning to head to the next row, she stopped when she saw a small boy standing there, crying. Food forgotten, she approached the boy slowly. "Hey, hun," she said gently, not wanting to scare him. "Are you lost?" When the boy nodded, Mica smiled at him. "You want help?" He nodded again. Reaching out her hand, Mica said, "All right. Come with me, and we can find who you're looking for."

Just after she said it, she heard a woman yell "Nathan!" a few aisles over. "Is your name Nathan?" she asked the boy, who nodded again. He almost reminded her of her youngest brother, Jace, when he was little. Jace had never spoken much. "Let's go this way," Mica said, gently coaxing the boy toward the sound of the woman's voice.

"Hello? Uhm, is this the little boy you're looking for?" Mica nudged Nathan forward slightly, so the frantic woman could see him. There wasn't likely to be more than one lost little boy named Nathan running around the grocery store, right?

Tags: -- | Words: -- | Credit: 156zcm of Caution
Notes: In their own line