The Summer at Camazotz

Twenty-Eight

"Did she say almond milk or cashew milk?"

"God, neither. Why the hell would any of us ever drink either of those?"

Winston and I are currently at the grocery store running errands for our mom. She complained for about a half hour about all of the things that need to be done around the house until Winston offered to go shopping for her and then dragged me along.

To make things worse, the two stores down the street from our house don't carry a bunch of things on our list, so we made a fifteen minute drive just for some random store Mom is in love with.

"Whatever, just check the list again," Winston demands, looking between the two cartons of milk in his hands.

I sigh and pull out the list. I scan the items and find milk halfway through. Bingo. "It says oat milk on here."

"Oat milk?" Winston scoffs. "I've never seen her drink that stuff. Also, it's disgusting. I don't wanna buy it."

"She uses it for baking, doesn't she?" I look back up at Winston and he shrugs. "Doesn't matter. It's on the list so we have to buy it."

Winston returns the other cartons of milk to their spot on the shelf and grabs one of oat milk instead. He places it in the cart and continues down the aisle. I read out the other items on the list as we go.

It takes a few minutes to find everything on the list since we aren't too familiar with the store, but soon enough everything is in the cart and we're good to go.

"Ooh, wait." Winston comes to a stop. A childish grin lights up his face. "You know those sugary drinks that are better than drugs that Mom is super against?" I nod, already knowing where this is going. "Let's go get some. Treat for shopping."

"She'll freak," I remind him.

"If she finds out."

I sigh and start walking away from the cash registers. "Alright, fine. Let's go."

The drinks are in a separate fridge at the back of the store alongside a million other drinks that would probably give you diabetes after a few sips. Winston chooses orange and I take a blue raspberry.

I agree with Mom on them being super bad for you, but Winston's absolutely right—they're way too good to boycott.

I'm about to drop my bottle into the cart when a familiar voice startles me.

"Carter?"

To my right just a few feet away is Astrid. She looks pleasantly surprised to see me and takes a second to overcome her shock. She walks over and pulls me into a tight hug. "Not seeing you every day has been weird, wow. How are you?"

"I'm okay," I say, trying and failing to ignore the look my brother is definitely giving me right now. "Grocery shopping isn't exactly number one on my list, but you know."

Astrid pulls away and jerks a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm actually here with Jordan. We were grabbing some snacks. Have you seen him since camp?"

My entire body warms at the mention of Jordan. I try to act unbothered. "Yeah, we just saw each other a few days ago."

Astrid nods, smiling, but her focus is elsewhere. I realize that Winston is standing right next to me, watching our exchange.

"Oh, sorry." I clear my throat. "This is my brother, Winston. Winston, this is Astrid. And Jordan is the guy I hung out with the other night when you picked me up."

As if on cue, Jordan shows up at Astrid's side. He shares the same surprise Astrid wore just moments ago, but quickly fades to excitement.

"Hey." he shifts from foot to foot, probably nervous because my brother is here. "What are you doing out here?"