Home Alone [Paradise] [Part 2] [PiE/NEETpone #50]


                                            >You're on your own now.

                                            >Making your way home, you wander along keeping your head down, giving the occasional glances to the shops as you walk along the highstreet.

                                            >You feel like you should be doing more while Anon is out, but you're not really sure what you *can* do to help other than what he's mentioned.

                                            >He says that the housework would be a big help, but you can get that done relatively quickly anyway and obsessing over vacuuming or wiping the counters all day doesn't really seem like a good idea. You tend to get a bit *too* into that sort of thing sometimes.

                                            >Having a slight giggle to yourself, you remember that one time when you almost gassed the pair of you mixing bleach and dish washing liquid together while cleaning the U-Bend in the kitchen sink.

                                            >"Paradise, my eyes! I can't breathe!"

                                            >Heh, good times.

                                            >Kitchen shenanigans.. Now that gives you an idea. Maybe you could cook some (late) dinner for him coming in from work? That could be nice. Make him his favourite meal of [spoiler]spaghetti and meatballs.[/spoiler]

                                            >You'll need to nip into Tesco on the way home though, you're well and truly out of food. You're kinda lucky that you got this idea while being a kick up the flank away from the place. Just across the street, in fact.

                                            >Crossing the street in a hurried little gallop, you make it to the other side in one piece and head towards the store.

                                            >Stopping briefly at the entrance, you feel your heartrate quicken slightly at the thought of going shopping without Anon for once. You're not exactly a fan of this sort of thing.

                                            >The experience of wandering around is okay when nobody is around is kind of nice, but the check-outs freak you out a little bit. You're never really sure what to say or do when you get there. You kinda just stand while they scan your stuff through and awkwardly look at the floor.

                                            >You can do this though, you've come this far. You can worry about the checkouts later.

                                            >With your heart in your throat, and a tummy full of butterflies, you take the plunge and venture into the supermarket.

                                            >As the doors close behind you, you jump a little and grab a basket as you begin your quest for the mighty spagoot and sauce ingredients.

                                            >It's surprisingly quiet in here today, but there *are* a few people and ponies around going about their day. Hopefully you can get this over and done with quick enough and get back to the safety of the house.

                                            >First on the list is the spaghetti, which is luckily down the first isle of the store so you won't have to look too far for that one.

                                            >Clippity clopping your way down the colourful product lined isle, stumbling upon the spaghetti comes far sooner than you anticipated.

                                            >Not even a minute in and we're already one item down. Hell yeah, mission complete.

                                            >Picking the spaghetti up off the bottom shelf, you pause to check your phone to find a recipe and see what else you're going to need..

                                            >Aha, 5-star rated food blog, this'll be a good one! Skipping to the ingredients list, you check over what you're gonna need.

                                            >Got breadcrumbs, cheese and egg at home.. Got some parsley and stuff growing in your window-box.. So you need mince, some garlic, onions and tomatoes.. The pepper and stuff you already have too.

                                            >Looks easy enough. Shouldn't be *that* hard, right?

                                            >Mooching around the shop, you manage to grab all of your ingredients without much issue, and even decide to grab some cider too while you're at it (because it'd be criminal not to, of course.)

                                            >You had a slight anxious moment in the veg section while trying to reach the tomatoes until a nice old human lady grabbed some for you and reminded you that you have wings, but it all panned out ok in the end.

                                            >You can be such a derp with stuff like that sometimes.

                                            >While making your trip to the checkouts, you breathe a massive sigh of relief as you notice the God-send that is self service. You remember when these first came to Equestria when you were a little filly, and even then you found them comforting.

                                            >You were quite a strange child now you think about it. Most kids liked talking, but you were always pretty quiet.

                                            >Setting your saddlebags in place in the bagging area, you begin scanning your stuff.

                                            >Boop

                                            >Boop

                                            >Boop

                                            >BEEP

                                            >Oh Celestia, what?

                                            >Staring at the screen, you see those dreaded words pop up.

                                            >"Age verification required to approve this purchase."

                                            >Oh crap! The cider!

                                            >The little red light above your check-out blinks, signalling a store employee to come over and scan their little neck tag to free you from the age-restricted purchase screen.

                                            >Freaking out slightly, you feel yourself getting a little shaky as a store assistant makes their way over to you.

                                            >"Hi there, do you mind showing me some ID?"

                                            "A..-I-I.. I uh.. Y-ye-yes.."

                                            >You feel like you're sweating bullets as you reach your hoof into your hoodie pocket, the employee staring at you as if they've caught a 15 year old trying to buy booze while wearing a fake moustache and an oversized suit.

                                            >Fumbling with your wallet, it slips out of your hooves causing your change to fall out onto the floor bouncing and rolling around everywhere.

                                            >"Oh no! I'm sorry!" says the store employee as they immediately start scrambling to pick up your coins.

                                            >AHH!

                                            >Cue the internal screaming.

                                            >As your breathing quickens, and your vision starts to get wonky, you stop and take a few deep breaths as you start to hurridly pick up the last of your run away pennies and grab your bioresidency permit from your wallet and hand it to the employee while stuttering out apologies under your breath.

                                            >"Paradise Skies.. Ahh, there we go - 21. Just gotta be sure.. So sorry again about that!"

                                            >Handing your ID back to you with a flip of a hand, you trembly reach your hoof out and take it back from the store employee, once again fumbling with your wallet as you slide it back into its little sleeve.

                                            "I- It's okay.. T-thank you.."

                                            >Taking a massive sigh of relief, you go back to scanning your groceries, the little "BOOP" sounds slowly calming your nerves as you shakily run your products over the scanner and plonk them down into the bagging area.

                                            >At least the little weight sensor on the bags hasn't set itself off as well, that's usually these things favourite move to get you poopin' enough bricks to build an entire house with a detached garage.

                                            >Tapping your bank card on the little scanner, you throw your bags across your back, and pick an extra one up in your mouth as you begin your trip back to your house.

                                            >Well, that was an ordeal. It was all going so uneventfully too.

                                            >You feel a slight wave of sadness wash over you as you get outside and the cool air hits your face.

                                            >Walking along the street heading back home, you can't help but feel like you could have handled things a little better in there.

                                            >Having an internal freak out over dropping some coins definitely isn't normal, but you just feel completely helpless when stuff like that overwhelms you.

                                            >It really sucks when you get your attacks, you know you can't help it, but it doesn't make it any less crappy. Those breathing techniques and the "take 5" thingy Anon taught you help up to a point, but it's ultimately just a part of who you are at this point, you think.

                                            *sigh*

                                            >At least you'll be back home soon.

                                            >...