Labeled Box Lot Photo
The essence of romance captured in a series of photos. My dream world organized in folders made public, so anyone can peek into the phantom of a world that I created for myself. That’s what I could be doing right now.
BY SURIAH ROSS
IMAGE BY FRANKI CHAMAKI
The essence of romance captured in a series of photos. My dream world organized in folders made public, so anyone can peek into the phantom of a world that I created for myself. That’s what I could be doing right now. Daydreaming of a life elsewhere, while I stare at a screen and organize my Pinterest boards. But instead, I’m trapped in reality, unable to claw out.
Grocery shopping is one of the most tedious tasks ever. The dull bright lights. The cool air that robs you of your warmth, and the endless aisles of food with flashy packaging. After I make dinner tonight, I’m going to bundle up underneath my covers and drown out the rest of the world as Korean dramas play on my screen, instead of working on the assignments I have piled up. It’s been a stressful month. New assignment after new assignment. I deserve the comfort. My life would be so much easier if I had a car. Oh, who am I kidding? Transportation isn’t the problem. It’s me. I’m way too easily distracted all the time and I can’t get anything done.
I can never stay focused on anything! I came here for a box of cereal and cookies because I had a long and crazy week and I want to reward myself for getting through it. I already grabbed some cookies from the bakery section, now I just need to find the aisle with cereal, find some Shreddies, and leave.
I stop in place. I shut my eyes and sigh, recollecting myself. I’m surrounded by frozen food instead of cereal. I hastily make a right and exit the chilly hall.
I turn down the cereal aisle and stride down, searching through all the brands and flavours for one specific box. Bright colours, big labels, tall shelves. The cookies slide around in the box, creating a noise that scratches the inside of my brain. Shit. There’s a guy standing in front of the Shreddies. A guy. What I need is right there in front of him, but he’s blocking the way. Perfect. I guess I’ll just pretend to look at these other brands while waiting for him to leave.
I scan through the sugary cereal, tapping my finger on my chin as if I’m really contemplating which box to choose. I take a peek over at the guy to check and see if he’s leaving. My lips part a bit and I almost let out a small gasp. He’s really attractive. That’s a bit of an understatement. He’s really hot. He could be a model. No, he probably is a model. I’m not sure why but whenever guys wear oversized or loose fitted hoodies, it just makes them look so attractive. His hoodie is black and has two pomegranates printed on the back. It’s intriguing. He has dark brown hair that’s longish and slicked back. It’s so wavy that it’s almost curly. Didn’t I have an essay due tonight? Or was it yesterday? He slightly turns his head in my direction revealing his defiant jawline.
What the hell is wrong with me?! Why am I checking out this random guy in a grocery store? I feel a little guilty for checking him out, so I look away and turn my attention back to the boxes. I look down at the clothes I’m wearing. I’m so glad that I decided to over-dress today. I was afraid that I would run to someone I knew from campus, so I decided to dress up a smidge. It’s just a little green dress with buttons running down the centre. It comes with two outer pockets, but I use my tote bag to carry my things. Under my dress is a white turtleneck paired with my white high tops. Focus. I’m getting distracted.
You know what? I’m overthinking this. I’ll just walk over there, say, “excuse me,” grab the cereal, and leave. Yeah! That’s it! I turn towards his direction and continue my stride from earlier. I quietly clear my throat before getting near him to get rid of any unexpected voice cracks. Once I reach up to him, I stop in my tracks. I gulp worriedly. He didn’t look as intimidating as he did back there. He’s way taller than I thought he was. He must be over six feet.
“Um,” I start off quietly. “Excuse me,” I say louder. He looks down at me and raises an eyebrow. I raise my hand to point at the cereal boxes he’s standing in front of. He gets the message, nodding before taking a step back for me to grab what I need. I notice that his hoodie reads Hades in small letters right over his heart. Huh. He must be into Greek mythology. I nearly crack a smile. If he wasn’t so intimidating, I would’ve struck up a conversation about it because I love Greek mythology. I quietly thank him before going in front of him to reach for the Shreddies. I reach out my hand to grab the box.
Oh no. There’s a problem. There’s a huge problem. I hadn’t realized that the boxes were pushed back. I can’t reach it! I pause. What do I do?! I probably look so awkward reaching out my arm like this. He’s not going away! He’s just standing there waiting! With quick thinking, I lower down my arm and scan over the boxes below to save my dignity. My finger scans over the smooth cardboard. My dignity isn’t quite saved yet. I asked him to move because there was something here that I needed; I can’t act that I don’t actually know what I want, and I just wanted him to move.
That would look so rude! The words on the boxes seem to scramble together as my mind fogs up.
Maybe I should just take a random box of cereal. But none of the others look appealing. I don’t want to spend my money on something I don’t want to eat! Maybe I should say never mind, and just leave. But I can’t leave the grocery store with just cookies. The cashier is going to think that I don’t know how to spend money well. This is too much stress for me. Maybe I should walk back to the fruit section and grab some apples or something.
Now I’m really sad that I’m not going to get my cereal. I was really looking forward to eating a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast tomorrow. I guess I’ll have to settle with plain toast.
I could just ask him to reach it, but I’m way too embarrassed and I might accidentally pass away from embarrassment. If he wasn’t here, I would’ve tried jumping to reach it. Now my day is ruined.
“Never mind,” I say aloud. I start to turn to leave the aisle. He’s much closer than I remember. I instinctively take a step back. My back’s now grazing the shelf behind me. He takes a step even closer to me. His eyes are dead set on me. I have to strain my neck, tilting my head back so far to meet his eyes. His brown eyes are shielded by some of the hair hanging over his eyes. He’s looking directly at me. Was it always so hot in here? The cool air that flowed throughout the whole store seemed to have disappeared. What’s happening? Maybe he got fed up waiting for me to pick a cereal box. Yeah, I’m probably just in his way. Stupid me. As I’m about to scoot to the side, out of the way, he reaches his arms into the shelf above me. Did he really have to get this close to me to grab them? He couldn’t have waited for me to move first? My heart won’t stop pounding. It’s like a snare drum in my chest. He pulls out a box of Shreddies. That was my box!
“Were you reaching for this?” His voice startles me. I didn’t expect it to be that deep. Oh, so he was just getting the box down for me. That’s so considerate! But I still feel really embarrassed. I play with my hands, rubbing my calloused fingers over each other, a nervous habit of mine.
I look down at my hands, avoiding his intimidating stare. “Yes,” I say quietly, still loud enough for him to hear me. He’s so close to the point where I can smell his cologne. A sweet musky scent. It smells really good, but that’s not the point. Now that he’s got what he reached for, he should back up and give us both space. I look back up and at him and he’s still just staring at me. Why is he staring at me? It’s making me really nervous. The flashy colours all around us seem to blur together. I swear I’m going to melt from his intense stare. Is he going to give me the box or what?
“Do you also want Shreddies?” Please say no.
He looks down at the box in his hands then back to me. “Oh right. Here.” He hands me the box while staring into my eyes the whole time. I gulp before thanking him. At last. I’m free to leave now! This guy rests his arm a few shelves above me, then shifts his body to the side so he’s no longer trapping me between the shelves and himself. He leans into the shelf. Oh dear. It looks like he’s about to start a conversation with me. I already feel so uneasy. I just want to leave.
“Which cereal do you recommend? I’m having a hard time choosing one. You seemed so set on getting that one. You were even going to leave without any cereal at all because you couldn’t reach it. So, I figured that you know your stuff when it comes to cereal,” he finishes. His lips are slightly tugged at one corner. I’m at a loss of words. Why did he have to bring that up? It’s so embarrassing! Nevertheless, he came to the right person. I’m referred to as the Cereal Queen in my family because of the amount of cereal I consume. But am I really going to talk to a hot guy about cereal?
“What type of cereal do you like? Something sweet? Or are you looking for something with less sugar? Or maybe something in between? Healthy, but still tastes sweet,” I ask him. The contrast of our voices is so large. My voice is so high compared to his low bass tone. I wonder what he sounds like singing. We could be like Hades and Eurydice singing “Hey, Little Songbird.” That’s funny since his hoodie says Hades.
“Let’s go with something in between,” he answers, snapping me out of my day dreaming.
“That’s what I’m going for today. Shreddies are sweet and a healthy option. It’s perfect for my sweet tooth,” I tell him. “But these ones are already taken,” I say, hugging the box jokingly. He snickers at my silly joke.
“I guess I’ll go for a box myself,” he says, reaching for another box. “My name is Sky by the way.”
I smile to myself before making a stupid joke. “Is that short for skyscraper?” My joke rings in the air slightly. I wait for a laugh, a snicker, a snort, anything! I understand that it was a really stupid joke, but I at least deserve a fake laugh. Just something to fill the silence. He just stares at me with his mouth slightly agape. I would tell him that he would catch flies with his open mouth, but my first joke didn’t land. Is he in shock? He suddenly turns his head slightly to the side to laugh. It’s a pretty loud laugh. His deep voice makes it almost sound menacing. It catches me off guard and makes me more nervous.
“Sorry,” he says, collecting himself. “It’s just that I’ve never heard that before.” Really? I didn’t think that I was being too clever. I thought that everyone would make that connection since he’s tall.
“Really? It was the first thing that popped into my head,” I tell him.
“Really. I usually get, ‘Isn’t that a girl’s name?’”
“Oh, so no one’s ever asked if you’re named Sky because your head’s up too high in the clouds? After all those clouds you’ve walked through, someone must have told you that one.” I internally cringe at my attempt to tell a joke. I swear I have a good sense of humour, but all of a sudden, all of my jokes fall flatter than dad jokes. Thankfully, he at least chuckles at this one.
“Oh yeah. It gets hard to breathe up here sometimes,” he says, and I laugh. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“I didn’t throw it,” I say. He snickers. I stole that quote directly from Heathers, but I don’t think he caught on. I need to stop doing that. I always catch myself referencing random strains of media.
“It’s Zara.”
“Zara,” he says, testing out my name. “How pretty. Does it have meaning behind it?” “Princess.”
“Woah,” Sky says, straightening himself. He stops leaning against the shelf and stands up straight. “I wasn’t aware that I was talking to royalty,” he jokes. He takes out his phone from his back pocket.
“Your highness,” he begins, “may I have your number?” he asks, holding out his phone. I start to panic a little. Do I really want to give a stranger my phone number? People do it all the time, so why am I worried? No guy has ever asked for my number before. Why would he want my number? Me. Zara!
“Shouldn’t I be referring to you as your highness, Hades?” I ask him, taking his phone to put my number in.
He glances down at his hoodie and cracks a grin. “Clever,” he remarks, before looking back into my eyes. I hand him back his phone. “Well, Zara… Thanks for the cereal.”
“I’ll be enjoying this tomorrow morning.” He starts to walk backwards, but then he stops.
His eyebrow raises. “You will text me back when I text you, right?”
His question catches me off guard for a second. I gulp nervously. “Uh…” I clear my throat before speaking again. “Y-yes of course,” I finally answer. Is this really happening? I thought that this stuff only happened on TV.
He chuckles softly in his deep voice. “See you later, Zara.”
By the time he gets to the end of the aisle, I finally respond to him. “Bye Sky,” I say quietly, holding up my hand to wave at him. I let out a long breath. Was I holding that in the whole time? I stand stuck in a daze as I cling onto my cereal box. Sky. The guy from the cereal aisle. There’s my next distraction.
Suriah Ross is an aspiring author. Each of her characters tells a different story and takes the readers on for an immersive experience. She tends to write stories with a diverse cast of characters. She believes that representation is important and should be brought to light whenever there’s a flame.
Image: Labeled Box Lot Photo (Franki Chamaki 2019) (Unsplash)
Edited for publication by Em Fabbri, as part of the Bachelor of Creative and Professional Writing program.
HLR Spotlight is a collaboration between the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Innovative Learning at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario. This project is funded by Humber’s Office of Research & Innovation.