Human au

Finally, I found the aisle with the peanut butter! I sprinted towards it, ignoring all the other jams and butters along the way.

Yep, the final ingredient on my mom's unbelievably long shopping list. Also the most important ingredient to make peanut butter cookies, a back-to-school tradition that my mom and I did every single year.

I hated it here, in this neighbourhood. Without my friends, Dex, Linh, and Tam, living here was like hell.

Why did we have to move? Even the local grocery store near where we used to live was better! The shelves weren't as high, everything was easier to find...

But it would be okay. Making peanut butter cookies with Edaline would make me feel better, slightly improve my mood. Something familiar in this strange new city was all that I needed.

The desired peanut butter sat at the front of the highest shelf, seeming to taunt me. It was the only jar left like it was waiting for me. Or, in this case, waiting to embarrass me.

I was short, I'll admit that. Not short enough for people to think of me as a child, but definitely short enough to not be able to reach the peanut butter on the stupidly high shelf.

I stood on my tiptoes, cursing my ridiculously bad balance, and used one hand to hold onto the middle shelf for support. I reached out my other hand, stretching out my fingers to grab the jar of peanut butter.

I couldn't reach it.

I let go of the middle shelf and took a step back. I bent my knees, jumping up and trying to grab the peanut butter again.

Thump.

Nothing.

I landed quite loudly, I hope no one heard me...

Thump.

I tried to jump again, and just like last time, my hand came back empty. This was frustrating and annoying- should I just cross it out of the list?

But it was worth one more try. Peanut butter cookies were at stake!

I bent my knees even more this time, stretching out both my hands as much as I could. 1,2,3, jump! I stretched my fingers out so much they hurt, and I could feel my fingers scrape the side of the jar.

But I couldn't reach it, and once again, I had no peanut butter.

I heard a chuckle from the end of the aisle. My head whipped around, my heart hammering itself against my ribcage and my face now red. Crap! Way to go, Sophie, embarrass yourself when you haven't even been in this place for more than 10 minutes!

I looked at the end of the aisle, where they laugh came from. Empty; no one was there. I must be imagining things. Either that or there was a ghost. The first explanation would be more preferable.

I bent my knees again, deciding to give the peanut butter one last try. Before I could, a smooth voice asked, "Do you need some help?" Followed by a throaty laugh. The laugh that I had heard seconds before.

Okay, not my imagination.

Once again, I turned around. This time, I found a boy staring at me. No ghost. I guessed that he was about 16 years old, around my age.

He had light blond hair and was wearing a shirt and jeans. He had ice-blue eyes, which were now staring at me with amusement.

Based on the 0.03 seconds that I gawked at him, I could conclude that he was the type of guy girls and a few boys fought over, swooned over, and dreamt about.

From his relaxed posture and the way he casually leaned against the grocery store aisle, practically overflowing with confidence, plus his smirk, I could guess that he was popular. The popular kids were always the bullies, something that I had learned the hard way.

"No, it's fine," I said coldly, bowing my head and turning back to the shelf. Please go away, I silently added.

He did not go away.

Instead, he seemed to lean further into the shelf, adopting the 'cool guy' pose I always saw in movies. The pose I always saw my bullies doing.

I cringed inwardly at the memories. Would I make new friends at Foxfire, the school that I was going to in a week? Even if I did, I don't think they could ever replace my old ones. Dex, Linh, and Tam were my best friends, even miles away. Even when we were in separate cities.

But would I have new bullies too? New bullies at Foxfire, the posh school for the snobby rich people who had way too much money to spend. I was still confused as to why Grady and Edaline insisted on sending me there.

"I've never seen you around here before. Are you visiting, or do you live near here?" The guy asked.

I didn't know why, but I answered him, giving him too much information about me in the process. "Yeah, I just moved here about a week ago from San Diego. I'm Sophie Foster, by the way."

Argh! He just wanted to know if I lived around here, not where I came from, and my name! Did you really not learn anything from the dozens of murder documentaries, Sophie?

But he didn't seem to find anything weird about my answer.

Was this what being an extroverted person was like? Oversharing and blurting out whatever came to mind?

"Oh, cool. I'm Keefe Sencen. Do you like it here?" He asked.

What was I doing? I barely even knew this guy! And yet, I felt strangely comfortable around him. So, once again, I overshared.

"Mm-hmm, but I don't think I can really judge this place based on my house and this grocery store. I haven't actually gone to explore the city or even went to school here yet." I blurted.

The red in my face slowly but surely started fading away.

For all I knew, this guy could be a kidnapper plotting to kidnap me right now. But for some reason, every cell in my body wanted to continue chatting with him. Why?

"Well, I think you'll like it here. Most people do. Speaking of school, which one are you going to?" He must have realized that this one-sided conversation was making him sound like an obsessive stalker, so he added, "I'm going to Foxfire."

My eyes widened and my mouth unwillingly stretched into a grin. "Me too!" Why was I grinning? Why did I care at all, what this random stranger had in common with me?

"School starts next week. Who knows, maybe we'll be in the same classes." He smirked and winked.

"Maybe." I agreed.

I could already feel my heart swelling with hope, wishing we would have the exact same class schedule. No no no no no, I was here to buy groceries, not to fall in love.

I jumped again. I couldn't reach the peanut butter. What a surprise.

Keefe chuckled, and without even having to jump, he stretched out his hand and easily picked up the jar.

"Here," He said, handing the jar to me. "I've never seen anyone so eager to get peanut butter before.

I blushed. "I'm going to make peanut butter cookies with my mom. It's sort of like a back-to-school tradition." I explained.

Suddenly, the jar of peanut butter felt so unimportant in my hands. All I could focus on was him, and his ice-blue eyes intensely staring back at me.

"That must be nice. My mom and dad don't really have any back-to-school traditions. Well, unless you count lecturing me on how well I should do for exams, and scolding me on n getting 98% instead of 100%," Keefe said it in a joking tone, but his eyes seemed sad.

I had the sudden urge to reach out and pat him, or at least reassure him. Assure him about what, I didn't know. I just wanted him to stop being sad. Seeing him sad made me sad.

"I'm sure they're very proud of you." I mumbled. How was I supposed to respond to a self-pitying statement? Compliment him, even though I practically knew nothing about this stranger?

Thankfully, Keefe didn't seem to give my lame answer much thought. He nodded, the smirk on his face now replaced by a wistful frown.

The silence between us was uncomfortable- I was tempted to open my mouth, spend this limited time learning more about my future classmate- but I couldn't bring myself to.

I was never extroverted, never brave enough to start a conversation myself. It was lucky enough that he was talking to me; the last thing I wanted to do was to push my luck and make him think I was nosy.

Then I glanced at my watch.

Crap! Had I already spent an hour grocery shopping? Edaline must be really worried...

"I'll see you around school." I waved, clutching the jar like it was a priceless treasure and hurrying to the self-checkout.

"Yeah, see you!" Keefe shouted cheerfully, with much more enthusiasm than anything he had ever said to me before. Dammit- he must be happy that I was going.

Either way, I was extremely grateful to him. Now, how could I thank him?

♡︎ 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚙 ♡

Sophie Foster...

The girl at the the grocery store.

Foster said she was at Foxfire, where was she?

Did she lie to me, because I had looked so pathetically hopeful when I asked her what school she was going to? Could she tell I had had a crush on her the second she stumbled into the grocery store?

No, my crush couldn't be that obvious. Not when we only spent 10 minutes talking to each other. Besides, it wasn't even that big of a crush. It was probably a one-time thing.

Yeah, that was it. I didn't actually like her. Of course not. How could I, Keefe Sencen, fall in love with a random pretty girl in a grocery store? What kind of pathetic love story was that?

No, I didn't like her at all. Even the thought that I did disgusted me, made me want to puke-

And then Foster walked in.

Her long blond hair tied up in a neat ponytail, her hands carrying a big paper box, her back slightly bent from the weight of her heavy school bag packed with textbooks...

She looked stunning in the Foxfire uniform, as if she was made to come here all along. Even if I didn't have a crush on her, it wouldn't hurt to try and be her friend, right? She seemed quite nice, I'm sure lots of boys would have crushes on her, like me...

Without thinking, I strolled up to her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my friends Fitz and Biana raise eyebrows, but I ignored them. There was nothing wrong with trying to be friends with her, right?

"Hey Foster..." I greeted. She turned around, her eyes wide with shock.

"I'm Keefe, remember me? The super handsome dude with good hair at the grocery store that helped you get the peanut butter?" I introduced myself. Inside, I slowly started panicking. Did she not remember me?

"Oh, Keefe, hey." She visibly relaxed. "Yeah, um, thanks. For helping me. That day at the grocery store." She bit her lip, seeming to have a mental debate.

"I, uhh, made you something. You know, to thank you." Her face reddened. "So, here," She muttered, shoving the paper box to me. At this point, her face was so red that I started to wonder if she was half tomato.

And then she started speed-walking towards her locker. I wanted to chase after her, grab her hand and hold her back, but I reluctantly decided against it. My heart slowly sank and broke into a million different pieces. If she didn't like me, I wouldn't pressure her into talking to me.

But I felt my heart slowly piece itself back together, piece by piece, as I stared at the box in my hands. Because written on it was a phone number- Sophie Foster's number.

And when I opened the box, it was full of peanut butter cookies.

♡︎ 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚙 ♡︎

"Foster? Remember when we first met?" Keefe asked. He was hiding something behind his back. I subtly leaned my body to the side, trying to peek at what he was hiding.

"Hey- no looking. It's a surprise. Anyway, do you?" He asked hopefully. He was springing up and down on his tiptoes excitedly, which reminded me...

"Of course, how could I ever forget? I was trying to get some peanut butter cookies, but I couldn't reach, so you helped me." I answered patiently. What was he hiding? The suspense was killing me!

"And then you gave me peanut butter cookies on the first day of school, remember?" He continued, though I wasn't sure where he was going with this. I furrowed my eyebrows. "Yes, and?"

He grinned cheekily and handed me a paper box, similar to the one I had given him a long time ago, on my first day at Foxfire.

"Open it," Keefe urged. I cautiously lifted lid, not wanting the fragile box to tear.

Inside was a box of peanut butter cookies, but there were a few of what I guessed were jelly cookies.

I stood there, at a loss for words, staring at Keefe. My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. This was so perfect- peanut butter cookies, an old tradition that I loved, mixed with new but equally good jelly cookies. A perfect combination. Like me and Keefe.

My heart swelled and overflowed with love at this gift, so simple yet so meaningful. "T-thank you!" I managed to choke out.

The peanut butter symbolised me, didn't it? And the jelly symbolised Keefe, an equally delicious cookie that went so well with peanut butter.

Keefe smiled. "You're the peanut butter to my jelly."

HELLO, I'M NOT DEAD! 🥳

I really hope you enjoyed this one shot! love you guys more than sophie loves mallowmelt, byeee!