Chapter Three: Rain or shine.

Dom looked at us indignantly. “That wasn’t even funny.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair.

Tristan simply raised one eyebrow and looked straight at me, his bright blue eyes searching. Ethan shook his head. “Come on children, let’s get moving.”

“Have you told the people in charge? What are they called again?” Tristan frowned, trying to remember.

“The Green Shirts?” Ethan supplied helpfully. “Yeah, yeah, I told them. Let’s get moving. Now.” He pointed out the door forcefully.

We walked out the door and turned left into a street. Ethan and Emily chatting away with Dom, leaving me with the evil incubus himself. I snickered. “Forgotten the names so fast? Obviously walking into glass killed off a few dozen brain cells.” I hoped that Emily and Ethan knew where they were going.

Tristan snorted. “At least I had something in there to start off with, unlike you.” He fell in step beside me.

“Oh please. You’re the one acting like an empty headed flirt.”

“Jealous, dearest Andy? I can always flirt with you, if you feel so unwanted.” He smirked, his cobalt eyes glittering.

“Someone’s overestimating their own value. I’d rather slap myself senseless than have you flirting with me.” I crossed my arms.

A mischievous smile played on the corners of his lips. “Are you sure you don’t want me slapping you?”

“Sorry, I’m not suicidal.” I fluttered my eyelashes charmingly and replied in a sickeningly sweet tone.

His eyes lit up in sudden amusement. “Why? Think you’d die from the pleasure?”

I glared at him, sickened by his suggestions, but reluctant to let him win this round. What the hell had happened to him? “What’s with all this talk? Compensating for something?” I snorted, disturbed. “I always knew you were…inadequately sized.” I turned and smirked to myself.

“Wouldn’t you just like to know. Would you like a look now? I’d be happy to oblige you, just to prove you...” He paused briefly before to milk to moment, a cool smile tugging at the ends of his mouth. “Wrong.”

“Ugh. I think I came in at the wrong time.” Emily said, her nose wrinkling up with slight distaste.

Dom chortled. “Damn. Why can’t you pick a fight with me, Adrienne?”

I grinned at him. “You’re not an ass. Like him.” I glared at Tristan, who smirked smugly in return.

He bowed mockingly. “At your service, milady.”

Ethan interrupted, his hand waving a map about. “Guys, we’re going to get lost, so get your asses here and help me read the map.”

“Where are we at the moment?” I examined the map closely, looking for a street sign.

Emily looked sheepish. “Not sure. We were just walking down random streets.”

Tristan made a noise and held out his hand. I looked up and quirked an eyebrow. “What do you want?”

He rolled his eyes and made an offhanded noise. “Aren’t I clear enough? Hand over the map.”

“So I’m not qualified to read the map?” I challenged.

He snorted. “You’re female. Girls get lost all the time because they have no sense of direction.”

“Says the boy who got lost on a straight road with no turn offs.” I grinned, remembering clearly the day that he got lost on the way to the dairy. Along a road barely a hundred metres long.

He glared at me. “I was five at the time. Besides, I wasn’t the one who thought that Chile was part of Mexico.”

“At least I knew that Chile existed, unlike someone who thought that Chile was some corn chips brand,” I snickered. “No wonder you were such a tubby little boy.”

Ethan cleared his throat. “If you’ve stopped swapping childhood stories like a pair of senile newts, do you mind using the map?”

“Map?” Tristan demanded from me.

“Oh please. I’d rather shove it up your ass, except there’s already a whole range of crap up there, including a stick, so I’m afraid it won’t fit.” I smiled sweetly and carried on looking at the streets drawn out on the map, delighted to see that the closest supermarket was simply a few streets away.

Dom and Emily snickered, while Ethan smirked. “She’s got you there, man.”

Dom grinned. “Or more precisely, she’s got you by the balls.” He cracked up immediately.

Tristan gave him a withering look before directing an equally disgusted expression at me. “What crawled up your ass and died? Look, it’s going to rain soon and the faster we find the supermarket, the less chance we get drenched.”

“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said ever since I saw you. And for your information, the supermarket is just beyond that street.” I pointed across the intersection where there seemed to be a never ending line of cars going in that direction.

Dom grinned. “Nice thinking there,” He glanced at Tristan, who seemed to be looking rather stonily at the intersection. “Never mind him,” He said conspiratorially. “He’s just disappointed that he didn’t see that first.” He turned to face Tristan, a gleeful look on his face. “Beaten by a girl? That was fast.”

Tristan smirked and gestured widely. “At least I wasn’t relying on some girl to help me find the direction like some pansy.”

I interrupted. “Doesn’t matter. You didn’t find it in the end and had to rely on the girl. So, that makes you the pansy.” I grinned smugly.

Emily elbowed me. “Adrienne, it’s kind of starting to spit. You might want to get into that supermarket that you found.”

Tristan nodded and walked briskly past. I snickered as Emily and I followed behind the three boys. “Wonder why he’s so frightened of getting wet.”

“You’re the expert on him, not me.”

I grimaced. “Reluctant expert.”

We walked into the supermarket and I smiled with amusement when I saw Dom head immediately for the sweets aisle. Evidently, Tristan wasn’t joking when he said that Dom needed sugar. I grabbed a basket and walked to the junk food aisle, hunting for some Pringles. Emily followed and motioned to the Pringles which sat in neat rows on a shelf.

“Pringles, Adrienne?”

I began to salivate. Pringles were my weak point. Those adverts were amazingly true for once. Once I ‘popped’, I couldn’t ‘stop’. They were so addictive. “My gosh, I found you,” I eyed the cans eagerly. “Mmm…Pringles.”

She grinned. “I thought so,” She paused and scanned the other shelves before her eyes lit up with anticipation. “Personally, I prefer Shapes. Little bite sized biscuits, baked, not fried, mind you, covered with flavouring. So good.” She skipped down the aisle and took a box.

I laughed. “You know, we could make pretty good salesmen.”

“Sorry, it’s against my morals to lie between my teeth on a daily basis.” Emily grinned.

I shook my head and followed her out of the aisle. We grabbed a few chocolate bars and some toiletry supplies before finding the guys. I burst out laughing when I saw what was in Dom’s basket. It was absolutely laden with every kind of sweet known to man.

Emily’s eyes widened. “Dom, are you able to finish all that within a week?”

He gave a winsome smile. “Yeah. I have a good metabolism.”

“That’s unfair. If I ate all that within a week, I’d swell to the size of a puffball.”

I nodded. “Same here. I’d gain ten kilos over that.”

“Or maybe, it’s just you.” A voice replied from behind. I whirled around. It was of course, Tristan, who had a smirk on his face.

“Oh, how sad. Now you’re picking on the weights of others. Haven’t you heard of sensitivity?” I snapped back.

“I wasn’t aware that someone like you had feelings,” He drawled, looking casually at the aisle in front of him. A few teenage girls who were walking past ogled at him.

I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t aware that people like you are still such sore losers. It’s okay,” I smiled at him patronisingly. “I know how hard it must be for your ego to lose to a girl.”

Ethan coughed. “You guys can continue your argument outside. You’re kind of attracting a crowd.”

Emily looked outside the window, a painful look in her eyes. “Um, guys, that might be the least of our problems.”

We followed her gaze. Rain was pouring down the window in rivulets.

“Oh, shit,” Ethan swore. “I’m not exactly prepared.”

“Neither,” Dom looked around, for the first time he was completely serious. “Aren’t there some umbrellas on sale here?”

Tristan nodded. “There might be. Look, we’ll split up and meet back here after ten minutes to see if we’ve found anything remotely waterproof.”

I nodded and we all split up.

Ten minutes later, we all arrived again. Tristan was holding a bright yellow disposable poncho, Ethan was holding a box of plastic freezer bags and Dom, well, he was holding a bag of nappies. We all looked at him.

“What?” He said defensively. “You can use these. Just put one over your head and you have a nice waterproof hood.”

“Right,” Tristan said skeptically, and held up his poncho. “Somehow, I think that the poncho might be more effective.”

“As much as I hate to say it, I have to agree,” I nodded towards Emily. “But we have something else which might help.”

Ethan looked over at what Emily and I were carrying. “What do you girls have?”

Emily reached behind her and pulled out a beach umbrella. “It was the last one too.”

Dom turned to Tristan. “How many ponchos are there left in the aisle?”

He shrugged. “About four. I’m not sure.”

We trudged over to the aisle, hoping that the rain would somehow lessen. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Tristan held aloft three ponchos. “There’s five of us though. Two people will have to share the umbrella.”

“Adrienne and I can,” Emily replied after a moment. “We’re both wearing kind of semi waterproof jackets anyway.”

I nodded. “Sounds good. How much is it altogether?”

“How much is your umbrella?” Tristan asked.

“Fourteen ninety nine.” I replied.

“If I’ve got three ponchos that cost nine ninety each…” He trailed off. I took out my cellphone, planning to use the inbuilt calculator.

“Forty four dollars and sixty nine cents.” Dom said suddenly.

I looked at him, my mouth open. Okay, here was proof of exactly why Dom was here in the first place.

Ethan grinned. “Don’t worry. You get used to it after awhile.”

“I’ll pay for it now,” Tristan said after a moment. Then he grinned. “You can owe me later and we’ll just Dom to calculate each person’s share.”

We walked to the checkout and Tristan swiped everything using his EFTPOS card. I looked longingly at the warm, dry interior of the supermarket. The three guys put on their ponchos. Bright yellow, might I add.

Emily cracked up. “You guys look hilarious. You guys can walk ahead and be the beacons,” She glanced outside. “We might need them too since the sky isn’t looking too bright.”

“By the way, who’s holding the map?” Ethan added. “The map isn’t going to survive in this downpour.”

“I think I can remember the way.” Tristan answered. “If not, we’ll just throw Adrienne up the front seeing as she found the supermarket in the first place.”

“Oh, shut up, sore loser,” I glared at him. “If you want a chance to remedy your ego loss, then here’s the chance to prove yourself.”

Suddenly, a crack of thunder echoed through the air. Emily grinned. “Prepared to get wet?”

“Oh yes,” I replied. “I simply can’t wait.”

A.N. Hey, thanks for being so patient! I'm sorry for the long wait. Hopefully this chapter was worth waiting for :) Thank you so much for all your lovely reviews.