Fake Plastic Trees

Fake Plastic Trees

“Don’t forget the milk,” Lilah said.

That was the last thing she said to him. It wasn’t “I love you” or “hurry back” or even “pick up a box of condoms” because they hadn’t had sex in three months. She told him not to forget the milk and James nodded his head and left without a word.

It was raining outside but he walked to the grocery store anyway. It would take longer and he couldn’t stand being in that house anymore. He just didn’t know where else to go.

“I won’t honey,” a man said. He was standing in line at the deli counter with a cell phone pressed to his ear. “The ones with the wings. I’ll remember.”

“Paper or plastic?” the girl at the counter asked. She had pigtails and was snapping her gum in her mouth as she did. She didn’t care about the answer but the woman in front of her did. She had a giant fur collar around her head and he didn’t understand the point of that in July.

“Oh I don’t know,” the woman answered. “The paper’s recyclable but I like using the plastic for my garbage. What do you think? Oh but the cats might get their heads stuck in the plastic ones.”

The girl at the counter rolled her eyes. “Do you want both?” she asked.

“Oh no.” She shook her head. “That’s just a waste.”

James passed by them and tried to remember why he was here and don’t forget the milk. He walked by the family planning section and he didn’t know why they didn’t just call it baby prevention or something. He thought about buying a box of condoms anyway but he’d never get to use them and she’d just say he was cheating on her.

“Should I get the grape juice or the prune juice?” a man asked his wife. He stood in the aisle with both of them in his hands and kept looking between the plastic bottles. He looked up when she didn’t answer him. “Honey?” he asked. “Which one do you want?”

She was staring at the ring on her hand and finally looked up to smile at him. “Whatever you want.”

He stopped at the dairy section, his hands shoved in his pockets. Did she drink 2% or 1%? Whole milk or skim milk? Should he get a full gallon or a half gallon? Did she want soy milk?

He didn’t know the answer. He stared at the white plastic bottles and he didn’t know.

“You look lost,” someone said next to him. He looked over and there was a girl there with a candy bar in her hand. He placed her at college age, but it was hard to tell. The ends of her hair were dyed pink and there were tattoos on her neck.

“I am,” he said.

“Well, let me help,” she said. “You’re in the dairy section of Food Lion. That’s a grocery store, not an actual lion. And you’re here to get milk.”

“Yeah,” he said. “You happen to know what kind?”

She smirked and nodded her head. “Yeah,” she said. “I do.” She sat on the edge of the freezer and picked up a bottle of chocolate milk. His eyes widened when she popped it open and started drinking it like she was downing a beer. “You should get whatever kind you want to drink.”

He snorted and looked back at the hundreds of types of milk. Behind him he could hear the man on his cell phone. “I know you said the green ones, but they’re all green, honey,” he said.

“Lilah won’t like that,” he told the tattooed girl.

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She screwed the top back on the bottle of chocolate milk and put it back in the freezer. “So what?” she asked.

James smiled at that and tilted his head to the side. “You’ve never been in a relationship, have you?”

She grinned and stood up. He was surprised when her arms slid around his neck. She had a really nice smile, he thought. “Sure I have,” she told him. “I’ve been in plenty of relationships and not in one of them did we break up because of the wrong kind of milk.”

“So why did you break up?” he asked.

“Let me ask you a better question,” she said. “Why are you breaking up?”

The smile on his face faltered. Behind him a kid screamed and ran through the aisle. “Mommy!” he yelled. “Get me the gummy dinosaurs, pleeeeease.”

“I lost my job,” he said. He didn’t know why he was telling her the truth. “Three months ago. I haven’t tried to find a new one.”

She shook her head. “That’s not why,” she said. “Try again.”

He frowned and ran a hand over his mouth. She still had her arms around his neck and one eyebrow was lifted curiously. “We don’t have sex anymore,” he said. She smiled and shook her head and he let out a sigh. “She never says she loves me. She wants kids, I don’t. She wants someone successful, I’m not.”

“That’s not why,” she said again. “That’s why she’s breaking up. Why are you?”

“Because…” he stalled and looked back at the milk. Those all sounded like good reasons to him. They all sounded like honest reasons. “I don’t know.” He sounded frustrated, lost.

She ran her fingers through his hair and behind him the kid tripped and skinned his knee on the tile floor. He burst into tears. “Yes you do.” She kept running her fingers through his hair and didn’t look over her shoulder. She just waited for his answer.

He stared at the plastic jugs and the cardboard cartons of them. He thought he was jealous of the cartoon cows that grinned and danced on their surface. “Because I don’t care if I buy the wrong kind of milk.”

She smirked and pointed a finger at him. “Bingo,” she said.

A frustrated sigh left his lips and he looked back at the freezer. “So what do I do?” he asked.

“You keep asking all the wrong questions,” she told him. She smiled, stepped back, and opened her candy bar, taking a chunk out of the corner. She had a tongue ring with a purple ball on the end of it. “What do you want to do?” she asked.

He shook his head and he didn’t have an answer.

Word Count: 1,079
Written for "A Moment in Time"