The People Watcher
(NOTE: I wrote this story back in the spring of 2019 for my Creative Writing class during my senior year. I submitted this story to the Shoreline Writing Contest and won first place in the category of short story. I am very proud of that accomplishment and now I am posting this story for others to enjoy and read.)
Edeka supermarket is one of Germany’s largest grocery store corporations. Four-thousand one hundred stores all around Germany and of course Ida had been lucky enough to stop by the Edeka with absolutely zero Milch-Schnitte cookies for movie night.
Great, Ida thought.
Ida Weber was not an easily frustrated person. She got along with her friends, didn’t laugh at the expense of others, and was currently trying to find those damn Milch-Schnitte cookies for a movie she couldn’t even begin to remember the title of. Tasked with the job of finding suitable snacks and practically shoved out of Carsten’s house, she now stood in the middle of the long aisle with an expression akin to that of a lost puppy.
She had grabbed Spritzkuchen, Pick Up!’s, and Schoko Strolche, but the white and red packaging of Milch-Schnitte was nowhere to be seen. See, Ida had what most people would call a “crush”, on one of her friends but she refused to call it that. Refused to acknowledge it, even. She would roll her eyes at the glances of her other friends being weird anytime Sigi walked into the room. When the two had met almost a year ago on Ida’s first day back to school, she hadn’t noticed Sigi at all. Now, she couldn’t even look into Sigi’s big green eyes without them boring into her soul and rendering her a human disaster. This crush, ahem, “friend,” in particular just so happened to be the person who so desperately wanted those stupid white and black cookies. So, in turn, Ida was desperate.
She thought those cookies were a common snack in Germany, but apparently not. Had she been away from the country for too long? Having only moved back to Germany about a year ago, her German was rusty and the commonality of Milch-Schnitte cookies were the last thing on her mind. When Ida was born, she was born in America to Marianne and Ansel Weber. Not long after, the compact family moved to Ansel’s homeland of Germany for his job. Like a ping pong ball, she moved back to America when she was nine, but only with her mother this time. Her parents did their best to keep her in the dark about what was really happening, but Ida was clever and it wasn’t all that hard to piece together that her parent’s relationship wasn’t what it used to be. When Ida was sixteen, her mother put her on a plane back to her father’s house, where she now attended Munich International School for the Diploma Program.
Ida looked into the plastic shopping basket and sighed. It was going to start raining soon and she didn’t want to get caught in it if she stayed for too long. She had already picked out an assortment of other junk food for her friends that would have to suffice. Chips for Walli, popcorn for Marcos, cookies for Jeter, and some obscure pork-skin chip catastrophe for Becca. The yellow paper her friends had written the list on began to blot with sweat from her palm.
Still, a small part of her brain screamed, Find those fucking cookies! Ida was terrible at saying no to herself. Ida was terrible at saying no to others. Crap. She knew she would have to admit defeat at some point and find an alternate solution. She had seen Hanuta a few aisles back, so she just might have to make do with that. What if Sigi doesn’t even like Hanuta? What then? She stuffed her hand into her coat pocket and took her phone out and clicked it on. There were no notifications except for the clock blinking back at her. She quickly texted Marcos,
Can’t find Milch-Schnitte in this store. I’m probs gonna get Hanuta and Sigi will just have to deal.
She tapped Send and slid her phone into the safety of her back pocket. She turned the corner and skimmed the numbered aisles whilst narrowly avoiding a mother and daughter zooming past her. The young girl was sat in the front of the cart and she was wailing. A pang twisted in Ida’s gut and she looked back at the mother. She could not see her face but Ida knew she was stressed. If it was from the child’s crying or another matter, she did not know. Ida turned her attention once more to the numbers and her eyes zigzagged back and forth until she found the small square packages of Hanuta. She entered the aisle to the halfway mark and plucked one off the shelf and halfheartedly tossed it into the basket. The total price came to around 13€ and Ida was on her way.
The bus ride back to Carsten’s apartment was uneventful, besides the boy sitting at the end of the bus whose earbuds were playing music a tad too loud. Ida stared out the window, watching the night creep up on the day. Houses passed in a multicolored blur, the lights outside obscured by small raindrops starting to stick to the windows. Ida sighed and pulled her hood up and pushed the blonde strands of hair away from her face. When the bus came to a jerky stop, she moved her way down the aisle and got off. She stepped over the curb where rainwater was starting to gather in the gutter. She jabbed her finger against the buzzer for apartment 2C and waited. The faint sound of sirens blared in the distance and two girls stumbled against each other on the opposite side of the street, probably drunk, Ida guessed. The staticky tone of shrieking voices came in through the speaker. She heard what she thought was,
“Come on up!” The door audibly clicked and Ida let herself in. She squinted as the lights of the entrance overtook her senses. She took the lift, even though Carsten’s apartment was on the second floor because the stairwell always smelled of something new and rank. Kind of like a flavor of the week but less fun.
“-and speak of the devil herself! Ladies and gents, Ida Weber, late as always!” Ida opened the door to Jeter gesturing madly at something or another.
“How am I late, Jeter, you guys were the ones who told me to buy your shit! I could keep this all for myself if I wanted to! Anyway,” Ida took the plastic grocery bags that were starting to cut indents into her fingers and dropped them ungracefully onto the wobbly table. There was a flash as Jeter snapped a picture of the group.
“Oh, do not put that on your story! Please! I look dead,” Carsten wailed.
“Doing it anyway!” he announced and raised his phone higher. Ida rolled her eyes but smiled all the same.
“Hell yeah, you found my Schweinekrusten!” Becca shrieked.
“I don’t even know why you like those things, dude, they smell disgusting.” said Marcos.
“Yeah, well, you like sweet popcorn and that’s an abomination in itself.” Becca ripped the bag open and Marcos took a precautionary step back. Ida pulled the Hanuta from the bag and tried to ignore the way her hand brushed against Sigi’s when she handed the package over.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find any Milch-Schnitte. I know those are your favorite but I think I went to one of those smaller Edeka shops where they don’t have as many good products and I kept -”
“Hey, it’s chill. I don’t even like Milch-Schnitte all that much and Hanuta is honestly better in my opinion even if it’s more expensive. Thank you.” Ida pulled her hand back without another word. Verdammt, those green eyes again, boring into her own. She cleared her throat and looked about the room. Carsten’s living room was small and dimly lit. Shadows moved frantically along the green walls and the distinct smell of plasticky cheap food was in the air. Marcos and Jeter were already settled on the couch, Sigi was sitting by the table, Walli was sprawled out over the floor with his head pillowed on a pile of blankets, and Becca was curled up on a stiff chair that didn’t look all too comfortable by the way she kept rearranging her position every two minutes. Ida dropped the final bag of chips onto the coffee table before throwing herself into the corner of the couch and pulling her legs up under her. She let herself look back at Sigi. Sigi looked unnaturally comfortable as always, unbothered by the fact that the kitchen chair was the last seat left after everyone else had claimed theirs. Ida looked for a bit longer, letting herself be fascinated. She only then realized that Sigi had just started to stare back. She blinked and looked away.
Well, she thought, that’s what I get for being a people watcher.
Sigi smiled.
The End.