A Call to Action (Avengers Fan Fiction #1) | REWRITING

Chapter 17

One of the easiest things just became one of the most difficult.

Whole wheat, white, flat, rolls, or...? I fixated my eyes on the list that I held in my hand. Nowhere on it did it say what type of bread they wanted. I cried out in frustration, grabbed the first thing I saw on the shelf, and added it to the cart. After countless times of stopping to think of a brand, the food type, or whatever, I was growing tired of being at the supermarket. It was a small place with isles close together and only so few workers at the cash registers. The white tiled floors were smeared with black marks from the scratches the shelving units left behind and the yellow walls faded into a sickly white.

I met Clint in isle eight where he was choosing breakfast cereals. He stood out wearing his light brown leather jacket, red shirt, and black pants. Other than the boxes, he was the only color to the isle. His face was blank and his sky blue eyes glazed over. It seemed like the choices were dulling the whole 'bonding' experience Natasha wanted us to have. Clint and I thought it was a dumb idea, but here we were. He appeared dumbfounded when he glimpsed down at his list and asked me with a chuckle, "Tony says get cereal. Steve wants something healthy. Thor wants pop-tarts. God, these guys aren't specific with anything, are they?"

"Right? They can't leave choices like this to us." I replied. We had crossed out most of our list, which consisted of the big dinner for tonight and some minor meals for the rest of the week.

He looked up and down the isle before grabbing a box of Fruity Pebbles and threw it into the cart. "Nat likes these. Let's go."

"Barton, you can't just get wha-" My eyes landed on the contents within his hands and stopped mid-sentence. Mostly everything was just for him and Tasha alone to eat. "Really?"

Barton shrugged like he wasn't guilty of anything. "Hey, you try shopping for them."

"I just did." I pointed at the items I chose as I listed who they were for. "Tony wanted peanuts to snack on; Steve likes his Neapolitan ice-cream and candy for his sweet tooth; Bruce has yogurt, crackers, berries, and sugar-coated snacks; Tasha asked nicely for chips and some salsa; I have cookies; oh, and how could I forget, here's your mini donuts." I felt completely accomplished for such a simple task. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or the exact opposite.

Telling from his face, he seemed pretty impressed. Clint rolled his eyes and dumped everything into the cart. "I got everything Nat and I would ever need."

I scoffed, "Of course. I'm not surprised." I followed him to the check out line and put everything on the small conveyer belt.

The cashier rang it all up while checking her freshly done pink polished nails. The woman was plump and her dark skin appeared smooth against the makeup she had on. Her curly black hair was tied into a big bun on the back of her head and her honey shaded eyes focused on the screen in front of her. "That will be $246.37. Will you be using cash or credit?"

Clint's eyes widened upon hearing the total and looked into his wallet. He only had a few bucks in there, and even then, he didn't have a card to charge everything to. "That's a bummer..." he trailed off quietly. His blue eyes glanced back up at the cashier and smiled handsomely. "Could I get an Avengers discount? I saved the world, you know."

The woman looked him in the eye and her lips formed a tight line before stating, "No."

Barton's face fell and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned up against the small wall between the cashiers' booths. "Well, this is...Hawkward."

I began to laugh quite loudly. That was a first, especially coming from him. He was in the phase to crack a joke on a pun on his name or the first thing he sees on the internet everyday. Usually, people would find that annoying, but I did quite enjoy his attempts of thinking about saying something that's actually hilarious. "That was actually funny, Clint." I took Natasha's debit card out of my wallet. Tasha knew Clint wouldn't have any money, or at least enough to pay for everything.