Chapter 140

Claire stood there frozen, staring down at the half-opened bag in her hand. She gasped sharply, eyes wide in disbelief. Her pupils trembled. Ultra-thin, ribbed, strawberry flavored… Wait, what the hell was all this?! Mentally rewinding to earlier that day, she pictured herself on the phone, frantically grabbing stuff off the shelf while not looking. Straight from chaos to checkout, and now here she was, lugging that awkward bag back to the lakeside. So much time, and not once did she bother to double-check… Ugh, cue the meltdown. “T-this, I… I grabbed the wrong ones,” she mumbled, her voice weak as she bent down, shoving the suspicious boxes to the bottom of the bag and tying it shut like her life depended on it. “The wrong ones?” Julian lifted an eyebrow, eyes full of doubt. “You ‘accidentally’ picked the wrong thing a few times in a row?” Claire felt like diving into the lake. “It was… complicated.” Julian shot back, “Oh yeah? How complicated? The convenience store made a new rule th