Warnings: Angst

Word Count: 1472

Author's Note: Another Tumblr request, although this time I got really excited about posting and decided to post it early!

"Can we just try and get this done as quick as possible?" you sighed, shutting the passenger door of the car behind you.

"Come on, grocery shopping isn't that bad. Besides, it's more time that you get to spend with me," your boyfriend smiled, throwing an arm around your shoulders.

"Whatever," you said, although you couldn't help the smile on your face. You leaned over onto his shoulder as the two of you walked across the parking lot.

People walked around the entrance of the store, pushing carts full of groceries and a variety of other things that they sold. You and your boyfriend fell into single file in order to avoid getting in the way of everyone else.

"Should we get a big cart?" he asked, his hand resting on the handle of a cart.

You looked down at the handwritten list of groceries that the two of you had made before you left the house, "Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to buy."

You fell into step with your boyfriend as he pushed the cart through the rows of produce. He scrutinized a couple apples while you ticked things that you had already picked up off the list.

"Which of these looks better to you?" he asked, holding up an apple in each hand.

"Definitely that one," you said, pointing to the one in his left hand.

"Ok," he said before dumping it into the bag and putting the other one back. "What's next?"

"Let's see," you said, skimming through the list. "What about popcorn?"

"Oh yeah, we need that for tonight."

"Ok, I think that's in aisle seven."

You folded the list back up and fell into step with your boyfriend. He was humming quietly to himself.

"Wait, this aisle," you said, grabbing his arm as you spotted the popcorn.

"Ok," he huffed as he wheeled the cart around.

"Sorry. I thought it was in aisle seven, but I guess it's in six."

"You're good," he smiled. "I didn't even have an educated guess to make."

The two of you stopped in front of the popcorn section and began to look over your options. There were so many to choose from, you weren't sure how you would choose.

"Hey, I think I'm going to go a couple of aisles over and pick up some coffee. I'm trusting you to pick out a good popcorn," he said.

"I don't know, that's a lot of pressure," you laughed.

"I believe in you," he said, giving you a quick kiss on the cheek before walking off towards the coffee aisle.

You were trying to decide between buttered and caramel popcorn when you heard footsteps at the end of the aisle. Thinking it was your boyfriend returning from his coffee adventure, you looked up with a smile. Instead, it was someone much worse.

"Y/N?" he said, his red hair sticking out at all angles from under his beanie.

It felt like your tongue had grown to ten times its normal size, rendering you unable to speak. After a few seconds of staring blankly at him, you managed to utter a quiet, "Hi, Josh."

You hadn't seen Josh since you surprised him on tour and then promptly ended your engagement when you learned that he was cheating on you with a member of the stage crew nearly six months ago. This had led to you moving back home for a while to process the breakup around people that would take care of you.

"How have you been?" he asked.

You glanced down at your hand that was gripped so tightly around the shopping cart handle that your knuckles were white. Josh took notice of this.

"Good," you answered.

It was only a partial lie. The first month after the breakup had been awful. You barely left your room and spent most of your time watching movies and ignoring the world around you. With time, you had gradually gotten better and when you finally made the move back to the city that you loved, everything had fallen back into place.

"That's good," he nodded. He was avoiding eye contact. "So, I've, uh, been trying to get a hold of you."

"I know," you said. There was no point in trying to hide it. You lost count of how many times you had immediately hit the ignore call button when his name showed up on your screen.

"I'm really sorry about what I did to you. It was just wrong and awful and you didn't deserve to be treated like that. There hasn't been a day since it happened where I haven't thought about what I did."

You were uncomfortable. There was nothing you wanted to do more than leave right then, but it didn't seem right to just walk away while Josh was in the middle of his grocery store monologue. It shouldn't have mattered considering how much worse Josh had hurt you, but it still didn't sit right with you. Besides, you hadn't picked out popcorn yet.

"Is there anything that I can do to make it right?"

Where was your boyfriend? It shouldn't be taking him this long to pick out coffee, and you could really use him right now. If Josh knew you had moved on, it would shut him down immediately.

"I really don't think there is, Josh," you said.

"Please, Y/N. There has to be something I can."

"Josh, I-," you started to say.

Josh's attention was directed to something behind you. His face immediately drained of color and he looked somewhere between shock and confusion. You started to turn to see who or what it was, but your question was answered by the bag of coffee that was tossed in the cart and the hand resting on your upper back. Your stomach dropped and you bit down on your lip.

"What's going on?" your boyfriend asked.

"Tyler?" Josh asked, his voice much higher than normal.

Your grip loosened on the shopping cart, although you still wanted nothing more than to be anywhere but here.

"How long has this been going on?" Josh asked.

"About two months," Tyler answered.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I think you know why."

Josh sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. You hated that you felt guilty, even though you hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Josh said before walking past the two of you.

Tyler moved his hand from your back to your arm, rubbing it gently, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," you took a deep breath. "I just feel bad, I guess."

"You have no reason to feel bad. If he wanted to keep you, he should have acted like it."

"Yeah, you're right. Are you doing ok?"

Tyler shrugged, "It's weird, but we'll work it out."

"That's good. I would hate to get between you two."

"You won't, and that's a promise."

You smiled at Tyler who in turn pressed a quick kiss to your temple.

"So what popcorn are we having tonight?" he asked.

You sighed, "I never really got around to deciding."

"How about this kind?" Tyler asked, grabbing the caramel popcorn that you had been eyeing earlier.

"Yeah, that's good."

"Perfect," Tyler said as he tossed it into the cart with the rest of your groceries. "What next?"

Half an hour later, you and Tyler were loading your many bags of groceries into the back of his car. It hadn't seemed like that much in the store, but now that you were putting it in the car it seemed excessive. You already knew that putting it all away was going to be a pain.

"How did we end up with so much?" you asked as you put another bag in.

"This is why we usually don't shop together, we just enable one another," Tyler laughed.

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't do this again."

Tyler put in the last bag of groceries and shut the trunk. While he put the cart away, you hopped into the passenger seat and searched through the radio stations for a good song. Tyler joined you in the car not long after.

"Hey, Ty?" you said as he started to pull out of your parking space.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really think you and Josh are going to be ok?"

Tyler sighed, "It will be rough at first, but I think everything will be ok in the end. We've been through worse."

"Ok, I just feel like I'm personally responsible."

Tyler reached over and grabbed your hand as he drove through the parking lot, "You are in no way responsible for any of this. Josh is an adult who can make his own decisions and deal with the consequences of those decisions. You don't owe him anything."

"Yeah, you're right," you said.

Tyler squeezed your hand and smirked, "I know."