Shaniquah, laid on the cold hardwood floor, breathing deeply their knuckles felt a little sore which irritated them, the loud clapping of people outside, the buzzing ambient hum of the AC power in the walls. It was as if Nails were being scratched on a chalkboard, why couldn't they see that letting them have this soda would make all the pain go away.
Sandra continued to soothe her friend, pulling out a set of headphones that had noise-canceling earmuffs attached to them, perfect she thought, glad she had brought them, being reminded of her autistic cousin that would have sensory overloads.
"try these maybe it'll help with the senses," Sandra said empathetically as she motioned to Shaniquah to take them.
Shaniquah didn't even look at Sandra as they saw the headphones coming towards them and awkwardly took them, quickly putting them on and feeling a calm flood wash over them. Feeling a little calmer Shaniquah sat up, sniffing a little she wiped their tears with the cuffs of their sleeve.
"So when will the next one be r..ready," Shaniquah said a little defeatedly, with creaks in their voice, wiping away more tears.
Nervous, the Clerk thinking it would be best to lie started off confidently saying "Oh I don't think it will honestly, The ingredients needed to make it are rare and it could be... "
"WHAT.. It won't be back.. NO .. NOOO" Shaniquah interrupted, before going back to vehemently screaming and kicking around the air in frustration again.
Sandra turned to the store clerk and gave her a death stare, clearly, she could have used better words or lied for fuck sake, she thought. Now she had to deal with this all over again.
Sighing and trying to figure out how best to snap Shaniquah out of this time, she pulled out her iPod and played some songs, which were connected to the headphones her friend wore, and sure enough, after a few seconds, Shaniquah snapped out of her rage and grabbed the iPod forcefully.
"oh I love this song," they said with a little bit of joy in their voice as they listened to the opening intro of Steven universe, their favorite TV show.
Seeing an opportunity to reason with her friend Sandra knelt down to Shaniquahs level, looking at her in the eyes.
"listen Shaniquah, why don't we go back to your parents, I'm sure we can find more stores like this. She lied, just wanting to get her friend to move on from this obsession.
Not taking her eyes off the iPod, Shaniquah nodded, still mad at Sandra for slapping the drink out of her hand, and figured ignoring her would be the easiest thing right now.
"Alright, I'll take that as a yes.." Sandra sighed a little, It had been 30mins since they came in here a second time and her friend had spent most of it screaming, this was going to be a long day she thought, just wanting to pass Shaniquah onto someone else.
Meanwhile, the Clerk had been watching awkwardly as the pair slowly gathered their things and left.
Sandra lead Shaniquah out of the store as Shaniquah was now watching clips on Sandra's phone while walking. occasionally giggling to clips and rewinding them.
walking past a display of various sodas Sandra briefly diverted her attention for a moment before hearing a loud crash as Shaniquah knocked into one of the displays containing sodas which...