I looked at him, pressing him to say more. “Should we go back there again? To find your keys? Maybe they’re in the parking lot. It was dark.”

“We don’t need to go back there. I’ll figure it out.”

Shit. “Okay. Don’t you need a ride to get them?”

“No. I don’t.”

I felt like we were suddenly in an argument in the cereal aisle but I’d missed what we were fighting over. He grabbed a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and placed it in the cart. At least he had good taste in cereal. He was keeping his groceries in the seat at the front of the cart where kids usually sat while parents tried to keep them entertained and cooperative.

I ignored his rejection and kept shopping. We needed only a few things, and I was ready for our little trip to finish, since he was clearly in a bad mood. I really didn’t react well to people shutting down; it’s made me paranoid since I was young, made my mind spiral. I knew I needed to say something before my mind fully went there. I stopped walking for a second, and he halted, too.

He looked confused now. But I was getting better at reading him. Granted, it had been only two days, but still. I was cracking him open, slowly but surely.

“If I said something that bothered you, or did something . . .”

“Huh?” He cocked his head to the side and studied my face, the cart, our surroundings. “What makes you say that?”

There were people walking by, looking at us as we stood right in the center of the aisle.

An older white man passed us, keeping his eyes on Kael and me just a beat too long. I noticed his lingering stare, shifting back and forth between us, and the hairs on my neck prickled. The man disappeared around the corner. I almost mentioned it to Kael, but I started wondering if I was just paranoid, and decided not to give the rude man any more attention than I already had.

“I don’t know. I just feel like you’re . . .” I tried to explain myself. I hated that I was so easily at a loss for words sometimes.

He wrapped his hands around the handle on the cart and took over pushing it.

“If something was wrong, I’d say it. I’m just in my own head.” His tone wasn’t condescending or wrapped in a lie.