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"Wait, no Revels?"
Nita shrugged, tossing a bag of Malteasers into the basket swinging at her hip. "I've never seen any around. Kit?"
Further down the aisle, Kit turned from the bags of licorice he'd been examining to shake his head at Ronan. "Revels? Never heard of them. They any good?"
Ronan looked, to borrow a phrase, 'gobsmacked'. "'Any good'? They're feckin' fantastic, and no self-respecting movie night can hope to succeed without them."
Nita cocked an eyebrow. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ro'." She'd moved on to the nuts and pretzels section, eyeing a bag of Rold Gold with interest. "Can't we just get something similar? What do they taste like?"
"Like chocolate-covered perfection," Ronan said, swiping the Malteasers Nita had put in her basket earlier and giving them a surly look. "And I don't like Malteasers."
"They're for Carmela," Kit said, grabbing a bag of Red Vines and dropping them into the basket.
Nita wrinkled her nose at the bag, momentarily forgetting the pretzels. "No way, let's get Twizzlers."
"Really?" Kit looked dubious. "Red Vines are so much better though."
Nita blinked at him. "Are you serious?"
"Are you?" Kit blinked back.
After a moment's incredulous staring, they turned as one to Ronan, who blinked at them both. "Those are kinds of licorice, yes?"
Kit's eyebrows shot up, and he immediately reached for a bag of Twizzlers to add to the pile. "Well, that settles it then. One of each, and we'll do a taste test later."
"Later", in this case, referred to the movie night-cum-slumber party that the Rodriguez household had been planning for weeks now. They had invited all the usual suspects, gathered a truly staggering selection of recent blockbusters and oldies-but-goodies, and sent (or kicked, as Mrs. Rodriguez liked to tease) Kit's parents over to the Callahan's for the night. The only thing missing at this point was enough junk food to feed six teenagers, and enough of a selection to keep them interested.
And a varied selection it was—Nita tended towards the chips and nuts ("Loading on the carbs a little there, Neets, wonder why" Ronan had said, and Nita had nearly clocked him with a trail mix bar for it), while Kit was a sucker for sweets and sugar, and Ronan, anything containing chocolate. Between the three of them, plus the requests Carmela, Dairine, and Darryl had given them before they left, it seemed like they had bought one of everything.
Nita slowed at the end of the aisle, inspecting their haul so far and checking to see if they'd forgotten anything. "We good?"
Kit and Ronan peered into the basket as well. "Hope so, seeing as there's not much left to take," Ronan said.
"What about drinks?" Kit asked, jabbing a thumb at the frosted doors lining the far wall of the tiny corner store.
"Don't you still have those lemon sodas at home?" Nita said, making her way over to the checkout line. "And there's water, or that cranberry juice your mom likes--I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing."
Ronan huffed a laugh under his breath, and Nita quirked an eyebrow at him. "What?"
"Those are fine drinks, I'm sure, but I was under the impression we were having a movie night, not a Sunday picnic." He wandered over to the drinks fridges, scanning the rows and looking unimpressed. "We need something with some punch," he said, glancing over at the fridge with the coolers and other alcoholic drinks, "pity the drinking age is so high over here."
Nita glanced at Kit, who rolled his eyes. "We'll just get soda or ginger ale, something universal. And as for the rest of it, well..." he trailed off, raising his hands in a helpless expression. Ronan just shook his head, reaching into the fridge to grab a bottle each of Coke and root beer. As he headed back, he gave Nita and Kit a speculative look.
"You're nearly old enough to drink back in the homeland, though," he mused, adjusting his hold on the soda in his arms. "Next time we do this, you lot should make the trek over there and I'll wrangle something up for us."
"I'm pretty sure breaking local drinking laws would speed up entropy at least a little," Nita said, shifting as the line moved and the person in front of her started unloading their items onto the counter. "Besides, maybe we're only a couple years away, but Darryl's still a ways off, and I don't think I could let him have anything with good conscience."
"You have a point," Ronan said, "covered in mud though it may be." Nita was still trying to untangle his meaning when he continued, "just us three then. No little squirts, no annoying older sisters."
"Wouldn't that be a little...awkward?" Kit said.
Ronan grinned. "What, worried you'd be a third wheel? It wouldn't be the first drink Neets and I shared, after all."
Kit looked entirely unruffled as he glanced, first at Nita, then at Ronan. "If you mean the drink Neets upended into your lap, then I guess you're right." Nita grinned at Kit, catching Ronan's flinch at the memory and feeling proud. "But I'm pretty sure if anyone's going to be the third wheel it'd be you."
Ronan scoffed, looking off into the middle distance and leaning back on his heels, considering. "Oh, I don't know. I could bring someone along, make it a double date. Could be fun."
Nita sputtered, her imagination going into overdrive and dragging up some truly frightening images. "Uh, thanks, but I don't think I want to be going on a double date with you anytime soon."
Ronan mock-pouted and looked ready to reply, but at that moment the person in front of them moved away and Nita gladly abandoned the conversation in favor of enthusiastically greeting the cashier, who looked somewhat nonplussed as she started ringing through their items.
A few minutes later, items purchased and bagged, the three wizards left the store and began the short walk back to Kit's place. It was still warm out, the sun just barely peeking between the houses at the end of the street, and Nita breathed deeply, relishing in the smell of summer, all freshly-cut grass and barbeque smoke.
"In all seriousness, though," Ronan began, walking slightly behind Nita and Kit, "next time we do this it should be over at my place. I can show you the wonders of Irish junk food."
"Maybe," Kit said, "though you could just bring some over here instead. It'd require less energy expenditure."
"For you lot, maybe," Ronan grumbled. "Meanwhile, I've been knackered ever since I got here."
"Don't worry," Nita said gravely, hefting the bag she was carrying, "you won't be soon enough. None of us will," she added as an afterthought.
After a moment's pause, Kit groaned. "I just realized what we've done here," he said, looking from Ronan to Nita with a pained expression.
"What?" They chorused.
"We just bought two tons of candy and sugar and soda, and now we're gonna give Darryl free reign of it all, for the rest of the night."
Ronan looked horrified. "We've made a terrible mistake," he intoned.
Nita bit her lip, considering. "We could ration it. Put the rest in a cupboard for later."
"We'd have to do a wizardry to keep him from sneaking in."
Ronan shook his head. "There might not be any strong enough. And anyway, you know him, he'll just take it apart and rewrite it so it'll keep everyone but him out."
Nita and Kit nodded dumbly. "We'll just have to hope he crashes sometime before dawn," Kit said, though he didn't sound like he actually had any hope.
Nita moaned. "We're not gonna get any sleep tonight, are we?" she asked, plaintive.
Ronan and Kit looked at each other, then at her. "Nope," Kit said, and "not a chance," said Ronan.
Nita sighed, glancing up at the swiftly darkening sky. “Remember that stay-awake spell Nguyet mentioned?”
Kit nodded, sliding his own bag into the crick of his elbow so he could pull out his manual and start rifling pages. “I'll look it up,” he said.
They walked in silence for a few moments, listening to the chirping of crickets and the distant calls of songbirds. Kit found the spell and bookmarked it, sending a copy to each of their manuals for later inspection. It was getting colder now, but still comfortable, and despite their earlier conversation Nita found she was excited.
“Still, we should definitely do this again,” she said, eyes skipping over the first stars blinking into view above them.
“It hasn't even happened yet,” Ronan said, “for all you know, this night could end up a disaster.”
“Nah,” Kit said, “we've got junk food, great movies, and a soon-to-be hyperactive Pillar of the Powers that Be waiting for us back home. What more could we possibly need?”
“Some Revels would be nice,” Ronan muttered, sullen.
Nita caught Kit's eye, giving him a tired look. "Any idea where the nearest specialty candy store is?"
"No idea," Kit replied, replacing his manual with his cell phone, "I'll Google it."
Ronan punched the air, whooping, and Nita sighed. Disaster or not, tonight was definitely going to be interesting.