The Quest for Pepsi

When the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, the first thing Ava did, after stuffing a pile of textbooks into her locker, was race over to the vending machine located in the back of the cafeteria. She whistled as she walked, with a skip in her step, and a gleam in her eyes. This was the first Friday of her senior year. She told herself that things were off to a good start. When she reached the machine, she pushed the E7 button to receive her prize for making it through the week – a can of Pepsi. To her disappointment, the blocky green letters on the vending machine told her that product was out of stock. Ava’s best friend, Emma, who was standing next to the other vending machine, with a newly purchased bag of Skittles in hand, noticed Ava’s downcast face and suggested she buy a different kind of pop instead.

“I didn’t even know you liked Pepsi,” Emma said. “Why don’t you get a Dr. Pepper or something?”

“I really had my heart set on a Pepsi today,” Ava explained, looking at the image of the blue can longingly. Emma laughed at her silly friend, but, to Ava, this was no laughing matter. “I’ll see you on Monday, Emma,” were her only parting words before she turned and exited the room, leaving behind a befuddled friend.

Ava sped out of the school parking lot in her beat-up SUV, her face set in a mask of grim determination. She had promised her mother she would be back by five, so she had to hurry, but she still had time to make one short stop before heading home. The path she traveled to the grocery store was a familiar one, but she tried not to think about what it had been like to drive down this same stretch of main street every Friday last year. In an effort to keep those bitter memories at bay, she turned on the radio and hummed along halfheartedly to the song that played. This year would be better, she told herself. She was so much better off without him.

The moment she pulled into the supermarket’s parking lot, her heart dropped. There he was, with a girl that looked vaguely familiar to Ava. They were walking toward the entrance, hand in hand, and the girl was tossing her head back in laughter, her chestnut hair flying in the early autumn breeze. Ava tightened her grip on the steering wheel. It didn’t matter that he was here, it didn’t matter that he had a new girlfriend. She could march into the grocery store and grab her can of Pepsi with confidence, even if he saw her. In fact, this was even better than she’d planned. He’d be able to see how happy she was, how independent, how . . . alone. So very alone. An angry horn sounded behind Ava, and she glanced in her rearview mirror and glimpsed an annoyed driver in the truck behind her. She realized she’d been sitting in the middle of the parking lot for too long and was blocking the entire lane. She glanced back and forth between the grocery store and the street a couple of times nervously. Her fear won out, and Ava turned around and left the parking lot, feeling like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Ava’s mind immediately began to formulate new options. She decided to go to a fast-food restaurant she knew carried Pepsi products. Even better, she had never eaten there together with him, so she didn’t need to worry about running into him or any memories there. She entered the restaurant with renewed gusto, eager to buy her Pepsi and savor it over the drive home. It could become a new Friday tradition, she thought.

Ava smiled when she saw there was no line inside the restaurant, so she headed straight for the front counter.

“Hi!” she greeted the employee with more enthusiasm than she typically would. “I would like one large Pepsi please, and that’s all.”

“Alright. Well, we actually don’t have Pepsi. Would Coke be ok instead?” The employee, whose nametag read Madison, looked at Ava innocently. Ava blinked. No Coke wouldn’t be all right. What was she thinking? Pepsi and Coke were not equals. If there was one thing he had taught her, that was it.

“Um, no thank you,” she finally replied after an awkward pause. “I think I’ll just go somewhere else.” Heat rushed to her cheeks as she bent her head down and exited the building. She could hear the employee giggling as one of her coworkers asked, “What’s her problem?”

That question circled Ava’s mind as she drove further down the road. What was her problem? Would it have been so bad to choose a different drink? Now that she had put so much effort into finding a Pepsi, though, she felt she had no choice but to keep looking. She was unwilling to accept defeat now. There was another grocery store up ahead, on the left. They would certainly have Pepsi.

This time Ava entered the store cautiously. Because of her previous blunders, she was worried she’d run into someone she knew and have to explain to them why she had driven twenty minutes down the road to buy a single can of soda. Being laughed out of a public location was something she didn’t want to experience twice in one day. Thankfully, a cooler of soft drinks was located right near the entrance, and there were no friends, relatives, or distant acquaintances in sight. At long last, Ava could have her Pepsi. But when her fingers were just inches from it, she suddenly stopped. Why was she doing all this?

Memories flashed through her mind of every Friday last semester when she had gone with him to get a Coke after school. It had become their ritual, and they would laugh together and catch up on what had happened to them recently. It had been her favorite part of the week. And he had hated Pepsi. She remembered mentioning on their first date that she preferred Pepsi to Coke, and he had been adamant that she was wrong.

“Coke is so much better,” he told her. “I’ll buy you some and we can drink them side by side and I’ll prove it to you. Pepsi tastes too sweet, too artificial. Coke is much better.” And when they had tried the two a few days later, Ava had done her best to act like she was impressed by how much better Coke was than Pepsi.

“You were right,” she told him. “I should have never doubted you.” In reality, they tasted pretty much the same to her. But that was the way he had been. He always had to have his way, always had to be in control, and that was why Ava had broken up with him.

And that was why she needed to buy a Pepsi. Because he wasn’t in control of her anymore, she was her own person. Or was she? By doing something just to spite him, wasn’t she actually proving the very opposite? Instead, shouldn’t she just do whatever she wanted to do and not even consider whether her decisions would please or annoy him? Did she even want to drink a Pepsi?

“Excuse me, miss?” A tenor voice startled Ava from her reverie. “Are you having trouble finding something you need?” The young teenager wearing the store’s uniform blushed, trying to hide his crooked grin. Ava looked at her hand and realized she had been standing in front of the open cooler for several minutes without taking anything.

“No, I am not having any trouble at all. Thank you.” With finality Ava grabbed a can of Sprite. “It just took me a minute to decide what I truly wanted.”