Peanut Love

He always stared at her immediately upon waking up. He couldn’t get enough of her tan appearance and the way her eyes always had a little bit of fear in them. “You’d be the best jar of peanut butter in the whole store!” he shouted, moving his way through everyone else. She smiled, blushing, and took a glimpse at the way his shell cracked below his left eye, the result of a fight he’d gotten into two weeks ago on the day they entered the bag. “You think I would?”

“Oh yes, Jiffy would be lucky to have you in their blend.”

She looked away to the world outside. A field of green, a blue sky, the warm sun, nine boys standing with blue hats on. “Why do they do that?” she asked.

“Do what?”

“Throw that white thing and hit it as hard as they can and then all the people around us scream.”

“I think it’s a game of some sort. A competition.”

“It’s silly,” she said.

She continued to look out, nose touching plastic, the aroma of herself mixing with his. She always thought he smelled the best of the whole bag. He brushed against her shell, sending nut-bumps up her back. She turned towards him and he looked deep into her eyes. “You’re the nuttiest girl I know,” he told her, leaning in for a kiss. Her heart jumped and she closed her eyes, anticipating what his lips would feel like on hers.

“Hoooome ruuuuunnn!!!!” The speakers blared, scaring both of them out of the moment. Their bag began to shake and all the people around them were banging their hands together and shouting words like “Way to go!” and “Woohoo!” He was thrust away from her in the midst of all the shaking, fighting as hard as he could to get back to her side against the current of all the nuts around him. Suddenly, the top of their home opened, and the scent of hot dogs and beer contaminated their air. A deep voice from above, louder than any they’d heard before, posed a question to the man next to him; “Want some peanuts?” The peanuts sat below, shaking in their shells, staring up at the hand coming closer and closer. Fear spread over their faces as the flesh made its grab, taking two nuts away from them.

He felt the warmth over his shell and she began to cry. “Is that you?” he asked.

“Is this the end? Is this the end?”

“It’s going to be…”

She heard the crack of his shell and opened her eyes, seeing two large lips in front of her. And then, just as she heard it would, the back of her shell snapped, and she lay naked in the hand of the bearded face before her. The man threw the two of them into his mouth and a flood of beer washed them down his tongue and together they plummeted down his throat, gasping their final breaths. The man, overweight and inebriated, paused before sticking his hand back into the bag for more, swearing he had heard his stomach rumble a faint “I love you.”