Ray, Look! Turtle!
The kid blew a bubble, snapped it, and gave a gusty sigh. "All right."
Ray stepped back to let the kid do his thing - unlock the tank, lift the cover, forget that he had to get a smaller tank first, close the cover, go somewhere for five minutes while Ray continued looking at the baby turtle and feeling small butterflies in his stomach, come back with a small tank filled with some water, spend two minutes trying to figure out where to put it, put it on the floor by Ray's feet, lift the cover, take out the turtle, put it in the small tank, close the cover and lock back the tank - and then he lifted the small tank with his new turtle and felt his cheeks lifting in a grin.
"Hey there, little fella. I'm Ray. We'll be good for each other, yeah?" Ray glanced over at the kid, who was now tapping his foot and rolling his eyes vaguely in Ray's direction, and paused. He was sounding like that chick over there, with the nice ass. Time to grow some. "Right, so, uh, where do I pay?"
The kid pointed towards the front of the store where a big sign clearly read "CASHIER: PAY HERE" and left Ray to puzzle out the rest. Ray sighed and looked at the turtle once more. It was gorgeous Box turtle, spotted yellow and green, and now it was Ray's. Finally, after years of mourning Skip, who died when Ray was fifteen, he could do this. He was ready. He was more than ready.
He smiled at the turtle and it smiled back. Ray'd already bought the perfect tank, and it was waiting for them back at his place, along with a month's supply of turtle food. "All right, you. Let's go home, okay? Got a treat for you."
The turtle stuck its head compeltely out of its shell and Ray could have sworn it nodded.