Fateful Ties

Chapter Five

With myself now re-energized, I decide to take on today positively. In order for that to happen though, I'm going to have to avoid Audrey until the end of the day when we have our movie night. Luckily, she doesn't seem to be anywhere around when I wonder into the living room.

I start making the necessary preparations for the surprise. I planned a dinner for me and Matt. It's going to be in the garden, but before we have dinner, I wanted to take him out to downtown for the afternoon. I even got permission from the school to do it. Everyone here is rarely allowed outside the school walls, so I thought this would be a nice change of pace for him.

Of course, before I go to meet Matt later at his dorm, I'm going to bake him a special treat. If there's one thing I know he loves, it's sugar cookies. I'm a chocolate chip girl myself, so his love for such a basic cookie is beyond me, but I will put away my vendetta against plain food for today.

Since the campus grocers dropped off more food earlier this week, I don't have to worry about having enough ingredients for a batch of cookies. I'm too lazy to make them from scratch, so I kneed out the pre-made cookie dough in the refrigerator until it's one inch thick. I use some cookie cutters I found in the drawer to cut the dough into fun Halloween shapes. When they're all cut out I place them in the oven and then walk back to my room.

The marigolds I picked from the garden last night are in a vase on my desk. I grab the flowers and arrange them more specifically in the vase. After I'm done arranging them, I grab a a piece of paper and a pen from my pencil pouch and write a note to Matt that says Happy One Year Anniversary. I tuck the note to the flowers by using a blue string to tie it around.

Once the flowers are done with, I go back to the kitchen to find Audrey there, trying to figure out what's in the oven. I look up to the ceiling and silently mumble, "Why do you hate me?"

Audrey sees me in the hallway and asks, "What are you doing?"

I clear my throat and say, "Nothing. Just coming back to check on my cookies."

She nods and bends over to study them in the oven. "It looks like they're almost done,. Who're they for?"

I start blushing. I don't know why I'm so embarrassed to tell someone let alone Audrey about baking cookies for Matt. I suck in a breath. "They're a surprise for Matt," answer a little quietly.

Audrey doesn't say anything for a moment. All she does is look at the oven. "That's sweet," she finally lets out, sounding unconvincing. She doesn't say anything else as she passes by me and walks to her room.

My temper begins to rise, but since I promised myself that I would be positive today, I let it go. I open the oven and take out the cookies. I let them cool before I place them on a plastic plate I laid out on the counter. I decorate the cookies with Halloween colors, and they turned out adorable.

Now, I know I told Addison that I would be meeting Matt at 2:30, but that was for the going into town surprise. It's currently 12:00, and I'm going to go to Matt's dorm early to give him the cookies and the flowers.

C

I arrive at Matt's dorm and knock on the door. It's slightly ajar, which is weird, and when no one comes to let me in, I just walk in since it's open. I look around for him, but he doesn't seem to be here. I turn to leave, but then I see something by his coatrack. Those are Addison's shoes. My lips tug into a smile. She must really be trying hard to figure out what the surprise is.