When You Know

5 - Damn, little dude. Your life is as messed up as mine.

"I haven't been here in forever," said Ruben, holding the door open to let us all go inside. "It smells just like it used to." I didn't know whether he meant the food, or Mum, considering he seemed to inhale deeply as she walked close past him through the door he held open for her.

"If you've come here before, why haven't we been? This place is amazing. Holy shit, look at those cakes," said Jet, practically running over to the display cabinet to get a better look.

"I'm sorry about his language," Ruben said apologetically. "He doesn't have the best filter." Mum just chuckled and replied saying she never remembered him having one either so it seemed like a good fit, which made him laugh, too. I loved how much they laughed around each other already.

"She doesn't have one either, but I had to develop an amazing one because I get in trouble if I swear, which I think is incredibly unfair, but I really don't have a say in the matter," I piped in. I did find it incredibly annoying that she swore all the time but I still wasn't allowed to—she was worse than any of the other adults I knew.

"It's a good thing, Madden. I'm sure we could all learn a thing or two from you," Ruben said, before growing louder and adding, "especially Jet."

"What? What did I do?" said Jet from the cabinet, turning around and walking back to us. "Have you seen all those cakes?" he pointed back behind him with his thumb. "They look uh-mazing! I want one of everything."

"I did that a couple weeks ago, Jet, then I didn't eat sugar for a whole week afterwards. But it was totally worth it," I said, remembering back to the time we came here with Tanner and Morgan. Mum's old boss Hunter, who still owns and works at Greenies, had given me a box of things to take home with us, and I had eaten most of them by bedtime. I felt so sick I couldn't sleep, but it really was worth it because they were unbelievably delicious.

Jet laughed at me and nudged me towards the counter to choose what I wanted, leaving Ruben and Mum to find a table. "Dude, these look insane. Which ones are the best? We should ask for a few and share them. What do you think?" I loved that idea. I loved the idea so much more because I'd be sharing with Jet. I nodded at him and pointed out some of my favourites, including peanut butter and chocolate fudge cookies, which Mum makes all the time.

We both looked over at Mum and Ruben, who had found a table in the corner and were sitting next to each other and talking. Jet smiled at them and said, "He's so giddy, Madden. I've never seen him like this. It's so funny."

"I know what you mean. I've never seen her smile more in all my life," I said. It was true. It was like she was a completely different person around him, and in the best way imaginable.

"He really likes her, you know? Even after all these years," Jet added.

"Do you think they'll kiss?" I asked.

He laughed heartily. "I hope so. Just hopefully not in front of us." I was glad he understood how gross that would be, just as much as I was glad that he seemed hopeful for them both. He turned away from Mum and Ruben and started counting on his fingers the names of everything he wanted.

"So, I take it you're not eating actual food then," said Ruben, speaking up from behind us as Jet made his list of his desirable foods. He grabbed Jet's wide shoulders and tugged on the wispy strands of Jet's flyaway, wavy hair affectionately, which would have reached well below his shoulders if he untied it. Jet's hair was clearly the longest of all three of us. Only Mum's hair was longer than his. I want my hair to be that long.

"Do they do food food?" Jet asked, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah, mate. The menu's right there if you want to have a look." Ruben pointed at a stack of menus, and Jet looked at me, I think to get my opinion about whether we should change our plan from a bunch of sweets to an actual meal instead. I shook my head quickly, afraid of Ruben seeing me help Jet make his decision in favour of sugar over actual nutrition. It didn't work. He saw it and chuckled loudly. "Well, if you get sick, don't go complaining to me. What do you want?"