The Waves of You

Burnt

Love, wait, hang on. No this cannot be one of those instent love stories. She probably doesn't even like you dude and knows you're weird so stop okay? You're overthinking too much, calm down. This isn't one of those love stories, okay? She isn't gonna fall in love with you for the sake of the plot. Also, we can't fall in love, remember what happened last time? Yeah, so stop.

I calm myself, and my pride down a bit and remain focused on the conversation at hand. "I like pasta salad, and whatever you're making smells great," I say and she giggles a bit before going back to stirring the pot. "Yeah, I guess I've got some practice since my mom was never around to do it herself. The cooking shows are very helpful." She says, forcing a smile. I can tell because there's no happiness in her eyes. "Yeah, I guess my mom wasn't around much for me either. But it's life, I suppose and we learn to deal with what's been dealt." I say, she nods in agreement.

I'm not the best at comforting people, but I try. "Sorry, I'm not the best at comforting people. I've never really learned how." I say. She looks up at me. "Me either. However, I know something you can learn." She has a smile on her face as she says that and I know this isn't going to go well. "Oh no, that's not a good idea. trust me. I've tried cooking and it always ends up with something burning." I say backing away from the stove. "Oh come on, you probably didn't have a good teacher then, it will be fun! Besides, we aren't cooking, we're baking." She says.

What's the difference? Honestly, that doesn't matter, it's gonna end up burnt anyways. I look down at her again and see her giving me puppy eyes. Not those, anything but puppy eyes. I can never resist.

I groan, because I know I'm not gonna win. "Fine, what are we baking?" I ask and she hands me a bowl, an empty one at that. I look up at her and she's emptying the pot, meaning she's done cooking the pasta. At least I won't be burning that delicious pasta. I'd rather eat it. "We are going to be baking cupcakes!" She says joyously.

Oh no.

"Fine, I'll try to bake them, but you owe me cupcakes when we burn them," I say and go to the countertop beside her and place the bowl down. She goes into her pantry and pulls out one of those boxes that have the dry ingredients already inside. At least they're not gonna be from scratch. That would be worse. Briella grabs the bowl and opens the box to pour inside, but she opens it too fast and the cupcake stuff goes everywhere.

"Whoops." She says staring straight ahead with the package in hand and powder all over her face. I start laughing a little too hard. She slowly turns her head toward me and sees how hard I'm laughing. Briella grabs a handful of the batter and chucks it at me. I stand there frozen while she laughs her ass off.

Some even got into my mouth. It does not taste well. I walked up to her as she backed away and stole the powder from her. She begins to run away but before she can even step another foot out of the kitchen I throw powder at her which makes her begin to cough, meaning she got some in her mouth.

"Doesn't taste so good does it?" I ask, laughing my ass off. She walks up to me and snatches the bag back and begins to work on the cupcakes. I finally stopped laughing and helped her out.

We finish baking them and put them into the oven. She walks into the dining room but suddenly stops when she sees herself. "Damn it, I was gonna sit and watch Gilmore Girls, but I have cupcake powder all over me." She says, which makes me laugh. She glared at me and tried wiping herself off but it only got worse. "Maybe we try that outside?" I ask. She agrees and we both step onto her back porch to wipe ourselves off I notice she has a pool just like mine.

I guess it helps that we live on the same block and practically all the houses are the same.

That gives me an idea.

I slowly walk up towards her trying not to look suspicious. "It's not coming off!" Bri says frustrated. I walk up towards her more and whisper in her ear. "You know what they say about getting off cupcake powder?" I ask. She looks at me weirdly and says, "What?".

Got her.

I grab her and push her into the pool. She screams as she hits the water. When she gets back up she looks pissed. I am already laughing my ass off. "Haha very funny, do you think you can give me a hand?" She asks nicely, but I already know this trick. "Please?" She pouts and I can't resist anymore. I mean I am probably stronger than her so I can pull back if she tries to pull me into the water. I shrug and grab her hand to pull her up and just as I'm about to pull her up to the edge she somehow pulls me down harder and I go crashing into the water. I gotta admit she's good.

As soon as my head reaches the air she splashes water in my face while laughing her ass off. I am laughing too. We both get out of the pool and she goes inside to get us towels.

The view from her house is really pretty, no that's not the right word, it's stunning. Yeah, that's better. When I hear the sliding door open up I turn and see Bri is back with towels. She hands me the blue one as we both sit down and watch the sunset. I didn't even think I'd been here that long, but apparently, I have. "It's beautiful, isn't it? I turn and look at her for a moment before answering. "Yeah, it's stunning. The most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on." I say, however, I'm not talking about the sunset.

Brielle turns to look at me and when she does I smile, I don't look away. For some reason I want her to know I'm not talking about the sunset, but her.

"Yeah, I suppose it is." She says and looks back at the sunset, but my eyes are on hers. "Have you ever wondered why a sunset is so beautiful?" I ask her. Bri turns to look at me again, "I've never really thought about it." She says. "I think it's the world telling us that even though the next few hours will be dark, it will be worth it when the sun comes up again. That even though it's dark right now, the light at the end, will all be worth it." I say. Briella smiles and nods her head. "Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it."

I don't know how long we sit there, but I hope it never ends

A few moments later I hear a loud beep from the kitchen and look at the door confused as to what that sound is, but as I look towards Briella I realize we forgot...

"THE CUPCAKES!" Bri yells and runs into the house, and I run after her.

When she opens the oven and takes them out we both know they are burnt.

I look at her sadly, "I told you it never works out with me." I say and give her a shrug. Her lips go in a flat line and her eyes look at me like she's saying 'really'. I give her another shrug and she skates her head while laughing a little bit, which makes me smile.

"Well, you know what they say when you burn cupcakes?" I ask. Briella shakes her head once more before answering, "Do I really wanna know?" She answers my question with another question.

"Yes, you do." I raise my eyebrows at her, telling her she should ask me what they do.

She signs and that's when I know she's gonna ask. "Fine, what do they do when you burn cupcakes?"

"You try again. Because sometimes, when you try something new it can get a little burnt. But all you have to do is try again." I say. Briella smiles and goes back into the pantry to grab another package. When she comes out she says,

"Looks like we'll have to try again."

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Thank you for reading.

-Sydney (A simple story, goes a long way)