I didn't expect much when Connor Sharpe followed me back.
Just some random notification while hanging out with my best friend.
But one simple "hi" turns into something neither of us saw coming.
A couple of years apart, different grades, and a millio...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The boys had vanished into Aidan's room almost immediately after we got to their house. By the time Yumi and I had slipped off our shoes and greeted their mom again who, by the way, was literally glowing in the warm kitchen light, the sound of shouting and virtual gunfire echoed from upstairs.
"What are they doing?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Connor's playing GTA," Aidan's mom chuckled, wiping her hands on a towel. "That boy never changes."
Yumi leaned over to me, grinning. "Ten bucks says Laura convinced them to let her try."
"I don't need to take that bet. She definitely did." I rolled my eyes.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, we heard her voice half yelling, half laughing, followed by Connor's very patient, "No, no, Laura, not the civilians-oh my god."
We both cracked up.
Their mom was standing by the counter with a huge glass bowl of brownie batter and a warm smile. "I was just about to put these in the oven," she said. "You girls want to help?"
"Want to help?" Yumi said dramatically. "Ma'am, we live for brownies."
"Perfect," she said. "But I should warn you, I'm not a very organized baker. We're doing this with vibes."
Yumi and I shared a look of mutual understanding.
"I can vibe with that," I said, rolling up my sleeves.
----------------------
Let's just say... we were not the most helpful assistants.
Yumi dropped a spoon. I accidentally doubled the salt. We forgot whether we'd already added eggs-twice-and then had to guess based on consistency. There was a moment where the electric mixer tried to escape the bowl and nearly took the whole batter with it.
But the three of us were laughing so hard we could barely breathe.
Their mom was amazing so patient, funny, and genuinely sweet. She told us stories about when Connor and Aidan were little, how Aidan once tried to microwave a banana with the peel on (??), and how Connor used to cry whenever he lost at Mario Kart.
"Okay, he still does that," I said without thinking, then froze.
Their mom raised an eyebrow. "Still, huh?"
Yumi coughed. "She means hypothetically."
"Right. Hypothetically," I nodded, suddenly very invested in stirring the batter.
She just smiled knowingly and handed us each a spoon to taste test.
--------------------
Meanwhile, from upstairs, we kept hearing things like:
"Why would you run over the guy selling hotdogs, Laura?!"
