Adam&Audrey

Rule #11: Do It Like You Do It To Me

“Alright!” I called back as cheerily as possible. Panicking, I slipped to the floor, scooping up the flour in my hands, swivelling my head from side to side seeing where to put it. Not the trash. Not back in the bag. Not in the refrigerator.

Suddenly, the bathroom door could be heard opening, and Audrey’s footsteps followed. Without thinking, I opened the nearest cupboard and grabbed a cup, scooping up the remaining excess flour and haphazardly stuffing the cup back inside. Then I took off my hoodie and laid it down on the floor to cover the rest of the mess.

Just in time. Audrey walked into the kitchen and I smiled widely at her, leisurely taking out a second cup of flour from the bag and pouring it into the bowl.

“Did you put the baking powder in?” she asked suspiciously.

My smile dropped. “I couldn’t find it.” Not a complete lie, either.

Shaking her head, she walked over to the cupboard I had stuffed the cup of flour in. My eyes widening, I hurried to block her, but my foot caught in the sleeve hole of my hoodie and I stumbled, pulling some next Jackie Chan shit and grabbing onto the counter behind my back as well as the bottom of Audrey’s top, pulling her back to land half on top of me. My foot slid the jacket completely to the other side of the kitchen, and the flour below was exposed.

But even when lying suspended from one end of the kitchen to the other with Audrey half-covering me, I was just glad that she hadn’t opened the cupboard.

Suddenly, Audrey’s hand slipped from the cupboard handle above my head, knocking it open, and the cup of flour that was tilting dangerously over the edge moved once, twice, and then fell down over my head, covering my face and hair with the horrible white stuff.

I kept my eyes squeezed tightly shut. After a moment of deathly silence, Audrey lifted her weight off of me and then I felt a cloth wiping my face. Cracking one eyelid open, I saw Audrey’s sweet-before-the-storm face. And immediately shut my eye again.

Her soft exhale cooled my face. “Adam. Get up.”

I did. The flour fell off my face to cover me shirt, and I guiltily looked down at Audrey, keeping from blinking too much and getting the stuff in my eye. “Sorry?” I attempted.

“Just clean yourself. I don’t even want to know what a cup of flour was doing there. You can’t honestly be forgetful enough that you put the flour in the cupboard instead of the bowl?” Her genuine concern wounded my pride. Straightening her jeans she backed up, turning around to get the bowl. And then she slipped.

I caught her just as her head was two inches from the floor. Her whole body was pressed again and I knew that I wasn’t imagining the electricity humming between us. Still, I looked around to check if we might have rubbed against some material that was giving me the shocks. There wasn’t anything, and I waited for the shocks to end. They didn’t. Come on, science! Show yourself!

Audrey looked confused at my intense expression and when she turned her head to the side, her eyebrows skyrocketed as she saw the flour that had been exposed when I slipped and slid the hoodie across the floor.

She looked back at me, understanding dawning in her eyes. Well, I guess she found out it wasn’t Santa who had hid the cup in the cupboard.

“Oops?”

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I fumbled with the tie I was holding, grumbling once again at me being locked in my room. Cody deserved to be punched in the face for his comment last night. “In love with me,” I mocked, yanking on the insufferable piece of cloth round my neck. I couldn’t even access my laptop to find out how to tie the goddamned thing, since it was on the kitchen table.