Falling for you

Chapter three

The aroma of cinnamon and vanilla filled the house. I wasn't sure what kind of cookies Michael liked, but today I wanted to let him know I appreciated him, just in case the conversation we had a couple days ago made him feel uncomfortable. The way I got moodily quiet after that might have gotten to him.
The oven alarm rang and I pulled the cookie tray out with a well worn pair of mittens that are probably older than my entire existence.

"Are they done?" My mother said walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah." I replied.
I tried to lift a cookie, still extremely soft from the oven, with a spatula and offered it to her.
She took a piece, blew on it, and tried it.

"Yep, they're good. You bringing them to Michael?" She asked.

She never met him personally. In fact, she rarely ever mentions him and it makes me a bit nervous at times.
She's maybe seen him a few times at school functions, but never really had a conversation or even a hi. I showed her some pictures of the treehouse though, and she was impressed by his work.

"Yeah." I said.

"What do you plan on doing today?" She asked.

"Eat the cookies. And talk about how we're gonna get through the year maybe." I replied.

"That's it? Maybe you can think of other things to do." She said.

"No. The place we have is nice." I said.
After a few minutes, I placed the cookies into a container one by one.
I got the rest of my things together and headed out the back door, yelling goodbye before I left.

I had to walk two blocks before I reached the uncleared area where he built the house. With the neighborhood we lived in being so small, it was safe to get from place to place on your own. He was already waiting inside when I got there.

"Hey." He said.

"Hi, I, uh, brought these." I said holding up the container of cookies. I set it on the table and opened it. He picked one up curious.

"Is this... cinnamon?" He said inspecting it closely.

"Mhmm." I said.

He exhaled out of his nose.
"I actually hate cinnamon." he said in a slightly playful tone.

"Oh, I'm so–"
He shoved the whole thing into his mouth.
I watched him swallowing the whole thing in one bite, bewildered.

"But you still managed to make them taste decent." He said, picking up another cookie and inspecting it just like the last.
I pulled the corners of my lips up into a grin.

"So," he said before taking another bite.
I took a small bite out of a cookie too.
"What do you think we should do with this thing now?" He asked.

"...you're asking me? You built this thing, it's your choice." I responded.
He huffed again.

"But I made this for us." He said.
"I did it so that we had a place where the others didn't matter."

I remembered what fifth grade was like.
At one point, I was sitting in my desk when I was surrounded by a group of girls.
"Soo," one of them said, a girl with very curly dark brown hair, tied at the top of her head.
"Are you in a relationship with Michael?" She said.
The other girls snickered and whispered in each other's ears.
"No. Not at all." I said

"Really? Because that's not how it looks like." She said teasingly.
I was thinking that she was one of the several girls that already had a crush on him. I wasn't even one of them.

"How would you know what it would look like?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

She snorted.
"Well if you don't like him Callalily, why are you always hanging around him when you always just act like a snob to us?" She said, inching closer to my face.
I felt threatened even though I didn't show it. I looked across the room and saw him looking at me. I turned to the girl again, not knowing what to say. I couldn't help being that way,and I was sorry if I came across as some snob.

"Yeah," another girl said.
"She's never talked to us since last year."

"I-I'm sorry I guess..." I said quietly. I never did anything wrong to them, and here they were, ganging up on me. Over some boy.

"You better be," the girl with the brown hair said.
"I like him, so just don't get in the way, snob." She blatantly stated and walked away.
I guess it's worth mentioning that the girl, Hannah, never acted like this before Michael got here. I wondered what happened. One of the girls in Hannah's group then went and whispered something into his ear. I never talked to Michael about it up to now.

My feet shifted under the table.
"Thanks for doing all this," I said.
"It's nice that you get me."

"About that time that those girls in class surrounded you..." Michael said.
"What was that about?" He asked.

I looked up and saw his brows furrowed.
"Nothing... forget about that." I said.

"That girl... Olivia.. she told me that you were trying to hog me for yourself." He said.

My eyes widened.
"That is so untrue, I don't know what to say."

He laughed.
"Of course you're not doing that. I just told her that I was your friend and that you weren't hogging me. That was pretty funny to me." He said.

"That was petty of them," I said.
I didn't want to tell him about what Hannah said about him, but anyway, that kind of information has no place in our friendship. He shrugs.

Michael ate the last cookie and even closed the container himself.
"I have an idea," He said.

"Let's explore the rest of the woods back there,"
he said pointing out the window.
I stood up and walked towards it, looking at the deep forest ahead, and turned to him.
"Are you sure?" I said.

"Yeah, why not? I bet there's some cool stuff back there. Maybe there's even a river we can play in."

I reached into my bag and looked at my phone. My mother hasn't asked me how I've been yet.
"Yeah, let's go." I said.

Michael smiled and rushed out of the treehouse, and I ran after him, chasing him into the woods.