Matthias

Chapter 9

Matt got out of the car and as Adam stepped out of the passenger's seat, I could see why he was so late. Could this day get any better?

As much as I hated it, I put on my winning smile and greeted the boy I consider my worst enemy. Walking to him, I held my hand out to him politely. "Hey, Adam."

Adam smiled at me and held his hand out to shake mine. We were almost touching when he realized Matt was walking ahead of him. He pushed past me. "Yeah, hey, Devin." He greeted distractedly. How, rude!

I caught up with them as Mom opened the white cardboard box that contained the birthday cake. The collective gasp was enough to let me know something was wrong before I even saw the cake.

The Transformers cake in the box was definitely not the Cookie Monster cake we'd ordered. And I don't know who Davie is but he's apparently turning six.

"Dammit, Devin!" My mother complained automatically.

My mouth fell open in shock. "Me? Wha-what?"

"Ms. Peters, this was my fault. I must've picked up the wrong cake off the counter. There were two and I was in a hurry to pick up Adam and get back to the party. It's not Dev's fault." Matt explained sweetly. He's so sweet...

Mom's shoulders sagged and I could see she understood. "How could this have possible been my fault in the first place!?" I asked in exasperation.

She looked at me for a moment, shrugged, and got angry again. "You two go fix this now!" She shoved Matt and me in the direction of the parking lot. "Adam can stay here with me and get the grill started. People will be arriving in about ten minutes, so no lagging!!!" She fussed.

Matt and I made our way to the car and got in. There was a slight awkwardness in the vehicle just like what had been between us since the night with the cool whip incident. It wasn't a horrible awkwardness. We drowned it out with the radio, but neither of us knew what to say.

I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn't and he wouldn't say what was one his mind either, so we were just silent. Had been silent for weeks. It was killing me really, but I just focused on other things to take my mind off of our problems. Easier said then done.

"Think the bakery will give us our cake free for our troubles?" I asked distractedly.

"They may make us pay extra for our stupidity." He laughed.

That was the end of our conversation. And, it hurt knowing he wouldn't say more than that.

The rest of the ride to the bakery was filled with music and more awkwardness. We finally arrived and Matt leaned into the backseat and picked up Davie's cake. He took it inside the small building quickly as I followed behind him. I'm sure we were both anticipating a call from my mother. Scary thought.

We walked into the bakery and saw a distressed looking woman and a grumpy child standing at the counter. The clerk looked irritated as he apologized to the woman.

When he spotted Matt holding the box he sighed and looked back at the woman. "See, ma'am. It was a simple mistake. We apologize for the inconvenience, here is your cake." He waved his had in our direction. The woman turned and Matt handed her the box and smiled warmly.

The boy was staring at me as he passed. "Happy birthday, Davie!" I whispered to him and he gave me a weird look before walking out.

Humph! Matt walked to the counter and picked up the box the clerk pushed onto the counter. He lifted the top first, checking to make sure it was the right one.

"Could've saved us all a lot of trouble by doing that the first time." The boy behind the desk stated rudely.

Matt glared and gave him the finger before walking out. I followed him and we made our way back to the car. It seemed like forever before we made it back to the park, but the trip wasn't awkward. Matt and I laughed most of the time about how the little bitch at the bakery thought he was something. We arrived at the park and found the small parking lot filled with people we didn't know. The playground was packed with random toddlers I'd never seen. I got the cake and walked to the pavilion where my mom was talking to a group of old ladies. When she saw me she jumped up to look at the cake in my hands.