Vanilla Twilight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Rainy weather is my favorite weather hands down. There's just something about the way the atmosphere becomes cooler that I love.
There aren't too many birds flying about having already taken sanctuary in their nests. People also are scarce unless they're in vehicles.

I love the smell of rain, that wet earth aroma that fills the air. The sky darkens, the air's cool; everything is just perfect.

Micah and I arrived sometime last week while Mum and Pop were happy to have us home. As usual, Mum's been feeding us with buffets of food which only confirmed my beliefs of having gained more than a pound or two since I arrived.

Because of the weather, I envisioned myself in one of my favorite pastimes, spending the day curled up in my bed reading a book. But when I received a text from Selah saying that her and Derek were coming over I knew I would be doing no such thing.

So that is why the three of us are currently in the living room huddled together under a blanket and watching horror movies with them on either side of me.

"Whoever's idea it was to watch horror on a day like this is a sicko," Selah comments.

She had the covers shielding her eyes from the flat screen in front of us; she hated horror movies.

"I agree with Selah; let's do something else," Derek chips in.

"But you were the one who suggested it!" I laugh at my cowardly friend.

"What? I don't remember that," he excuses while scratching the back of his head.

Selah and I roll our eyes at him; he was such a bad liar.

"Anyways, what do you guys want to do? It's pouring out, Micah's not home yet so we don't have a car, and I wanted to be lazy today," I whine the last part.

Selah throws the entire blanket off and at my face while I cackle.

"Don't be a bum, it's summer!" She gets up, her baggy sweatshirt swaying as she moves.

"Come on."

She leads Derek and I to the kitchen and starts taking out random ingredients. When she sees us looking at her skeptically, she rolls her eyes like we were supposed to know what exactly she was doing.

"We're going to make a bundt cake. I saw it on Pinterest, it should be easy," she confirms.

And after a few more seconds of doubting looks, we join her in her hunt for ingredients.

***

The house was gone; burned into nothing but char. Everything Mum and Pop worked all their lives for was now up in flames.

We couldn't salvage anything but ourselves and barely that.
Derek almost didn't make it out and-

Just kidding!

We were fine, the house was still standing and everything was the way it should be. I think we all were expecting to fail miserably though so we were beyond surprised when a semi-perfect chocolate bundt cake stared back at us.

"Well I'll be damned, we are actually good for something," Derek blurts while Selah and I smack him behind the head.

"Hey!"

Gosh it felt so good to be back home with my friends; I didn't realize how much I actually missed them until we're doing something silly or fun like now.
They really play a huge part in taking my focus off a certain somebody.

I pass each of them a ceramic plate with metal forks and cut slices of the cake for each of us.

"Cheers! To long friendships," I toast.