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You know, I didn't really care to bake cakes with my mom when I was younger but now that was baking one with Austin I felt like I was with her. Or maybe she was watching me do this with a boy she probably wish she could've met. She would've loved all my friends, but I'm pretty sure she also would've beat up Vinnie and Christian at times. She was just overprotective, but amazing to be around.
She took me to a protest when I was six years old, it was for equal pay for women but at the time I really didn't understand what was going on. So I just held onto her hand and continued walking, all I really remember was getting ice cream right after and my mom chatting with a lady to her side as I inhaled the chocolate ice cream in front of me. Now that I think about it, I don't think I'd be as brave and confident as she was, I think that was her thing. Just like baking was.
"How many eggs do we need?" Austin asked as he nudged me bringing me out of my thoughts.
"I think we need two for each cake box." I opened the fridge and grabbed the eggs for him to crack them.
"Thanks." He was reading the back of the box and looking confused as he looked back and forth from the liquids to the dry powders for the cake.
"How about this? I read the directions and you do the mixing and all that." I jumped onto the counter to sit down and he smiled at the idea.
"Sure. Now I put the milk in this container, what do I need now?"
I checked the box, "The eggs." He grabbed the container of eggs from beside me and grabbed one. He stared at it for a while which confused me for a bit, "What are you doing?"
"Well-uh I can't quite remember how to crack an egg." He nervously smiled at me as I got down from the counter and grabbed the egg.
"Okay, well look." I tapped the egg onto the counter for a small crack, opened it, and poured it into the bowl. "Now you try." I grabbed the trash can and moved it closer to us. He grabbed the egg again and followed the movement that I did, but sadly the egg was destroyed after he kind of smashed it into the counter. He pursed his lips together and looked at the egg defeatedly.
"It's okay, try again." He did. The poor eggs were being destroyed as he tried two more times, "Okay, let me just do it."
"No, just help me. I want to learn." He gave me a smile and I sighed.
"Okay." He already had the egg in his hands, so I put my hand on his and cracked the egg against the counter. Both of my hands were now on his, we cracked it open, and finally we had another egg to use. But he kind of stayed there for a while, with my hands on his and I could feel him staring at me.
"Good job!" I removed my hands from is and he threw away the egg shells. I gave him a smile and he returned it.
"Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem. Now mix the liquids together and we can get to mixing it with the dry ingredients." He nodded his head and started to mix it together as I watched while my heart pumping out of my chest for some reason.
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"Do I just put it in the pan?"
"Yeah, did you put the non-stick spray." I asked. He nodded his head as he carefully put the batter onto the pan.
"Okay can you pass me the chocolate batter?" I passed it to him and he poured it in gently while having the most concentrated face. "Okay cool." He passed me the bowl and put the pan aside. "Strawberry please."
I passed him the bowl and he looked at it, "Have you had raw batter before?" I asked.
His eyes widened a bit, "You can do that?" I nodded my head and grabbed a spoon from the cabinet. "I mean it's not great for you, but just try it." I picked up a small amount of batter with the spoon and lifted the spoon to his mouth as he put the non-stick spray on the last pan.
He made a disgusted face and refused to open his mouth, "Please don't make me eat that."
"Just try it, you never know until you try it." He looked at it weirdly and I smiled. "It's actually good."
"Okay fine." He opened his mouth and I quickly put the spoon in his mouth. He made different faces. One where he looked disgusted, then confused, then okay with it. "I mean it's not bad."
"See, I told you." I started to wash the spoon while he put the batter in the pan and started thinking about how my mom would let me lick the spoon when she was done mixing. She didn't really care if there was raw egg in it, I guess she just wanted me to be like her in ways. But I enjoyed it and maybe that's something she wanted me to share with others.
Austin stood next to me, as he was finished with the bowl and started to clean it, "Thanks for doing this with me (Y/n)."
"No problem, it was fun."
He leaned onto the counter and smiled, "I hadn't done this in a while. The last time I did was with my mom and I think was five, then she met my dad and they became too busy for this stuff." I looked up at him as I continued to wash the dirty utensils and bowls, "Now that I think about it, I think I only stayed in the house for the weekend and other nights I would be with friends, stay the night, get high, maybe even get drunk." He stopped talking and I just listened to the silence that filled the kitchen.
"I want to stop pretending." He said.
"What do you mean?"
"To like getting high, drinking til I can't walk. I don't even like that stuff." He paused and then looked at me again, "I mean I don't even like vaping, it's honestly nasty but it just makes me forget I guess."
"And you don't want to forget anything anymore?" I asked interrupting his thoughts. He nodded his head and I smiled. I turned the sink water off, dried my hands, and looked at him.
