A Season of Firsts

Chapter 7

A few days later, me, Hallie and Mabel are positioned around the small island countertop in our flat's kitchen, attempting to decorate some cupcakes that we baked earlier. It's girl's night, because Mabel is going back to college the day after tomorrow, so we're making the most of the time we have left together.

Me and Hallie have already made plans to party with her in Vancouver for the New Year, though, so we're not dwelling on her impending departure.

Alongside the cupcakes, we also made a fruity cocktail mix in the biggest bowl we could find, which has gone down rapidly since 5pm. I don't know if you've ever tried icing your name onto a cupcake when you can't see completely straight before, but that shit's hard. I get to 'Ad' and give up.

Hallie gets the giggles, and I look up from my masterpiece to see that she has tried to replicate a flower on her cake, but it ended up looking more phallic than she intended.

"That is the best flower I have ever seen," Mabel says sarcastically, laughing as she takes a picture of it.

"Like you could do any better," Hallie says, asking, "What does yours say?"

"HAM," she replies with a satisfied nod.

"Ham?" I ask, thinking she means the meat variety.

"Hallie, Addy, Mabel. HAM," she says, as if we should have worked that out immediately.

"Ohh, I get it now," I smile, telling her, "So you're a sentimental drunk."

"Shut up, Addy, I'm not even drunk! A drunk person wouldn't be able to produce such artistry," she protests, slurring her words just slightly and holding up her creation for the world to see.

"That's very true," Hallie says, appeasing her.

"Are you going to make one for Chase? You're working with him tomorrow," I say to Hallie, just because I think it would be a nice idea.

"Yeah, I think I will. And one for Leo. What about you, are you making one for Rory?" She already knows the answer to that, she just wants to torture me.

"No, I think I'll leave that to Mabel."

"What's up with you two? You never told me how the snowboarding went the other day," Mabel enquires.

Hallie looks at me, wondering how I'm going to word this, because I told her when I got back from my snowboarding lesson how weird Rory got with me.

I decide to just be honest with Mabel, and say, "It was really fun! I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and Rory was a great help. He was a tiny bit rude at the end though, and it was awkward, so we haven't spoken since then."

"What? How was he rude?" she asks, shocked.

"It wasn't a big deal! He just shut down when I asked him about his future plans and cut off our conversation, which I was actually really enjoying, and took off down the mountain without me."

"I'll kill him."

I laugh, saying, "No, you won't. Like I said, not a big deal."

"Still a dick thing to do, though."

"True, but I forgive him. Everyone is a dick once in a while."

"You won't be signing up for a repeat lesson anytime soon then?"

"Not just yet, no. I've been okay practising on my own the last couple of days. I've actually really improved!"

"We can all go out together in the morning if you want? And you can show me your moves," Mabel suggests.