Cupid's silver arrow (GirlxNB)

Fifteen

The sky is cloudless, a beautiful blue as I stand in front of Olivia's house, my hands playing with my phone as I, once again, consider pretending to be seriously sick and bailing on her.

But she was terribly nice to invite me, and Benji's at his grandma's and I don't really want to be home with my misgendering parents, so I sigh, stepping up to her front door and knocking.

"Coming!" I hear her shout from inside, then a crash and Josh's laughter.

I bite the inside of my cheek, looking at the very well kept exterior of her house, the green bushes and the cut grass. Olivia lives close to Benji and Grace, in one of the nicer neighbourhoods of town.

"Hi." She smiles at me as she opens the door, hair in a bun and an apron over her sweater, "come in, sorry, we're finishing some cookies."

I raise my eyebrows, entering and removing my shoes by the door, "you bake?"

"Sometimes," she says with a shrug, "Josh has a sweet tooth."

"Don't all kids?" I ask, thinking of Max as I follow her into the kitchen.

"Touché."

"Archer!" Josh exclaims when he sees me, eyes shining and face smeared with flour.

"Hello," I sit on a stool beside him, "what are you doing?"

"We're decorating cookies." He holds up a decorating bag with green filling inside, "Oli made them."

I humm, and Olivia offers me an apron and a decorating bag too, "if you wanna help," she says.

I take it obviously, a little smile on my face as I tie it behind my back and wash my hands before taking the coloured bag.

"So what are you doing?" I eye the different shaped cookies, my eyes fleeting between the siblings and the food. "Is it themed?" I turn to Josh, raising an eyebrow, "are you making football cookies?"

He shakes his head and I hear Olivia's soft chuckle in front of me. "I'm making alien cookies."

"Oh," I say, keeping a surprised straight face as Olivia cackles. "Do you think they exist?"

"Yeah, they're all kept in Area 51," he says, then turns to Olivia, "right, Oli?"

"Yes, absolutely," and her face shows not a crack that she doesn't think it's true.

We finish decorating them, with aliens and spaceships and constellations and they're delicious. The cookie is buttery and tastes faintly of vanilla and the sugary filling fits in perfectly.

"Wow. This is good."

"Thanks," Olivia says, taking her apron and hanging it inside the door.

"Oli's cookies are the best," Josh says, crumbles falling off his mouth. "Better than mom's."

"Don't let her hear you saying that," Olivia warns with a proud smile, "you know she'll never bake again." She then turns to me, my own mouth stuffed with cookies. "Let's go to the basement."

I choke on a cookie. "You're gonna kill me?"

She chuckles, "no, I'm gonna show you my collection of evil dolls."

I shudder a little, munching on the cookies on the plate she's holding. That somehow sounds worse than getting murdered.

She opens a door, leading me into a small room filled with a couch and a TV.

"Wow," I can't help but say as I step inside, my socks protecting my skin from the cold stone floor, "this is so cool."

"Thanks." She smiles, sitting on the sofa with the plate on her lap before passing me a blanket. "We put the shelves up and the TV last year so Josh and I could yell all we wanted here."