The Sky Is Falling On My Head!

15. The Cake Batter Crime.

After Ryder left me, my heart began to ache with his absence...

Kidding! Though, jeez dude, how does Ryder do this all the time?!

No, my heart was perfectly fine. I did however, start my baking...

After I hunted and hunted for the recipe book, and when I finally found it, Keith walked back into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" He asked, looking at me with childlike curiosity.

"I'm baking."

"Ooh, nice. What are you baking?"

"Red velvet cake."

"Can I have some?"

"As soon as it's cooled, yes."

"How long will you take?"

I gave up trying to weigh the flour, and fought to keep myself from bursting at Keith's... Very very through questioning.

"Keith...? Could you give me a second?"

"Sure! You want me to help?"

Hey, that wouldn't be a bad idea. At least then there won't be any awkward silences in the middle.

"Okay."

And then Keith and I set to work on different components of the cake.

~~~~~~

It turned out, Keith wasn't a bad assistant at all! The only problem was I kept having to smack his hands away from the batter bowl, because he kept going to taste it.

"Stop it, Keith!" I whined, smacking his hand away from the bowl for the umpteenth time.

"But, it's so good!"

"And it'll taste even better if you leave enough to bake!"

Keith smiled innocently, before he began edging closer and closer to me.

Now, even though we'd 'k-worded' my breath still hitched when Keith came close. And the worst part, Keith seemed to know that.

And, he still didn't keep his distance.

Then, a couple of nerve-racking centimeters later, Keith lips brushed mine.

When he suddenly pulled back and licked his fingers of some sort of red stuff.

Hey, wait a minute... That looks like...

"Are you serious, Keith?! You even used kissing me as a distraction to dip your fingers in the bowl?!"

"Hey, I can still kiss you if it bothers you that much."

"No, thank you. What I do want you to do, is leave. That'd be good. Let me finish the cake in peace."

Or piece. Depends on whether you're a fan of cake puns.

"What? You're firing your adorable assistant?" Keith asked, frowning like a puppy. (If puppies can frown?)

"Yes." I said, even though it pained me to do so.

"No, you can't do that!"

"I can do whatever I want! Unless of course you can convince me otherwise...?"

Keith's innocent expression vanished in a second, and he began to smirk wickedly.

"Ooh, really? And how can I do that?"

Keith came closer again, but this time, I was prepared. Or I thought I was, but maybe I just reacted that way because I panicked, yet again.

Because with every step that Keith took towards me, I took one towards him.

Until finally, we were so close that if we shifted even a milimeter, our lips would touch. Keith smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist, and I draped mine across his shoulders.

"Oh shit, am I interrupting something?"

Keith and I jumped apart.

"Ryder?" Keith asked, sounding equal parts miffed and confused.

"Hey, Keith. Hey, Kylie!"

"Hey, Ryder. Wait- Ryder? How did you get in here?"

Ryder shrugged like it was no big deal.

Which lead me to believ-

"I just borrowed a pair of keys when I came here the other day."

Yes, see? There it is.

I stared blankly at Ryder.

"You borrowed a pair of my keys?"

"Of course! I brought them back, didn't I?"

I sighed.

"Wow, Ryder. You deserve an award for that."

Ryder smiled sweetly.

"Can my award be a kiss? I mean you seemed to be pretty comfortable giving Keithy one."

"In your dreams, Arden." Keith laughed.

"You know what, Keith actually has to pay."

I took three extremely brave steps towards Ryder, and pecked him on the cheek.

"Your award!"

Keith just stood there, staring at me open-mouthedly.

I just smiled at him and went back to making my cake, which for the record just got harder, because Ryder had a completely new approach to distracting me.

And, that's how I spent my morning.

Battling two 15-year-olds, trying to attack my cake batter.