LOVELORN

2|Boys & parties

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

FRIDAY PASSED by painfully slow. When my last class was over, I was just grateful to finally be able to get home. For once, Zora was coming over to my house. We usually spent our days at her place, but she'd insisted we go to mine today. So that was what we were doing.

Avi always drove me to school and back on days he didn't have practice, or some other after-school activity. I had a license too and the car was technically mine as well, but it had become a habit that he drove. Since Avi was bringing two friends home and Zora was coming over, he was going to drive all of us.

We met up with Avi by our car. I noticed one of his friends, Zahir, had already sat himself in the front. Which meant Zora and I ended up in the back with his other friend, Enzo.

The drive home was mostly filled with conversation between the guys. They said some things to us but we primarily talked to each other. I was stuck next to Enzo and his arm kept brushing against mine. It was awkward, so I was happy to get out of the car when we reached our house.

Before doing anything else, we went to get something to eat in the kitchen. I was famished after school and Zora was hungry as well. However, apparently that was Avi's and his friends' plan too.

"I'm craving some cookies right now," Zora said as we entered the kitchen.

"I don't think we have any."

"We could bake?"

Shrugging, I went to go see if we had the ingredients to make anything. That was the moment Avi and his company decided to come in.

"What are you doing?" Avi questioned.

"We're going to bake cookies," answered Zora, who was helping me search for potential stuff needed to make cookies.

"Cookies? Damn, can we help?" Enzo asked, interest piqued.

I hid my frown. His friends were fine, but that didn't mean I wanted to spend a bunch of time with them. Also, baking with more than one other person was already frustrating, let alone five.

"I'm horrible at baking, but I'll gladly eat the results," Zahir smirked, leaning against the wall.

"Guess we're baking then," Avi said, either not noticing my discomfort or not caring.

Zora and I exchanged glances. I contained a sigh but nodded. Saying no would only cause a bunch of complaints and I wasn't sure if they'd listen to me anyway.

After finding a recipe online, we gathered the ingredients and started. It was a bit of a mess trying to arrange who should do what, but we managed.

"I'm not going to lie, I am horrible at cracking eggs. There always ends up being some shell bits in the batter whenever I do it," I heard Avi tell Zora.

Enzo was measuring up the dry ingredients next to me while I was creaming the butter and sugar next to him. The counter wasn't gigantic, but he was still standing a bit closer than necessary. I felt his gaze on me more than once and it was making me uneasy.

"That's why we're doing it in a seperate bowl and not just cracking it straight into the main bowl. I've mastered the art of cracking eggs, though. Want me to show you?" Was Zora's answer to his comment. "Once you learn how to do it properly, you will never have to pick out another piece of shell ever again."

"Please do."

"Let me show you, then you can try with the next one."

I tore my eyes away from them and focused on the butter and sugar again. However, when I heard a chuckle I couldn't help sneaking a glance over again. Zora was guiding his hand, directing it so he would do it properly. He watched carefully. Breathing deeply, I looked to see if Enzo was done. He was, so we were just waiting on the eggs.