This Thing Called Life

IF-Part 20

Darnell's POV:

"Wassup man" he says in greeting as Damian opens the front door.

"Nothing much. Going to swing by the store before scooping Mel then heading over to Liv's" Damien says dapping him up as they trade places

"Bet, we shouldn't be too far behind you" he says grabbing the door

"I don't know about all that, Betty Crocker is still in there doing damage" Damien warns giving him a pause

"How bad is it?" he asks cautiously

"Oh, you'll see, but good luck with that" Damien gestures back inside before walking off towards his car.

He locks the door behind him before slowly making his way through the house towards the kitchen. The closer he gets the more prominent the smell of burnt chocolate and caramel is in the air.

As he rounds the corner, he's met with the sight of at least three trays of cookies along with baking supplies scattered across the counters.

"Spencer, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for how things went down- no, that's not good" he hears Jade mumble under her breath as she searches around in the cabinet for containers.

"The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you" she says restarting her statement, but ends up shaking her head in frustration

"Babe...what is all of this?" he questions as his eyes scan the room again

She jumps in shock bringing many of the containers she was digging through down with her as they crash to the floor.

"When did you get here?" she says sounding annoyed. She curses under her breath as she bends down to clean up the mess

"Few minutes ago, and hello to you too" he says sarcastically as he walks over to help

"Hi" she greets distractedly while gathering as many containers as she could fit in her arms before standing up

"That's it? I don't even get a kiss or something?" he whines while picking up the rest before walking up behind her

He could tell she's zoned back out as she puts what she needs to the side before stacking the rest back neatly in the cabinet She finally turns back around leaning up to kiss his cheek, sidestepping him as he tries to turn his face to kiss her lips.

If the obsessive baking hadn't already tipped him off to something being wrong, that would have done it.

"Jade" he calls out not being able to mask the concern in his voice

"Yes?" she answers shortly, still not paying him any mind as she picks up the spatula to scoop up the cookies in front of her

"There's enough in here to feed an army" he says stating the obvious

"Cooked the first batch too long, second one not long enough, and the third didn't taste right" she shrugs nonchalantly

"Jade" the force in his tone finally causing her movements to slow

"Darnell...I need at least one thing to go right today, so if it's these damn cookies then that's what it will have to be" she says as the frustration finally starts to bleed through her voice

"It's going to be fine" he tries to reassure her as his hands land on her shoulders

"You can't know that" she exhales loudly, shoulders dropping as he starts to massage them

"It can't get any worse than it already is" he says

"It can always get worse Darnell. What the hell are you even saying right now?" she says shrugging out of his hold