From Eden

twenty

I walked up to the Lukasiak residence, admiring some yellow flowers Christi must have planted recently, before continuing to the door and knocking nervously. I held a pretty good attempt at a mint chocolate cake by Brooke and myself in my hands, hoping that Chloe would like it too. Maybe if she didn't, she would still pretend to anyway, since she...liked me back.

That last statement was unconfirmed at that time, since I had only heard it from Brooke; usually my sister was a decently reliable source, but I still had a twinge of doubt eating at me inside. I decided to test the theory by being slightly more flirty tonight...but not so much that I'd embarrass myself. Hopefully.

"Hey, Paigey!" Chloe opened the door, and I quickly wrapped her in a tight hug. She leaned her head on my shoulder, and I gulped hard when I felt her lips hit my shoulder. "Glad you came." She whispered, and I shivered.

"Thanks for having me," I pulled away from her, a ditzy smile on my face. It was crazy, how I went from being such a hopeless case to this happy person; it was like I went from wandering through life to living it. "I brought you something."

"What?" She looked down at the container in my hands, and I pulled off the lid carefully, so I wouldn't drop the cake. I watched as her mouth fell open into a large grin, and she laughed, "No freaking way. The mint cake!"

"Yep," I giggled, placing the lid back on the top. "Hopefully it tastes better than the one at my party, though."

"Did you make that?" She asked, looking eager to slice into it.

"Brooke helped," I shrugged, a smirk on my face. "She wanted to come, but I said no. I wanted time with my...favorite family." I murmured the last part in her ear, and noticed, with silent triumph, a blush spread across her face.

I slipped past Chloe, who was blatantly starstruck at the door, and put the cake on the table in the kitchen. I turned back to see her coming over quickly, still blushing. I guess she didn't expect me to start flirting with her; and this flirting was definitely going to be different than my sad attempts at it before. I noticed it was coming more naturally.

"Oh, hey Paige!" Christi jumped a little when she turned around from cooking pasta on the stove. The fan was loud, so she hadn't seen me come in. She gasped, "Did you bring us something?"

"She made us a cake." Chloe smiled, waggling her eyebrows at her mother. Christi smiled too, and went 'ooo'. I laughed at their silliness. "When's dinner gonna be ready?"

"Like, five minutes," Christi stirred some sauce with a spoon, and tasted a bit. "This is fuckin' gold. Paige, I made this from scratch."

"Really?" I raised my brows, genuinely impressed. "I'm excited to eat some."

"Yeah," She nodded, tending to some bread in the oven as well, which I assumed to be garlic. It smelled quite fantastic. "Fresh herbs, tomatoes and all. Chlo, can you set the table? Dad's going to be home with Clara in like, three seconds."

"It smells really good." I complimented as Chloe went to get silverware. "I can help out if you want, by the way. What are we drinking?"

"Could you please get me one of the mar—water," Christi trailed off oddly, glancing at Chloe, whose eyes seemed to be digging into her soul.

"Water for all of us," Chloe's voice was stern, and then I figured that Christi was about to ask me to grab some kind of alcohol from the fridge. My friend rushed over to where I was standing, her face guilty, and she said, "I can just get it, sit, okay?"

"It's okay," I smiled softly, looking between Christi and her daughter. "Don't worry about me. I think as long as I don't have alcohol—"