They All Want You

Chapter 2 (Evelyn)

I looked up from the bubble-filled sink just in time to see Arian dump another tray piled high with dirty dishes on the counter right next to me. As I took in the sight of all the dishes I had to rinse, wash, and dry; I let out a soft sigh.

This did not go unnoticed by Arian. To comfort me, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, gave me sideways hug, and said, "Hang in there, kiddo. Just half an hour left and then we can get out of here."

I just nodded, too tired to even yell at him for calling me kiddo. He was only a few months older than me, but ever since I became friends with him three years ago, he's always called me kiddo. I'm not that much shorter than him and sometimes, he's so immature, he seems like a five year old boy. I should be the one calling him kiddo, not the other way around.

Arian gave me his trademark boyish grin then walked out of the kitchen and went back to waiting tables.

"Just half an hour left," I repeated to myself then carefully took down a bunch of plates from the tray, placed them in the sink, and proceeded to scrub them vigorously.

***

"We are finally done!" Arian exclaimed loudly. He smacked a sopping wet towel right next to me, spraying me in a sticky liquidy substance, and startling me into almost dropping the dish I was scrubbing onto the kitchen's immaculate tile floor.

"Arian!"

"Sorry," he said, smiling sheepishly.

"What's that towel drenched in?" I asked, wiping the sticky substance from my arms.

"Who knows? Fruit punch, pink lemonade? Hmm let me see," he said and before I could stop him, he held the towel above his mouth and twisted it, letting the liquid stream into his mouth.

"Ar, what the heck?!" I cried, quickly grabbing the towel out of his hands.

"Hey! That fruit punch was goo -- Ow!" he exclaimed when I smacked him with the towel.

I smacked him a few more times before Arian dashed around the kitchen's island and proceeded to hurl two tomatoes at me. I ducked and the tomatoes flew over my head and splattered against the wooden cabinets above the sink.

"Oh it's on," I said, peaking over the countertop. Another tomato was hurled in my direction.

I reached above me and felt around the island's countertop until I found what I was looking for. I grabbed the bowl full of cake batter then threw my towel right at him.

I must say, I had pretty good aim; the towel hit him right in the face.

I laughed as he tried to get the towel off his face then scooped out gloppy handfuls of cake batter and began pelting him with it, and it was his turn to duck for cover.

"Well played, kiddo," I heard Arian's muffled voice, "but I can do better!"

And with that, he jumped up and started shooting me with his tennis ball shooter. His parents (the very nice Indian couple who owned this restaurant) had gifted it to him on his ninth birthday, but every time his family threw a party (for example, for a birthday for one of his aunts or a retirement party for one of his grandparents), Arian and his cousins would go berzerk and start shooting tennis balls all over the place. After one incident that ended with a nasty black eye and left multiple of his cousins all bruised and injured, his parents made the justifiable decision to confiscate it and use it in their restaurant as a cookie cutter of sorts. It plopped out perfectly shaped cookies with efficiency and precision.

However, this was meant trouble for me and I was quickly assailed with blobs of cookie dough. We ran around the kitchen laughing our heads off and zig zagging through the different cooking stations, splattering cookie and cake batter everywhere with the occasional vegetable and fruit bouncing around.

Finally, Arian jumped onto one of the glossy metal tables, closed his eyes, threw his head back and started laughing, "MWAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME!!!" and fired his cookie shooter at random.

I used this opportunity to sneak under his table and grab the gigantic bag of flour. Just as I was going in for the kill, he noticed the kitchen had gotten eerily silent. He stopped laughing and lowered his cookie shooter, scanning the room for my presence.

"Evelyn?"

And that was when I dumped the entire bag of flour on top of his head.

***

"That was not cool," Arian pouted as we exited through the back door of the restaurant. "I think I still have flour in my hair."

I just laughed and ruffled his hair and sure enough, tiny grains of flour came floating out.

It had taken us almost two hours to clean up the kitchen after our food fight since there was food stuck in the oddest places. Dessert batter was hardened on the roof, there were vegetable juice stains inside the hanging lamps, not to mention the fruit jelly smeared all over the top of the huge fridge. By the time we finally finished up, it was already midnight.

Most of the shops around here were closed, but my favorite bakery, Bittersweet, was still open so Arian dragged me into the shop. Immediately, I felt the soothing scent of cinnamon and baked goods waft through the shop and fill me with comfort and warmth. I loved this place more than I loved my own house yet I still protested.

"Why couldn't we just eat the leftover cake from your parents' restaurant?" I asked.

"Please, today is your birthday," he replied, rolling his eyes. "And the birthday girl will not celebrate with some measly leftovers. Wait here, I'm gonna buy you a huge 16 inch cake with three layers of chocolate and we can gorge on it until we become the size of hot air balloons."

Thankfully it was late at night so there were no gigantic 16 inch cakes left, so Arian settled with buying me a small cupcake instead. He lit a candle on top of it and smiled.

"Make a wish," he whispered, so I did.

And the second I blew the candle out, I heard the doorbell tinkle and someone stepped inside.

**************************************************************************

What do you think of Arian? What do you think Evelyn wished for? Who just walked in? o_O Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully I will post more frequently from now on.

Please VOTE, COMMENT, and FOLLOW if you liked this chapter. Thank you!