Reunited and Stronger

Chapter 14

Groaning I dropped my bag and plopped myself down onto my bed. "Why did I want to go to school," I asked myself. Waking up so early in the morning, listening to lectures I could probably do myself, and having to remember so many names equivalent to the periodic table. Sure it was exciting at first, but after a day the magic wears out fast. Especially after listening to Mr. Douglas's lecture on senior year being the last year of our adolescent life blah blah blah.

While wallowing away in my sad excuse of self pity I felt a wet lick at the left side of my face. Sitting up I see G wagging his tail hyper actively. "Aww, do you feel my sadness? Sorry pal, let's get you something to eat." Picking him up I walk us over to the kitchen. Laying him down on the floor I opened the cabinet I stored the dog food with. Pouring some food inside the cute doggy bowl me and Blue picked out for him I set it down on the floor which G happily gobbled down in the blink of an eye. I smiled, I truly have gotten attached to this little guy. He can put a smile on my face after the most boring of lectures. Looking at him maybe these past few days weren't so bad after all. At least I don't come home to an empty apartment. The only thing that can make this better is-

Doorbell rings

Interrupted by the doorbell G stops eating and hurries to go bark at the door. Laughing I walk over to open it, hoping G's sudden barking didn't scare them. Ha, though I don't see how the bark of a little pug can scare anyone really. Passing G I continue to laugh as his barks grow increasingly louder, I love my little guard dog. Opening the door my smile increases as I see Macy, Devan, Danny, and Josh. Before I can say anything Macy engulfs me into a hug as the guys go directly towards G who's now running around their feet. His adorable way of greeting his new guests.

"Red!" Macy screams

"Puppy!" The guys scream

Returning Macy's hug I laugh, "what are you guys doing here?"

"To see you of course," she pauses and glances at the guys, "well, I am at least." The guys were so distracted by G they barely even noticed me, though if it was me I'd go straight for the little pup to so I can't blame them.

"Oh uh," Josh says standing up finally noticing me, "we're here to see you Red!"

"And the dog," Devan added which earned him a kick from Macy

I shake my head, "Wow, don't I feel loved." Walking over to the living room Macy, Devan, and Josh plop themselves down while me and Danny head over to the kitchen. It's like we have a mental agreement to fix up food because there's no way in hell we'll ever let those three enter a kitchen. Devan and Josh tend to experiment on stuff and Macy just focuses on making sure they don't poison the food or something.

"Any requests," I ask them

The three look at us nervously. "well," Macy says hesitating, "we kinda want to see you guys have a bake off."

I scoff, "guys, I don't just bake for the sake of being better than everybody else"

"Yeah but Danny has gotten so good so if he's gotten that far than God knows how good you've gotten," Devan added

"Guys, you know how I feel about baking. It's a special moment I treasure whenever I was alone. You know this is what's wrong with society. People worry so much in-"

"What? Scared you're going to lose," Danny says interrupting me

I looked at him taken back, "excuse me?"

"Oh you heard me Red. Are you scared I'm going to beat you?" A collection of 'oooh' then goes around the room after Danny's bold declaration, "I mean, you've been in New York for so long. Maybe you've switched to making pizzas instead."

"Danny Covert, you are not challenging me"

"Oh," he begins to say as he reaches for a whisk, "but I am."

Accepting the challenge I quickly walked over and grabbed my apron, "I will Gordon Ramsay your ass"

•

•

•

"Well," me and Danny ask the three impatiently, "which one is it?"

After I accepted the challenge me and Danny started baking real fast. I chose to bake molten lava cakes topped with powdered sugar. It was a quick recipe, plus it didn't require much ingredients. I didn't plan to have a bake off today so we had to make do with what I had. Danny baked one of those cronut, part croissant part donut, things topped with sugared cinnamon. Thankfully I already just bought pastry dough from the store so his preparations weren't as long as making the stuff from scratch. Which made both of us a bit sad because, well, everything tastes better when made from scratch.

Taking a bite out of my cake Josh dabs his mouth with a napkin, "they were both quite swell"

"BUT WHICH ONE WAS BETTER," me and Danny demanded. We've spent over thirty minutes waiting patiently for these guys to make their decision and man was it aggravating. I guess I could understand why it'd be a hard pick. No matter how confident I was with my cake I couldn't deny how good Danny's was. When I ate his cronuts I groaned at how crunchy yet soft it was. I had to admit, he's gotten damn good.

"Look," Macy says calmly, "they were both really good, why not just leave it at that"

"I beg to differ, " Devan interjects, "to the common palette yes, they were extraordinary, but to a more refined one, like myself, they were at best passable. Red, your molten lava cake, splendid, but you could've tempered the chocolate a bit more. And Danny, my poor twin brother, don't you think you could've let it spend a little more time in the oil? I'm mostly tasting dough here"

We looked at him with surprise. Not only did Devan actually say something smart, he actually had an opinion about the food other than just asking for seconds. Danny knowing better however crosses his arms and looks down at him, "did you get that off the cooking channel?"

"Maaaybe," Devan sings which earned a head smack from both Macy and Danny.

Rolling my eyes I let out a sigh and raised my hands. "Y'know what," I said gaining their attention, "we have food out and that's all that matters." Turning towards Danny I smiled, "I'm honored to have cooked against you. You're cronuts were amazing and it was cooked just right."

Danny nods, "yeah, I guess I shouldn't have sparked your competitive side Red, sorry. And there's nothing wrong with the chocolate on your cake I thought it was perfect."

I shrug and give him a hug, "I shouldn't have been so sensitive about it, so I'm sorry to"

"Awww," Macy squeals as she starts getting emotional with us, "Devan, I love you even though you can be an idiot"

Chuckling he pulls her towards him engulfing her in a hug, "I love you to and have nothing to complain about"

"I LOVE YOU CAKE AND CRONUT," we hear Josh scream. Not wanting to make Josh feel even more alone we all come together to a group hug. Yup, this definitely makes everything better. This is what I missed. Of course back in New York I still baked but I never really had someone close to share it with. I never really noticed how lonely I was till now.

"Woah, you're missing one," a familiar voice said behind us. We turn to see Blue leaning over on the door door frame looking over at us fondly. Before I could call out to him Josh had already beat me to it

"ADAM," Josh cries out as he engulfs Blue into a hug, "finally I'm not alone. I love you man"

Pushing Josh away Blue runs his hands through his hair, "We've talked about this Josh. Personal boundaries"

Looking at Blue struggling I chuckled. "Josh what happened to cake and cronut," I asked him curiously

Blue looking at Josh suspiciously he clears his throat, "uh, we had a falling out"

"Like," Danny asks eyeing him down

"I ate them," Josh mumbles. Shaking his head Blue pats him on the back, "sorry buddy, don't feel like being your next meal"

When Josh made a look I can only make out as horror we all start to laugh hysterically. We didn't have to go out or anything. Nope, all we needed was each other and an idiot Josh , "God I missed this."