What It's Like To Be Liked

7. It's Great To Be Liked By All

|| Dedicated to the amazing adula88 for helping me write this chapter. Thanks a lot! ||

Chapter Seven- It's Great To Be Liked By All

"Wow.. Red.. Diapers," I said between laughs. Linda was telling me how mom and she met when they were kids, but the conversation soon escalated to Jake's favorite colored diapers which left me in hysterics and Jake with flaming red cheeks.

"Yeah, funny. Now, can we please change the topic?" He said looking at his shoes. His embarrassment made it even more hilarious.

"Kaylee, honey, why don't you serve dessert?" Mom suggested after suppressing a few giggles. The word 'dessert' reminded me of my master plan. The SetJake'sTongueOnFire plan. I grinned as I brought out the cupcakes from the kitchen and set them on the table.

A victorious smirk made its way to my lips when I saw that there were only two cupcakes left. One with a pink mould and one with a green one. Reluctantly, Jake picked up the cupcake with the green mould, looking longingly at the cupcake that Linda was holding, i.e. the one with the blue mould.

"Uh, hey, mom? Can you give me the one with the blue colored mould? Please?"

He made a puppy face which I found hard to say no to. Linda also must have lost to it, because she gave hers to Jake and took Jake's. The victorious expression that was previously etched onto my face soon turned into one of horror as realization dawned on me.

Linda simply can not eat the one with hot sauce. Her impression of me would drop to zero, hell, maybe even go negative. Just because of a stupid chocolate cupcake. My mind raced for a solution. A way to get the cupcake out of Linda's hand. Anything would do as long as she doesn't get it.

I closed my eyes and did the unthinkable.

"Do you mind if I have it, Mrs. South? Green's my favorite color," My mouth spoke mechanically as I reached across the table and plucked  the cupcake out of a very surprised Linda. All three pairs of eyes were on me. Mom's depicting horror, Linda's surprise, and Jake's, amusement.

I. Can. Not. Believe. I. Just. Did. That.

Holy mother of chocolate cupcakes. Someone please kill me now.

As I sank back into my seat, my cheeks turned a very dangerous shade of bright red. I looked around the room, searching for something to say. Unfortunately, all that came out of my mouth was a bundle of 'uh, um, erm, mm, ahh' which cause more blood to rush to my cheeks. 

"Kaylee. Kitchen. Now." My mom said to me, her voice razor sharp. And to our guests she said, "I am so sorry Lin, I have absolutely no clue why she did that. It's probably the weather affecting her thinking," Mom apologized, her eyes filled with embarrassment.

I stood up stiffly but Linda just shook her head with a nervous laugh, gesturing for me to sit back down. "Come on, Anne. She's just a kid. Besides, you used to battle me almost every time I came over just to get the pink mug instead of the white one." She said nonchalantly.

I guess this cooled my mom down a little because she let out a small laugh, too. I forced an awkward tiny smile on myself as well. Phew. That was a close one. I looked at the edible piece of disaster, that is, the chocolate cupcake innocently lying in my right palm. 

Crap. I still have to eat the good for nothing sugary treat.

I took a microscopic bite of it and immediately felt the tips of my tongue light up. I guess dropping two teaspoons worth of hot sauce into the green mould was a bad idea. The sauce had mixed with the cake batter and formed something that tasted weirder than broccoli and marsh mellows dipped in ice cream and salt. Not that I know what that tastes like. Even though my throat was threatening to throw up the shit I just swallowed, I put on a weak smile to show that everything was just fine.