Totally Bubbly- Cheesecake's New Stories: The Second Series

Cheesecake's New Stories #6: Cherry Meets Someone You May Know

Cherry P.O.V.

I woke up to the smell of smoke and aggressive bubbling sounds. My eyes felt like they weighed a thousand pounds, but I managed to open them to a squint. My hair that was in need of a trim stuck to my face, allowing me to see only dark red stripes with specks of purple and white behind it. More aware of my surroundings, I flipped my hair back, sat up straight, and focused my vision.

Standing in front of me was my friend Donut. Her short blonde hair covered her face as she wrote in that journal she always carried around. She wore the same purple skirt and sweater-vest and tie with her worn out lab coat. Her glasses had colorful smudges on them and so did the rest of her, making her seem like a first grader's finger paint art project. 

I almost laughed at her silly appearance until she popped a thermometer into my mouth.

I rolled my eyes. "What are you doing this time?" I sniffed, my nose scrunching at the smell of the smoke.

Without looking at me, she said, "Checking your temperature, duh."

I learned to get used to Donut's weirdness. She's definitely unlike most girls, but she helped me a lot and we became such good friends. She treated me like a brother...or, sometimes, like her own personal science experiment.

As she took the thermometer out of my mouth, I yawned. "How long was I out?"

No answer. It was silent besides the violent bubbling noise in the background. She just continued writing and focusing on whatever she was doing in that precious notebook of hers.

"Donut?" I whistled.

"Huh?" She replied subconsciously.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Uh huh," she nodded, still in concentration mode.

"Donut!" I snapped.

"Huh? What? Sorry, go on."

I sighed, grabbing the journal out of her hand. "How. Long. Have. I. Been. Asleep?"

"Hey!" She yelled, diving for the book. "Give that back! It's private!"

"Private?" I guffawed as I held it in the air. "Some of my private information is probably written down in here! How is that private?"

"Okay, okay!" She pleaded, jumping up and down for the notebook. "Give it back, and I'll pay attention; I promise."

"Hmm...No, no I need something else..." I said smirking.

"Fine, what do you want," she frowned.

"A nice, hot cup of toffee."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead," I replied as I raised an eyebrow.

She sighed. "Okay, whatever. Now give me my journal!"

As Donut jumped up for the last time, I lowered my hand and loosened my grip on the book. She laughed when she caught it...and slapped me in the arm with it.

"Ow! What the fudge, Donut!" I yelled, rubbing my arm.

"That's what you get for stealing," she said as she walked to one of her cupboards. I followed her and watched as she took a bag of ground toffee beans and put some into the toffee maker.

She did this like it was her profession, and in the few seconds she prepared my drink, I sat down on one of the stools next to the counter and said with a smile, "Violence is never the answer, Donut."

"Of course not," she replied, slapping my hand as I reached to touch some weird-looking candy crystal. "It's just your best educated guess."

We  both laughed in unison as she poured me a steaming cup of toffee. While she did this, I couldn't help but think there was something out of place about the lab. Something was wrong, but I was too caught up in my laughter that I just let it go. Yeah, I know, that was kind of stupid of me, but wouldn't you be grabbing at any chance to smile when life has made you frown as long as I have? Trust me, it's not easy loosing someone you love without family support (except CherryPie of course) and your parents pushing you to forget about your loved one and join the family business and start dating "sensible women your age"-otherwise known as "The Dark Side."