Home For The Heart - Zachary Merrick

~21~

~Alyssa~
Mom was turning 36 and I wanted to surprise her for her birthday. The issue was that I can't bake and I can't drive.

"Zack, wanna come over and bake?" Some of our classmates shot us weird looks. "That is one of the weirdest questions you've ever asked me."

I sat backwards in my chair, facing him. "It's my mom's birthday tomorrow and I want to surprise her but I'm not good at baking and I can't drive myself to the store."

He pointed at my feet. "Walk?" I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I'd love to walk six miles to the store in the middle of January. Great idea, Zachary."

He chuckled slightly. "Okay, fine, I'll drive you. After school?" I nodded and sat normal in my seat. The bell rang again and the teacher walked in.

After school, Zack and I got to his house and dropped off his stuff. He drove to the store and came inside with me.

My grandparents gave me a hundred bucks for Christmas and I was saving it for Mom's birthday. We walked towards the jewelry and I looked at the necklaces.

I played with mine and smiled to myself. "What are you getting her?" I pointed to this necklace that had three gemstones. Mine, Dad's, and Mom's.

It also said mother on it. "And some clothes. Go grab a cake mix." He raised an eyebrow. "What kind?" I tried to think of what flavor was Mom's favorite.

"I think she likes vanilla. Yeah, with buttercream frosting." He walked off towards the grocery section. A lady nearby smiled at me.

"Is that your boyfriend?" I awkwardly smiled. "No, best friend." She nodded. "The way he looks at you doesn't seem like the way best friends look at each other."

I looked back at Zack and then at the lady. "Yeah. I don't think we'll be anything more." I went back to my birthday shopping and got Mom a new sweater, some jeans and yoga pants, and a bag for everything.

I found Zack staring at all the cake mixes. "It's not that hard to grab a box and frosting." He looked at me. "No, but why not make it from scratch? It'll be more meaningful."

He wasn't wrong. We went to check out and the total came up to more than a hundred.

Shit.

I dug through my wallet to see if I could find anything else when Zack handed the cashier a twenty. He handed him the change and handed me my bag.

"You didn't have to do that." We got into the car and drove back to my house. Mom was at work so we had the house to ourselves.

I stuck in a Green Day CD and we got started on the cake. I found one of my late grandma's cookbooks and found a cake recipe.

We gathered all the supplies and it was going pretty well until I got flour everywhere. Zack, who was looking like the pillsbury dough boy with curly hair, started laughing.

"You're helping me clean after!" He nodded and we went back to work. While the cake was baking, Zack started on frosting while I wrapped her gift.

I brought it upstairs to my room and set it in my closet, hiding it under some clothes. I went back downstairs and Zack was pulling the cake out.

"It smells amazing!" He agreed. We put it out in the garage to let it cool faster and he finished the frosting. "Thanks for helping me. I really appreciate it."

"What are friends for?"

Yeah, friends.