Cupcake Kisses

Chapter 14: Give Me Back My Mickey Mouse Panties

Chapter 14: Give Me Back My Mickey Mouse Panties

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I was greeted with nothing but silence. It wasn't the kind of scary silence you experience when you're walking home alone at night and you've forgotten your headphones, or the kind that is so unbearably awkward that you just want to scream. It was peaceful silence. The kind of silence you want to wake up to every morning.

So, why was it that when I woke up that morning, I felt so uneasy?

I brought my hand out from under the duvet and placed it on my forehead, checking to see if my temperature was normal. I immediately dropped my hand back to my side when I concluded that I was definitely not sick.

Slowly, I surveyed my room. The early morning sunlight was streaming in through the gap between my closed curtains and in front of me I could see my messy desk, covered in books and folders. Beside it, I could see my wardrobe and my bookshelf and the few photos I had hung up on my pale blue walls. Everything looked normal to me. But for some strange reason, I felt as if something was missing.

What could it be?

It took me a few more minutes of thinking before it finally hit me.

It was Cactus!

Cactus wasn't with me.

Suddenly panicked, I ripped the duvet off and jumped out of my bed. I took another quick look around my bedroom before rushing downstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. To my surprise, despite my usual clumsiness, I managed to make it downstairs without tripping and falling to my death.

"Mom?" I cried, bursting into the kitchen. "Have you seen Cactus?"

My mom, who was sitting on the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a book, looked up and blinked at me in surprise. "Have I seen who?"

"Cactus," I repeated. "My baby."

My mom's face scrunched up in confusion, before she realized what I was talking about and shook her head. "No Honey," she said, "I haven't seen it. Why do you ask?"

"I can't find her," I wailed.

This was not looking good. This was not looking good at all. Luke and I were supposed to be handing in Cactus tomorrow morning and I had absolutely no idea where she was.

"Relax, Ella," my mom said. "I'm sure you've just left her somewhere around the house."

I took a few deep breaths and nodded, deciding she was probably right and I had no reason to panic. Where else could she have gone? With a plastic brain and legs that weren't fully functional, it wasn't exactly as if she could walk out of the house and go down to the beach.

"When was the last time you saw her?" My mom questioned, breaking me out of my worried thoughts.

"I..." I trailed off. "I don't know."

"It must have been yesterday, right?" She said. "Did you leave her somewhere?"

I sat down on the kitchen table beside my mom and my put my head in my hands, trying to remember when I'd last seen Cactus. This task was even more difficult than it should have been though, because of my absolutely awful memory. Nothing ever seemed to stay in my head longer than a few hours, unless I tried strenuously hard to remember it.

"I don't think I took her with me to the diner yesterday," I mumbled. She had definitely not been with us when we'd been spying on Georgia and Chase. Had I brought along though? Had I left her in the car?

No matter how much I racked my brain, I just couldn't remember having Cactus with me.

"Why don't you try calling your partner?" My mom suggested, with a smile. "Maybe they know."