Runaway

Chapter 11

© Sweetslover8 2014. It is illegal to copy and/or steal.

~Uploaded January 30th, 2014

A high pitched ringing woke me from my mostly peaceful slumber. A siren? Close, but no. A fire alarm. Something was burning. And for once, it wasn't my own cooking. I rolled to get up but fell to the floor. Ow. I had been sleeping on a sofa and now I was tangled up in a blanket. Um, when did I move to a sofa? I'd find the answer to that question later. For now, I had to find out what was burning the nose hair out of my nostrils.

I rose and made my way through the house towards the kitchen, where a plume of black smoke was rising from a frying pan. It was soon met with white foam and the black slowly faded. I coughed the rotten air out of my lungs. "What-what is going on here? Are you trying to burn the house down?" I waved the remaining smoke away.

"Gee, how'd you guess?", a sarcastic voice replied. Garrett sprayed the frying pan a bit more for good measure then carefully lifted it into the sink. Charred remains of what I guessed to formerly be eggs fell into the sink. He took a step back as the water made a hissing sound as it touched the metal. He scratched his head, slightly embarrassed. "So much for breakfast."

"Why don't you give it another shot?" I looked through the fridge to find some juice. Grape, apple, cranberry... "Is there any orange juice in here?"

"Uh, I don't think so. Nolan's cousin is allergic to citrus fruits." I decided on apple juice and closed the fridge. I observed that there was flour on Garrett's face, for real this time, and spread across the counters. There was an open bag of flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla extract, blueberries and a bunch of other ingredients. I nodded to the mess.

"What's the occasion?" I poured the juice and took a sip. Eh, it'll do. Garrett scratched his head again. Either this guy gets nervous a lot or he has fleas.

"Um, I'm not sure if I'm suppose to say or not." I raised an eyebrow at him and when he didn't say anything else, I set the juice down and gave him my patented "look". I stood feet shoulder-width apart, arms crossed, my eyes never leaving his and totally poker-faced. I didn't move at all and hardly blinked. "Uh, Dani? You're kinda freaking me out..." Good. Now start talking. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you! Just stop it! Your eyes burn like Kīlauea!" He covered his eyes and shrunk down. Aw, he compared my glare to an active volcano. How sweet. I smiled and relaxed. He peeked out from between his fingers.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, Garrett. I won't bite."

He put his arms down. "Your serial killer look said otherwise." He cleared his throat then sighed. "Okay, fine. Andie and the guys left a while ago to get something. Now don't ask me what, because I'm not entirely sure myself, but it has something to do with you. But it's good, I promise", he added quickly. He waved to the counter. "And I thought it would be nice to make some sort of food but seeing as this is my fifth try, I'm lucky if I don't burn the toast." The toaster popped up at this point and displayed some black charcoal. Oops, that was Garrett's toast. Garrett sighed and picked a slice up with a pair of clips. "See?"

I put a hand on his arm and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's fine, Garrett. Thank you though. That was... really sweet of you." His cheeks darkened. "Man, you blush at everything, don't you?"

He looked taken aback. "Uh-I-huh-what?", he said in a high-pitched voice. "I do not blush. What kind of a guy blushes?" He turned away to start scrubbing the pan. I decided to drop it before I crossed the fine line between teasing and just being plain annoying. I leaned back against the counter and drank my juice.

"Where is everyone? There were a lot of people at the party here last night. Now it's empty." The only sign that there had been a party here last night was that the air still smelled faintly of alcohol and a few stray cups placed along the floor and furniture. I'd heard that some parties would be so wild that there'd end up with some wild animal in the shower or something. I was almost curious to see if there was one here.