Please Like Me (Lauren/You)

Skinny Latte

Cora is sitting on the floor beside my chair, looking up at me, expectantly, as if I'm gonna feed her any sugar.

My eyes don't leave the wrapping paper I'm managing in my hands as I speak up,
"What are you looking at?"

Then, Normani's eyes don't leave the screen of her computer as she speaks up,
"'Twenty-seven Pictures That Will Make You Feel Joyful'."

Setting a newly wrapped toffee onto the pile at the center of the kitchen table, I look up to face her, cracking a grin, "That does not look like it's working."
She shrugs, "There was a tiger breastfeeding piglets before. That was pretty awesome."
"Oh, I love unlikely animal friends", I sigh, looking down at the still furry goggly eyes, "I wish Cora would make an unlikely animal friend."
The dog only blinks at me.

"I didn't really think Ally and I would get back together until she said we weren't", I hear Normani mumble, making me look back up at her, "Then I realized actually every choice I've made since we broke up has been me just treading water until she gets home so we can be together and I can touch her hair and stuff."
"Do you want a toffee?"
Sigh, "Nah. Everything just tastes like sad."
I hold in a gasp and shake my head, "Mani, I get you're hurt, okay, but my toffees do not taste like sad."

As I turn back to the dirty work, Normani shrugs lightly as her eyes slowly travel back to her laptop.
"Do you think that old guy in Germany changed her?"
"No", I quickly respond, "Although, he does seem like the kind of guy that doesn't rely on baby animals to help him feel joyful."
"Yeah", sigh, "She'd like that."
I chuckle, "Yeah."

Normani reaches for a toffee from the pile.
"Not a wrapped one!"
She lowers her hand before, then, reaching for an unwrapped one.

As I focus on slicing, wrapping and piling, Normani takes a sad bite from one of the toffees, before widening her eyes, raising her eyebrows, and then furrowing them slightly.
"Oh, my god", she lets out, "These are really delicious."
"I know, right? I'm gonna sell so many of these babies on my cart."
"You're gonna be a millionaire!"
"Yeah."

The rest of the night goes by in a flash. Normani helps me out a bit, slicing dough and wrapping sweets; she eats a whole lot more than she helps, though. I try to teach her how to quickly open up the lollipop plastic wrappers and how to pour the sugar onto the caramels, but mostly I let her bury her sad mopey feelings with candy without making many comments.
We bake, and we sample, and we finish wrapping the treats, and we go to bed with full knowledge of how early the day is going to start tomorrow.

But, even though I'm aware of it, nothing is done to prepare me for when I'm suddenly woken up early in the morning by the default ringtone coming from my nightstand.

Blindly, I reach for my mobile phone, not quite bothering to hide a groggy groan before answering the call.
"Hey, Lauren", I mumble, closing my eyes shut again.
"Good morning!", she sounds so perky, "You said you had to be up by 5am, so I was just calling to make sure you did that. I always wake up early."

This time, I kind of try to stifle in the groan, barely.
"No, I have more time", I whine, gripping onto my blanket, "I have more time."
"Oh, shit. Sorry. Okay, I'll call you back later?"
"No, it's good. It's good. Hi."
"Hi."
"Talk me awake."
"Okay", she scratches the back of her neck, "Um, so, you still wanna go on that date tonight?"
With my eyes still closed, I nod my head against the mattress, "Yeah, yeah."
"Okay, good. I'm just worried... Um, I'm not worried, I just...", pause, "My parents don't know I'm bi, so you can't, like, do anything."

Pause.

I frown, "What?"
"You can't touch me."
"They don't...", sigh, "They don't know?"
"So you can't get out of the car, okay? Just text on approach."
I shift a bit, rubbing my face, "Deal."