Chapter 3

-

Braden stared at me with a blank expression. The silence began to grow awkward, so I made a fish face at him.

He stuck out his tongue. I scrunched my nose. He gave me the evil eye. I blew him a kiss.

This went on for almost five minutes before my stomach growled. I guess the pizza didn't keep me full long enough.

"Wyatt I'm hungry," I said to him.

He responded with a shrug. "What am I suppose to do about it?"

I thought for a second. "I want something sweet!" I said excitedly.

"Again, what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Let's make cupcakes."

He looked surprised. "What now?"

I gave him a strange look. "You know those little cakes with frosting on top and sprinkles plus a whole bunch of other-"

"I'm not stupid Soph. Of course I know what cupcakes are, I just didn't know you knew how to bake."

"Oh come on Braden like almost everyone does! I did take a baking class." I said cheerfully.

"I never would have guessed."

I nodded. "Yep and Luke even took it with me. When we were at our grandparent's one summer, grandma signed us up for something to keep ourselves busy while we were there. It turns out my brother is a natural baker."

He smirked. "Oh really?"

I half nodded before realizing I just told my brother's best friend one of his biggest secrets.

"Heyyyyy, Braden? Please do not tell him I told you that," I pleaded, "he would go absolutely ballistic."

"Sure thing," he said with a grin. "So are we making those cupcakes or what?"

"Oh yeah! Funfetti or red velvet?"

-

Ten minutes later we had the ingredients together on the center of the island. I put on an apron and threw one at Braden's head, but watched as he caught it swiftly.

"Someone's got fast reflexes," I muttered.

"You know it babe!" Can this boy hear everything?

After he put the apron on I saw he was frowning and was staring at the floor.

"Is something wrong?"

He looked up at me. "I can't tie my apron!" he whined. What is he, five?

I sighed, "Come here and turn around."

He hesitated for a moment before hopping over. Yes he really did hop, two hops actually.

"Why on Earth did you just hop?" I asked.

He smiled cheekily. "It's fun, duh. Walking is just too boring!" I rolled my eyes.

"Oh I guess Bray."

"Hey Soph, do you have one of those chef's hats lying around by any chance?"

"Yeah I think so..." I trailed off, walking over to a cabinet. A hand grabbed my waist as I opened the cabinet and pulled me aside, making me squeal.

"Aha I found it!" he exclaimed, grabbing the hat and placing it on top of his head.

I laughed and shook my head at his childish self. "Okay, are we going to bake cupcakes or not?"

He pulled a wooden spoon out of a drawer and waved it in the air. "I am so ready! Come bring your cute little tooshie over here so we can start!" Did he just call my butt cute?

"Oh so I have a cute tooshie, eh?"

I could see his eyes widen a bit. "Hah, oh yeah of course you do…" he chuckled nervously.

"Thanks for noticing," I said smiling.

-

So, it took us just a little over two hours just to make cupcakes.

I think the main reason for the extra time was because of Braden. He went absolutely crazy in the kitchen.

Although, I have to say it was partially my fault since I was the one who let him crack the eggs. In our first batter, he accidentally dropped the shell in along with the rest of the egg. We had to throw that one out and start fresh, but the second was just as worse.

He misread the recipe and poured a half-cup of vinegar in the bowl instead of vegetable oil. I about died of frustration while he just laughed his ass off. How does one mix up vinegar and vegetable oil? Why was the vinegar even out in the first place?

The third one was turning out to be great until Braden mistook the salt for sugar and added about half a cup of it into our almost done batter. I glared at him while he tried to humor me by dancing around the room. I laughed, but that was only because he slipped and fell.

When we had finally finished filling the muffin tins, I was exhausted.

As I open the oven door and slid the cupcakes in, something gooey hit the left side of my cheek. I lifted up my finger and wiped it off. It was cake batter.

I turned towards my left and saw Braden holding the wooden spoon he used to stir the batter.

"Sorry it was an accident!" The boy had the nerve to grin at me. Oh it was so on.

Grabbing an egg on the counter, I threw it at his chest and watched as it cracked on his shirt.

"I just bought this shirt yesterday!"

"Maybe you should've thought about starting this in the first place!"

Braden picked up the closest thing next to him, which happened to be a bag of flour, and threw the contents at me. I was covered from head to toe in flour.

Our little food fight went on for what seemed like forever until we both gave up. Braden and I slumped to the floor next to each other, leaning against the kitchen island.

"So now what?"

"Now we clean up this mess that you started," I said, getting up and picking an eggshell and an empty bottle of ketchup.

"Hmmph."

"Don't 'hmmph' me. You know it's true," I stated.

"Oh fine. Can we watch a movie after?" he asked.

"If we finish cleaning fast enough. Now get started!"

"You're suppose to help too!" he whined.

"I already am you turd face!"

Well that shut him up.

-

After we had made sure the kitchen was spotless, we both went upstairs to get clean, separately of course.

When I came down, Braden was sprawled out on the couch, flipping through channels on the flat screen. He saw me and smiled. I think my heart stopped beating just then. I couldn't believe I was feeling this way about him. I'm with Jake for goodness sakes! No pun intended.

"Come here." Braden sat up and patted the spot next to him. Hesitantly, I walked over.

Once I sat down, he went back to lying down and then decided to rest his head in my lap.

I froze.

"Your lap is so warm and comfy."

I realized I had been holding my breath and finally let it out. "Um thanks?" I half questioned.

"Oh no problem!"

We sat there for what seemed like forever, just watching cartoons in silence.

"Hey Soph…do you smell that?" Braden asked, just as Scooby-Doo and the gang had caught the ghost of Dr. Hyde.

"Smell what?" I sniffed the air and caught a whiff of something burning.

"Crap I forgot about the cupcakes!" I jumped up from the couch and ran to the kitchen.

The air was smokey and it smelled like burnt toast. My mother will be so pleased when she gets home.

Grabbing an oven mitt off the counter, I slowly opened the over door and more smoke came rushing out. Inside sat two muffin tins of burnt cupcakes.

"My cupcakes!" Braden screeched as he rushed over to me.

"Sorry bud, there's no hope for these little fellas now," I said, patting his cheek.

I pulled them out and set them on the counter in hopes that they would cool down and stop smoking.

He sighed and put on his 'thinking' face. "We can make milkshakes!"

Milkshakes? Why on Earth would I want to make milkshakes at midnight on a school night?

I took off the oven mitt and sat on a bar stool at the island. "Braden, I am not making milkshakes at this hour. I'm way too tired."

"Oh fine! I'll make them you lazy butt." He walked all around the kitchen pulling out the dairy and fruit products from the refrigerator and got out the blender from the cabinet. After getting a couple glasses and some ice, he came back to the island to whip up something that would hopefully turn out edible.

Maybe I should put him to work… "Hey, make sure you put extra strawberries in mine."

He glared at me as he chopped the strawberries. "Okay princess."

"Since I'm a princess, I want three scoops of ice cream."

"Sure thing sweetheart," he said, scooping out the ice cream and plopping it into the blender.

"Bray Bray! I want skim milk, not whole milk. It's too creamy."

He furrowed his eyebrows and grabbed the carton of skim milk. "Anything for you precious."

"Can I have-,"

"OH MY GOSH, NO. How about you make your own milkshake? You are just too demanding!"

I sat back in the chair and pretended to examine my fingernails. "Nope, everything's perfect now. Thanks darling." I drawled.

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

I watched as he put on the lid and pulsed and blended everything together. He shut the blender off after a few seconds and stuck a spoon in to taste his fruity concoction.

"It's yummy! Although, maybe it needs a pinch of salt…"

"HEY, how about no. Do you remember just hours ago what you did with the salt?" Who puts salt in milkshakes? That is just absurd.

He pouted. "Fine princess."

"Bray what's up with all the sweet little names?"

I saw a slight blush on his cheeks. "What are you talking about? I call you princess all the time."

"You do not, but even if you did, why'd you call me sweetheart and precious?"

I heard him mutter something under his breath that sounded awfully like 'you just don't notice'. "No reason. Here, drink your milkshake miss chatty pants," he said, sliding a glass over to me.

"Miss chatty pants? What kind of name is that?"

I held the glass in my hand and sloshed it around. As I was doing so, Braden picked up the blender and put it in the sink before slipping into the bar stool next to me. I sniffed the milkshake. It smelled perfectly fine, but he could've snuck a spoon of salt in when I wasn't looking…

"Soph, just drink it!" I eyed him before taking a small sip.

Holy bologna, it actually was one of the best milkshakes I've ever had! "Okay, I'm impressed. This is really good," I told him.

His face lit up and a grin appeared. "I try darling." Oh boy, here we go again.

-

Once we got everything cleaned up (Braden washed the dishes while I tried scraping off the burnt cupcakes, but sadly I could not save the muffin tins) we went to the living room and popped in the movie 500 Days of Summer.

"This is the best movie ever!" I said to no one in particular and grabbed a blanket from the chest.

Braden sat on the large chaise lounge and sprawled his legs out in front of him. "It's not. The guy doesn't even end up with the girl! How could this possibly be the best movie ever?"

"Pfft, it's way too cute. It doesn't hurt that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is too!" I said and went to go sit next to him.

He pulled me down next to him so we were side by side, my legs spread out next to his. "I'm way cuter."

"You are not. Now hush up! It's about to start," I shushed him.

Braden was quiet for the first half of the movie, but he started to get rowdy towards the end. The boy would not sit still at all. First, he slung his legs over mine. When I pushed them off, he leaned his head against my arm and let his legs dangle over the armrest. After shoving his head away, he moved his head in my lap with his legs in the same position.

"Would you cut it out? I'm trying to watch the movie!"

He sat up and hugged his knees to his chest. "You've seen this movie like a hundred times!"

"You're over exaggerating."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"No way girlfran." Well, that wasn't weird at all.

"You are too dip shit."

"I AM NOT OVER EXAGGERATING."

"Whatever you say babe," slipped out of my mouth before I realized what I had said.

"Mind repeating that babe?"

"Uhm, I'm thirsty," I said, deciding to shut off the movie. I tried to stand up,but Braden grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

"You're such a liar babe."

"Go away." I shut my eyes and covered my face with my hands.

Braden grabbed my hands and tried prying them off my face. "Aw babe, don't be like this," he whispered in my ear.

"I'll stop when you stop."

"Stop what babe?"

I groaned on his chest with my face still in my hands. "Braden Wyatt quit it!"

He took my hands off my face, seeing I had given up and smiled his killer smile at me. "You're really adorable, you know that?"

Biting my lip, I looked away from him. Why am I suddenly realizing I like him? Jake and I have been doing really good, but after today I don't know how I'm going to act around him. Life's tough.

"Sophie I have to tell you something and when I do please don't freak out," he softly pleaded.

Like I wasn't already jittery enough, he pulls this on me! Oh my, what have I gotten myself into?

"I'll try not to," I said nervously.

He took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. "I like you Soph. I like you a lot actually."

I gulped, "Oh."

He smiled. "Yeah, 'oh'. I knew there was something special about you the moment you walked in the first day of kindergarten. You were wearing a princess costume and you had your princess lunchbox in hand. My first thought was, 'hey I could be her prince charming'," he chuckled. "After that I forgot about you until I started hanging out with Luke and you always wanted to tag along. Did you know I got butterflies in my stomach whenever I talked to you? I thought it was so weird that a girl could do that that to me."

"So what you're trying to say is that you first figured out you liked me because I made you nervous?" I asked.

"Yes. Wait no…yes? No, I meant no!" he squeezed his eyes shut. "Damn it, do you see what you do to me? It's so hard not to be like this around you. Sometimes I have to bite my tongue when we're talking so I don't say something stupid."

By that time I had no idea what I was going to do about all of this. There was so much running through my mind and I knew I'd have to make some tough decisions in the near future. Scratch that, very near future.

Braden chose that moment to take my hands in his. "It's just that whenever I see you I smile, whenever I talk to you I get nervous, whenever you're with another guy I want to tell him you're mine. I just-" he cut off.

"You just what?" I asked softly.

He looked straight into my eyes. "I just…I love you Sophie," he said before capturing my lips with his.

What did you think? I'm not sure if I like chapter or not. I think I kind of rushed some of it... I'm still working on becoming a better writer, so please don't bash me with all your negative comments! But besides that, what are your thoughts on the story so far? There's over a hundred of you reading, so tell me what you like or don't like about it! Please? If you don't I'll hold off on writing the next chapter. I mean it.

Okay fine, I was just kidding. I would never do that! It's pretty much almost done, but please review?

11cina24 aka cassbeastbomb: Oh gosh, I LOVE the world cup. I can't wait for 2012 in Brazil! My friends and I are planning on going :D I was rooting for Spain all the way! I'm so glad they won, but that game was beyond nerve wracking.