Chapter 20
Twenty
Stumbled across this pic of me walking onstage to win Miss Plus Size Washington last year. Cue the happy tears.
SnapChat by @briellewilliamsplus.
I set down the chemistry book with a sigh. My head pounds, and I don’t know how I’m going to memorize all the ways to balance equations before my test tomorrow.
Nerd, my traitor heart whispers.
Zeke leans back in his chair and stretches, narrowly missing knocking over his D&D setup, which he’s arranged on half of the table now so we can use the other half. “You’re going to nail it tomorrow. Chemistry is basically just math. Remember that.”
“General chem was math. This is organic chem, and it’s all memorizing! I’m horrible at that.” I put my head in my hands on Zeke’s desk. My elbow bumps a figurine of a dragon. I see its toothy grin out of the corner of my eye.
Zeke smiles. “You’re better at it than you think.”
I lift my head as Mia comes waltzing into Zeke’s room like she owns the place, wearing little pink shorts and a blue shirt with a mermaid on it, complete with a shiny sequin mermaid tail.
She runs up to Zeke with a squeal of joy and hops onto his lap.
She stays far away from his D&D stuff like they’ve had that talk before, even though she eyes all the figurines with interest.
Zeke’s room looks as it always does, though am I imagining it or are some of his boxes unpacked and put away? His bed is unmade today, and it’s driving the clean freak inside of me nuts. A book the size of my pug lays open on his sheets.
Mia looks up at Zeke’s face. “Mama evil unicorn?”
Zeke and I exchange a look. He turns back to Mia. “You want me to be your mama evil unicorn?”
Mia nods. She pats her chest. “Baby evil unicorn. Heh heh.”
I hide my smile. That was the cutest little evil laugh ever.
“What does an evil unicorn do, Mia?” I ask.
She eyes me warily. “Tomorrow, I tried to pee like Zeke, and I got pee on my foot.”
I blink.
Zeke covers a laugh. “You mean, ‘yesterday I tried to pee like Zeke and got pee on my foot.’” He gives Mia a squeeze and buries his face in her neck, peppering her with kisses, and she squeals.
Mia glances up at the ceiling, and her eyes go huge. “Uh oh. Zekie. Look.”
Zeke sets her down and looks where she’s pointing. His eyes go enormous, and his dark brown face pales. “Oh no.”
I turn to see what everyone is looking at, and I swallow. A spider the size of my thumb pad is crawling along the wall. It’s brown with darker lines, and the little fuzzy hairs are visible against the white bedroom wall. I shiver.
Zeke shrieks and retreats to the back corner of the room, clutching Mia to his chest. Mia squirms and tries to get out of his arms.
“Too tight, Zekie!”
“Zeke, it’s going to be okay.” I don’t like spiders, but Zeke and Mia aren’t going to be any help here. Someone’s got to take care of this. I hunt around for a shoe or something to kill it with.
Zeke is as far away from the spider as he can get without actually leaving the room. He finally loosens his hold on Mia, but she doesn’t leave his lap. “Callie, get away from it! We’ll just go to another room until my mama gets home.”
I give him a look. “Your mom kills spiders for you?”
Zeke doesn’t even look embarrassed. “Yes.”
I kind of want to laugh, but I remember Troy once laughing at me for how afraid I was of climbing up to a diving board at Noah’s pool, so I hold it in.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I got this.”
I find one of Zeke’s shoes with a relatively flat bottom, keeping one eye on the spider slowly making its way across the place where the wall and the ceiling meet. I hold up the tennis shoe. “Can I use this?”
Zeke looks utterly terrified. Mia sits on his lap with a distressed expression. Zeke nods.
I step up onto Zeke’s bed, which feels too intimate, but there’s no other way to reach the spider. His blanket is downy soft under my bare feet.
I jump, whacking the shoe against the wall. The spider, unfortunately, scampers across the ceiling, dodging my shoe missile.
Zeke screams, and Mia follows, picking up on the emotions from her brother.
“No worries,” I say. “I’ll try again.” But the spider has already made its way across the room, and now it’s far out of reach, even with me standing on the bed.
I eye the chairs we were sitting on, thinking to drag them across the floor, but I don’t think they’re tall enough to give me the reach I need.
“Can I sit on your shoulders?” I ask. Embarrassment flickers in my belly for asking for something so intimate, but it’s all right. We’re not even friends. It would mean nothing to touch him like that.
Zeke looks at me, dark brown eyes enormous. “I can’t . . . I can’t get close to it.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I say. “We’ve got this.”
Zeke sets Mia down and woodenly crosses the room then kneels in front of me.
I climb on top of his shoulders, and Zeke puts soft hands on my knees, holding me in place.
I’m wearing ripped jean shorts, and my knees are bare.
Zeke’s touch sends a shock that travels through my whole body.
He stands, and I hold his head to give me an anchor.
Zeke is surprisingly steady underneath me.
Now I’m level with the spider, shoe in hand, trying hard not to think of the way Zeke’s hands feel on my legs, the way his shoulders are firm under my thighs.
“A bit closer,” I say, straining to it.
Zeke shuffles forward.
“More,” I say.
“Callie,” Zeke says, fear edging his voice. “You cannot miss. It can’t . . . fall . . .”
“I get it,” I say. “Don’t worry. I got your back.”
Zeke squeezes my knees.
In one swift motion, I lift the shoe and slam it on the spider. The whack barely drowns out the crunch of its exoskeleton.
Zeke cries out and takes a quick step backward. I drop the shoe and grab onto his head for dear life, but we keep stumbling, falling, until we land back on the bed, Zeke’s head on my stomach, his hands on my legs.
Mia squeals, “You got it! You got it!”
Zeke clears his throat and hurries to stand, brushing off his clothes like they’re covered in spider germs. Or my germs?
I stand, too, feeling awkward. Zeke glances from the spider’s smashed body to me, and he pulls me in for an enormous hug, crushing me into his body. It’s a hug that takes my breath away. People would pay for hugs like this.
“Thank you, Callie.”
I put my arms around Zeke, wishing I wasn’t enjoying this so much. “It was nothing.”
“Definitely not nothing.”
I step away and clear my throat, willing my cheeks not to turn red.
“I’ll clean it up. Don’t even worry.” I hurry to leave Zeke’s bedroom, heading down the hallway to the bathroom to grab some toilet paper.
I pause and take a few deep breaths, staring at my flushed reflection in the mirror. What is happening to me?
When I get back to Zeke’s room, he’s staring at me with a look of awe.
“You’re like a spider warrior.”
I laugh. “It was nothing, Zeke. Really.”
He holds my gaze. “Not to me.”
When the spider guts have been taken care of, Mia shouts, “We need unicorn cookies!”
“Oh, no,” Zeke says. “Not right now, Mia Bia. Mama’s gone. There’s no one here to help us bake.”
Mia turns her huge brown eyes on me. “Miss Callie make unicorn cookies?”
Zeke looks at me, tilting his head. I purse my lips. I shouldn’t. We’re done tutoring, and Zeke’s parents aren’t even here to see that we’re “friends”. Who are we putting on a show for?
“All right,” I say.
“YAY!” Mia throws her arms up and knocks Zeke’s D&D board to the ground.
Mia and I get started in the kitchen while Zeke painstakingly fixes his set up. His brothers are getting online to play with him virtually later and it has to be “perfect”.
I’m sort of lost not being in my own kitchen, but Mia must’ve done this before, because she pushes a chair over to the gray and white Formica countertop and climbs onto the chair, pointing out where things are, like mixing bowls, measuring cups, flour, and sugar.
She opens a drawer and digs through it until she finds an adorable tiny pink and brown apron, and I help her tie it on.
“AlexaplayMia’smix,” says Mia.
“ALEXPLAYMIA’SMIX,” she yells again.
I wince. “I don’t think it can understand—”
“ALEXAPLAYMIA’SMIX!!!!”
“Alexa, play Mia’s Mix,” I say.
The AI complies, and Mia sings along to the song. “Unicorns I love them, unicorns I love them.”
I blow out through my lips. This is going to be fun.
I don’t exactly know what “unicorn cookies” are meant to be, so I look up my favorite sugar cookie recipe on my phone.
The recipe includes a hint of nutmeg to make the best soft frosted sugar cookies ever.
I even hunt around in the drawers of teaspoons and spatulas until I find a unicorn cookie cutter, and Mia screams in delight.
A song about a space unicorn blasts through the kitchen while I beat butter and sugar together in a bowl.
“Do you know where the vanilla extract is, sweetie?” I ask.
Mia gives me a blank look with her large brown eyes. Her apron already has a streak of butter across it.
“Never mind.” I hunt through the cupboards until I find a bottle.
Mia insists on adding the flour herself, and it plops into the bowl, leaving a mushroom cloud of white dust that settles onto the counter.
I cough and wave a hand in front of my face.
I turn the beaters on low, but Mia takes them from my hands, and the dry ingredients fly all over the counter.
My stress level is rising the bigger the mess gets.
I’m worried that Zeke’s going to be upset, but he walks into the kitchen with a relaxed smile, like this is nothing he hasn’t seen before.
Zeke enters the room and tickles Mia before swiping a glob of sugar cookie dough. “Yum!” His eyes roll back in his head, and warmth floods my body.
“Oh my holy fudge. Callie. These are amazing!” Zeke goes for another glob of dough, and Mia sticks in her little fingers to grab a handful.
Mia chews thoughtfully. “More sprinkles.”
I lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough, and Mia helps me cut out unicorn shapes. I put the tray we finished in the oven and open the fridge for some butter for frosting. I hope Caroline wasn’t saving any of these ingredients for something in particular.
Mia insists on adding the powdered sugar to the bowl, and she also has to be the one to work the beaters for the buttercream frosting. A powdered sugar storm erupts all over the kitchen, and that’s right when Caroline walks in the door.
“I’m home!” She bustles in, wearing a sunshine yellow dress and a white purse slung over her shoulder, carrying an armload of groceries.
“Mama!” Mia clambers down from her chair and runs over to give her mom a hug. “I’m an evil baby unicorn, and Zeke is my mommy evil unicorn! We made unicorn cookies.”
Caroline glances around the kitchen, and I brace myself for the lecture about the mess, plus the fact that I’m feeding her four-year-old pure sugar before dinner, but Caroline just beams. “This looks like so much fun, honey. I can’t wait to try a unicorn cookie.
” She winks at me, and my heart melts like a pat of butter.
“Alexa, stop,” Caroline says. Finally.
I add a splash of vanilla, cream, and a tiny pinch of salt to the frosting and beat it carefully so we don’t lose more powdered sugar. Zeke gives Caroline a hug and heads to the garage to help her bring in groceries.
Caroline sets down the paper bags she’s carrying on the counter. “Well, Miss Callie. I had a feeling you could bake. Those cookies look almost too pretty to eat.” She winks.
My stomach flips, and I almost drop the beaters. “Oh, uh . . .” My first instinct is to brush it off, to minimize my skills. But instead, I swallow and say, “Thank you.” I pick up a cookie and knife to spread on the frosting.
“One cookie, Mia,” Caroline says. “We still need to have dinner.” She turns to me with her enormous grin. “And Miss Callie is staying, right?”
I glance at Zeke while Mia dumps half a jar of sprinkles on top of her cookie and shoves it into her mouth with an expression of ecstasy.
Every Monday evening Mom is gone, teaching a crap ton of personal clients at the gym, so it’s dinner at home alone for me.
I should want to be alone for a while after hurting my brain all day on chemistry.
I should brainstorm more ideas to gather votes, or call Dana and see how the t-shirts she’s designing are coming.
But none of that appeals to me as much as staying in this warm house, with these people. With Zeke.
“I don’t want to intrude,” I say.
Zeke places a gallon of milk in the fridge and closes it. “It would never be an intrusion to have you here.”
“STAY!” Mia shrieks and throws her chubby little arms around my waist. The apron, which has long since been destroyed by goopy butter smears and swaths of flour, brushes against my legs, but I find that I don’t care. Not too much, anyway. “Sister evil unicorn.”
That’s it. How can I say no to that?
I smile and gently touch Mia’s springy black curls. “I would love to stay.”