Mother Truckin' Flapjacks

I slowly stirred the hot saucepan as it heated up the butter, golden syrup and sugar that I was melting together.

As I did this I heard the very familiar footsteps of my best friend entering the house.

“Hey Alice! What ya doing?” Spencer said as he walked into the small kitchen.

“Making flapjacks,” I said airily as I continued to stir.

“Awesome.” He said as he sat down at the table, making himself comfortable.

I stirred in the oats before spreading it all into a rectangular baking tin. After sliding it into the oven, I looked over at my best friend; he twiddled his light brown hair between his fingers as he gazed out of the window into the garden.

Sitting down next to him, I poked him in the arm gently. When I received no response, I jabbed him with two fingers in the shoulder and he looked round at me, I tried to hide the grin from my face, to no avail.

“Whaddya want Ali?”

“Nothing Spence, wanna go watch a film?” I asked hopefully.

“Um, I have something to tell you…” he trailed off towards the end of the sentence.

“Okay, what is it?”

“We got signed.” He said in a monotone voice. I instantly knew when he said ‘we’ he was referring to the band he was in called Panic At The Disco, I personally thought they were amazing.

“Oh my god! Why aren’t you happy about this!?” I asked him.

“Of course I am, but I don’t want to leave you.” Most people would think that we were together from the way that we acted together, but Spencer was like a brother to me.

I walked over to him and hugged him tightly, “Spencer, this is your dream, don’t let me hold you back.” I whispered reassuringly.

As we embraced, the timer on the cooker went off, its shrill beeping cutting through the air. I quickly went over to the oven and rescued the flapjacks from the sweltering heat.

Letting the flapjacks cool, Spencer and I went into the back yard. I followed him outside and he ran up to me and said ‘Tag, you’re it!’ before running off like a madman.

“Spencer: get back here!” I squealed playfully before chasing after him.

He tried running faster, but my six years of track gave me the edge and I caught up to him within no time. I got closer, and I launched myself on to his back, I wrapped my arms around his neck to gain some leverage.

“Ali, get offa me!” he shouted, spinning around in a futile attempt to get me off.

He kept spinning, making both of us rather dizzy, so much so that he fell onto the soft grass that covered the ground.

“That’ll teach you to mess with me Smith.” I said as I walked away with a smug grin on my face.

As I cut up the now cool flapjacks, Spencer re-entered the kitchen, his amazing grin plastered across his face.

“Here you go,” I said handing him a big piece of flapjack. He took a bit and even though I
wouldn’t have deemed it possible, the grin got wider.

“Alice, this is amazing. Mother truckin’ flapjacks!” he said through an oat-filled mouth. After he swallowed, he said, “How do you make these do damn tasty?” he asked staring at the remainder of the oaty snack, as if doing this would answer his question.

“Bye Alice.” His voice was shaky as he hugged me tightly while I tried to fight back tears.

“Bye Spencer, I love you.” I said quietly. Slowly he pulled out of the hug, looking into my eyes. He began walking towards the cab which was taking him to the airport.

“Don’t ever forget me!” I called as the cab pulled away. I stood, tears running down my olive skin as I watched the car until it was out of sight.

My best friend was gone, only to return a two or maybe if I was lucky three times a year. It would never be the same, but who was I to stop him from being everything he could be?

Life over the next few months was nothing special; everything was so dull without Spencer there to make me laugh. I’d tried countless times to phone him, and on each occasion reaching his answer phone. If that freaking T-Mobile lady tells me one more time that he
‘can’t reach the phone right now’…

In the end, I just gave up, he didn’t answer my calls, my texts, my emails, I just tried to convinced myself he was too busy, but deep down I was pretty sure he’d forgotten about me.

I sent him one last text before I gave up; it simply said ‘Never forget me.’

On the brighter side of things, I met an awesome guy called Josh; he was a saxophone player in a local jazz band. Things between us were getting really serious and I was pretty sure I was in love with him.

One evening, I was at home getting ready to go out with Josh, when my phone began ringing loudly. I ran into the living room, hurriedly trying to put my earring through the small hole in my ear.

“Hello?” I said breathlessly into the receiver.

“Alice? Its me Josh,” his sweet voice sounded.

“Hey Joshy, what’s up?” I asked casually as butterflies floated around in my stomach.

“Um, I’m so sorry hon, but we just got a call, we have a last minute gig, so I’m going to have to take a rain check on the date.” He said regretfully.

“Oh, okay.” I said feeling dejected.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“Its fine, don’t worry,” I reassured him.

“Okay, bye. Love you.” I gasped, it was the first time he ever told me he loved me.

“Love you too.” I smiled putting the phone down.

I cheerily changed into some blue sweatpants and a white tank top before sitting down in front of the TV. I mindlessly flicked through the hundreds of channels on my TV, nothing taking my fancy. As I sat bored, my phone buzzed, notifying me that I had a text. It was from Spencer!

Watch Rage. Now

I did as he says and turned on the music channel, Rage. I saw that Panic! At The Disco were presenting a show on there. I waited for a few minutes for the actual show to begin. As soon as I saw Spencer, my face lit up.

I carried on watching the show, in between one of the music videos they’d chosen, the boys were all messing around and joking with each other and Spencer said, “We’re eating mother truckin’ flapjacks on Rage.”

My mouth fell open. He remembered. It made me regret ever thinking anything bad about
my best friend in the whole world.

I immediately text him back.

I can’t believe you said that on TV, you silly goose!

Within seconds he replied. All it said was,

I told you I’d never forget you.