Smiling In Everything

"Mmm," someone hums in my ear. I giggle as his breath tickles my skin, bringing my shoulders up in an attempt to get rid of the itch. "Sadie. Wake up."

"I am awake, you boob," I say, pathetically trying to insult him. Jack laughs, turning me around in his arms. My naked chest presses against his as he looks down at me, his fingers intertwining with mine. I grin, my face reddening noticeably.

He lightly kisses me, his nose nuzzling my face. "Let's stay here all day."

"I would love to," I answer sincerely, burrowing my body closer to his tall lanky one, "but we can't. You have to have lunch with your mom. And I'm helping Alex bake cookies for his cousin's bake sale."

"Alex taking away my lady," Jack scrunches his nose. "Asswipe."

I don't show how hard that hit me. "Be nice."

He grins, leaning down to kiss me again. My hand snakes up to tangle in his hair, tugging his head closer to mine to deepen the kiss. His mouth opens, my bottom lip sliding between his own, his tongue tracing it slowly. It was times like these that I knew I loved Jack Barakat; I just wish I wasn't in love with his best friend as well.

He pulls away moments later, glancing over at the clock. "Ugh," he groans, his head falling onto his pillow. "It's almost noon. I have to go meet my mom at the restaurant." He brings his puppy-dog gaze over to mine. "Could you call and tell her I'm sick?"

I laugh. "No. She's your mom. You never see her, so at least grace her with your presence once."

"Fine," Jack sighs dramatically, sitting up. "But only for you."

I roll my eyes as we get to our feet. I grab my robe and hastily pull it on, tying it in a knot at the front. I give Jack a kiss before he trails into the bathroom, the shower turning on moments later.

I take the time to get dressed, feeling like I was over-analyzing it just because I would be with Alex. I cuss myself out before just grabbing some jeans and a red v-neck.

I had promised to do this for Alex weeks ago, but I never knew just how scary the thought of doing this was. I've tried for months now to get rid of these feelings deep inside of me, but no matter how hard I did try, they were too stubborn to go away. Lately I've put my feelings for Jack first, but that will be hard to do if Jack isn't here to supervise my day with Alex.

I'm in for an interesting afternoon.



"Not trying to sound dumb or anything," Alex remarks as we walk into my kitchen, "but I can't even make cookies. Last time I tried, I almost set Rein's hair on fire."

I ignore the fact that he mentioned his fiancee and smirk. "Well, it's a good thing I'm here then. There will no setting my house on fire. If Jack comes back to find half of our house gone, I'll blame you." I point a finger at him and he puts his hands up in defense.

"So what shall we do first?" he asks, looking around at all the ingredients I had out.

I raise an eyebrow. "Haven't you ever made cookies with your mom or something?"

Alex scrunches his nose. "Not really. My mom never let me help in the kitchen. I always did everything wrong, so finally she told me I was only allowed in there to get leftovers."

I couldn't help myself, and burst out loud laughing. Alex pushes his bottom lip out in a pout. "I'm sorry," I gasp out, "but I can totally see your mother doing that." He crosses his arms over his chest stubbornly, pointedly looking away from me. "Alex, I was kidding. Let's just get started. When is this bake sale, anyway?"

"The bake sale for my cousin's cheer team?" He sticks his tongue out at the last word. "Tomorrow. I've never heard of having a bake sale on a Wednesday, but I guess since it's summer they can have it whenever the hell they want."

I roll my eyes. "Shouldn't we get started then?"

"Fine."

I grab the flour and tell Alex to hold the measuring cup for me. I pour in one cup and then dump it in the bowl, adding three more cups after that. "You know," Alex says as I finished adding the white substance, "flour isn't even that good. I tried it one time, and it was nasty."

I snort. "You don't eat it! It's an ingredient."

"I'm just saying."

I roll my eyes a second time, gathering some flour in my hand and flicking it toward his face. "You are so ridiculous, Alex."

He stood there gaping at me, his jaw dropped. "Did you just throw flour at me?" he asks incredulously, wiping under his eyes where the white powder at clumped together, looking down at it where it was now on his hand.

"I didn't throw it," I answer, mocking his voice."I flicked it."

He narrows his eyes. And before I could stop, he was quick as a cat, he grabbed a handful of flour and poured it right over my head. I gasped.

"You dick!" I screech. He just grinned.

So, to retaliate, I open the carton of eggs, grab two, and smash them into his chest. Alex's eyes go wide at what I just did. "Oh," he smirks, his hand snaking out to grab something off the counter, "it is so on."

Before I could protest, he was emptying the entire bottle of vegetable oil on my head. The sticky substance was gathering in my hair and running down my face.

"You fucker!"

He was just laughing out loud, so I take this as my chance to take the rest of the eggs and dump them right on his head. At least half of them cracked on his head and caked in his hair, yellow yolk dripping onto his shirt.

Soon it turned into an all out food fight, all the ingredients ending up on the floor or on us. And finally, when we ran out of things to throw, Alex advanced on me.

"Oh," I yell, "Oh no. Alex, don't!"

But he had already wrapped his arms around my waist and we were crashing to the floor. I only had time to let out a scream before my back hit the ground, getting covered in the remains of our war. Alex was laughing like there was no tomorrow, clutching at his stomach and rolling around in the eggs and flour.

"I win!" he shouts triumphantly, shooting his arms in the air. I sit up, shaking out my hands to rid of the waste on my skin. "Sadie, I'm sorry you lost. But I won."

I pout. "I'm all dirty. I need to take a shower."

"You take showers?"

I shove his shoulder, but grin all the same. He grins back. Our eyes connected, our gazes locking onto each other. I swallow as my heart rate accelerates, pumping practically out of my chest. I could've sworn I saw him leaning in, inching closer and closer.

"Sadie?"

The trance was interrupted, and I hurriedly get to my feet. "Jack?"

"You guys are still in the kitchen? I would think the cookies would be done by now," he calls back, walking in from the living room. "Where's Alex?"

"Well," I answer, scratching the back of my neck, "we kind of gotten into a food fight. We never actually made the cookies." Jack chuckles as Alex stands as well, attempting to get the caked food off of his clothes.

"That's cute guys," Jack smiles, shaking his head.

"We're cute people," Alex scoffs. "I guess I'll just tell my cousin that your oven wasn't working."

"Works for me," I shrug, still feeling the smile on my face. He gives me an awkward hug, mostly from the fact that we were both smothered in flour and eggs, before high-fiving Jack and leaving the house.

"Well," my boyfriend remarks, looking over at me, "you had a productive day."