Cheerio

After drinking our coffees, Kurt drove us back to his house. Right when we walked through the front door, we were smacked in the face with the strong, almost intoxicatingly sweet scent of fresh chocolate chip cookies.

Almost immediately, my mouth started to water in a seriously unattractive way. Carole walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on an apron that was tied around her waist, a smile on her face. God, she looked straight out of a fifties television show, the perfect example of a domestic housewife.

“Hi, there,” she greeted. “Do you want some cookies?”

My stomach grumbled automatically in response, but I tightened my abs to get it to stop. “I’m fine, thank you,” I replied.

Kurt shot me a side glance, as if he knew I was lying. But then again, if he just heard my stomach begging for food, then it would be obvious I was. “I’ll take a few,” Kurt accepted enthusiastically, hurrying into the kitchen.

“You better eat as many as you can before Finn gets home,” Carole explained. “You know that they’ll be completely gone the second he walks through the door.”

“That’s alright. I’m really fine.” I smiled at her sweetly, and she shrugged before making her way back into the kitchen. It seemed pretty clear to me that she must have heard my stomach, too.

Kurt emerged a few minutes later, a huge stack of cookies wrapped in a paper towel in his hands. “Okay, we can go to my room now.”

We hurried up the stairs, and Kurt shut his door behind us with his butt.

“Are you sure you don’t want any cookies?” he questioned, settling down on the bed. To emphasize his point, he started wafting them under my nose, as if he was trying to get my stomach to start making dying whale noises again.

But I seriously didn’t want any cookies. Because if I ate even a bite, I knew that my conscience would just make me throw them back up. And I really didn’t have the energy to do that right then. “No. I’m completely fine. Maybe later.”

“Suit yourself,” he grumbled, leaning back against his pillows and starting to gorge on the treats.

After a few minutes, I turned to face him. “What do you think our next assignment for Glee Club will be?” But then I realized that we probably wouldn’t have a new assignment for a few weeks, since we would have to rehearse for Sectionals soon.

“Oh, I have no idea,” Kurt answered, shaking his head from side to side. “I never know what kind of think Mr. Schue is going to cook up next.”

“I just hope it’s something recent,” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I’m sick of singing songs by people who haven’t had a hit on the charts in years. It kind of just goes to show that they’re no longer relevant.”

“You know, your logic is completely flawed,” he pointed out, as if he was just telling me that the sky was blue or Lindsay Lohan had just gotten arrested again. “Broadway hits, as far as I know, have never gotten on any top charts, and they are forever relevant.”

“In your mind, maybe,” I scoffed, “but not in the minds of other people.”

There was an awkward silence between us before he finally voiced, “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

Just then, it sounded like some elephants broke into the house, knocking over the front door and, after a few seconds of calm, pounded up the stairs.

Kurt and I stared at each other, our eyes filled with fear, him in mid-bite of the still-warm cookie, as we stared at the door. Soon, a door down the hall slammed shut, allowing the house to settle into a state of tranquility again.

“What the hell was that?” I questioned, my ears still ready to hear any sort of strange noises.

“Now that I think about it, probably Finn and Puck. I keep forgetting that they run like wild animals through the house.”

“I didn’t even know they were friends…” I trailed off, thinking about the whole debacle between them, involving Quinn and a certain backstabbing, impregnation thing.

“They’ve worked out their differences,” he told me. “They get together once every few weeks to go over sport techniques or whatever.”

I mouthed ‘Oh’ and flopped back on his bed, staring up at his ceiling. “God, I’m so tired.”

“Even after the caffeine?”

I nodded.

“You’re weird. I feel like I could run a marathon right now.”

I couldn’t help but giggle, and he joined in after a few seconds. “Granted, I’d probably pass out halfway through, but…”

“Oh, just a small detail.”

We hung out for a while longer, eventually putting in The Notebook to watch.

By the end, the two of us were sniffling like little children who had fallen and hurt themselves and didn’t know another way to draw attention to their boo-boos. “God, that is such a classic,” I breathed, dabbing at my eye with my index finger.

“Even though it’s set in older times?” Kurt snickered, thinking about my earlier comment.

“Shut up.” I slapped him on the arm and laughed.

“What time is it?” he asked, too lazy to check the time himself.

“Uhhh…” I pulled my cell phone out of the pocket of my dress and turned the screen on. “Almost 2:30.”

As if my phone knew that it was out of my pocket, it immediately started buzzing. Mom, it read on the front.

Drawing my eyebrows together in confusion, I slid the answer tab over and held the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hi, Evie. How are you?”

“Uh, fine? What’s going on?”

“I was just wondering what time you were coming home.”

I looked over at Kurt, who was giving me a questioning look, before turning back away. “If you want me to come home now, I can.”

“That would be best, honey. So I’ll see you in a few minutes?”

“Sure.” I hung up and shoved my phone back into the pocket. “My mom wants me home for some reason.”

“Okay, that’s fine. I’ll drive you.”

We went downstairs, and my stomach clenched when I saw Puck and Finn playing video games in the living room. They must have heard us stepping down the stairs, because they paused their game and turned to say hello.

Well, Finn said hello, which we returned, but Puck got an evil grin on his face and said, “Hey, Evie. Did you have any of the great cookies Finn’s mom baked?”

I knew what he was doing, that he was trying to get a rise out of me, but my common sense wasn’t enough to keep my teeth from gnashing together. “Actually, I did,” I lied.

Surprise flashed across his face for a second before he replaced it once again with his cocky smile. “Weren’t they great?”

“Delicious,” I confirmed. “I have to go now. I’ll see you guys at school on Monday.”

As we were walking away, Kurt nudged me with his elbow. “Why did you lie to him?” he muttered under his breath.

“Because I could,” I responded, not wanting to go into any greater detail.

It only took us a few minutes to get back to my house. Kurt pulled into the driveway and put the car in park as I worked to get my seatbelt off.

“I’ll text you later, okay?” Kurt asked.

“Sounds great. Bye! And thanks for hanging out with me.”

“Oh, it was my pleasure.”

He gave me a parting smile as I hopped out of his car and turned to wave him goodbye as he backed down toward the street.

Once his SUV was out of view, I turned around and noticed an unfamiliar Honda in the driveway. Was that why Mom wanted me home? Because she or Garrett bought a new car? Though it didn’t seem much like Garrett to replace his antique Mustang with an eco-friendly Honda…

I shook my head and sighed as I made my way to the front door. Before my hand even touched the doorknob, it was ripped open.

Garrett was standing there with a huge smile on his face. “Hey, Eves! You’d never guess who’s back!”

“Back? Who left?” But the second the words left my mouth, I knew. My stomach lurched, and I fought the bile that was starting to slither its way up my throat.

Numbly, I followed Garrett into the living room. The whole five seconds of the trip, I convinced myself that my imagination was running away with me, that I was overreacting. After all, it had been six fucking years. Who comes back after six fucking years?

No one, I would have thought.

But apparently, judging by the way he was standing next to my mother and grinning like there was no tomorrow, my dad did.