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Chase had started going to school part time after the whole ex libris fiasco. School was going pretty well and Chase was surprisingly good at it. He had a B in each subject except English so far, he had a C in that class, but hey, passing is passing. Although, his teachers all seemed to decide that this Friday was the day to assign large amounts of homework. He had a lot of work to do today if he wanted to go to Ross’ party tomorrow. He usually needs a day to recover after the parties and with all this homework due on Monday, he wasn’t going to take that chance.
Chase had been seated at his desk cranking out assignments for hours now and didn’t want to continue staring at calculations anymore. Chase sighed and leaned back in his chair letting his head hang over the backrest. As his view turned upside down, he glanced around the room and at Buddy. Chase lifted his head and turned himself to the side to get a better look. Buddy was reading his book on Chase’s bed while Chase had been doing his homework. It seemed as though he had come to a happy scene in his book, Buddy unconsciously smiled with his eyes glued to the book. This sight really warmed Chase’s heart and he couldn’t help but smile too. He pulled open his drawer and took out his mint green polaroid camera and took a picture. He quickly turned back around and waited for the picture to appear. The picture developed almost instantly and Chase started to examine his own photography skills.
In the photo, Buddy is sitting at the head of the bed, leaning against the headboard with his legs under the blanket. He is wearing Chases ‘hideous’ hoodie and his hair is messy, as if he had just woken up. His glasses sat low on the bridge of his nose, his crescent gaze was on the book in his lap, with a big grin spread across his face. Chase was smiling equally as big, his focus was broken as an arm wrapped around his shoulder.
“What are you staring so intently at?” Buddy asked while leaning in, taking a closer look at the photo in Chase’s hand. Buddy was cringing at the picture and tried to take it from Chase, “Why’d you take a picture? I look hideous, give it to me, throw it away!” Buddy grumbled.
Chase flailed his arms around to keep the photo safe, “I’m not throwing it away, I’m putting it on the wall!”
Chase stuck the photo in his front pocket and Buddy finally gave up and turned around with his arms crossed, pouting.
Chase took the photo back out, “And you don’t look hideous… you look happy” Chase added in a warm tone.
Buddy turned his head to look at Chase, He was smiling at the picture as if it was his most precious belonging. Buddy repeated in his head a little puzzled.
“Happy?… I guess I am.”
The smallest smile started to appear on his face, before he hid it with a ‘humph’ for show and walked back to sit on the bed.
“Are you done with your homework yet?” he asked as he reluctantly watched Chase stand up to pin the photo to the cork board above his desk.
“Not yet, I still have to finish my English assignment after these last few problems.”
Before Buddy could say anything, a boisterous voice came from the kitchen downstairs.
“BOYS, CAN ONE OF YOU TAKE A TRIP TO THE SUPERMARKET? I NEED SOME MORE INGREDIENTS FOR MY CAKES!”
Chase started to yell back, “GRANDPA I’M DOING M-“
“I got it, I’ll ask Deacon to drive, just finish your work.” interrupted Buddy.
“Sure, thanks.” said Chase as he reluctantly went back to his homework.
Buddy went to Deacon’s room and knocked on the door frame.
“Deacon, are you busy?”
“No, just reading. I heard Grandpa, want me to come with you?”
“Ah. Yes, Chase is busy with homework.”
“Okay, lets go downstairs before Grandpa starts yelling again”
They went down and asked what they should get at the supermarket, Grandpa Ralph gave them a list and his card and Deacon drove them to the store.
When they entered the store, Buddy grabbed a basket and read off the list while Deacon led him to each section. They had gotten all the ingredients on the list except for the sugar, so Deacon led Buddy to the baking section. While they were in the baking section, Buddy spotted something and seemed to be lost in thought.
Deacon noticed this and asked “What’s wrong?”
“…”
Deacon peeked at what Buddy was looking at. He then understood why Buddy had paused.
“You can get it, you know.”
Buddy blinked and looked at Deacon.
“I can?”
“Of course, Grandpa said we can get something for ourselves for helping him out, plus im sure he’d approve of more baking stuff” Deacon said.
Buddy stood in thought for a few more seconds before slowly putting the item in their basket, looking at Deacon for confirmation. Deacon gave Buddy a small smile. After grabbing the rest of the things on the list, they picked up a few snacks for the keys and headed for the register. Deacon used Grandpa’s card to pay and they put everything in the back seat of the truck and drove back home. By the time they pulled into the driveway, the sun was already starting to set.
The two walked inside with the groceries and Grandpa thanked the boys. He immediately took the ingredients, and turned to finish his cake. Deacon took the snacks up to the keys before returning to his room to continue reading. Buddy took his chosen item out of the shopping bag, placed it on the counter in front of him and turned to Grandpa Ralph.
Buddy hesitated, “…Mr. Hollow?”
“What is it son?” Grandpa Ralph inquired.
“Would it be okay if I used the oven?” Buddy asked.
“Of course you can! Just clean up any mess you make, and don’t upstage me at the bake fair and we won’t have any problems,” Grandpa Ralph joked.
Buddy smiled. “Of course not, nobody can upstage ‘The Ralph Hollow’,” Buddy said, inflating his ego.
Grandpa Ralph let out a laugh and pat Buddy on the back before returning to his cake. Buddy rolled up his sleeves and grabbed an apron. It had been a while since Buddy had baked anything, so he had looked up a recipe on Deacon’s phone in the car and wrote it down on the back of the list Grandpa gave them. After about an hour, he had a full tray of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting in hand. After admiring his work, Buddy wiped down the counters, washed the dishes he used, and threw away the small empty bag of gluten free flour he had gotten from the store. He carefully walked upstairs with the tray of cupcakes.
When he walked into Chase’s room, Chase had just put his pencil down and started stretching.
“How’s the homework?” Buddy asked.
“It wasn’t too hard, just time consuming. Thankfully I’m all done now!” Chase said as he opened his eyes and started to turn towards Buddy.
“Good! then you can have your reward now” Buddy said as he placed the big tray of cupcakes on Chase’s desk.
“Wha- Buddy what are these?!” Chase asked in a hesitant but surprised tone.
“What, you’ve never seen a cupcake before?” Buddy asked.
“I know what cupcakes are, but…”
“Relax, they are gluten free, I promise, I triple checked the recipe.”
“…You made these?” Chase said in awe, admiring the cupcakes in front of him.
“I did.”
“For me?” Chase asked, staring intensely into Buddy’s eyes.
“Y-yes,” Buddy said as he looked away from Chase’s gaze. His cheeks starting to flush.
Buddy let out an ‘-oof’ as Chase shot out of his seat and hugged Buddy tightly, locking Buddy’s arms to his side.
“Thank you, Buddy!” Chase said excitedly.
Although everyone adores Chase, not many people take him into consideration when it comes to sweets or pastries, he usually has to settle for an apple while others enjoy the cakes and cookies, so Buddy’s cupcakes made Chase almost want to cry.
“Don’t thank me yet, you didn’t even taste them, they could be terrible, and what if I had poisoned them?” Buddy said, still avoiding Chase’s eyes, cheeks growing more red.
“You wouldn’t,” Chase chuckled.
“Chase…L-let me go now.”
“Fine, fine, but only because I can’t eat the cupcakes otherwise.”
Chase released him with a smile on his face. Buddy’s face had turned beet red at this point and as soon as Chase loosened his grip, Buddy bolted to the ladder of the attic.
“I’m going to see the keys,” Buddy said without looking back.
Chase said nothing as he watched Buddy ascend the ladder. Chase then brought his attention to the pretty cupcakes in front of him. He chose the one that looked like it had the most frosting and unwrapped it. His eyes lit up, almost watering, as he took a bite of the cupcake. With delicious frosting all over his face, he couldn’t help but blurt something out under his breath, sounding almost like a sigh.
“I’m so in love with you!”
Everyone knows that Chase is terrible at whispering, and he had said it just loud enough that Buddy could hear. Buddy sat at the top of the ladder out of sight from Chase, with his knees to his chest and his arms covering his crimson face.
“Ughhhh,” Buddy groaned.
He heard a couple giggles from behind him.
“You two shut up!” He quietly hissed at Violet and Silver who were on the window sill eating their snacks. “He means the cupcakes” he whispered.
“Of course, he does,” said Violet with a sly smile, Before she and Silver went back to giggling and sharing their snacks.
Buddy sat there for a while with his eyes closed and couldn’t help but remember the photo Chase had taken earlier. He remembered how Chase had looked at the photo and a similar smile appeared on his blushing face. He admitted it aloud.
“I am happy.”