Brenna had just cracked an egg into a bowl when she heard the front door to her house opening. Frowning, she abandoned her egg and grabbed her spatula, going to investigate the noise. She had the spatula ready to smack the intruder as she rounded the corner. Justin’s laughter caused her makeshift weapon to fall to her side.

“Shit, you should have seen yourself, Bren! Ready to fight anything with your spatula!”

She felt her cheeks warm up. “Shut up. Most people don’t’ just walk into my house unannounced.”

“Most people leave their doors locked if they’re so paranoid,” he retorted, shrugging off his jacket and shoes.

“Whatever. What are you doing here? Did you walk?”

He followed her into the kitchen. “Yep. You never came over so I decided to come over here.”

“Oh.”

“Hey, what’re you baking?”

“I found this recipe for chocolate cake that I wanted to try.”

“You’re making it from scratch?” he asked, sitting on one of the barstools by the island counter.

“Mm hmm.”

“Wow. I haven’t had homemade chocolate cake in so long. This should be good.”

She beat the egg with a fork and then poured it into the mixing bowl. “I love how you just assume that you’ll get some.”

“Hey, I walked all the way over here. The least you could do is grace me with a piece of cake.”

“Well if you’re up for the wait, you can have some.”

“What kind of wait are we talking about?”

“At least a few hours.”

“Why so long?”

“I have to finish making the batter, cook it, cool it, ice it.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll wait. I told Mom I’d just eat supper over here so it’s not like I have to be back.”

“Oh you did, did you? Thanks for the heads up.”

“You’re getting the heads up now. And now we can have cake for dessert.”

She pulled out a couple of pans and began to grease them. “Uh huh.”

“Ooh, it’s got layers to it?”

“It wouldn’t be a real chocolate cake if it didn’t.”

“Sounds good to me. So I told you about Trace right?”

“No. What about him?”

“He’s not gonna be my PA anymore. He told me yesterday.”

“How come?”

“He’s gonna go to university in San Francisco in September so he can’t do it anymore.”

“Oh. That must suck for you.”

“Yeah, it does. I hate it. Now I’ve gotta find a new PA.”

She picked up the mixing bowl and carried it over to the pans. “Do you have to do that yourself?”

“No, I can get people to do it for me. But getting a new PA who I don’t’ know won’t be fun.”

“How long has Trace been your PA?”

“Like five years. It’s gonna be weird without him around all the time.”

She nodded and picked up the bowl, beginning to pour cake batter into the pans. Justin reached over to hold it for her as she scraped the insides with a spatula.

“Thanks.” She scraped the remaining batter from the bowl and then began to even out the top of the pans as Justin placed the bowl onto the counter and wiped his finger around the edge, picking up the extra batter.

“This tastes good.”

“Good.” She picked up the pans and put them in the oven and then set the timer. Picking up her spatula, she leaned against the counter and began licking the batter off it.

“So how long does it have to cook for?”

“Thirty minutes.”

He pulled his now clean finger form his mouth and got up to wash his hands. Brenna began to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and with Justin’s help, the kitchen was clean in a few minutes.

“Show me your room,” he said as she closed the dishwasher. “Is it still downstairs?”

“Um…yeah. I think it’s a little messy though.”

“Who cares. Your room was never clean when we were kids.”

“I guess.” She led him downstairs but stopped outside her door. “Just give me a minute to pick up any dirty clothes.”

He nodded and she went into her room and quickly scooped up her clothes on her floor and dumped them in the hamper in her closet. She opened the door wide. “Okay.”

He came into the room and she sat down on her bed as he looked around. She hadn’t really changed her room much since she was little besides painting the light purple walls a deep blue. Justin still seemed interested so she waited patiently as he went through the whole room, examining every picture, book, and knic-knak she had. She eventually laid onto her back and stared up at the ceiling as he continued to look.

“So when is your mom getting home?”

She jumped as he flopped onto the bed beside her, laying on his back as well. “She said six. Depends on how bad traffic it though.”

“Yeah.” They laid there in silence for a minute before he spoke again. “You smell really fresh.”

“I smell fresh?”

“Yeah.”

She laughed a bit. “Okay…”

“It’s a good thing.”

“Okay…”

“Yep.” He sighed. “Man, I just realized that Trace is gonna have to move out of my house when he goes to San Francisco.”

“He actually lives with you?”

“Pretty much. He has an apartment but he’s hardly ever there. Shit, that blows.”

“Seems like you’re really gonna have a hard time with this.”

He was silent for a minute. “Yep.”

“Will your new PA live with you?”

“No. Not someone I don’t know. The only reason Trace does it cause he’s my best friend. Everything’s just gonna get complicated with a new PA.”

“Yeah.”

“So here’s a question. Why do you have a picture of Brad Pitt taped to your ceiling?”

She began to blush. “I forgot that was there.”

“Is it so that the first thing you see when you wake up is him? Aww…”

She hit his arm. “Would you shut up?”

“Hey, it’s understandable. If I swung that way I’d totally go after a Brad Pitt type. Or maybe someone like Matt Damon. Have you seen his arms?”

She picked up a pillow and covered her face with it. “It’s like there’s every reason for you to stop talking but you never do. Do you tell everyone about your Matt Damon/Brad Pitt gay love?”

“It’s not gay love. It’s a man crush. Those are allowed.”

She shook her head. “Oh my.”

He pulled the pillow from her face and placed it under his head. “Man. Sometimes you make me feel like there’s something actually wrong with me.”

She smiled. “Something is actually wrong with you, Justin.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He was silent for a moment before speaking again. “I bet you spend a lot of time laying here, staring up at Brad…”

“Oh my gosh!” She jumped up and stood up on her bed, pulling the picture off her ceiling. She dropped it onto Justin’s stomach and then laid back down. “There. Now you can take it home and drool over it.”

He brushed it off himself and it fluttered to the ground. “I’m good, thanks.”

She laid there for a moment before getting up again. “I’m gonna go check on the cake.”

“Okay.”

She left her room and went upstairs to the kitchen. As she was looking in the oven, the phone began to ring. She grabbed the cordless and answered it.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

“I was thinking of grabbing a pizza on the way home so we don’t have to cook.”

“Okay. I think Justin’s gonna be here for supper. Is that okay?”

“Sure. Do you know what kind of pizza he’d want?”

“I don’t think he’s picky.”

“Alright. I’ll stop by on my way out of the city so I should be home by six thirty, alright?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.” She hung up the phone and checked the cake once more before going back downstairs to her room. She found Justin crouched down in front of her CD rack.

“You got some pretty obscure CD’s here.”

“No I don’t. I just don’t have a lot of mainstream.”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ve never heard of some of these bands though.”

“I do have some CD’s my cousin sent me from local bands in her city.”

He pulled out a CD and sat back on his heels. “Yeah.”

She sat down on her bed and opened a magazine. They stayed quiet until she heard the sound of the oven buzzer going. She got up and went upstairs, Justin following.

“Is it done?” he asked as she stuck a toothpick in the center of one pan.

“Yep.” She pulled them out of the oven and set the pans on cooling racks.

“They smell good. How long do you have to wait until you ice them?”

“About an hour.” She pulled off the oven mitts and looked in the cupboard. “Shoot. I forget to get Mom to get icing sugar when she was getting groceries.”

“Grocery Store’s like a ten minute walk from here, isn’t it?” Justin asked. “Let’s go get some.”

“You up for it?”

“Sure. Why not?”

Twenty minutes later, they were walking into the small grocery store in Shelby Forest. A few people roamed the aisles but for the most part, it was empty. Brenna led Justin to the baking ingredients aisle.

“It’s down here.”

“So does that mean old lady still run this place?” he asked as he followed her.

“Martha Fox? Yep. Mean as ever. She comes into the bakery a lot. Always complaining about something. Usually to me too.”

“I remember she never did like young people.”

Brenna picked up a bag of icing sugar. “Or anyone.” She looked at the label on the bag, trying to decide if it was the same brand that her mother usually got.

“Brenna?”

Her head jerked up when she heard the familiar voice and her shoulders slumped as she saw Jake standing there, a cart of boxes behind him. Of course he would be working there that day and of course he would decide to come over to her.

“I thought it was you. What’re you buying?”

He was being nice but Brenna was acutely aware that it was because Justin was standing behind her.

“Icing sugar,” she said, without emotion. Only a few days before, he had come into the bakery with Marty and they had given her hell for the half hour they had been in there. Seeing him standing there brought that memory back.

Jake looked away from her and over to Justin. “Hey. Good to see you again.”

“Yeah. Jake, right?”

“Yeah. How long are you in town for?”

Justin shrugged. “Not sure.”

“Hey, Bren,” Jake said, looking back to her. “Remember that girl from the city I told you about a couple weeks ago? Saw her again. And that whole thing on who is better is still most definitely true.”

His smile to the untrained eye would appear genuine but she saw the meanness in it and looked away.

“This is the brand I want,” she said softly. “Come on, Justin.” She turned away from Jake and began to walk up the aisle to the check out. Justin caught up with her a couple seconds later.

“What was that about?”

She shook her head, signaling him to wait until they were alone. She paid for the icing sugar and as soon as they were out of the store, Justin repeated his question.

She walked a few steps before answering. “That was Jake being stupid.”

“For someone who you said you hated, it was sure hard to tell.”

“Yeah, well, it’s complicated.”

“I heard you guys used to date.”

She stopped and stared at him. “Who did you hear that from?”

“Does it matter?”

“I want to know.”

“My mom mentioned it.”

She resumed her walk. “Oh.”

He fell into step beside her. “So why did you guys break up?”

“It’s a little complicated.”

“All break up are a little complicated.”

She sighed. “Jake isn’t that nice of a person and I realized that after a few months. So we broke up.”

“So you broke up with him?”

“Other way around.”

“How’d that work out?”

“I think he knew I was gonna break up with him and he wanted to save face. It doesn’t really matter who broke up with who.”

“What was he talking about when he said that thing about the girl from the city?”

“Just him being stupid.”

“Damn, it’s gotta suck living in a small town with your exboyfriend.”

“Yeah.”

“He seemed nice though.”

“You don’t know him.”

Justin was silent for a minute and she had lost herself in thought by time he spoke again.

“Hey, Bren, that one day you came over and you were all upset and crying? What happened?”

She halted again and he took a few steps before realizing that she wasn’t next to him anymore. He stopped and turned around to face her.

“You saw me? I thought you were asleep.”

He shrugged.

“No, you were asleep. I saw you on the couch.”

“I woke up when you came in. And you were all upset. Mom wouldn’t tell me why either. I wanna know.”

That day had been a really low point and she didn’t exactly want to relive it. “It’s complicated.”

“Bullshit. Everything can’t be that complicated.”

“How would you know, Justin? You weren’t here.” She was starting to get frustrated and she began to walk again.

“It’s complicated because you’ve let it get complicated in your mind. Do you not trust me enough to tell me stuff? I told you all about my relationships.”

“Oh, so are we having a contest on who is telling the other the most stuff?” She ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. “Why is this so important for you to know all these things?”

“Because I wanna know what happened to you while I was gone. I wanna know what made you change so much.”

“My dad died and I had a bad relationship. I guarantee that’s enough to make anyone change. Sorry if I’m not as good as the old me you used to know.”

“That’s not what I meant. Don’t get mad, Bren. I just wanna know more about you. Why is that such a bad thing?”

She sighed. “I don’t know.”

“So why were you so upset that day? Mom said it had something to do with Jake but wouldn’t tell me what.”

Another sigh came form her. She didn’t say anything for a minute and instead stared at the grass they were walking on. “Jake and his friend, Marty, seem to have it in for me and that day they kind of cornered me and made fun of me.”

“Made fun of you about what?”

“For not sleeping with Jake while we were going out. Apparently that’s one of the reason’s he decided to break up with me.”

That shut Justin up for a minute. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“He never seemed like that kind of guy when we were kids.”

“People change. And not always for the better.”

“I guess. How long did you guys end up going out for?”

“Three months. Long enough.”

“Sounds like it. I guess not all relationships are worth it.”

“You’d be right on that point.”