04 

THE NEXT TIME JOL saw Aafia was not when they’d planned to meet up. Instead, it was three days later, at the bakery. Jol had gotten caught sneaking back in after their night of sweets, and thus was grounded for a week, though she finally managed to sneak out after a few days. She ran a hand over her curls, stressed. 

What if Aafia was mad at her? Just when they had made up again? Jol hated the thought. 

The neighborhoods faded to shops, and soon Jol was at the bakery. Dan was grinning at her before she even opened the door. The bell rang above her as she looked around curiously for a reason why Dan was grinning like he won the lottery. 

“... What are you up to?” Jol asked. Dan giggled evilly. Jol looked around again, suspicious. 

Then, Dan dragged her to the back room with a hand wrapped around her wrist. She stumbled after him without a choice. In the kitchen, she found Aafia, standing with her arms crossed and a pout on her face. She looked cute. 

Jol smiled a guilty smile at the girl. “I can explain once I know what the fuck is happening.” 

Aafia laughed, looking like she didn’t mean to let it burst out the way it did. She covered her mouth with her hand. 

Jol chuckled, but stopped when Dan shoved her. She looked at him expectantly. Dan shooed her towards Aafia with his hands and then scurried out of the kitchen.

Jol sighed. “So, um, hi?” 

Aafia grumbled a hello in reply. 

“I was grounded,” Jol blurted it out quickly, like she had to get it out before she exploded. “My parents caught me sneaking in and I was grounded—well, I still am—but anyways I couldn’t sneak out til tonight and I’m sorry and—” 

“Jol.” Afaia looked extremely proud of herself as she slowly said Jol’s name to get her to stop rambling. Usually Aafia was the one rambling. 

Jol felt her cheeks heat up. 

“Hey, it’s okay, I understand. Parents suck, huh?” Aafia said. Jol nodded and exhaled through her nose. 

“So, you’re not mad at me?” She just had to make sure. 

Aafia chuckled. “No, I’m not mad.” Jol sighed in relief. “I think we’re supposed to be making something with all these things? Dan left us directions, I think. They’re hard to read,” Aafia changed the subject by saying. Jol glanced at the long counter in the center of the room that was covered in pans and flour and other ingredients. She walked closer so that she could look at the directions Dan had left. They were, indeed, barely readable. Though, at bottom she could tell that it said something along the lines of: 

Step 14. MAKE THE FUCK OUT

The “out” had been crossed out with a pen; written next to it was the word “up”, which Jol found hilarious. 

Aafia stared at the last step on the paper and squeaked. 

“OK, let’s get started. Looks like we already have all the ingredients; we just need to measure them and follow the directions,” Jol said with a clap of her hands. 

“One problem… we have no idea what the directions say…” Aafia trailed off and pursed her lips. 

Jol shrugged. “Wing it?” 

Aafia shrugged back. Jol laughed, then turned to the crowded counter. Well, it was time to bake. 

―

Jol was covered head to toe in flour and cake batter, and she was having the time of her life. She and Aafia had tried to be serious about the directions, they really had, but then Aafia misread something and added half a tablespoon of salt rather than a teaspoon, and they were in hysterics. Then, Jol had spilled the flour all over the counter by accident, which somehow got all over the two of them, as well. After that, there was a mixer incident that left cake batter all over the wall and them. Aafia tossed some flour from the spilled bag at Jol, who threw a handful of batter back. 

That made it an all-out war. 

Soon, they were throwing all sorts of foods at each other. Aafia had eggs in her hair, and Jol had vanilla extract down her shirt, but they were having a blast. The cake batter was everywhere: on the wall, on the counter, on the two of them. It was even on the ceiling, somehow. Jol stared at the chocolate batter on the ceiling and laughed, her smile pure. She leaned on Aafia for support, who was also going into hysterics after seeing the mess they’d made. 

Dan was going to kill them. 

The thought made Jol laugh so hard she could barely stand. Aafia laughed harder in response to Jol snorting, and they fell into a cycle of calming down and then making eye contact and cackling once again. 

When it seemed as though they were finally calmer for real, they continued to stare at each other and smile with shared amusement swimming in their eyes. Jol felt so happy she might’ve collapsed from it had Dan not burst into the room with excitement. 

The excitement quickly fell once he saw the state that the kitchen was in. He looked at the girls, who were happy and sitting close together on the floor, covered from head to toe in food, and looked slightly less mad. 

“What did you two idiots do to this kitchen?” Dan asked with a huff. Aafia and Jol smiled sheepishly, made eye contact with each other, and then ran out of the room. 

They went to the bathroom to clean up, but after nearly half an hour of scrubbing their clothes, they realized that wet and stained clothes were about as good as they were going to get. So, they walked out of the bathroom looking only slightly better than when they entered. In front of the door to the kitchen was Dan with cleaning supplies. 

“Shit, now we have to clean all that up.”