Clare stared at her laptop screen as she typed up a newspaper article she was working on. Then, she heard a knock on her door.
"Yeah mom?"
"Clare, somebody sent these for you," Mrs Edwards handed her a bouquet of flowers.
Clare was happily surprised that Jake sent her flowers.
"Who are they from?" Asked Mrs Edwards as her daughter admired the bouquet.
Clare read the card, "Not Jake," she said, disappointed.
"Well of course they're not from Jake," said Mrs Edwards , "why would your future stepbrother send you flowers?"
"No reason," said Clare as she laughed nervously.
"Well who are they from?"
"A friend."
Mrs Edwards walked to Clare's bedroom door, "I sure hope I get to meet this friend of yours someday," and shut it close.
Once her mom was gone, Clare continued to read the card that came with the bouquet.
Dear Clare,
I just wanted to send you these to say thanks for the great time last week.
Love,
Drew
PS.
Your eyes sparkle more than all of those vampires combined.
Clare smiled and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" A voice said on the other line.
"Hey, Adam, it's me Clare."
"Hey, what's up?"
"Can I talk to Drew?"
"Uhhh sure?"
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.
Adam went inside Drew's room.
"Dude? Have you ever heard of knocking?"
"You never knock on my door," Adam retaliated.
Drew rolled his eyes, "what do you need?"
"Clare wants to talk to you."
A huge smile appeared on Drew's face and he yanked the phone from Adam. Adam analyzed Drew for a few seconds to try and figure out why Clare and him would want to talk each other but gave up and left to play video games.
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.
"Hey, Drew, I just wanted to thank you for the flowers," said Clare.
"It was my pleasure," Drew said on the other line.
"But how did you find out my adress?"
"I asked Adam."
"And he just gave it to you?"
"Yup. Well he grilled me for a minute but he eventually gave it to me."
"Grilled? What does that mean?"
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.
Drew laughed at Clare's lack of knowledge about slang terms.
"He kept asking me questions."
"Oh," said Clare, "I thought he forced you to cook or something."
Drew laughed once again, "Speaking of cooking, I kind of need your help."
"Sure."
"Do you know how to bake?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I was plannning to surprise Katie with homemade chocolate chip cookies after her soccer game tonight. You know, if she wins, it will be a celebratory gift and if she looses, I'll give them to her to cheer her up."
"Oh."
"So can you come over today and help me make them?"
"Umm why don't you ask somebodyelse?"
"My parents are on a business trip, all of my friends have plans, and Adam can't bake for shit."
"Alright, I'll come."
"Really?" Drew said, excited.
"Yeah, I'll be there in twenty minutes."
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.
Clare rang the doorbell and Drew ran to the door to let her inside the house.
"Hey!"
The two exchanged a hug and Clare noticed something different in Drew's scent.
"So, I've already made a batch," said Drew, "but they didn't really turn out so good."
Clare followed Drew into the kitchen while Drew took the cookies out of the oven.
Suddenly, Clare noticed her pale skin becoming red and itchy, "Drew, what's that smell?"
Drew broke off a piece of from a cookie, "you wanna try it?" He shot the piece of the cookie into her mouth.
Clare spat it out and began to hyperventalate, "What the hell?"
"What's wrong?"
"Drew, what flavour are those cookies?"
"Peanut butter."
"You said they were chocolate chip over the phone!"
"I changed my mind. Why are you yelling at me?"
"I'm severely allergic to peanut butter."
"How severe?"
"Fatal."
"Oh shit. Sorry Clare, I didn't know."
"Where's your bathroom? I think I'm gonna hurl."
"On the left side of that hallway," said Drew, pointing in the direction.
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Drew knocked on the bathroom door but Clare didn't answer. He put his ear to the door and heard spastic coughing. Then, silence.
"Clare, I'm coming in!"
He pushed the door open and saw Clare lying down on the tiled floor. He rushed by her side and tried to determine if she was concious.
"Adam!"
"Yeah?"
"Can you come into the downstairs bathroom?"
"Hold on."
"Adam, now!"
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.
Adam saw Drew sitting on the bathroom floor holding Clare who looked asleep.
"Woah, what happened?" Asked Adam.
"I think she's dead."
Adam felt Clare's pulse, "You dimwit, she's not dead. She's unconcious."
"Dammit, it must be the allergy."
"What allergy?"
"I baked some peanut butter cookies-"
"And she ate them?"
"She had a piece of the cookie in her mouth but she spat it out."
"Then she should be fine. I mean, she didn't ingest them."
"Adam, look at her! She's obviously not going to be fine!"
Adam looked around and saw an epipen sitting on the floor. He read the print on it and realized it was expired. "Well, I don't know much about food allergies so what do you think we should do?"
"Call 911."
"Isn't that a little dramatic?"
"Just do it Adam!"
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Clare woke up and found herself in a hospital bed hooked to an IV. She saw Drew and Adam sitting on chairs next to her bed.
"Hallelujah! You're alive!" Adam joked.
Clare laughed, "I don't know what happened. I didn't even ingest the cookies and I used my epipen."
"It was expired," said Drew.
Clare rolled her puffy eyes, "I'm such a moron."
All of a sudden, Mrs Edwards, Jake, and Mr Martin came inside the room.
"Clare sweetie!" Mrs Edwards ran to her daughter and kissed her forehead, "are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Mom."
Then, the doctor came in with a clipboard in hand.
"Doctor, is Clare going to be alright?" Asked Mrs Edwards.
"Yeah, we found particles in her lungs but we already gave her a shot. Thankfully, she didn't ingest much."
"I thought she didn't ingest anything at all," said Drew.
"I must have accidentally swallowed a little bit of the peanut butter cookie before I spat it out," said Clare.
"Why were you eating a peanut butter cookie, Clare? You know you're severely allergic," said Mrs Edwards.
"Mrs Edwards," Drew stood up and approached her, "I gave her the cookies. I'm sorry, I didn't know she was allergic."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Drew, Clare's friend, uh the one who sent her the flowers."
Mrs Edwards raised her eyebrows and threw a smug smile at Clare, "So this is your friend," she focused her attention back to Drew, "it's nice to meet you. And it's alright, most people don't know how deadly food allergies can be these days."
"Flowers, huh Clare?" Jake glared at her.
Clare ignored him, "Drew, how was Katie's soccer game?'
"Katie's soccer game! I completely forgot!" Drew took out his cellphone and checked the time, "Clare, I gotta go but thanks for helping me, and once again, I'm really sorry," Drew walked up to Clare's hospital bed but was blocked by Jake.
"What do you think you're doing?" said Jake with his arms crossed.
"I'm gonna say goodbye to Clare."
"Didn't you just say goodbye?"
"Alright, well, I'm going to give her a goodbye hug."
"Yeah, you can't do that."
"Man, who are you?"
"I'm her-" Jake caught a glimpse of his Dad and Clare's mom looking at him, "brother."
"Whatever man, I gotta go," Drew ran to the door and shouted, "Bye Clare!"
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Drew found Katie sitting on the bleechers, in the dark, alone.
"Katie," he ran up to her and saw a gold medal hanging from her neck, "you won!"
Katie stood up and wiped her eyes, "Where were you?"
"Are you crying?"
"Drew, answer me, where were you?"
"I was with Clare."
Katie rolled her eyes and walked a few feet away from him,"KC told me."
"KC told you what?"
"About you and little miss drama queen's make out session in The Dot"
"Katie, I don't know what you're talking about," lied Drew.
"Then why were you with her today?"
"We're friends and she was helping me make cookies for you."
"That's a great alibi," she deadpanned.
"Katie, I'm telling the truth, she got sent to the hospital because she was allergic to them and I wanted to stay with her becuase I felt like it was my fault. I guess I just lost track of time."
"That still doesn't explain The Dot."
He put his hands around her waist, "Are you really going to believe KC over me?"
"I guess not," she mumbled.
"I'm really sorry I couldn't make it to your game but I know what will make you feel better."
"What?"
"I'm going to throw you a party to celebrate your victory. Tommorrow, at my house."