It was a perfect day to be out and about. The sun was shining, the brilliant blue sky void of any clouds. The city, as always, was bustling. Everybody, everywhere seemed to be in a good mood, bolstered by the good weather. It was the middle of summer vacation in Castleburg, so the city’s students had the freedom to run amok. In the borough of East Flank, where Patricia lived, summer was especially hopping. Farmers’ markets were open, selling all sorts of summer produce; the smells of street food wafted in the air, accompanied by all the rest of the typical city scent. It was hot out, the sun bearing down on passersby. It was a truly perfect day to be outside.
Unless your names were Patricia and Eliza.
Patricia was in an uncharacteristically good mood. A week ago, the Wings of Law (some of her least favorite people on the planet) had finally gotten their comeuppance. For what they had done to her and her friends, they had been fired from H.E.R.O. This week, Patricia hadn’t had to worry about any of those elitist snobs showing up to take her job or insult her- because they were all gone! Vengeance felt amazing.
What made her mood even better, though, was the presence of her girlfriend, Eliza. She had been
so worried about her when they had been kidnapped, but Eliza had turned out alright, if a bit traumatized. Today, they were hanging out at Patricia’s apartment. Usually, they would hang out at Eliza’s place (it being much larger than Patricia’s two-bedroom, one-bath apartment), but Eliza had wanted a change of pace. So here they were, in Patricia’s apartment. It was pretty small. On the fourth floor of an apartment complex in East Flank, there was a great view of the street and alleyway outside of the apartment from the windows- but they had to be careful not to jump or run around so as to not disturb the people living on the lower floors.
They had neglected to tell Eliza’s parents, but Patricia’s mother had had to go to work that day, leaving the two of them alone in the apartment. In Patricia’s bedroom, with the door closed. Being alone with Eliza, no supervision, made Patricia’s heart light up with elation. Finally, they could have some fun! They were recording a song cover in Patricia’s bedroom for Eliza’s YouTube channel, Inviolisible. The music had been flowing for a good hour, the two of them doing take after take of the song, making sure that the product was perfect for the Internet. Noise-blocking headphones were clamped tight around Eliza’s ears as her fingers and her bow flew across the violin, and Patricia’s hypnotizing voice rang above it. She sang directly into a microphone, while Eliza played into another.
The gear was set up in the tight space of Patricia’s bedroom. Unable to squeeze a chair into the space with the tripod set up and the fancy mics, too, they had both resolved to sit on Patricia’s bed and record the song. Sheet music sat in front of the both of them, on stands under the mics. Patricia had a full bed, with a purple quilted comforter. There was a small wooden desk in the corner, set up with Patricia’s laptop. It currently looked rather abandoned- Patricia had not done any schoolwork since summer had started, so the desk hadn’t been used much. There was a sliding door along one wall. If opened, it would slide open to reveal Patricia’s dresser, some clothes, and a whole shitton of old stuff (backpacks, stuffed animals, dirty clothes, etc.) crammed in there. Fairy lights hung along the walls of Patricia’s room, and, above her desk, there was a row of clothesline clips. Pictures of her and her friends (Brie, Eliza, Tom, Grace, etc) hung from them, crowded onto the clips, along with a picture or two of her and her mother together. The window, which was to the right of the bed, had lacy white curtains hanging from it, currently open to reveal the alleyway below, and a fire escape directly below her window.
After an hour or so of recording, the two girls finished up, turning off their mics and chatting for a bit. Not wanting to go through the ordeal of taking it down, they left the camera and mics up in their spots. After they finished (mostly) cleaning up, they had intended to review the takes and see which one was best, and maybe refilm if needed. But then Eliza started talking about this new show she had heard was coming out on Netflix earlier that day, and, well… plans change. The two headed into the living room, leaving the equipment and Eliza’s violin in the room.
Patricia’s living room was a nice, homey affair. The floors were sturdy light-brown hardwood, but there was a blue area rug directly in front of the couch and a welcome mat in front of the door. There was a dark brown sofa along one of the walls, under a large window looking out onto the street below. There was also a matching armchair angled towards the television. They were both decorated with varying types of throw pillows. The sofa was dark brown and worn, looking comfortable and deep. Patricia knew that, if she sat in it while she was tired, its comfortableness would almost immediately lull her to sleep. The front door was only a couple feet away from the couch, along the same wall. The couch faced a television on a table, and the remote sat on a coffee table directly in front of the couch. Patricia and Eliza sat there and snuggled up under a soft quilt, turning on the television and navigating to Netflix, turning on the new show.
An hour later, Patricia found herself drifting off, unable to keep her eyes open for very long. Nestled under the warm blanket, it was difficult to stay awake. But she wanted to stay awake, so she crept out of the blanket carefully, making sure not to rip it off of Eliza. She glanced down at the other girl, planning on suggesting that they do something else, before noticing that she was peacefully asleep. Her heart melted. She looked so cute sleeping there, so Patricia resolved to leave her alone until she woke up. But what to do until then… hm…
Just then, Patricia suddenly remembered something that was sitting in her pantry.
Yes! That was such an awesome idea! That weekend, her mom and her had bought a box of angel food cake mix, ingredients to make whipped cream, and strawberries. Her mom hadn’t ended up having enough time to bake it that weekend, so the strawberries would spoil unless Patricia ate them. She had been planning to eat them as snacks, but this was a much better idea! She could make strawberry shortcake!
It would be such an awesome surprise for Eliza. Patricia tip-toed into the kitchen. The kitchen was right off the living room, so it wasn’t much of a trek. She pulled out the ingredients she needed and got to work.
For the next hour, she baked as quietly as possible. After all, this needed to stay a surprise. She had turned off the television but ended up putting on some soft classical music from Spotify while she baked. The instructions on the box were simple enough, and she had everything she needed. Every so often, she’d glance into the living room, checking to see if Eliza was still napping. Once the cake was done, she took it out of the oven and smeared whipped cream all over it. It had three layers, and she put small-cut strawberries in between each, along the sides, and on top. She couldn’t help herself, though- she had ended up eating a quarter of the strawberries that were in the container, and did lick both bowls clean.
Finally, around 3:00, she was finishing up. Mozart played quietly in the background as she put the finishing touches on the cake. It didn’t look professional, but it looked… nice. Especially considering Patricia was not awesome at cooking. She didn’t have one of those spout thingies, so she had just used the spatula (and, admittedly, her fingers) to smear the whipped cream around. The only thing left at this point was to make plates and then wake Eliza up. She leaned back and smiled, satisfied with herself.
Then, when she least expected it, there was a sound of sudden feet on the floorboards. Patricia blinked, confused, and then sort of sad. Had Eliza woken up already?! Damn, she’d wanted to set up a romantic table and everything too…
"Patricia?" A voice yelled out from the living room. Patricia raised her brows. That wasn’t Eliza.
"We need to go. Soon. And by soon, I mean right now." Oh! Grace! Patricia scowled. Just like Grace to come in here and ruin her day with some stupid mission… she raced to the living room as soon as she heard her, putting two fingers on Grace’s lips and pulling her into the kitchen, shushing her. She had whipped cream smeared across her cheek, which she was unaware of, and flour dusting her dress.
“Grace!” Patricia hissed, gesturing for Grace to keep her voice down.
“You couldn’t have knocked?! Eliza’s sleeping.” She glanced at Eliza, who had somehow remained asleep through all that.
“Good, you didn’t wake her up. Can whatever mission this is wait? I made a surprise cake for her, and we’re going to eat it and then, like…” Patricia almost said kiss, but caught herself and blushed scarlet.
“Pleaseee? I’ll let you have some with us!” She looked up at Grace with puppy eyes, clasping her hands together and puffing out her lip.
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