Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (36 page)

“Yeah, nothing.” I was unconvinced. I stood still, suddenly afraid to go anywhere in the house. All I wanted to do was run to my bed and pull up the covers.

“Want me to check the house?” Sometimes it was like he could read my mind.

I was also glad that he would look around for me, but I was afraid for him. What if there was a bad guy out there and Patrick did find him? What if something happened to Patrick because of me? I couldn’t live with myself. I stammered, “I’ll go with you.”

I followed close behind him with my cell phone in hand to call 911 if I had to. We walked around to the backyard. One of the trash cans had been knocked over. There was a cat that was going through an old take-out container. Patrick was right. As usual. Thankfully.

* * *

Despite knowing that it was just a cat, I was still a little anxious as I got ready for bed. I rushed through my nightly routine before locking my bedroom door behind me. I climbed into bed and pulled the covers over me. I forced myself to remember the majority of my day at the Connor’s instead of the last 20 minutes at home. Happier thoughts and exhaustion took over as I fell asleep.

23. LEFTOVERS

I was back at the Connor house promptly by 10:00am. Mrs. Connor pulled out a binder that contained her collection of recipes. She took out two recipes, one for Lindsey and the other for me to do. I couldn’t believe that I was in charge of a recipe. She had told me last night to trust myself. Apparently, she did, so I should too.

While the three of us reinvented yesterday’s leftovers, Patrick and his dad cleaned the house and reconfigured the furniture in the backyard for the party. I loved every moment I spent in the kitchen. The first two and a half hours whizzed by so fast. I was having so much fun talking with them and listening to their stories that cooking wasn’t a chore at all. But, I guess, I let my guard down too soon.

I reached into the fridge to grab some eggs and cream. I don’t know what happened, but as I reached for the cream, I released my hold on the eggs. Okay, I know what happened, I’m a klutz. I just hoped that it wouldn’t follow me to this house. Foolish hope.

As gravity pulled the eggs to the floor, I made a futile effort to catch them. I moved my feet out of the way just before they crashed to the ground – some on the floor and some on her autumn themed mats. She had told me that they were brand new. Crap.

I fell to the floor and started picking up the shells and trying to scoop up splattered eggs. I started apologizing profusely. “I’m sorry. I’m
so
sorry. I didn’t mean to. I don’t know what happened. I ruined your new mats. God, I’m so sorry.”

I looked over to Lindsey and her mom. Lindsey was trying to contain her laughter. She wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Great, all the respect and credibility I was building with them had been shot. Smashed into pieces, just like the eggs. I waited for the chastising.

Lindsey finally burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, Liz. It’s just funny. If you saw yourself trying to catch the eggs, when it was clear, that wasn’t going to happen… I’ll help you clean up.”

Mrs. Connor calmly walked up to me with a wet sponge. “It’s okay. It happens to the best of us.”

I couldn’t believe that she wasn’t mad. Well, I guess, I shouldn’t be surprised. She had already proven to be vastly different from my mom. Still, I was expecting at least some backlash about ruining her mat, making a mess in the kitchen and wasting the eggs.

I realized that I just didn’t mess up the mats and the kitchen, that it was my fault disaster was trickling down to everything else. My mind was in a downward tailspin. “But I messed up your mats. And now, we don’t have enough eggs. There’s only one left.”

“Dear, it’s fine. We can always get more. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed easily.” She reassured me. Patrick walked into the kitchen. “Believe me, it’s fine. I’m not mad.”

“What’s going on?” He had to have recognized the look on my face. The one that said, I’m trying to hold it together, but I’m really upset. He came over to help me clean up.

“Nothing.” Lindsey giggled. “The floor just got hungry.”

He looked at the remaining goo on the floor. “Omelets, huh?”

“Not funny! I just wasted food, ruined your mom’s stuff…” I protested. I could hear my mom’s voice saying these things to me.

“It’s fine. I know you didn’t mean to do it. Right?” Mrs. Connor asked.

I shook my head. I would never want to destroy, mutilate or damage anything of hers. I had too much respect for her.

“It was an accident. It’s fine. We can wash the rugs and get more eggs. There. Problem solved.” She smiled and squeezed my arm.

“And by
we
, she means Patrick.” Lindsey laughed.

Great. Now this was inconveniencing Patrick. Things just kept getting worse. I felt deflated. I rubbed my head.

“Liz, relax. This kitchen has seen worse and I’ve had to run to the store for more than a few eggs.” He flashed me that grin that always put me at ease and let me know everything was okay. I learned to trust that smile, even when I didn’t see why he thought things would be fine. It was also like he was baiting me.

“Really?” I was willing to bite. “Like what?”

“Like the time my smart, funny, poised, talented and athletic big sister dropped a
whole
carton of eggs.” He laughed.

“Yeah, right.” I responded sarcastically. I couldn’t imagine her ever doing that. “When was this? When she was six years old?”

“No. More like six months ago.” Lindsey admitted and tried to contain more laughter. “Yeah, I came home for the weekend to bake cookies for a fundraiser. So, Mom and I were making massive amounts of cookies. I was taking out eggs and butter. And… well, I made my offering to the cooking gods.”

Everyone, including me, burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. Mrs. Connor cleared her throat trying to regain composure. “She did what you did. Tried to grab falling eggs, only she had a dozen all falling at the same time. There was a radius of at least 4 feet around the fridge of shells and eggs.”

“She fell on her butt and couldn’t get up. She kept slipping on the whites and yolks. It was something out of some slapstick comedy.” Tears started coming out of his eyes because he was laughing so hard. “It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, every time I tried to get up, I slipped. I was covered in eggs.” She laughed at the memory. “I even had it in my hair!”

She described her vain attempts at trying to get up, only to fall again and again. She was animated. Mrs. Connor and Patrick interjected their own memories of the Lindsey’s egg offering. I enjoyed watching them feed off each other’s energy and sharing the story. In my house, if I wanted to share a story like hers, I would have been shushed immediately because it would have been deemed embarrassing. Heaven forbid I embarrass the family with a funny story that doesn’t harm anyone.

Come to find out, that was the reason Mrs. Connor kept a mat next to the fridge, to prevent a similar incident again. Not because she didn’t want food to crash to the ground, but to prevent injury. Lindsey had slightly sprained her wrist and it could have been worse.

I realized there were a few upsides to my current ineptness. I wasn’t alone in randomly dropping things. It was okay when it did happen. I was klutzy but didn’t hurt myself in the process. The most important thing I learned? Some moms are fine when you make a mistake.

We had finished cleaning up the floor and Patrick went to the store to get more eggs. He returned about 15 minutes later put the eggs down in front of me. “I got to go pick up Becca. If the floor gets hungry again, give me a call.”

“Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes at him and slapped his arm.

“What?!” He grinned coyly. “I’m just saying…”

“Yeah, I know what you’re saying. Go already, Becca’s probably waiting for you!” I shoved him away from me.

He checked his watch. “Yeah, I gotta go. Give me a call if you guys need anything else.”

He ran out the door. Lindsey shook her head. “Becca… ugh.”

I knew how she felt. I didn’t realize that his mom felt similarly. “Lindsey, come on now. She may not be who we like for him, but he likes her.”

“I don’t get why. Do you, Liz?” Lindsey was clearly annoyed.

“I don’t know. I just know he does.” I thought for a second and remembered something. “Uh.. I don’t know if Patrick told you… But she and the crew don’t know that we went up to
San Francisco
last week. Well, they know Patrick did, but not that he went up with me.
Because
of me. They just know that he visited Lindsey. So, if anyone, especially Becca, asks…”

I felt awkward asking them to lie. It wasn’t that they needed to lie, they just needed to not share everything. Not that they knew enough to really share.

“Don’t mention you in the visit?” Lindsey quipped.

“Yeah. The crew wouldn’t care. They would probably even be okay not knowing the specifics to why I had to go up there. But Becca… she was already mad that he went up to visit you. I don’t need her butting her nose into it and I don’t want to cause him any trouble with her.”

Lindsey mumbled something that I couldn’t make out. I was about to ask her what she had said when Mrs. Connor spoke, “Don’t worry, dear. We’ll play along. It isn’t our business to share. And it really isn’t any of hers.”

When Patrick returned with Becca, me, Lindsey and Mrs. Connor were laughing hysterically.

Patrick put his keys on the kitchen counter, “Mom, Linds, you remember Becca.”

They quickly said hello before being consumed by laughter again. The three of us tried to calm down and stop laughing. But the more we tried, the harder it was. We would stop for a second or two, look at each other and start up again. Tears were coming out of my eyes because I was laughing so hard.

“What’s so funny? What’d I miss?” Patrick didn’t care who answered, he looked at all of us.

“I was telling Liz about that time we went to dinner and when I ordered the burger. And the server asked how I wanted it cooked…” Lindsey started laughing again.

“And you started to say ‘over easy.’” Patrick joined in on the laughter as the memory was brought back. “God, I remember that!”

Becca looked annoyed. She was the only one not laughing. “I don’t get it.’

Patrick put his arm around her. “The server looked at her funny and was confused. What Lindsey really meant was well-done.”

I had to keep wiping the tears from my eyes. This just made Lindsey laugh harder.

Becca stared at me like I was stupid or crazy. Clearly, she didn’t get it. “Okay, whatever.”

* * *

The crew was the first to arrive for the party. When I finished what I was doing in the kitchen, his mom insisted I go outside and have fun with everyone. Honestly, I was nervous about the party. I couldn’t remember the last time I went to one. They always made me a little anxious. Would I have fun? Would I fit in? Did they think I was weird? I had always felt awkward at parties. Not just family parties, but parties my friends or classmates would invite me to, ever since I could remember. This time should be different. Right? After all, I had Patrick and the crew. If it wasn’t, I could always go and hang out in the kitchen.

I went to the backyard to where Patrick, Becca and the crew were sitting. Becca was enjoying being the center of attention. It didn’t seem like Kraig or Emily were too interested in what she was saying. Or maybe they were the worst in feigning interest, compared to the others. I wasn’t sure which.

“Liz! It’s about time you came out here!” Emily scooted over. “Sit! How was your Thanksgiving? What did you do?”