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A few hours later, I woke up to laughter downstairs. I brushed my teeth and pulled my jeans back on. I headed downstairs to find a beautiful woman with long black hair and dark eyes standing in the kitchen. A wonderful aroma of herbs and spices filled the air.
"Hi, I'm Rachel." She waved a spatula at me.
"I'm Mal." I sat down at the kitchen island.
"Oh." She dropped the spatula and clapped her hands together. "You're Frankie's sister. Wow. Hi. I'm his girlfriend. He said you weren't coming this weekend. I'm so happy I get to meet you."
"Yeah, same." I chewed my lip. "So, where is everyone?"
"Outside. Frankie said we are still waiting on a few people, but they wouldn't be here till tonight." She grabbed the spatula and went back to the stove.
The sliding glass door to the back deck opened, and everyone poured in. Sammy sat beside me, but not before she rolled her eyes at Rachel. I raised my eyebrows at her. Did she really do that?
"I see you met my girl. Wait till you taste her cooking." Frankie kissed Rachel on the cheek.
"I made an egg bake with a hollandaise sauce." Rachel pulled the Pyrex out of the oven.
Frankie helped her dish out everyone's plates and poured the sauce over the eggs. It smelled delicious. I had no doubt she really was a fantastic cook. When we were at the store, I wondered why Frankie was so specific about getting certain foods. She must have sent him a list of things she wanted.
Sammy grabbed the plates from Frankie and handed them out. Rex dove into his, gobbling it up before anyone else got theirs. As a football player, I assumed he ate twice the amount of food as an average person.
Matty took his and took a mouthful as Sammy set a plate in front of me. I stabbed at it with my fork and brought it to my mouth. Matty dropped his plate, and it crashed to the ground.
What the?
He slapped my fork out of my hand. It hit the counter, spilling sauce all over. "Excuse me?" I stammered.
"Carrots!" Matty yelled. "Fucking carrots!"
"Oh, my goodness. I didn't know Matty was allergic to carrots." Rachel grabbed her chest.
"I'm not. Mal is. Like deathly allergic, and the knucklehead never carries her Epi." Matty's jaw twitched.
"Chill, I brought it this weekend. But I don't understand. We did the shopping. We didn't get carrots." I chewed my lip.
"Nice job, Rachel. Trying to kill my best friend." Sammy tossed a protective arm around me.
"I'm so sorry." Rachel cried. "It'll never happen again. I really am sorry." Rachel turned and ran from the room.
"Really, Sammy?" Frankie snapped at her and then followed Rachel.
I sat there in silence, staring at the plate. I had lied to everyone, as Matty predicted. I had forgotten my Epi. Everyone knows I'm allergic and we were doing the shopping so I didn't think it was a big deal. Besides, it wasn't deathly like Matty said. Only if I don't get to a hospital in time.
"Dude, how did you even taste the carrots?" Rex asked as he was on his second helping.
"I taste my food instead of inhaling it." Matty grabbed some paper towels and started cleaning up.
Jake fixed me a bowl of cereal as the guys cleaned up. Sammy just kept glancing out the sliding glass door toward where Rachel and Frankie were. Sadness crept over her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I shouldn't have said that. She was trying to be nice and cook for us, and I snapped. I'm gonna go apologize." She went outside to where Frankie and Rachel were.
Being left alone with the three guys took all the air out of the room. Instead of thinking of anything to say, I ate my cereal with my head down.
"Hey, why does it look like someone died in here?" Billy asked as he entered the kitchen.
"Cause Mal almost did. It was a carrot mistake." Jake half-laughed.
