Brownie Thief

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There are two types of people in this world: the ones who like Nutella and the ones who love Nutella. I am definitely a part of the second group, I thought proudly, staring at the scrumptious looking Nutella brownie – topped with a butterscotch sauce – on the benchtop in front of me.

My best friend's mother owned a bakery and since my family had just moved house, she had sent the brownie as a small congratulation. Correction: a small congratulation to me. The rest of my family got carrot cake. The look on my youngest brother's face when he realised that the brownie was for me was priceless.

I grinned and cut off a small portion with my fork. I was bringing it up to my mouth when I heard my mother's voice.

"Riley! Help your brothers unpack the truck." I placed the fork down and groaned.

"But Mom-"

"You can eat your cake later." Sighing, I slid off the barstool and stomped out of the extremely unorganised house. We had moved into a new house because my father had gotten a new job at a nearby hospital and this house was also closer to my school. The new neighbourhood was posh, with a myriad of two-storey houses that had glass windows and meticulously maintained gardens.

A large loading truck stood on our driveway, crowded by numerous cartons and my brothers. I had three brothers, two older than me and one younger.

"Oh good, you're here." Said Michael. He was the eldest, at the age of 23, and attended medical school. Although I didn't know exactly what career I wanted, I knew that I would have liked to do medicine and follow in my father's and Michael's footsteps.

Michael was back for the weekend to help with the move. Then came Ethan, my elder twin. was my Sean, a sophomore this year, was the youngest out of us.

"Here you go," Michael said, placing a giant carton in my hands. It wasn't heavy but it was so big that I could barely see over the top of it. I was about to protest when Ethan and Sean both placed more cartons on top.

"Hey!" I yelled, wobbling from side to side, trying to stop the pile of boxes from falling.

"Have fun sis." Sean laughed before walking inside with two cartons. I rolled my eyes. I knew they were taking all the heavy ones themselves.

"Ugh." I stumbled inside and dumped them on the floor. Sighing, I walked back outside – the brownie could wait a few minutes. I needed to help my annoying brothers. Damn me and my good conscience.

A few minutes later, the truck was finally unloaded. I practically skipped back to the benchtop. The brownie sat there, untouched. I laughed – or well cackled – internally.

I was about to sit down when I heard Sean's voice.

"Well well well. If it isn't Mr Cuddles." I froze.

"Sean, if you even touch a hair on Mr Cuddles' cuddly head, I will murder you!" I screamed as I ran through the house, up the stairs and into my new room.

I watched, through narrowed eyes, as Sean gripped the toy by its arms and waved it in the air to show Ethan. Even though he was four years younger than Ethan and me, Sean had seen me carrying Mr Cuddles around the house.

Sean's back was towards me, so I took this opportunity to run – releasing a loud war cry in the process – and jump onto his back. I put my arms around his neck and started choking him. He stumbled, trying not to fall. His dirty blonde hair – similar to Ethan's and my mother's – was in my face. Michael and I, in contrast, had dark brown hair.

"Let. Go. Off. The. Bear." I seethed, tightening my hold. Ethan watched, bored.

"What if I don't?" Sean wheezed out before throwing the bear over to Ethan. I released him and ran towards my twin with the intent of snatching it out of his hands but at the last moment, he threw it over my head back to Sean.

"Ugh." I groaned, moving towards Sean but he threw it back again. I was never going to get it from them. Both of them had a height around 6 feet while I was barely even 5 feet and two inches. Even my Mother was 5 feet 7 inches. It was like 'The Tall Family and Riley'. But at least I had no problem wearing heels. My motto: Heels Are a Short Girl's Best Friends. To be honest, I didn't mind being short but it just got annoying when you lived in a house with giants.

I watched through narrowed eyes as my brothers threw my teddy bear to each other.

"Michael!" I yelled, crossing my arms. He entered the room, a few seconds later, and nimbly intercepted the bear in the air and handed it back to me. I giggled.

"Not fair!" Sean whined. I hugged Mr Cuddles to my chest. He was my favourite childhood toy.

"Yes, it is." I gave them him a toothy grin before kissing Michael on the cheek.

"Why are you helping her?" Ethan asked, suspiciously.

"I gave her the bear, dumbass." He rolled his eyes.

"I never got any toys from you!" Sean and Ethan accused in sync.

"Well, you guys weren't cute enough." While that was true, Michael had bought them numerous toys but they always lost them.

Contempt at getting Mr Cuddles back, I walked out of the room and back to my brownie. On the way, I put the bear in a 'safe spot'.

To my horror, when I entered the kitchen, I saw that someone stood in front of the bench-top, eating my brownie.

What in the sweet brownie loving world did he think he was doing?

If looks could kill, I think that he would've been six feet under before he had even touched my brownie. As I made my way over to him, I noticed a toy gun lying on a shelf. I quickly picked it up and then tiptoed over to him.

I placed it on the back of his head. He froze.

"Put down the utensil." It clattered on the benchtop and I stifled a laugh.

"Put your hands in the air and step away from the counter." He followed my instructions and I nearly dropped the gun from shaking.

"What is your name?"

"Carter."

Oh god.

He had a British accent.

No. Think about the brownie, Riley.

"What are you doing here?"

"I live next door." He said, cautiously.

"And?" I prompted, pressing the gun harder against his head. He became even more rigid, if that was possible.

"I came over to meet the new neighbours." Dang it, that accent was really getting to me.

"What about the brownie?" I questioned.

"Mrs Hayes said I could happen." Of course, she did.

I stepped back from him and he sighed loudly in relief. Slowly, he turned around and I saw the surprise on his face when he saw me.

He had an angular jaw, tousled brown hair and blue – the bluest I had ever seen – eyes. And he had a British accent. Not good.

I noticed that I still held the gun and it was pointed at him. I started lowering the gun.

"What are you doing?" I jumped as Sean's voice came from behind me. Involuntarily, my fingers tightened on the gun and I accidentally pulled the trigger. The fake, but loud, sound of a gunshot echoed through the house. I turned to Sean and hit him in the shoulder for scaring me and then turned back to the boy – Carter.

His eyes were squeezed shut and his hands clutched his stomach. I started shaking with laughter when I realised that he thought he had actually been shot. The foam bullet lay at his feet.

He released a loud breath before dropping to his knees and then to the floor on his hands, dramatically.

"Tell me mum I love her." He said, before shutting his eyes and going still.

I clutched the benchtop, guffawing; Sean was bent over, gripping his knees.

Michael walked into the room, a second later, "I'm making a sandwich. Do you want one, Riles?"

He looked down at Carter and then back at me, curiously. I shook my head. He shrugged and stepped over Carter to get to the fridge.

Carter opened one eye and then the other, staring at Michael in disbelief.

Ethan walked in, "I want a sand – oh." He looked at the gun in my hand and sighed. "Oh, Riley."

My stomach was starting to ache. I started choking. Sean patted my back chuckling and Michael handed me a glass of water. I gulped in down.

"What is wrong with you people?" Carter asked, flabbergasted.

"The bullet was fake, bro," Sean told him, sympathetically. Carter's mouth fell open incredulously. Sheepishly, he stood up and brushed off the non-existent dirt on his jeans.

At that moment, my Mother walked in.

"Carter, honey, are these guys troubling you?"

"No, it's all okay." He glanced around at all of us, crystal eyes narrowed.

"Mother." I crossed my arms and feigned the anger that had evaporated when he had dropped his spoon. "Why did you let him eat my brownie?"

She crossed her arms back at me. "You can go buy it at Skyler's mum's bakery, whenever."

"But-"

"No buts." She declared. Her phone started ringing, she looked at the caller and then back at us.

"I have to take this. Introduce yourselves and be nice." She gave us a meaningful look and walked.

My brothers and I turned to look at our new neighbour.

"I'm Carter." I chuckled.

"Yeah we got that." He rolled his eyes but his ears were a slight red.

"And you are...?"

"Riley," I informed him.

"Ethan."

"Michael."

"Sean." Everyone said their names one by one.

All the boys gave him 'The Nod' and he nodded back. Then my brothers went their own ways: Michael continued making his sandwich, Ethan went to organise his books for school and Sean went to practice football (he wanted to make it into the team this year).

"I should probably get going." I smiled at him politely – it probably didn't look polite considering the fact that I was about to burst into another fit of laughter.

To be honest, I didn't know why I did the whole gun thing. It was really impulsive – like a lot of things I did – but I didn't regret it. He probably thought I was a weirdo.

"I'm sorry about that whole 'incident'." He gave me a mischievous smile.

"That's okay. But know that you just declared war, Love."

His eyes were daring: they were throwing a challenge at me. I looked back at him with the same intensity – somehow not feeling the usual shyness I felt around new people – in acceptance of the challenge. I had always been a competitive person.

He leant in and whispered, his warm breath tickling my ear, "This is going to be fun." He grinned – but it looked a little like a smirk too - and walked out of the house without another word.

Silence fell for a few seconds. I was having difficulty comprehending what had just happened.

"Well, that was interesting." Michael remarked.

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