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The girl pulled a plate out of the fridge, her brow furrowed in clear confusion. "What's up with this rice?"
The cold light of the morning that filtered in through the window made the idea of rest inviting, but the boy had been awake for longer than he could be bothered to count. He raised his gaze from the book, and she was probably the only person in the city who'd be able to tell his eyebags looked deeper than usual.
"Oh... I made that last night at like 4 am..." He shifted his weight in the chair when the girl picked up a fork. "I wouldn't recommend you try it."
She rolled her eyes and did so anyway. Then gagged loudly. "Arceus Mighty, what the fuck did you put in this?"
The boy shrugged but smiled. "I warned you. It... It got burned, but I still put in some tomato sauce and an egg and... dunno, some unmarked spices from your cabinet?"
"Mm-hmm," she answered while throwing the rest into the trash. "Any particular reason for keeping this experiment?"
"It was for me, not for you."
"Sometimes I can't believe it when you say you used to cook for yourself every day."
He closed the book and rested on his elbow. "I never said I cooked well, just that I kept myself fed while my parents were at work."
"On pancaked sausages?"
"Hey, the galette-saucisse is a family recipe passed down from my grandma," he pointed out, feigning offense.
"She could've passed down something good, like a beachside property, or teaching you how to use spices like a real person."
The girl lit a cigarette to get the taste out of her mouth, the boy seemed about to complain but changed his mind at the last second. "Who taught you?"
A minimal pause in her movements. "You can't learn this, I was born with it." The boy laughed. "Nah I just tried a bit of everything from cooking shows and books. We weren't allowed a lot of ingredients back at home. So when we came here and had a whole supermarket of options, I made whatever." She shrugged. "You were spared of that at least."
"Well, maybe I wouldn't have minded, considering my taste."
She shot him an accusatory look and he just laughed it off again. "I could lend you some books later, although..." She kept rummaging through the fridge and sighed. "We should go get groceries, there's nothing to cook."
"Mhm." He was already back to reading.
"You're coming with." She gave him a pat on the back on her way to the bedroom, he let out a groan and ran his hands through his face. "C'mon, it'll do us good to get some fresh air."
The boy moved his chair away from the table but didn't get up. "Supermarket or grocery store?"
"Store, the supermarket is probably full, and I still need to do some stuff before going out cause I'm not coming back."
"Oh, you're not coming for dinner? I was planning on cooking something like a real person, following a recipe, the whole nine yards," he joked.
"Remember I told you I signed up for that workshop before my shift," she set the cigarette down for a moment while she changed her shirt, before picking it up again and taking a drag, the eyes of the boy followed it intently without realizing, "and then I have Jacky's birthday."
"Jacqueline?" he raised his head way too quickly.
"Yeah, so?" Her attitude changed entirely, back straight, defensive.
"Nothing, it's just... are you sure that's a good idea...?"
She let out a disdainful laugh. "Actually it's a terrible idea that I thought of specifically to make you worry."
The corner of his mouth twitched in a mixture of amusement and irritation. "Don't know how you expect me to help you then. You're the one who asked me to keep an eye on you."
"Sure dude, I need to relearn my limits, but I didn't mean like this."
"Alright, you do you, but remember you have work early tomorrow so you can't come back too late," he insisted.
"Oh, fuck right off. I'm an adult, Yanchu."
"Yeah, Gabbie but..." He ran a hand through his hair. "I feel it's a little too soon to put yourself in that position."
"I can control myself, I don't need you to babysit me when I'm hanging out with my friends, I don't control you when you hang our with yours. Oh wait right," she snapped her fingers in an exaggerated gesture, "what friends am I even talking about."
"... No, of course," he muttered, embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
She noticed his gaze had drifted to a corner of the room. She took a drag of the cigarette and blew the smoke on his face. "Don't look at her, look at me when I'm talking. What did you mean then?" she pressed on, leaning on her hand on the table in front of him.
The boy sighed, making a great effort to stand up. "That I'll go get groceries with you. It's a lot of bags to carry alone," he said when they were eye to eye.
There was a second of tension while he prayed she'd allow him to change the subject, for both their sakes. The girl seemed uncomfortable for a moment but just shook her head. "So you think I can't even carry a couple bags by myself?"
"Ah, come on." He smiled, not even waiting for her to break into laughter immediately after.
"Go grab the tote bags if you're so concerned with them." She raised an eyebrow at him before dropping the cigarette on his glass and turning around.
He saw her looking for something and grabbed the pants that were hanging from the back of his chair. "Here, catch." He threw them and she caught them without even looking. "You'll have to pay, you know the grocery store doesn't take debit and I'm not gonna walk all the way to the ATM."
"Yeah yeah, I'm pretty sure if you walk that far you'll pass out. Oh shit—" She nearly fell as she struggled putting them on.
"That bad?" he chuckled. He stood by the door after putting away some of the loose papers and empty mugs on the table. There was no need to get changed, he was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday.
"Awful. Both you and these stupid skinny jeans." She smiled at him, taking his hand and the keys before going out.
