Outside the front door Eva, Juliana, and Chris were standing. Nicole ran back to her room to get her phone, she immediately started texting Eva, but stopped when she realized she could use it to ehr advantage. Instead she texted her mom.
-Mom, Amy is cooking, please come in and help her. Tell whoever you're talking to to go away because you're busy.-
Juliana responded with a thumbs up and immediately after Nicole heard the door open and Juliana and Chris entered, greeting Amy. She heard the three conversing and decided to try and get back to bed. Maybe she could figure out why she had that dream by going back to it, not that she wanted to have to see her friend like that, but re-experiencing it could help her in analysing.
Just as she began dozing off again her mom entered the room. "Who were you talking to out there mom, I couldn't tell." Juliana shrugged and told her it was a neighbor asking about their grass. So her mother was lying, that was very telling of the situation at hand.
"Do you know what happened to Amy, her face is bruised and cut a bit. I offered to clean it but she declined. Is she alright?"
"She fell at track practice, she said a bee startled her and she fell on her face." Juliana looked sufficiently convinced and began walking out of the room.
"You're not physically ill, come help Amy make dinner." Nicole frowned and reluctantly left the warm comfort of her bed. She could smell a plethora of spices in the kitchen as Amy and Chris began cooking together. "Dinner may not be good, those two cooking together is probably not the best thing." Juliana leaned down and whispered to Nicole.
"You know we can hear you, right Jules?" Chris asked from the stove.
"Oh, no dear I'm sure it'll be great. But why don't we let Nicole and Amy cook, it is Nicole's night. How will she fare across the country if she can't make something as simple as pasta."
"Actually Mrs.Santo's I improvised a bit. It's creamy seafood pasta. I hope you don't mind. I decided to add shrimp since I wanted to spice things up."
"You can cook Amy?" Amy nodded. "You're welcome to stay as long as you want, Nicole, you should have asked her to move in sooner, you're a bad cook." Nicole stared at her mother, mouth open brows scrunched. "It's true, Chris and I just never had the heart to tell you your food sucked."
"Is this true Chris?" He nodded and looked away from Nicole. "Unbelievable, I'm not a child. How will I ever fare across the country if I can't cook edible food?" She walked behind the kitchen counter and stood next to Amy, forgetting for a moment about a dream. When the memories of the dream came back she yelped and took a step back.
"Nicky, did you get burned. Sorry I'll turn down the heat. Do you want me to teach you to cook?" Nicole nodded, a bit embarrassed at her high pitched outburst. She watched as Amy guided her hands to stir the pot of water filled with a flat noodle. "I used a different pasta, is that alright?"
"Yeah it's fine." Nicole was left with the simplest, most difficult to mess up task, watching the pasta. It boiled over several times as Nicole lost focus from the pasta, and then she was moved instead to stirring the shrimp, but again the shrimp spit at her and burned her fingers several times with oil.
"Maybe you should go set the table."
"I already did that Amy." Chris responded from the living room where he and Juliana were watching a random game show.
"I guess you can go sit then. Sorry I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you haven't exactly been the most helpful in the kitchen."
"Then teach me Amy, I want to be able to cook better. Guide me all you want, punish me if I screw up too much. Please just don't kick me out of the kitchen." Amy blushed at the thought of having to 'punish' Nicole. The thought of Nicole being scolded or having her phone taken away was incredibly adorable.
"Fine, here let me show you." She showed Nicole how to stir the shrimp without getting hit with hot oil. Unfortunately Nicole still couldn't quite grasp the act. So finally out of frustration Amy positioned Nicole in front of the pan and stood behind her. She pressed into Nicole's back and whispered in her ear. "Like this, you're stirring too aggressively." A shiver went down Nicole's spine as Amy's hand held onto hers and stirred. "Good job, you're doing so well. Do you think you can handle this yourself?" When Nicole didn't respond Amy took it as a no, and gripped her hand tighter, continuing to stir for her.
Nicole was panicking, this was too close to that weird oddly romantic dream she had about Amy earlier. But she was enjoying it too much to push away, the way Amy talked closely in her ear and held her hand felt safe and good. She leaned her head back into Amy's neck and felt their closeness, she could hear Amy's pulse in her neck. Nicole would have loved to stay in this position forever, but the sound of someone clearing their throat brought her back to reality. She was mortified, it was Amy who had cleared her throat and was now pushing away from Nicole. She felt sick, had she really just acted out a fantasy on her best friend, she felt as if she could vomit. She withheld since their dinner was in front of her but still felt greatly embarrassed. She had done the same thing this morning, crossing the boundary. And that night she would apologize to Amy multiple times, trying to explain her bizarre behavior. Only to come away with one thought.