I swear I could watch him cook all day. He covered the pot with it's lid and adding the things he needed to add then turned to me.
"I hope it's tasty enough for your liking." he said. Tasty enough for my liking? To laugh out loud, I think whatever he does is fucking perfect and there was no way his cooking won't be tasty enough for my liking.
"Of course it will be tasty enough, it's not like it's your first time cooking or making noodles." I pointed out the obvious to him.
"I sometimes miscalculate the things I do when you are around, don't you know?" he told me, laughing.
"Really?" I laughed too. I thought it was just me who got clumsy whenever he was around.
"I know you didn't notice but that first day I met you, I couldn't concentrate on the game at Kim's house because you were there. All my thoughts were: what if you thought I couldn't play something so simple or what if you didn't like guys who played video games."
"For real?" I laughed more. Did he think all of that back then?"I surely didn't think about any of that." I assumed him. We both kept quiet after laughing.
Uche went on to check on what he was cooking while I drummed my fingers on the island top like he usually did in school on his desk but mine was louder.
"Here," He put a bowl of hot steaming noodles in front of me."I think we should let it cool off a bit."
"Are we gonna eat from the same...." I stopped halfway through my question when he came back with another bowl for himself. I thought we were going to share the first dish he brought, I had gotten excited for nothing.
"What did you say now? I couldn't hear you." He came and sat on another stool next to me.
"Uhm....I was asking....What are we gonna be doing while we wait for the food to cook off?" I didn't want to tell him what I almost asked just now, it wasn't necessary.
"Oh," He started to think and drum his fingers on the island top like I was just doing before he brought the noodles but he wasn't making a noise while doing it like me. I wonder how he does that.
"I know!" It just came to my mind again."Tell me about Casey, why doesn't anyone want to hang around her."
"Yeahhhhh that," he bit his lips and sighed deeply.
"I'm listening." I said, almost impatient
"So this is what happened; We were in twelfth grade, Casey was new to our school and Nick liked her back then....."
"Nick?" I cut him short to ask.
"Yeah." He nodded.
"My cousin?" I asked to be very sure because I remembered Casey telling me to that she liked Nick this morning so if Nick liked her too then why weren't they dating?....oh, Uche just used past tense, he used LIKED.
"Yeah, he liked her crazy back then."
"So what happened, why hasn't he asked her out yet or did he already do it?" Uche nodded, making me surprised."Nick already asked her out?"
"Yeah, you know Nick, he likes to go to for what he wants. He asked her out after some weeks of her coming to our school, now this is where all of this started....."
"We should start eating, so it won't get too cold."
"Oh yeah." He passed a fork to me.
"Thanks." I told him and forked some noodles into my mouth."Mnnn." It was good, sooo good.
"How is it?" I shifted my eyes to him when he asked and realized he was watching me eat instead of eating his.
"It's..." I wanted to tell him how good it was but my mouth was full.
"Hmnn?"
"It's so delicious." I told him after I swallowed and saw a smile take over his beautiful lips.
"Thank God." I heard him sigh and I laughed.
"So, like you were saying; where it all started?" I wanted him to continue.
"Now, before I tell you this, you know how much a jerk Nick used to be right?" I didn't know Nick used to be a jerk, much for his best friend to be saying it. I just nodded so he could continue.
"Yeah?"
"Well, Casey heard all about him so when he asked her out, she turned him down..."
"Casey?" I asked because I didn't believe it. She turned Nick down? But she told me earlier today at school that she so much liked Nick.
"Yeah." Uche laughed at how unbelieving I was."He actually asked her out in front of the whole class present back then, so it was a big disappointment when she said no to him, that shit hurt him." Uche said, shaking his head slightly like he felt bad for his friend but here I was, trying to hold in my laughter.
"So, how does that affect the way people treat her?"
"Nick's the reason everyone isn't trying to be friends with her, when she did that to him, he started to avoid her then things got out of hand, he had me make a promise not to talk to her to, it was stupid, I don't know why I made him that promise, it's really stupid now that I'm older." He sounded regretful.
"So Nick's the reason?"
"Yeah, after he started to avoid her, our friends started to avoid her too and pretty soon everyone who liked Nick started to avoid her too. I didn't even expect it will still be going on now that we are older but if you think of it, she also has a role to play in why no one's associating with her."
"What do you mean she has a role to play, are you saying it's her fault?!!" I couldn't let him say that. It wasn't her fault from what he just told me.
*****
Heyy, it's your author geni. Please note that everything written here is nothing but fiction.Please vote as you read, comment your thoughts and don't forget to leave a review, I am very open to constructive criticism. I'm on all socials as @genika3na.