After our "incident", Gilbert's harassing was nothing but vocally flirting with me every once in a while. But as we went further into the year, his flirting was becoming more…I don't know, forceful. It's the only word to really describe it. He would occasionally tweak my ear or kiss my cheek, and I would do nothing but shoot him a glare that basically said, "Back the hell off, otherwise you're gonna be missing an ear." I don't know why I never did anything about it anymore, but lately I just didn't feel like he really deserved it. The point is, I just had to get my annoyed anger out somehow.
So that's why I decided to turn to my one, true, best friend in the entire school.
"Maaaaaaattheeeeeeew," I whined, wrapping my arms around him from behind, resting my chin on his shoulder. He turned his head slightly so he could at least see it was me, sighed, then brought his hand up to pat my cheek.
"What is it, Kay?" I frowned slightly, sliding over so I could sit on the bench beside him.
"What do I usually complain about?"
"Trigonometry, the skirts being too short, Gilbert-" I cut him off mid-sentence by chiming, "Ding, ding, ding!" He smiled sadly at me. "What'd he do this time?" I huffed, crossing my arms.
"He's just been…so bothersome lately. All he does, make thateverything he does, just drives me up the wall! I mean, does he think it's funny so sexually harass me? And why me?! Why not my sister or something? Is it fun to make me angry, Matthew? Is it fun?" Matthew blinked his violet-blue eyes behind his glasses, gazing at me.
"Take a breath, eh…" Matthew said softly. I opened my mouth to say more, but then closed it when I saw the look Matthew was giving me.
…This is why I loved him. He was always willing to listen to me. I lowered my gaze to the ground, kicking my feet at the frosted grass. I sighed, watching as the brisk air caught my breath in a little puff. I moved closer to Matthew, slowly leaning my head on his shoulder. This was risky; to do such a…coupley thing with someone that was just my friend. Ah, that was a good excuse. We were such good friends, that it was comfortable to us…
Matthew's arms slipped around my shoulders, and I noticed he had taken his jacket and wrapped it around me (while he was still wearing it), only causing me to cuddle closer to him. "You can tell me more." I sighed again.
"No, really. There's not really a point to rant about something. It won't solve it." Matthew shrugged.
"Maybe, eh." I smiled at his verbal tic. I didn't say anything, but I knew that he hadn't realized how much he said "eh" at the end of his sentences. He probably didn't even notice that instead of "about", he pronounced it "aboot". It was cute.
We remained like that until we both had to part, both turning in different directions to go to separate classes.
O~O~O~O~O~O
Let me say this now: I love cooking. I had always spent time at my house in front of the stove, stirring a pot of Thai noodles or mixing the garlic salt into a large pot of pasta. However, I was not very fond of my culinary class. It was mainly for one reason and one reason only.
Yao Wang.
The Chinese boy (though most people argue that he's female; he does have rather long hair and a small build) was my partner and sat at the same table as I did, and he was often judging me as I cooked. Sometimes it drove me insane, but other times it was just plain funny.
Yao had an unfair advantage in this class. He was a lover of gourmet dishes, and in his spare time he always cooked his favorite Chinese foods. So today, having him as a partner for cooking wonton soup was a little annoying. He was an entertaining person, though, so it was okay.
"Aiyah, can't you chop more faster, aru?" He said to me, eyeing my knife as I carefully sliced through a green onion. I rolled my eyes, grinning slightly.
"You're so amazing at speaking proper English, Yao. It makes my heart flutter." He frowned, proceeding to chop the ginger root he had on his cutting board with extreme precision. I raised an eyebrow, turning back to the onion I forgot I was supposed to be slicing up. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Yao finish his slicing, then turn to me with an annoyed look on his face. Without warning, he took the knife from my hand and quickly chopped the rest of the onion.
"Why don't you get the bowl for mixing, aru?" He said. I nodded, saluting, swiftly moving to the cabinets to get a blue glass mixing bowl. I brought it back over, where Yao pushed the ginger and green onion in. "Let them stay there. I want you to peel the rest of this shrimp." He pushed a bowl of half-peeled shrimp in my direction, and I stared down at it, blinking.
"Well okay then." I nodded once, then picked up one of the small creatures. They weren't very attractive, let me say. I bit my lip, cringing as I peeled at the shrimp. Yao glanced at me, taking one of the peeled ones and chopping it quickly.
"Faster," He muttered, keeping his gaze on the crustacean. I paused, slowly looking at him. I shook my head, peeling the shrimp even faster than I had been before. He continued to murder the shrimp with his sharp knife, dumping each one into the mixing bowl. When I was done peeling my share, he began chopping those as well, putting them into the bowl. I watched as he poured a half pound of coarsely chopped pork loin to the bowl. He looked at me, as if expecting me to do something.
"Oh, right…forgive me." I chuckled, moving to the other side of him so that I could measure out a teaspoon of brown sugar. After that, I poured a tablespoon each of rice wine and soy sauce into the bowl, then stepped back to allow Yao to blend the mixture. It almost surprised me that he didn't criticize me on my measuring skills. I watched him stir it quickly, blending it carefully.
"Now we let it sit, aru."
"For thirty minutes, yes?"
"Around that, aru." I sat on the stool, swinging my feet and smiling gently at Yao. He as well sat on his stool, sighing heavily. He glanced at me, noticing my smile. "Why are you still here? Can't you bond with friends, aru?" I tilted my head to one side.
"I don't want to. I'd rather talk to you. You know, become better friends."
"…Friends, aru." I smirked softly.
"Friends. People you talk to when you're bored and hang out with. Me gusta pasar el rato con los amigos." I chuckled slightly. He stared at me blankly. "It's rude to stare, Yaoi." I reached over and poked his nose. He glanced away.
"Please don't touch me."
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Because, aru."
"Convincing argument." He narrowed his eyes (which looked brilliant, since his eyes were already Asian-ish…) at me, pulling his ponytail holder out. He re-tied it in a high ponytail. In the back of my mind, I thought it was pretty cute. But I ignored it, because I already had my eye on a certain often-unnoticed boy.
After about thirty minutes, Yao got back up from the stool and took the wonton wrappers. I also stood, taking a few myself. "Can you moisten the edges of these, aru?" I nodded, reaching to turn the sink on, then stopped momentarily.
"You know, I read that it's better to not moisten them, but t-"
"We are following the recipe on the board, aru. Not your twisted Americanized one." I laughed.
"Americanized? Oh, you're funny…funny indeed." Instead of arguing and probably making him angry, I simply moistened the edges of each wrapper. As I did so, Yao concentrated on putting a teaspoon of the filling in the center of each wrapper, proceeding to fold them each into tiny little triangles. I looked over at his work, eyes widening. "Okay, those are so cute."
"You are such a girl, aru." He said. "But…they are, aru." He muttered. I giggled to myself, moving on to begin boiling the chicken stock in a pot on the stove. Yao came over, peering into the pot. He nodded in approval, then dropped the wontons in one by one. "Leave this to me, aru." I backed away, gazing at him as he watched the soup boil and cook the wontons. After five minutes, he turned the burner off. He picked the pot up from the burner, moving it to another so that the soup won't cook any longer on the still-hot burner. Yao ladled the soup into a bowl. I immediately scooped a small amount of the leftover onion from the cutting board, sprinkling it on top of the soup.
"There," I said, smiling triumphantly. I took a small spoon, dipping it into the soup. I careful sipped the liquid, closing my eyes and smiling. "It's absolutely delectable."
"Is it?" Yao took the spoon from my hands, also taking a sip of it. He nodded. "Shi, it is…"
Glancing at the clock, I began to clean our table. Seven minutes until the bell. Yao wiped down the counters with a washcloth, and I took our bowl up to our teacher so she could grade us. She nodded in thanks. The bell rang, and I rushed back to our table to grab my bag. In a panicked flurry I realized that my bag was missing. I frowned, glancing around. I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, seeing Yao with my bag in his hand. "Here, aru…" He held the bag out. I stood straight, smiling slightly. I took it from his grasp, slinging it over my shoulder.
"See ya', Yao." I waved with my fingers, turning my back to him.
He barely whispered, "Zàijiàn, Kay..." I smiled to myself, quickly rushing out of the room.