The next day I woke up pretty early. Joe was still passed out next to me. I sat up slowly. I did not feel nauseous. Cautiously, I stood up and headed to the bathroom. The first thing I did was brush my teeth. There was just an overall bad taste in my mouth. When I looked at myself in the mirror I noticed that some color was coming back into my cheeks, but there were still heavy bags under my eyes. Rubbing them I walked back out into the rest of the apartment. Joe was stretching his arms and waking up. I beamed at him.
"All better?" He asked as he stood up.
"Much."
"Good he said walking up to me. Cause I have been dying to do this."
A moment later his lips were crashed into mine. I accepted it gladly and wrapped my arms around his neck in the process. Later that day we decided to go to the beach. It was one of our favorite places. I raced him into the water. The salt of water stung my eyes a little still but I didn't really care. We rode the waves with our stomachs, occasionally crashing on shore. I stuck my tongue out at him, teasing him.
"That's it!" He playfully yelled and picked me up almost over his head before he flung me into the waves. I let out a yelp before hitting the water.
"Joseph Schwartz Walker!" I exclaimed while rubbing my eyes. I could hear him chuckling even though I was temporarily blind that bastard. I chased him through the water as he ran away. Finally I caught up to him to jump on his back almost knocking him over.
"That's okay, I can run faster than the two of us combined." He smirked. I laughed while I shook my head. We were closer to shore. I had no idea how far our stuff was. I was still hanging off Joe's back. I leaned forward and licked his cheek. His hand snapped to the spot on his face where I had licked.
"Did you just lick me!?" He rubbed his cheek.

"Sure did!" I replied.

"You are going to get it now!"

I plopped down and ran to the sand. "Gonna have to catch me first!" I taunted before darting away.

I laughed the entire way. By the time I reached our stuff I was out of breath. I sat down catching my breath and waited for Joe to catch up. When he did he immediately snatched my wrist.

"You have to see this!" He exclaimed happily. He dragged me to a part of the beach not far from where we started.

"Ta da!" Joe presented. There was something written in the sand. I squinted to read it better.

I love you. It read. I could feel tears forming in the corners of my eyes. I blinked them away quickly. I pounced on him for a hug. It was beautiful in our own way.

"I love you too." I spoke. It didn't take me longer than a second to realize my true feelings for him. He loved me, and I loved him too. Plain and simple.

As soon as I told Evanna she squealed. Then hugged me really tightly.
"Yay!" She cheered. "You're loved by the opposite sex officially!" I laughed.

We talked for hours like we do every once in a while. She told me everything about her and Denny and by the sound of it a L-word confession was not too far herself. That night, I had work, and so did she. We dressed, and slowly dreaded our jobs.

The next week it rained. It down poured. People were worried about a hurricane. Our apartment electricity ran on a generator so we were safe from any power losses luckily. Due to the weather, places were closed down until it stopped. Evanna and I were locked in our own apartment.
"Let's invite Denny over." I suggested. "I haven't really gotten to know the little bugger."

Evanna beamed.

"Really!? Okay!" She skipped out the door to get her boyfriend. When they came back in they were walking hand in hand. It was cute. Too bad I planned on crushing his spirits.

"Have a seat Denny." I pulled a chair. He cautiously took it.

"So. First lets learn about you." I started. "What is your favorite color?" I asked seriously. Denny looked around.

"Uhhh blue?"

"What kind of blue!" I raised my voice.

"A royal blue!" He said quickly. I processed the answer. Seemed legit. I continued with the questioning for two hours.
"My favorite vacation spot for my celebrity crush during the winter... This one is a toughy. I am going to have to go with Puerto Rico." He took a moment to think it over but nodded.

"Nice choice." I approved "Do you want to play chopped!?" I bursted.

"Oh god.." Evanna said under her breath.

"Get the neighbors!" I called rushing into the kitchen. Evanna grasped Denny's wrist and pulled him out of the flat. I believe I heard her grumble.

"Now look what you've started..." I broke out the pots and the pans and every kitchen utensil we owned. I love playing chopped. We never really had enough people that wanted to play so instead of being chopped the person was just out and won the round. That was until Denny moved in. With one more volunteer we could finally play! Evanna came back with four of our neighbors. We had finally gotten Curtis to crack and become one of our chefs. I always loved it when we played chopped. I never won but it was always just fun for me.

"Okay I assume everyone knows the rules by now. Judges go choose out the ingredients while us chefs will be in Evanna's bedroom. " I announce before I led everyone into Evanna's bedroom. Her bedroom was a lavender, with a bed against the fairest wall, a closet next to her, and a soft yellow rug. Against the unoccupied wall was a vanity where she practiced different makeup styles and did weekly tutorials on YouTube recently. I laid on her bed face down until we were called into the kitchen.

"We have decided your ingredients." My neighbor Harold started. He pulled each ingredient out, handing it to us in baskets. "Plum baby food." Was the first one. Why did we have baby food? I wave away the thought. Harold continued. "Rye bread." I knew we had Rye bread! Yes. "A baked potato." Evanna had just baked this potatoes...the last ingredient was about to be announced it had to be some sort of meat. "And sliced salami."

This was a tough challenge. The second judge and neighbor Judy started the time. We were off! We all scrambled for space and time. I was going to make a salami and cheese sandwich using the Ryebread. First I toasted the bread for warmth. Baked potato and plum baby food? Well I sliced the potato and fried in butter to put in the sandwich. If I made chips it would seem more of a meal than an appetizer. I thought of nothing else. I darted my eyes around the kitchen for inspiration. The toast popped and I made the sandwich as I thought. A smoothie! I made a plum and blueberry smoothie for the sandwich. I worked quickly and without destruction. Time was cutting down quickly. Just as I was putting on the finishing touches after slicing the sandwich in fours fir a smaller portion,the time stopped. We backed away from our dishes. Evanna ha made had made a salad, the rye bread as croutons, a plum vinaigrette, chunks of potato, and salami strips. Impressive. Curtis constructed a potato salad with rye bread, with salami and cheese rolls with a plum baby food spread. Denny made a chunky potato soup with croutons also and toasted salmi, with a plum drizzle.

After the judges ate and criticized our food it was Curtis to get chopped. Apparently his plum baby good with the cheese and salami spread wasn't working. I had made it to the second round. The meals ingredients were, chopped pork, Bisquick, taco mix, and apples. I wanted to make my moms impossible cheeseburger pie with a twist. The pie itself eliminated the Bisquick and the chopped pork. I mixed the pork with the taco mix and added some onions. The apples I chopped finely and just threw it in with the cheese and meat mix. I really hoped it worked out. Cooking it was the most time consuming. I turned the oven on a little high than I should and waited for it to cook. I couldn't just serve the pie alone even if it had all the ingredients. I took some lettuce and made an apple and pear salad with a raspberry vinaigrette. The meat pie was almost done. It was messy taking it out of the pan but it rested next to the salad on the plate. I was done in no time. Again I looked over at the dishes. Evanna had made some sort of apple burger using a biscuit as a bun Denny made a thick stew also with a biscuit. Evanna was chopped for her apple burger was too dry. I had made it to the last round. I was so excited. I usually have lost by now but not today. The ingredients were strawberries, cottage cheese, granola bars and milk. I knew what I was doing immediately. I was making a parfait. I whisked the cream until I came out with whipped cream. Diced the strawberries, made a yogurt with cottage cheese, and crushed the granola bars for the base. I was really happy when it came out when the time stopped. My eyes wandered to Denny. He had made like a cottage cheese pie. There in small squares with bits of granola as a crusted top. The cream and the strawberries were the filling. We stood in front as the judges ate. They more or less seemed to enjoy mine. The same with Denny. We were sent away for the final decision. We came out.

"We considered all of the dishes and scores. We have come to a conclusion." The dish was under the pan cover. When it was lifted I was shocked.

It was mine.

"Anna you have been chopped. Your cottage cheese yogurt wasn't exactly a match for Denny's pie cake thing." I nodded walking off to the side.

"Denny this means you won! You get to eat your cake and not clean up!" I cheered. Denny seemed pretty happy. It took a while to clean up but we had fun while we did it. We made jokes and ate occasionally. Definitely the best chopped challenge I had ever been in.