Chapter 7- Langa's POV:
"So are you going to spend this meeting complaining about S still being closed?" Miya asks Shadow.
"You've already heard that awful news, then?" The ginger sighs, looking like a child that has been sent to sit in the corner.
"Weren't you and some other idiots trying to arrange an alternative?" Cherry queries.
"There will never be an alternative to S!"
It's true. Reki, Cherry, Joe and Shadow skated at that track for a very long time. Until someone dobbed them into the police. S wasn't that outside the law anyway, really, the only unlawful things that occurred were speeding and vandalism... at least we weren't there the night the skaters were found out.
Joe enters the room, looking thoroughly exhausted and done with life in general.
"Um, what happened to you?" I ask him.
"I was up until 2am this morning..." He sighs.
"So was I, remember? You're overreacting." Cherry snaps as he walks past, not realising how suspicious he sounds.
Reki and Shadow immediately exchange an identical mischievous look, and they burst into laughter.
"You had to phrase it like that, didn't you?" Joe growls, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Sounds spicy. What'd you get up to?" Miya smirks.
This makes Reki and Shadow laugh even harder, and I can't help but laugh as well at the fed-up and embarrassed looks on Joe and Cherry's faces.
"Nothing!" They both say unconvincingly.
"Right then," I joke, "still regretting moving in with your best friend, Joe?" I put air quotes around the words "best friend".
"One day," Joe announces, "maybe, you will understand the sheer pain and suffering I have to go through! Until then, mouths remain closed, eyes remain un-rolling, and- DON'T YOU DARE LAUGH YOU IMBECILES!"
"Ew! Mommy and Daddy have love lives?" Miya gasps, clearly joking but still sounding remarkably convincing in his horror.
This sarcastic remark appears to be too much for Shadow and Reki, because they are now wheezing as tears of laughter fill their eyes, holding onto each other as if they're at risk of going into cardiac arrest. Reki falls off his chair he is laughing so hard, making Shadow cackle even louder. They look hilarious.
"Are you children done being silly yet?" Cherry scoffs.
"I'm good..." Reki gasps.
Eventually, we stop making fun of Joe and Cherry, who were actually up late working, and are now looking like they either want to kill each other, or kiss each other. It's hard to distinguish which is which with these two, sometimes.
"Are we eating at any point? I'm hungry." Miya whines.
"Ah, yes," Joe says, a smile playing on his lips, "that brings me to tonight's game."
Immediately, I am alarmed.
"Oh God, what are you going to make us do?" Reki groans.
"Nothing! Just the best challenge I have ever set for anyone in my entire life..."
"Tell us already, you idiot." Cherry says.
"As you wish, sweetheart," he scowls, spitting the usually affectionate pet name as if it's a disgusting word, "tonight, I'm making you lot cook."
"Well, that's not so bad?" I say suspiciously.
"No, it's not." Joe agrees.
"What's the twist?" Shadow asks.
"Am I really that predictable!?" Joe cries, throwing his hands up in frustration, and only becoming more irritated when we all reply "yes" at the same time.
It turns out that the twist is that we aren't just cooking, we're cooking a two-course meal for someone else. In pairs. Which brings me to the mysterious challenge that Joe mentioned earlier. Reki and me are attempting to cook for each other.
The rest of the group is paired up with one another too, Joe with Shadow and Cherry with Miya, and we are quick to learn that we're quite useless in a kitchen...
Joe is a cook, so of course he's amazing with food, and I cooked for Mum for a long time after Dad passed because she was too sad to do much, so I know the difference between cinnamon and paprika, but the rest of our group should probably stick to skating...
"Miya, what do you even eat anyway?" Cherry sighs, "I swear you live on grass and protein powder..."
"That's not true, I just choose to not have an inconsistent diet like the rest of you!" Comes the irritated reply.
"I take personal offence to that statement!" Reki yells from the pantry, "My diet is very consistent!"
"Yeah, pizza and hamburgers!" I call out, flicking through a recipe book.
Reki walks over to me, slapping me softly with a hand coated in flour, leaving a white handprint on my cheek.
"Consistently!" He smirks, ruffling my hair as to get me even more covered in the dust.
"Oi, Reki, stop flirting and come help me, would you?" Miya snaps, trying to carry a pot full of water to the stove.
I laugh quietly, turning back to the risotto recipe I've decided on and wiping the flour from my skin with my sleeve. My mind wanders to that moment this afternoon... we've been acting as though it didn't happen, even though it really excites me that it did. But something seems different, now.
"Helloooo? Langa?" Shadow waves a hand in my face.
"What?"
"You've been staring into space for the last five minutes?"
"Oh, have I?"
He shakes his head and looks at me quizzically.
"You were daydreaming, weren't you?"
"No..." I reply uncomfortably, pulling a bowl out of a cupboard.
"I know that look."
I panic, responding with the first thing that comes to my head.
"Yes, I was daydreaming! About... risotto. Obviously. I'm cooking it, what else would I be daydreaming about?"
I'm a really bad liar...
"Okay then," the carrot top chuckles as he walks away, "you must be really into risotto..."
"I can be really into risotto if I want!" I call after him, embarrassed.
Much to my surprise, everyone seems to have been able to cook the first course without setting anything on fire.
Preparing a dessert is more difficult. What the heck am I supposed to make?
I stand still, pondering this question for far too long. I look over to where Joe is explaining something to Reki, who looks as though he's concentrating very hard on whatever it is that Joe is talking about.
That's when the best idea comes to me, and I pull up a recipe online then run into the cooler room, looking for ingredients.
When I find all of them, I make it my mission to make this dessert the best thing I've ever made in my entire lifetime. I don't know why. It's just suddenly so important to me, like it's a way of saying thanks for that random kiss.
"Joe! I have absolutely no idea how to get around your kitchen..." Shadow growls, his voice coming from somewhere deep in the pantry.
"There's labels on everything, are you really that stupid?" Joe sighs, walking over to help.
"No, but Cherry is. I swear he can't read a thing." Miya snickers, sending a teasing glance in Cherry's direction.
Cherry scowls in response to his partner's comment, holding the sugar canister up as if it's a lethal weapon.
"Talk like that and I'll swap this for salt and make it look like an accident."
YOU ARE READING
My Infinity 》Renga
Fanfiction"Why wouldn't you want to hurt me?" "Because you mean more to me than you'd ever even begin to comprehend." "What?" "Haven't you figured it out yet? Haven't you realized that losing you is my worst nightmare?" When Reki and Langa accept a dare, the...
