Temporary Bliss [boyxboy]

11: Burn

The next day, both Caleb and I slept well past 12pm and when we finally woke up, we were hungry.

All we had was pasta though, and all places (except McDonald's) where you could've gotten breakfast would probably be serving lunch at this time.

So we decided to have pasta for breakfast.
Caleb was honestly terrible at cooking. Half the time something caught fire, spilled over or just tasted absolutely disgusting - which translated to me doing all the work while he watched.

We were just standing at the counter talking, Caleb leaning against it. I took the pasta off of the stove and poured it into a sieve.

Then I turned to Caleb, wanting to say something, and casually rested my hand against the stove.

I let out a squeal as the heat started to sear through my skin and ripped my hand away quickly, holding my burned fingers in my other hand as if it would help.

"Stoves generally tend to be hot," Caleb said a bit sarcastically and I wanted to tell him to shut the fuck up, but I was too concerned with how much my hand hurt.

"Calm down," he told me with an eye roll, "C'mere."

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to the kitchen sink to turn on some cold water.
He didn't let go of my hand and I had to surpress a stupidly big smile. Caleb voluntarily showing any sort of affection was rare, but I liked it. It made him seem so much more... Human.

"You okay?" he asked, catching my gaze for a second, and I nodded, pulling my hand away because the cold water was now making it feel almost numb.

Caleb grabbed a towel and dried my hand off, muttering a "there you go" under his breath.
I looked at him and awkward silence fell over us. I was half-smiling and he just looked at me like he was... confused, I guess.

Then, he took a step back and unnecessarily threw the towel at me.
"Whatever," he grumbled before stomping out of the kitchen and upstairs.

What the fuck had just happened?

---

It was probably almost midnight, I was standing behind the bar cleaning glasses absentmindedly while I thought about Caleb.

I just couldn't get him out of my damn head lately! We were friends, we pretty much always had been, so why was this happening now? Why did his face seem to always pop up in my mind whenever I had a second to think?

And why the hell had he freaked out about well...
Now that I thought about it - what had he freaked out about? Nothing had even happened. He had been really, really sweet and nice to me for a change and then he'd decided to suddenly be a dick for no reason. It bothered me to no end.

"I think that glass is clean."

My head whipped up, looking around for where the voice had come from.
I saw Karin standing in front of me, a smile on her face.

I glanced down at my hands - had I really been wiping this glass for the past few minutes? Embarrassing.
I sighed and put it away.

"Sorry," I muttered, taking another dirty one, but Karin snatched it out of my hand before I could even start to clean it.
"Hey," she said softly, "You seem really upset? Are you okay? I can cover for you and you can go home if you need me to."

I had to smile at her generous offer, but shook my head, "No, seriously - I'm okay. Just... My mind is everywhere today, I guess. Thanks though."

She frowned, clearly not believing me. "Well... Let me know if there's anything I can do. I'll be down here helping you for now. Most people will be coming in soon and you definitely don't wanna be alone down here at this time on a Friday night."