Weathered Love

VULNERABLE

We got back to the beach house and took turns showering in the two bathrooms between the 11 of us. I was the first girl to shower because I wanted to get started on dinner. I refused to let anyone control what was going into my food.

"Need some help?" I heard Caleb's voice to my left as I chopped vegetables.

"Sure," I said, giving him a couple of sweet potatoes. "Can you chop these into thick fries? Be careful, they're hard to cut when they're raw, so don't slip and get your finger," I instructed.

"I've used a knife before," Caleb stated through his smile.

"I'm sure you have, I just don't know how much experience you have with sweet potatoes, that's all," I commented. He nodded, grabbed a second cutting board, then stood next to me at the counter and started to work on the sweet potato. He was clearly struggling and I had to contain the I-told-you-so smirk that was threatening to come up.

"Not a word," he finally said, looking at me. I clearly couldn't mask my smug expression that well.

"Not a peep," I promised. We continued cutting next to each other.

"Ivy," Ivan said, coming into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, which was to my right, and took out some chicken that I had left to marinade earlier. "How are we cooking these?" he asked.

"How do you want to cook them?" I asked while turning to face him. Please don't say breaded and fried, I silently begged.

"I'll eat anything," he responded.

"Almond crusted and baked?" I offered.

"Oh, you fancy, huh?" Caleb teased.

"Precisely," I stated, keeping my back to him and facing Ivan. "Can you crush some almonds?" I requested. Ivan nodded. I got the almonds from a cupboard and handed them to Ivan along with a meat tenderizer. His eyebrows shot up upon noticing the tool I gave him. "We don't have a mallet or a rolling pin. Besides, this should make the job easier as long as you put the almonds in a zipped bag or something."

"Sure thing," Ivan stated. He started banging at the almonds and looked like he was enjoying it too much.

"You don't need to turn them into snortable powder," I commented.

"Do I tell you how to walk and chew gum?" he replied, grinning widely.

"You scare me sometimes," I jabbed.

"Good. You should be extremely scared," he confirmed. He went back to smashing the almonds.

"You guys are like a married couple," Caleb stated. It was my turn to be surprised.

Ivan and I looked at each other and then laughed. That was rich. The thought of Ivan and I together was definitely something a lot of people hinted at but we never saw it. We always thought we quibbled more like siblings than anything else.

"She's more like the annoying sister every guy dreams of having," he sarcastically continued, looking at Caleb.

I rolled my eyes and resumed chopping the vegetables, but I couldn't let him have the last word. "And Ivan here is the brother you pray God zaps out of existence," I nonchalantly added.

"Aw, come on sis, don't be mad. Have you ever seen the 'Chicken Dance'?" he asked.

I knew I shouldn't engage, but I was curious where this conversation was headed. "Yes," I answered.

"Like this?" he clarified, taking two chicken leg quarters and dancing them across the counter.

I wanted to scold him. I really did. But instead, I laughed. Yeah, I was definitely not ready for adulthood.

"If you drop those, you'll have to wash them and that'll ruin the marinade," I finally managed to "scold" through sporadic chuckles. Ivan smiled at me.

"Tomorrow, let's rent some jet-skis," he suggested. I nodded. I definitely could get on board with that idea.

"As long as they're affordable," I conditioned.

Ivan nodded. He understood. We were all broke high schoolers. Or rather, recent high school grads. Either way, we were all broke.

"Did you make the ice pops?" Derek asked, coming into the kitchen. How long did the girls need to shower? None of them had come downstairs yet.