It Was Always You

Master Chef

She took my breath away as soon as I saw her. Her eyes locked into mine which made it almost impossible to act normal.

"Hi Y/N, sorry I'm late. I had to run a couple errands."
Lauren walks over to me and I get butterflies. She touches my shoulder and points me towards the kitchen.
"So, should I teach you my amazing cooking skills now, Y/N?"

"Definitely. I wanna hear all about your chicken nugget recipe."

Lauren laughs and brings me over to the kitchen. Lisa swiftly follows behind us and enters the room.

"Do you mind if I join you, ladies? I could learn a thing or two from the amazing cook that is Lauren Cimorelli."
Lisa gives me a sly smile and I awkwardly smile back.

"Sure, Lise, just don't annoy us."
Lauren rolls her eyes at Lisa inviting herself into the kitchen.

"Annoy you? NEVER! I'm a joy to be around"
Lisa laughs and opens the fridge.

"So what are you guys going to cook? Don't tell me you're actually making chicken nuggets." Lisa rolls her eyes and looks into the fridge.

"Uh, I don't actually know. Whatever Y/N wants I guess." Lauren turns her head to me, asking me what to cook.

"I don't know, what do you want to cook Lauren? This is your kitchen after all."
I give Lauren a nervous laugh and she returns it.
"I'll settle this debate ladies, we're cooking pasta!" Lisa puts her arms around both of us as she takes her head out of the fridge.

"Yeah I'm cool with pasta." Lauren gives me a look to make sure I'm cool with it too. I nod at her and she smiles.

"Ok pasta it is! Lisa, can you get the pasta from the pantry?" Lauren points to the pantry and Lisa rolls her eyes while she walks over.

"Ok, I'll get the sauce so can you get the cheese, Y/N?" She points to where the cheese is and I smile at her before I grab it. We both come back and lay our items down on the counter.
"Lauren, all of this stuff is premade. I thought you were a master chef?" I laugh while I tease Lauren.

"Ok, ok maybe I'm not a master chef, but I still know more than you!" Lauren smiles while she pokes my side.
"Hey! I'll have you know, my mom says I make the best toast in the world!" I giggle as I nudge Lauren's shoulder.
We both laugh for a couple seconds, before looking into each other's eyes. Our laughter dies out, but our eyes remain locked. We stare softly, neither wanting to look away. I know that I should look away, but I just want to make this moment last forever.

"I got the pasta, blubber butts!"
Lisa comes into the room and both of us jump and look away. Lisa walks up to us with a big smile on her face, clearly seeing what we were doing.
"Um, what happened while I was gone?"
Lisa looks at us slyly, and waits for an excuse.

I'm so flustered, I can barely think of what to say. I have to quickly sort out my thoughts, because it looks like Lauren isn't going to say anything.

"Uh, Lauren just admitted that she wasn't the best chef in the world. Shocking, right?"
I nervously laugh while Lauren does the same, hoping Lisa will just drop it.

"So you're NOT the direct spawn of Gordon Ramsey?" Lisa looks at us with fake shock on her face as we all laugh. I try to look at Lauren, but she looks away. It looks like she's embarrassed, not wanting that to have happened.

LAURENS POV:

As we're laughing, my eyes move to gaze into Y/N's. I can feel myself not wanting to look away, as the laughing dies out. We keep our gaze and I feel something in my stomach. Butterflies begin to form as I keep peering into her eyes. I never noticed how beautiful they were. I get a weird feeling, a feeling that I usually get towards a boy. I get very confused for a second, wondering why I felt this way towards Y/N. I tell myself that the feeling is different, I'm just excited to have a friend.

It feels like hours pass, when Lisa yells something. I get startled and avert my gaze away from hers. Lisa asks what we were doing and suddenly, my face gets red. I look away and hope that Y/N can come up with something. She does, but I'm barely listening. I'm still trying to process what just happened. I hear laughing, so I join in. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Y/N looking at me. I keep my eyes to the ground, I can't bring myself to accept what just happened.

I slowly bring myself back to reality, wanting to move on from that moment. I grab all of the ingredients and tell Lisa to get a pot. She does, and Y/N and I get to cooking. We put the pasta in the boiling water and set a timer.

"Ok, what should we do until the pasta is ready?"    Y/N asks me.

I rack my brain for ideas, until I hear Dani from the other room.

"You can talk to us, your SISTERS!" Dani yells from the living room.
We both laugh and walk into the other room.

Y/N POV:

I sit down with Lisa on my right and Lauren to my left. The other Cimorelli sisters gather around the couch.
"I know Lisa already knows her but guys, this is Y/N." Lauren smiles at me and looks at her sisters.

"We know, we spent like 30 minutes talking to her since you decided to be late!" Dani tilts her head and smiles, looking innocently at Lauren.

"Well I would've been here if Christina didn't need me to get baby stuff."

"Don't blame the pregnant woman!"
Everyone laughs as Christina crosses her arms.

"Well the pasta that these two lovebirds made us better be good!" Lisa gives us a sarcastic glance as the other sisters laugh. I can feel Lauren tense up when Lisa called us lovebirds.

I knew it. She definitely only wants to be friends.

My cheeks redden after being called a lovebird. Lisa looks over at me and gets a weird look on her face. I brush it off and keep the conversation going.

Soon enough, the pasta is ready. Lauren and I take it out of the water, and put it onto plates. I put the cheese and sauce into separate bowls and put them on the table. We all sit down and help ourselves to the food in front of us. Just as I'm about to eat, Katherine tells us to pray. We all hold hands and say a prayer. I'm holding hands with Dani and Lauren. My heart starts to speed up as the prayer goes on.

Are my hands getting sweaty? What if Lauren thinks that my hands are too sweaty? Y/N, you're definitely overthinking this.

The prayer ends and we let go of each other's hands. Lauren smiles at me and I return it. I get a warm feeling whenever she looks at me. We all start talking, when Amy asks for a fork. Lauren and I both reach our hands over to the utensils, and grab the same one. Our hands touch and we both look at each other. We must've done that for a second too long, because Lisa gave me a confused look. I quickly realized what I was doing and handed Amy the fork.

Lisa looked down so no one could see her smiling widely. She was the only one that saw what had happened.

The rest of the dinner went smoothly, with no more awkward moments between Lauren and I.
After we cleaned up, I told Lauren I had to head home.

Lisa heard this and walked into the room.

"Y/N, are you gonna sleep over?" Lisa smiled and gave me a funny look.

"If you want to, you can sleep over." Lauren looked to the ground, and I could see the redness in her cheeks.

"Uh, yeah I can sleep over." My cheeks turn red too and I can see Lisa cheer to herself.

Hi guys thanks for reading!!!! I can't believe we have 50 views!! Also thank you for getting me to 113 in Cimorelli!! I know it's not the most views but this is my first story, so it's big for me! The next part will come out next week, I'm going somewhere this week. But thank you again and stay safe!