I Am You

Chapter Twenty-Two

'I'm in!' I slightly squealed, not being able to contain my excitement. That's just what competitions do to me.

He just chuckled and helped me up. We went to the kitchen and decided upon some ground rules.

One, we were supposed to make pasta in pesto sauce. Two, we had forty-five minutes to do so. Three, neither of us was allowed to copy the other's recipe. And four, we weren't allowed to taste our own dish along the way, at all. I was against the fourth rule at first because I still wasn't so good at cooking and that's why I was used to tasting the food as I went, to check if I had missed something. But E insisted, saying it'd be fun and then appealed to my competitiveness once again. That was more than enough to make me agree to the last rule.

'It's seven right now, we have until seven forty-five.' E announced.

'Let's start.' I said as I pulled him closer to me.

I placed my hand on his cheek and leaned in, as if I was going to give him as kiss. He smiled and closed his eyes. But I just flicked him on the forehead lightly and snatched the packet of uncooked pasta from his hands.

'Hey, that's cheating!' he pouted.

I just stuck out my tongue at him. I also made sure to visibly smirk as I went on to boil the pasta, while he was still searching for another pack. I proceeded to toast some pine nuts. I then put them in the food processor along with basil leaves, garlic, olive oil and some salt. I switched the processor on and smiled as I looked at it, turning into the perfect pesto paste. Wait, why did I just explain the whole recipe as if I were on a cooking show?

Anyway, my pesto was ready. While I was waiting for my pasta to boil, I watched E toasting some pine nuts along with a few cashews in a hurry, as he tried to match my pace. I giggled slightly at the success of my plan. But that wasn't all I had got. I added some extra salt in his pot of boiling pasta while he was using the food processor, his back facing towards me. Ugh, I felt like an evil villain for doing this to him but this was his punishment for calling me "babe" and "boo", a hundred times a day. I covered my mouth to stop myself from laughing.

At last, when we were done, we plated out our pasta and laid the dishes down on the table.

'Taste test!' E sang.

'Let's do yours first.' I said, still trying to stifle my laughter.

As we dug in, I watched his reaction intently as it went from pride to embarrassment and then to realisation. His eyes darted towards me.

'What did you do?' he exclaimed as he got a hold of me and started tickling.

'Wait... wait... stop it!' I said, in between my laughs, trying to catch my breath.

'Cheater.' he pouted, yet again.

'I'm sorry.' I said, still chucking.

'Well, let's try yours now. Shall we?'

'By all means.'

I smiled as I took a bite, but my smile turned upside down in a second. I swallowed it without even chewing, so as to avoid throwing up.

'What? How is it...?' I trailed off.

'Sweet?' E asked innocently.

And then it hit me. He is as competitive as I am, if not more. Of course, he switched the salt with the sugar.

'You little...' I started, as I extended my hand to flick him. Again.

But before I could do so, he jumped out of the chair and sprinted towards the couch. I did the same, trying to catch up to him. We ran around the house for a good amount of time, enough for us to be exhausted. In the end, I plopped myself down on the couch.

'Giving up already?' E asked with a smirk as he sat beside me.

I just rolled my eyes, trying to catch my breath.

'I guess this means that I won.' he declared after a few seconds.

'Oh, yeah? How's that?'

'Okay, I'll admit that both of them were pretty shitty. But, tell me honestly, which one of them didn't make you wanna throw up?'

Shit, it felt like the end of the world. He was right. Slightly salty pasta was obviously better than the sweet shit I had made.

I sighed in response, to which he cheered.

'Yes! I won.' he exclaimed, a little too loudly, which made me wince. 'Now you'll have to do whatever I want you to.' he said, his voice going back to normal.

'Okay, cheater. What do you want me to do?' I asked as I folded my arms.

'Umm... I haven't thought about it yet. Give me some time, I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something creative.' he said, wriggling his eyebrows.

Oh, god. I just know he'll come up with something that will make me embarrass myself and haunt me for the rest of my life. I mentally face-palmed myself, but agreed anyway.

'What do you want to do for dinner? It's not like we can eat that.' I said, pointing at the pasta on the table.

'Yeah.' he chuckled. 'Let's just order something.'

I agreed.

For the next hour and a half, we watched a movie while having dinner. As the movie was coming to an end, I glanced at E, only to realise he had dozed off. I brought out a blanket from his bedroom and wrapped it around him. I was gathering my things, getting ready to leave, when I heard his groggy voice again.

'Stay.' he said, his eyes still closed.

I sat next to him, ruffling his hair.

'I stayed yesterday. And the night before that. And the night before that.' I said with a soft chuckle.

'So what?' he asked, finally opening his eyes.

'I would stay, but I've got to get up early tomorrow. Nat and I are supposed to work on a project.' I said apologetically. 'I'll stay back tomorrow, I promise.' I assured with a smile.

'Fine.' he pouted as he got up to walk me to the door.

'Wait, I forgot my phone.' I said, walking back towards the couch.

It was then, when I noticed that the other room, the one other than his own, was locked from the outside.

'E?' I said as I walked towards the door again.

'Hmm?'

'Why's that room locked?' I asked out of curiosity.

'Well, I locked it because you were coming over.' he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

I raised my eyebrows.

'Well, you see, ever since Kai moved out, I couldn't find a way to make use of that room. That is, up until a week ago, when I decided to turn it into my own little art studio.' he said, with a glint of excitement in his eyes.

'Great! Let me see it, then.' I said, smiling.

'I don't want you to see it, yet. That was the whole point of locking it, genius.' he said, rolling his eyes.

I smirked slightly at his salty comment. My sarcasm is communicable, after all.

'But why not?' I huffed.

'Because... I have a surprise for you in there.'

I smiled.

'But I'm not done working on it. I'll be done in a day or two, though.' he said.

As much as I wanted to know what the surprise was, I didn't ask him. I know how annoying it is when someone pesters you to show them your artwork when you're not even done. It has happened to me way too many times.

'I'll be waiting.' I whispered, giving him a goodbye kiss.

'Bye.'

'Bye.' I said as I turned around and heard the door close behind me.