Destiny, Fate and Bad Timing

Chapter II

I finally get a cab after the whole Cameron thing and went to Tegan’s house, my best friend since fifth grade. I walk up to her door and go inside. She and her family really don’t mind me coming over and not knocking before entering because the whole summer two years ago, this was practically my home since my parents went on a long-ass business trip. And also because they treat me like their foster child.

“Yo, Red!” Tony, Tegan’s older brother greets from the kitchen. He’s mixing something in a bowl and he holds up the spoon with red batter. “Come here and taste this will you?”

I hang my scarf and coat on the rack and go to the kitchen. “It’s like whenever I come here, you’re always making some crazy dish or whatev—” I didn’t have time to finish my sentence since he shoved a table spoon with a bit of the crap he was making, in my mouth. “Are you making cupcakes?”

He nods. “Although it’s going to be a red velvet cake if Tegan doesn’t get those cupcake lining things I asked her to buy for me.”

“This is good.” It actually is. Sweet, but not over the top. “Can I bring some home?”

“Sure, whatever.” He waves me off and I take that as my cue to leave.

Tony Walls is a weird guy. He’s eighteen, your typical hormonal teenager who plays soccer, he’s popular, and girls in our school absolutely love the soccer guys. Especially Tony and his friends. But the reason why Tony is weird because you’d think he spend his time frying out his brain cells by playing videogames all day, but no, he doesn’t. Frankly he doesn’t enjoy videogames. He likes cooking, motorcycles, reading comic books (Spiderman, mostly) and repeatedly watching Breaking Bad.

I walk to the living room, kick off my shoes and collapse on the couch. I hit the cushion with a loud grunt. Tony must have heard this because from the kitchen I hear: “Is it that Polish guy again?”

“He’s German.” I correct. “Half.”

“Like a give a crap!” He replies.

Footsteps echo on the wooden floors and I hear Tony approaching the couch. He falls beside me with force, which shakes me a bit. “So… what happened?”

I sit up properly and fix my hair. “He’s been gone for two months now all because he feels like we’re holding each other back from the universe or something like that.”

Tony smiles knowingly and says, “Actually, what he said was that he felt like he was holding you both back from your own lives.

“God, I’ve told you about that about a billion times already, huh?”

He nods. “A billion and one, now.”

I chuckle. “Anyway, I wrote my last letter to him last night…” I wave my hands in the air dismissively and say, “Look, I’ll just tell you and Tegan about it later. Can I just have some of your delicious food for now?”

He nods and I hear him going through the refrigerator for food. He comes back with a bowl of vegetables and a bottle of salad dressing. “You have got to be kidding.” I deadpan.

“Nope. You know how girls get fat every time something bad happens? It’s because they center their appetites on chocolates and cakes and all that, thinking calories could cure their brokenness.”

I roll my eyes. “If I didn’t know you so exceptionally well, I would think you were one of those gay friends a girl has in sitcoms and movies.”

“Good thing you know me well then, jesus.” He stands up and walks to the kitchen. “Well… I am going to continue my masterpiece now. Cry loudly if you need anything.”

I flip him off and he laughs. “When is Tegan coming back?” I turn my head back and stare at Tony. He has cupcake batter on his ear, forehead and a massive splotch of red food coloring on his shirt. He’s a mess.

“I don’t know. It’s been two hours since I sent her out to buy me those cupcake things.” He accidentally adds more buttermilk into the batter and curses under his breath. He tries to scoop some out with a spoon. I honestly don’t know how he makes good food.

“By two hours you mean, like an hour right?” I ask.

“You know me frighteningly well.” He says without looking up from the mess he calls masterpiece, but with a little smile on his face.

I shrug and transfer to the stool by the counter where Tony is working. I munch on his salad with contempt. I never wanted this darned salad. I want sugar and calories and fats. But sadly, good things lead to bad things.

Tony takes a peek at me and makes a face. “Christ, if you hate it that much, don’t eat it then.”

“Well if any other bloke prepared me this, I’d be happy to throw it away, but since you made it, I’m eating it.” I say blankly without realizing I might have implied a deeper meaning.

He stops whisking and slowly meets my gaze. My fork stops in midair and my mouth is still open. I know I should probably close it or at least eat the tomato impaled on my fork but I don’t do anything, I just stare back and feel hair rise up my whole body. Finally, he says, “Bloke? You’ve been watching too much Sherlock for your own good.”

I force myself to laugh and it comes out like this: “Haha…Ha! Haha…Haha!” I slam my hand on the table for the full “Haha” effect but I just end up looking like I discreetly killed an ant on the table.  He looks at me one last time with a raised brow before continuing his baking.

Something happened between the two of us before, when we were younger. Tegan and I address it as “The Incident”, while Tony and I just don’t mention it. After “The Incident”, we decided that what we did was stupid and irrelevant considering we were just kids that time. After “The Incident”, there was always something between us—Tony and I. Well, at least I think there is. I’m not very good with these things, you see.