Spare Change (boyxboy)

Cooking

Christian didn't know what to say, sat awkwardly in the in a bar stool resting his elbows on the bar table that had been carved out of a wall. He had a view into the kitchen where Alex stood over a chopping board, roughly cutting onions in preperation for a meal.

After fighting an internal battle on whether to take Christian to a restraunt, and run the risk of him being judged by anyone from a 5 Star Restraunt to McDonalds for his torn jacket and hair that could use a comb. Or take him back to his Apartment, and cook for the two of them.

Not only was he bringing him home only 30 minutes after he spoke his first words to him, but Alex never prided himself on being an amazing chef. In fact he was singing gospel songs to himself as he cut the vegetables in hopes that vegetables were the only thing ending up in the cooking pot. He had everything an actual chef would need in his kitchen, due to a past relationship in which he was wrapped completely around their finger. That relationship had resulted in the purchase of professional cooking supplies, new carpeting in his bedroom, and a new credit card.

"Do you need some help?" Christian had almost whispered, seeing the struggle Alex was going through in attempting to cook a meal.

"No, I've got it,"

"You're not even using the correct knife,"

"What?"

Christian got up and walked around into the kitchen and beside Alex and pulled out a different knife from the knife stand and tugged the cutting board in front of him,

"It's better to use this sort of knife, it cuts an onion better, and if you cut it like this,"

He turned the onion on it's side and cut it,

"You get smaller pieces ideal for a stew."

"Oh," Alex said, confusion lay thick in his voice

"I studied cooking for a bit in school,"

"Oh," Alex said again, his curiosity being peaked, "So you've been to school?"

"I look like I didn't even finish high school, I know, but I finished my freshman year at college with a 3.9 GPA, but when I had to go back home, it didn't matter that my grades were near perfect, I hadn't stayed in my initial Law classes I had been enrolled in, and my dad cut me off."

"So that's why you're homeless?"

"I try not to use that term, I prefer Explorer, I know, not the same, but it sounds nicer. But yes, I used my savings trying to put myself through a second year at school, and to find a job, but when that didn't work, my ass landed outside in New York."

"So cooking is your thing?"

"Yeah, I basically taught myself, I used to try and whip up these extravagant meals for my family in my last year of High School, and try to convince my Dad to send me to a Culinary Arts school instead, but he'd always tell me "How are you going to carry on my legacy in the Law Firm if you're somewhere inside a kitchen?" Then he'd joke about how I could cook for him as much as I'd like when I came back home from school and worked in an office, training to be just like him."

"I'm sorry," Alex couldn't say much else, and stood next to Christian, watching as he expertly chopped everything, hands moving quickly and cool, and seasoned the food as he went.

"Don't be, really, he's a piece of shit anyway, it almost makes me want to go back to school for law, just to make a competing business and shut him down. But that'd take too long, and I'd rather be cooking. Tell me about your business." Christian prompted as he put a lid on the pot and turned down the heat to a simmer and walked back to his bar stool.

Alex took a seat next to him, "Well, it was my dad's, he got too old to run the place like it needed to be, so it got handed down to me. We just do financing for other businesses, not that exciting,"

They continued the conversation, through their meal, bringing Christian out of his shell, accenting his words with emotion and waving his hands around, and they ended up watching trashy reality tv on the couch together until the sky outside was dark, and both of them were struggling to keep their eyes open.