Forest Boy

[9] Ramen Noodles For The Newbie

A few days later while I was sitting on the sofa languidly watching the weather forecaster tell us the evening was going to be mild with a slight breeze and a chance of light showers.

It had barely passed 4 pm when there was a knock on the glass window behind me.

"Sophia!" A muffled voice called out.

The voice was moderately deep so I assumed it was my dad, who went out to collect some more firewood to bring inside in case it got wet from the rain. Waiting a few more seconds, he called my name once more.

I got up out of my seat and slid on my Vans before going to the back of the house. As I turned the corner, I saw Rhyse sitting on the pile of logs with his beagle near his feet.

When he saw me, a cheerful smile spread across his face, "I haven't stopped thinking about a few days ago, it was so fun. I would've come here earlier if I wasn't so busy. I'm sorry," he said quite hectically while approaching me.

"Wait. Why are you here? Why didn't you just knock on the front door?" I queried, squatting to pet his dog, Ida.

"Why does it matter where I knocked? I still got your attention, didn't I? And to hang out again. Got any fun ideas?"

I thought for a few seconds: I didn't want to practice anything; I didn't want to swim, a walk would be boring, fishing would never be a willing option and I didn't want to leave because I was hungry.

"I'll make you ramen noodles," I offered.

Again, the boy's face lit up as he nodded approvingly in excitement. I guess you could say he was somewhat cute like this: feverish and enthusiastic. He and his dog followed me inside to the kitchen. Rhyse sat on my stool at the kitchen island and watched eagle-eyed.

I opened up the wood cupboard, almost completely full with an assortment of ramen noodles. The aromas were overpowering: curry, chicken, pork, seafood. All of which sounded extremely desirable at the time. They were more for an emergency, like if we ran out of food, or there was an issue with the power and we ran out of food. But I typically just ate them when no one had cooked and I was too lazy to do so.

I set the pot to boil water, chopped up some spring onions, garlic and added some pak choi I found hiding away in the freezer. I thought of the flavouring that came in the packet as a base to the ramen. It was a cheap meal, but you could spice it up (if you pardon the pun) with a few added ingredients to make it feel like you're eating something healthy.

"Any particular flavour you want?" I enquired.

The boy thought for a few seconds and perked up once again when he had his answer. "Whatever the blue one is."

I nodded. Seafood it was.

A couple of minutes after the water started to bubble, I added the flavouring packet and let it sit again.

Rhyse sighed deeply behind me. I turned to face him, shooting him a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look. His eyes were closed and on his face, a content smile; he couldn't detect my mystified expression. I cleared my throat to grab his attention.

His eyes opened and locked onto the boiling water before directing themselves over to me. "It smells so good," he breathed out.

"So weird," I muttered.

"Ah yes. Coming from the wise girl in her pyjamas, mid-afternoon."

I flicked him off. It was loungewear.

At long last, it was time to add the noodles. While they were cooking, I took out two bowls from the cupboard and set one in front of Rhyse and one beside him where I would sit. When they were finished, I tried my best to evenly distribute the noodles in the two bowls and carefully poured on the broth. It did smell incredibly good.

Rhyse practically snatched the fork out of my hand when I offered it to him, putting a fork of noodles straight in his mouth. Almost immediately, cursed and almost spat the food out.

"It's hot," I commented nonchalantly as I took my seat beside him.

Unlike the savage beside me, I made sure to blow whatever was on my fork since I had just watched it come off of the stove. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him glare at me. He then cautiously attempted to eat again, blowing it this time, and even testing it before fully putting it into his mouth.

After the first mouthful, he turned to me, another broad grin on his face and gave me a thumbs up. His dishevelled hair reminded me a lot of noodles in my bowl, although those on his hair were a light brown.

"You have to leave me some of this when you go and bring me some when you come back," he begged, clasping his hands together.

"Hm," I popped a fork of noodles into my mouth, "not sure we have enough to be giving away like that."

Rhyse's smile fell, "you have enough!" He gestured his arm to the open, almost overflowing cupboard of ramen packets.

We also had another box up in the attic, but he didn't need to know that.

"I'll think about it." I flashed him a fake smile.

"You're selfish and you're mean."

"You're a child," I argued back.

Upon seeing my red Polaroid camera sitting on the living room coffee table when my dad passed by it, I felt almost obliged to take a couple of snaps of that moment: Rhyse's first time having noodles and my first time cooking for something without horribly burning it. I brought it back into the kitchen with me.

"Hey Wheeze, make a peace sign with your hands," I said as I checked there was film in my Polaroid.

He did as I said, making a peace sign with his right hand, and I did the same with my left. I made sure at least some of our bowls were in the frame before taking the picture and waited for the image to develop. On that one, I captioned it 'Rhyse's first time eating ramen' and the date. I took another one of Rhyse just as he was about to eat again, he stopped to frown at me but I took no notice of it as I waited to see how the image turned out. Captioning that one 'first time not burning food' along with the date.

Once he finished eating, Rhyse stood up, stretched and proceeded to rub his belly. A horrendous groan emerged from his body.

"Keep eating these, and your body won't look so good," I joked, gesturing towards his torso.

"You think my body looks good?" He sneered, looking down at me and patting his stomach.

I rolled my eyes but didn't disagree because to disagree would be to lie. I, however, was not going to admit that I thought he had a nice body out loud. I'd never look him in the eye again or even look at him for fear he'd tease me about it. I knew he'd tease me about it. He was that kind of person.

"Thank you for the ramen anyway," he chirped, shifting the subject and going to place his bowl in the sink.

==========================================================

So what do you guys think of this story so far? Do you like Rhyse or think he's a little strange? How about Sophia?

Also if you enjoyed this chapter don't forget to vote. Thank you for reading! :)

Next chapter will be up next Wednesday 6pm GMT.