Misfits

three

Glad that we all agreed on me being the nicest fish in the tank, I entered the store and looked around curiously.

The word that would describe it best was simple. The plain shelves didn't leave much room for imagination, and the only decoration I spotted were faded postcards someone had stuck on the wall behind the cash register.

As I was strolling through the store I thought about what I could make for dinner. I wasn't a great cook since I could only ever build my skills when Ruby and I were up for some homemade food. Most times we settled for takeaway stuff, but on rare occasions we craved something special.

Mom almost never left the house due to her working from home, so we never really were out of food. Also, she didn't trust me enough to prepare a meal which was probably a wise decision when considering that I had almost burned down Ruby's flat on more than one occasion.

All this had led to me being a pretty awful cook who had just promised Michael to take care of dinner. What if I would poison him?

Hell, even that would be better than rice cakes and peanut butter or the frozen beans and potatoes he had made yesterday. With that thought in mind I decided to trust in my abilities as a cook – after all, what could go wrong?

Great. Now I just had to come up with something I could actually make.

I eyed the packs of rice that were all neatly strung in a line. Rice was easy. I could make rice.

Movement on my left side caught my eye, and I turned my head just in time to see Asher turning away from me. I raised a brow as he froze, realizing I had already spotted him before he could disappear behind a shelf.

"You weren't trying to hide, were you?" I asked. "It would be embarrassing if you were."

He rolled his eyes. "I was actually trying to avoid unpleasant conversation, but would you look at that, it can't avoid me."

I eyed the shopping basket in his hands. "Stuck with dinner preparations?" I asked, almost sounding sympathetic. Woah, I needed to stop that. I could only pity one person at a time, and right now that was me.

"I call it being a decent son," he replied with a shrug. "Were you paid to come here? I can't actually imagine you doing the same."

I rolled my eyes and slightly turned away. "Rude."

The rice wasn't looking very delicious, probably because it was still uncooked and in plastic bags, and I decided to find something else. I was in a store full of food, there had to be something for me.

"Wait," I said, surprising myself a little. "You don't have any idea what I could cook, have you?"

Asher frowned. "Why would I help you? You just called me rude," he replied rather dryly, and I sighed.

"Because you are. You could try and be nice for once," I said.

He raised one hand to scratch the back of his neck, still carrying the shopping basket in his other one as his eyes scanned over to groceries in front of us.

"You could make some ravioli," he said after a few seconds. "I like them with cheese."

I raised a brow. "That's actually not that bad of an idea. Congrats, rude boy."

Asher sighed and grabbed his basket with both hands. "Why do I even bother at this point," he mumbled, already turning away. I just smiled a little and went to find the ravioli.

After I had found everything I needed for dinner, I grabbed a box of cereal and a bottle of milk and headed towards the cash register. I paid and left the shop, not bothering to check if Asher was still there. His idea for dinner had been pretty helpful, but I didn't need to actually properly thank him for it.