"Okay, so according to this recipe, I need to turn the stove onto medium heat and let the pan heat up," I say, talking myself through trying to cook a steak. "Then I just need to put the steak on the pan! Sounds easy enough." I dig through my Walmart bags, looking for the steak seasoning Ryder made me get, and season both sides of the piece of meat. "I hope that's how you're supposed to do it." I shrug, then throw the steak onto the pan, and turn to make some mashed potatoes.

One hour later, I'm a mess, the kitchen is a mess, and I think my whole life is a mess. There's smoke rolling out of the kitchen, and I had to open a window and my front door to let it air out. I somehow have mashed potatoes dried into my hair, and I groan thinking of how difficult that will be to wash out. The walls are coated in Coke, which got shaken up somehow, and when I went to open the bottle, it exploded all around me. That's also going to be fun to wash.

I hear footstep running up behind me, and I see Ryder running in with a terrified look. "Are you okay? I saw smoke!" he exclaims, shaking me slightly by the shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I sigh. "This is why I don't cook," motioning to the chaos that is my apartment right now. Ryder chuckles, then leads me out the front door, down the sidewalk, and into his apartment, which is still as dark as last time.

Ryder brings out two slices of pizza and hands them to me. "Sorry it's not much. If I would've know that someone," he says with emphasis, looking sternly, yet jokingly at me, "would've completely screwed up her dinner, I would've got something else."

"Ryder, pizza is great. Thank you. You really didn't have to do this, you know," I say kindly.

"What did I say earlier? Never leave a damsel in distress," he reminds me, to which I roll my eyes. After that, we eat in silence, with me sneaking a grateful glance at the boy sitting next to me every once in awhile, and him quickly looking away when I do.

Once we've finished, Ryder kindly offers to help me clean up, to which I quickly decline. He's already done so much for me today, and I don't want to feel like a burden. Despite my best efforts, however, we're both currently standing in my kitchen, scrubbing away.

"So, how did you manage this?" I look over to see Ryder staring at me quizzically, and I smile and roll my eyes. "Seriously, Corina. It looks like a 10 year old tried to cook."

"Like I said earlier, this is why I don't cook. My mom always did the cooking, and my dad was always working on stuff in the garage. I just so happened to take after my dad," I reply, thinking back to my childhood. I was always in the garage with my dad, putting something new on one of our bikes, changing the oil in one of our vehicles, always tinkering with something that most of the time didn't need tinkering to begin with. We just couldn't leave well enough alone.

"I'll teach you," I hear him say through another chuckle.

"What?" I retort, choking on air out of shock.

"I said, I'll teach you. Idiot." And there's that stupid smirk again. He's moving closer to me with a determined look in his eyes. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought he was coming over to kiss me. He looks like a horny teenage boy, just needing nothing more than a rough makeout session with the girl closest to him. And before I knew it, he was right in front of me, that look in his eyes so prominent, as he leans his head down just centimeters from mine. My breath hitches, my body tenses, my eyes widen, and then it happens.

He plops a handful of mashed potatoes straight onto the top of my head.

The nasty, runny potatoes slip off, running down my face, back, and arms. I shriek in anger, but also joy, and run after him like my life depended on it. "Get back here, Ryder! I need my revenge!" I shriek again and run after him more. I see him duck behind the couch in hopes of hiding, but his tall stature prevents him from hiding well enough. He sees me coming for him, so he climbs the back of the couch and stands in front of it, pausing to catch his breath. This gives me enough time to jump on his back and rub the remaining mashed potatoes all over his shirt. We stand there for a second, me still on his back, him holding onto my legs so I don't fall. I take a deep breath and realize he smells... amazing. Like a scent I can't identify, but it makes me feel so calm. I feel his breath, heavy and fast, as he slightly turns his head to look at me.

Suddenly, we hear my front door open. "Corina, sweetie! I heard screams and just wanted to check in- oh!" Gina exclaims. I quickly shuffle off of Ryder's back as Gina stares at us in disbelief. "So sorry to interrupt! I was just, uh, wow," is all she can say. She quickly turns around to head out, and I feel my whole body blush a bright red.

"No Gina, you're fine! You don't have to leave. Ryder was just here to help me clean up. You see I was trying to cook dinner and..." I trail off, hoping she would at least understand a little just by looking at the mess.

Gina smiles sweetly at me, then sighs. "Oh sweetie, come over one day and I'll attempt to teach you how to not burn the place down." To that, I look to Ryder and see an expression I haven't seen from him before. Is that jealousy?

"I really appreciate that, Gina, but I think I already have a teacher!" I say looking back to Ryder, who seems to settle a little.

Gina appears taken aback at first, then smiles, raising her eyebrows. "Oh, okay, I completely understand. Well, I'll leave you two to it, then," she says with a wink aimed at me. "See you soon, Corina. And Ryder, it was nice to finally see you again." And with that, she turns on her heel and quickly opens the door, but not without turning around and sending one more wink.

Once we're sure Gina is gone, I turn to Ryder and raise my eyebrows dramatically. "Was that jealousy I sensed, Ryder Cunningham?" A smirk starts to form on my face, and Ryder lowers his head to hide the obvious blush forming.

Before I'm able to give him any shit for blushing, he's rushing to the door, mumbling "I gotta go." And now, I'm left all alone, in a messy apartment, with nobody to help me clean up.

----------

So, I didn't expect that to happen. Honestly.

I had no intention of any of that happening in this chapter, but here we are. It happened anyway.

It just fit.

Okay byeeeeeeeeee