Free Unknown by Nabila Anjum Page B

sight of the duo currently slaving in the kitchen.
     
    "Cooking?" I interrupt, sniffing and attempting to guess the items on tonight's menu.
     
    "Oh yeah", Kate speaks from behind the stove.
     
    "Well, I hope you're hungry", adds Beth, wearing a pink tank top and gray pajamas with little pizza slices on them, underneath a Bugs Bunny apron.
     
    Smacking. The girl, not the pie.
     
    "Actually, I already ate", I answer, and all at once her face loses all its perk as she turns towards the pot to regard it with somewhat savage focus.
     
    "But, I'd be happy to divest you of an ample sized portion, if you're valiant enough to stomach my even handed unbiased much-needed opinion on it."
     
    And just like that the sorrow lifts and I get what I want. A brilliantly illuminating, thousand-megawatt smile that rocks my world. Been rocking it since 1998.
     
    "By opinion, you mean criticism", she scoffs, her brows raised in a mock sneer.
     
    "And it isn't needed, thank you very much", jibes Kate, sticking her tongue at me like a true five-year-old.
     
    I laugh and quickly raise my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, peace out. I'll eat and keep my comments to a bare minimum unless they are flattering. Okay? No, don't even think about throwing that spoon at me Kate".
     
    Of course, a wooden spoon comes sailing at my head right that very instant.
     
    According to the unspoken dictum of wise old men who valued their hides, if the ladies were in charge of cooking, the men should assume the duty of setting the table. And I considered myself a wise man.
     
    I had suggested, in a decidedly Shakespearian flourish, that we eat in the balcony, under the cover of a full moon and starlit sky, which earned me some weird stares. Clearly I was no Shakespeare.
     
    But at least I was a civilized human. Which is more than can be said about Kate.
     
    “Umm! This is awesome, thank you Godddd !! Pass me some spaghetti Beth. Holy moly, the meatballs, uummmm…..did you taste it yet? No, don't Nick, GODDAMN, YOU COW! I thought you ate dinner already. "
     
    Kate, in keeping up with the spirit of her true gluttonous self, proceeds to devour two bowls of pasta, five biggest meatballs, and a can of diet
    coke, in between bouts of moaning over the remaining ones and scowling at anyone who approaches them with a fork.
     
    "What? Are you for real?" I growl when she dips her greedy fingers in my platter. Clearly, I wasn't the cow here.
     
    "Mine", she yaps, yanking the tiny puny meatball away. "Do you have any idea how long I've tasted food like this"?
     
    “Oh, for the love of God, where have you been living? A cave?”
    Even cavemen wouldn’t snatch fellow cavemen’s food.
     
    "Ha", she snorts while shoving the food, my food, in her mouth with single-minded determination. “I’ve been living in a pen. On sandwiches. Vegetarian sandwiches. It's my equivalent of grass grazing".
     
    "Don't you guys have café's or deli near your workplace?"
     
    "Sucks, all of them. Nothing compares to this. Eating out is unhealthy, besides. The last time I ate such food was___", she trails off uncomfortably and an awkward silence ensues. The last time she'd tasted such food was the last time Beth cooked for us.
     
    Our life, it sometimes seemed, was one fragile bubble that rested on a spike of awkward moments interspersed with old memories. One tiny nudge was all it took to burst it open.
     
    "Anyways", she continues a few seconds later, "I think I'm full. And since we cooked, Nick gets to clear this mess. I'm off to bed".
     
    That proclamation was accompanied by a yawn so loud, no way was it spontaneous.
     
    "This early?" Beth questions incredulously, a direct echo of my thoughts.
     
    “Yeah, well, I’m kinda tired, journey and all, plus Ryder promised to take me rock climbing early morning tomorrow."
     
    "How early? At the crack of dawn?" I question, dripping sarcasm from my tongue, my eyes, and my chin. Who was she fooling with her early morning escapades