Creamy Chicken Ramen

Saye's eyes widened and she jumped up from Darren's lap, squirming her way back to the passenger seat. Darren's heart pounded as he tried to see who was standing outside. For a split second, his life flashed before his eyes as he imagined me being the one outside.

But thankfully for him, it wasn't.

He stood outside, peering down at them with a black umbrella in his hand. If you had super vision, and if you zoomed into his green eyes, you'd see it darken with disgust.

He knocked again and Darren opened the door slightly so as to not let any rain in. His delightful smile from the moments with his new girlfriend fell and he narrowed his eyes instead.

"Adrien."

Darren had expected a smile and a small joke from him. Those were the attributes Dad had given him. So he was duly surprised when Adrien simply locked Darren's narrowed gaze with a similar deadly one.

"Are both of you lovebirds getting out already? I haven't got all day."

"How did you know we were coming?" Darren asked another question back, glancing at the extra umbrella in his left hand.

"The cook," Adrien said, not bothering to explain further. Darren had discussed with his team about this move of course, way before telling Saye. Since it was such an important mission, even the cook was actually an agent in disguise from the inner circle.

"Ah yes…the cook," he said and got out of the car, relying on Adrien's umbrella before opening up the spare and walking over to the other side to collect Saye.

Her hair face was still flustered and the three were slightly wet by the time they crossed the gate and walked towards the driveway.

Adrien glanced at Saye once before saying, "You might want to fix your hair."

Her eyes widened and she lifted her hands to pat her hair down, Darren holding the umbrella for her. He shot a glare at Adrien, "You better mind your own business."

The other simply shrugged, unfazed.

Darren's heart had started pounding again now. So Adrien knew. About them both. Now, more than anything, his only worry was whether Adrien would break the truth to the one person in the world who he wanted to hide this from. Me, who was technically just a couple of walls away from them.

In front of the mansion, Darren led Saye in but didn't get in himself.

"Go in for now. I'll come and say bye later. And…Ashe's room is on the far right on the ground floor. So you might want to avoid that area."

Saye nodded innocently before walking in with her suitcase. She didn't forget to give a second glance to Adrien, though. He was pretty good-looking. What with those luscious green eyes and cottony blonde hair. And that invisible smile even when he frowned. The traces of a tiny dimple on his right cheek, which was smooth yet chiseled at the same time. And the....what am I saying? I hate that arrogant jerk.

Anyway, back to where we were.

"We need to talk," Darren ordered, stopping Adrien from entering the house. He sighed and took an about-turn before walking towards the back pool.

"Come then. There's a summer-house behind the pool. No one will hear us there," Adrien ordered back.

Darren curled his fingers into tight fists. "I know, you punk. I'm the one who bought this place," he muttered to himself before following Adrien to the little summer house.

.............

I was in a super-heated ramen slurping competition with Romeo. He sat on one end of the long table, his eyebrows knotted in concentration. I sat on the other end, my hand grabbing the table tightly.

SLUURRRRRPP!!

I tilted my head back to take it all in, licking the gravy from the sides of my mouth. "Haaa…."

Then I drowned my head in the bowl again to slurp some more. Romeo stood up now, grabbing the bowl in his hands, "You're going down!"

I smirked and held the bowl and walked to him so that we were standing eye to eye. We had abandoned our chopsticks and forks by this time.

"Final round," I declared, staring into his eyes.

Jae-suk was standing between us and he glanced at our bowls, "Guys. This is your sixth bowl. You need to stop."

Romeo and I whipped our heads simultaneously at the Korean boy, "NOOO!!!" we both screamed at him and I held the rim of the bowl to my lips.

Final round started.

I took in gulp by gulp, the hot strings of creamy chicken flavored ramen travelled down my burning throat. My eyes went wide in strain and I looked back at my bowl. There was still a lot left.

Luca cooed from his room on the top floor as he came down the stairs and saw there was competition going on. "You can do it Ashe!!!"

I smiled and took another gulp and Romeo looked up at the boy in betrayal, "Bro, whose side are you on?"

Luca had come down now and he stood next to me, peering into both of our bowls. He crossed his arms and smirked, "The winning side, of course," he chuckled.

Romeo tipped his head back and I watched in astonishment as he took the biggest gulp I had ever seen in the 16 years of my life.

Oh no. When he brought the bowl back down, it was only half empty.

I still had three-fourth to complete. It was a big bowl.

Luca gasped at the sudden game change. I looked at him pleadingly as I saw his feet move towards Romeo. "Luca…"

He laughed, "I'm kidding. Keep fighting Ashe!"

Ethan walked around us, the compact camera I had brought from home in his hands, shooting us enthusiastically.

"And Romeo's Major Slurp changes the entire game! He is leading now and at this rate, he might even win the game! The pressure is intense! What is Ashe doing at this major setback?" Ethan commented on, trying hard to be a famous MyTuber.

He set the camera on my constipated, now almost red face, "There ain't any computer program to make you drink faster eh? What are you going to do Ashe?"

Ughh….I wanted to throw the bowl at him. "Shut it, Tiny Harris," I snapped, my mouth almost full.

"Hey! Just because she has an eyebrow piercing too doesn't mean you can call me that!" he whined at me and at the camera. "I hope you choke on your noodles, Zuckerberg!"

I didn't have time for useless banter. This was a life death situation. I had just reached the half line of my bowl. Romeo was about to finish.

That's it. I was taking the Major Gulp too.

I opened my mouth wide and took a deep breath. I tilted the ramen into my mouth excruciatingly. My tummy was starting to reject the food now.

Still, I persevered. But somewhere in the middle of the Gulp, my eyes darted at the house's entrance door as it swung open.

A tall girl. Soft blonde hair. White crop top. And perfectly toned legs hugged by skinny faded jeans. No makeup on her face but she was dazzling. And I'm not saying this because I personally thought so.

Ethan's face showed it all.

He slowly turned the camera to shoot her entrance, his jaw slightly dropping.

Then it hit me who she was beneath all that dazzle and I choked, stopping my Major Gulp halfway. Luca rushed towards me as I curled forward, coughing relentlessly. The bowl almost fell down from my hand, but Luca snatched it from my trembling fingers and set it on the table.

"Ashe! Ashe are you okay?" he asked bending down with me to take a look at my face. I looked up in pain. My stomach. It was revolting. I felt like there was a washing machine down there now, ready to explode.

I groaned.

Romeo dropped his bowl too and rushed to me. "Tell me you're okay!"

I shook my head, my eyes fell on Saye, who was smirking and walking towards me.

"Ah," she said in her honey drippy voice, "Yet again you do something you aren't capable of. When will you learn?"

"You're not my teacher," I said and then regretted it instantly. She was going to retort now, harshly. And I would end up crying and hurting even more. These weren't speculations. Saye had done it to me before.

Most importantly, why was she here?

What business did she have here?

What new plan did she cook up?

Couldn't she leave me alone for two weeks at least?

Did she 'love' me that much?

I wanted to whip all these spiteful things on her face as revenge for all she had done. Humiliate her in front of all these boys. Girls hate that. Getting humiliated in front of boys their age or older. It's one of the only things that stick in their heads for a long time.

And humiliate her in front of Ethan, who just now had a stunning impression of her.

"But I am your friend," she said, smiling sadistically.

Ethan didn't see the sadistic part of the smile, though. He closed my camera and turned to me, "Your friend is right, Ashe. You shouldn't have done it."

My eyes widened at him. He was the one shooting the entire thing! I let out a sigh. No wonder why girls aimed to be pretty.

There were some boys, even quite decent ones, who would go all puppy at their feet.

I stood up straight and grabbed the bowl. "Let's finish this Romeo." I needed to prove Saye wrong.

Romeo didn't move. "No…we can't. You'll be sick."

"Pick. Up. The. Bowl," I ordered, my voice as commanding as I got it to be.

Romeo's hand reached towards it and nodded sheepishly. "Okay, then," he gave in, seeing the determination in my eyes.

As I proceeded to sip, Saye laughed and snatched the bowl out of my hands, "Move away amateur," she said then leaned closer so that only I could hear. "I might hate you but I don't want you to die."

My breath hitched as I looked at this girl.

Did Saye just…just care for me?