While everyone started to leave the kitchen to get back to fixing up the camp, Zeke found himself remaining in his chair, enjoying every last scrap of food he could get his hands on. Zeke groaned.
”Seriously, Marco, how does anyone get this good at cooking? You’re a god,” he declared.
Marco chuckled softly at Zeke’s proclamation as he went to pick up the empty dishes off the table.
”Well, have a busy father, no mother and a best friend’s mother that thinks the height of cooking is casseroles. Add in a dash of religious grandmother that while she hates your existence wants the recipes to live on so she teaches you, and you get… me.” “My mother is obsessed with casseroles. In a vague way this is unhealthy. If it weren’t for Marco I’d have grown up exclusively on them. But mom would watch us both when she could. So thank the gods he learned how to cook and took over. Also, yes, he is a god, in more ways than one.” Em grinned and winked. She hopped off the counter.
“Alright, clean up time? Want help again?” ”Hey, don’t knock a good casserole,” Zeke said. He finished eating and set the dishes that needed to be washed beside the sink.
”I could help clean. I don’t feel like doing manual labour quite yet,” he said.
”A good one, sure. But for every meal, every dinner? And with ingredients that really shouldn’t be in a casserole? Nope.” Marco stretched a bit and looked over at the pile of dishes and the things he still needed to wash.
”You know, I won’t turn down help from my favorite woman, and you Zeke. It will help make the pile of dishes go down faster.”Em leaned in and kissed Marco’s cheek.
“Happy to help.” She tossed her paper plate and put her flatware in the sink.
“I’ll wash, you bring me stuff. Zeke, you dry and then Marco can put stuff away.” That made sense to Em because Marco would know what went where or at least he could set up his own system. She started the water.
”Sure!” Zeke said with a smile, happy to be included. He picked up a towel and leaned against the counter while he waited for Em to get started on washing.
”So, did you two grow up together or something?” Zeke asked. He picked up that that was the most likely scenario with how Marco talked about his mom’s best friend, and Em mentioned her mom was the casserole queen.
”Well, we met at pre-school, and have been friends since then. My dad was usually busy, so I spent a lot of time at Em’s place so that I wasn’t home alone. I got to spend more time with my best friend, so it was a win for me, even if we got in a whole lot of trouble, due to Em.” Marco chuckled as he looked at Em and winked a bit, and then went to bring Em more stuff to wash.
“I am the queen of getting us into trouble. Actually the first day we met I got into trouble for punching another kid.” She smiled proudly over her shoulder.
“He deserved it. And so has every other one.” Zeke watched the pair of them, looking back and forth as they shared their story with him. He picked up a dish and started to dry.
”I can relate. Although, my sister and I usually swap back and forth on the punching someone,” he joked.
”So friends since pre-school and now you guys are…a couple? Sorry, you seem close. Like really close. The only one I’m that close to is my sister, so I’m just assuming,” Zeke said, rambling now.
”Yeah, we’re dating. But… according to… a birdy, you’re rather close to someone else~ Or am I wrong~” Marco giggled softly as he looked at Zeke and wiggled his brows a bit.
Em turned from her washing to look at Zeke,
“Oooh, tell me.” She continued to scrub the dishes, and rinsed them off for Zeke to dry.
Zeke busied himself with drying dishes, feeling heat creep up the back of his neck to his face.
”I mean, well, ya…Demi and I made it official on the way up here, actually. I didn’t really know he liked me,” Zeke confessed.
”He was always just that annoying guy that hung out at the music store I work at a little too long every day…” As soon as Zeke said it outloud he wanted to smack himself. Duh.
Marco just had to laugh at that as he took a stack of dried dishes, and then set them off to the side where he could find them later.
”It’s usually obvious after something happens. But glad it has worked out for you two.” He chuckled softly and then moved off to find the cups and put them in the sink.
“Aww, good. I’m glad you two have hooked up then. I had a feeling when he was wearing your shirt at lunch.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Zeke. She was scrubbing a pan, but because it was particularly stuck on she was behind the other two.
Zeke blushed more, rubbing the back of his neck.
”Ya, I'm kind of excited. It'll be my first relationship that is out. I've been with girls and guys, but the guys have never wanted to go public even though I'm out as bi at my school. It feels good to be with a guy who wants to be seen with me.” ”Oh wow. Yeah, it is scary being out. You have every right to be excited for this relationship. Demi’s pretty darn cute. I was gonna try to hook up with him, but I have respect for new relationships.” Marco leaned over and then took over the pan from Em and kissed her on the cheek.
”I’ve got this pan. I think I burnt something.” “All yours,” Em said. She stepped aside and dried off her hands.
“Yeah, being out is tough. Especially if you’ve got a straight passing relationship.” She nodded at Marco, and then gestured to herself.
“You’ll figure it out though. And if you need someone to get punched for being asses to you let me know. I’ve gotten very good at it.” Something twitched inside Zeke when Marco confessed his attraction to Demi, but he seemed to back off right away. He glanced between Em and Marco.
”Oh! Are you two in an open relationship, then?” Zeke asked, genuinely curious about the idea of an open relationship.
Marco had to laugh as Em said that she had gotten very good at punching people who were asses.
”Ah, my dear Em. The only person I know that willing got herself in trouble to end up here with me.” He chuckled as he scrubbed off the pan and then turned to Zeke.
”Oh, yeah. We’re both bi, so we both are attracted to people of the same sex. And I’m not gonna stop Em if she finds a woman she wants to have a good time with. We both come back to each other, and we’re very much in love.” “And if he finds some cute guy he wants to have fun with I’m definitely not stopping him. Or he can always share.” Em grinned. She leaned against a counter.
“No reason to be jealous when you know that the other person would do anything for you. And will always come back to you. I’ve loved Marco since that first day of pre-school. No one else matters to me near as much as he does. I told my mom that day when I went home that I’d marry him.”Zeke smiled at that.
”That actually makes a lot of sense when you explain it like that. Did you actually punch someone just so you could come to this camp with Marco?” Zeke asked Em.
”Oh, no. She was already making illegal bathtub wine, and she let herself get caught. Which just made me fall in love with her more. I’ve adored Em since that day we met and she punched someone for asking me why I was dirty. She’s my everything. And yes, Em’s much better at explaining it than me.” Marco handed off the pan to Zeke to have him dry it.
Em laughed.
“Oh, what Marco said. I didn’t punch someone to get here. Though I’ve punched many a racists dicks since meeting Marco. They never got me in trouble with the law. The bathtub wine in the dorm room... well it wasn’t my fault that the RA did an unannounced room search right?” Her tone implied that she likely had been the one to tip off the RA to search the room.
Zeke took the tray from Marco, shaking his head as he dried it.
”You two are crazy,” he declared. But he was also growing quickly fond of them. They both seemed like genuinely good people. Odd to find at a camp full of delinquents, but that was usually because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
”Maybe we’re crazy, but you’re the guy cleaning and drying dishes without a shirt. But you did get it stolen, so I can’t fault you.” Marco chuckled more as he looked over at Zeke and then went back to washing the plates.
“You know the best part. I don’t care what most people think about me. I get to live my life and be happy. People get punched when they mess up that feeling.” With the dishes dry, Em looked around the kitchen not sure what to do next. She too wasn’t quite ready to go back out into the heat of the day. Though the lake sounded like fun.
“Do you need help with anything else before I head back out?” Em decided to just ask the person who she was there helping.
Zeke chuckled at Marco, drying up the last of the dishes before he grinned at Em.
”I like that philosophy,” he said. He set the, now damp towel, out to dry and looked about the kitchen.
”Ya, do you want help prepping for supper or something?”Marco looked over at both Em and Zeke, and thought.
”Hmmm I wouldn’t mind help with prepping for dinner. I was thinking of just doing burgers or something simple. We don’t really have a lot in the way of food, and spices. I’m gonna have to save the gumbo for once Dobbs hauls up some more stuff for us, sorry Em. They might have a deep fryer here, and if not, the oven will work for fries. Not sure what to do for a veggie yet, as there are no fresh ones.” “Not to defend Dobbs here... but I think he had to hike everything up here himself. There doesn’t seem to be a good road up here, which I would like to not think about how that’ll work in case of an emergency other than getting a helicopter.” Em started opening cupboards to try to see what options there were.
Somehow, Zeke's stomach grumbled at the thought of burgers and gumbo.
”I'm gonna get fat eating here, aren't I?” However, Zeke didn't mind. With all the physical labour, he was sure to work off whatever he put on.
”Do we even have bagged fries? Or are we going old school and cutting up potstoes?”Marco went over to the freezer and then opened the door. He poked his head in and saw that there were bagged frozen french fries.
”Lucky for us, there are bagged fries. And I’m not mad at Dobbs, just mostly saying that I want to cook fancier for us than the camp had planned.” “Well, we will probably be carrying things tomorrow morning when Dobbs comes in. Maybe we will be nice and wait for him at the parking lot to show how excited we are for things like coffee.” Em held up the large salt container.
“Well, at least he believes in salt.” Zeke clapped and rubbed his hands together. Excellent.
”Well at least if we're pack mules we'll be able to make more room for your delicious food, Marco.”Marco chuckled at that and blushed a little at Zeke’s words.
”Yeah, salt is good to have. And yeah, we can help Dobbs carry everything out of the truck when he arrives tomorrow morning. Especially for coffee and spices.” “Do you want help taking inventory? Deciding what else you want for the rest of the week? Or anything? We’ve got a few hours till dinner. So I doubt you’d start cooking anything right now unless it is like pulled pork.” Em put the salt back in the cupboard. There weren’t a lot of other spices in the cupboard. She could understand why Marco was so irritated, and why Gumbo would have to wait.
”Maybe I should bring some water to the others. See how they are doing.” Zeke realized there wasn't a lot for him to do in the kitchen until they had more supplies. Which wouldn't happen until tomorrow.
Marco sighed as they realized there really wasn't too much to do until there was more food, especially since he was planning such a simple meal.
”Yeah, water to the others would be a good idea. As for inventory, that might be nice, but if you want to head out to the lake, go ahead. I’ll figure this place out by myself.” “I’ll help with inventory for a bit,” Em said. She went and grabbed her notepad and pencil. Knowing what they had would help know what they needed. If they had to be here for a week before any major provisions were brought up she wanted to make sure they’d be taken care of.
“After that I’ll hit up the lake for a bit, then I’ll go back to work clearing trails.” ”Ya, I should check in with Aster and my sister, too. I'm looking forward to cooling off in the lake after.” Zeke scrambled around, looking for a basket to put some water in but he came up empty handed. He sighed and opted for just gathering as many as he could in arms and cradled them there and against his chest.
”Well, I'm off! Thanks again for cooking, Marco. See you guys later.” Zeke flashed them both a bright grin before heading out.
Marco chuckled a bit and then looked over at Em.
”It’s going to be a very interesting summer.” He walked over to the pantry to start doing inventory with his beloved, and cuddled in close.
Em leaned into Marco.
“I’m looking forward to it actually. I like these three. They’ll be interesting. So far I’ve spent the most time with Nancy and she’s a little odd, but honestly a delight. After this is all over I hope we can stay friends with them.” She took notes as they went through the cupboards. Making colorful commentary about how disappointed she was in the dearth of good things.
Scrawl Banditta
Not a Sayan
Morose
teenangstlife
Achronum
Ohm
VenusSundew
Andreyich
