Heart | N.H.

twenty five - mesmerize

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will."

"Fine, I will."

I grinned triumphantly. "Victory!" I proceeded to do a victory dance, which involved me flapping my arms like a chicken and parading around my kitchen in my elephant-shaped fuzzy slippers.

Seated on a stool by the counter, Niall watched me with a disbelieving sort of smirk on his face. "You're absolutely ridiculous."

I paused and clicked my tongue at him. "I am not ridiculous at all."

"Yes, you are. And you're a bad influence on me. First you convince me to be vegetarian for a week, and now you're dragging me to an art show."

"Neither of which you've tried before. So how do you know you won't like it?"

Scowling, he said, "I already don't like the veg thing. We had bacon for breakfast. Bacon, Miracle. And I couldn't have any. It was the sickest form of torture I've ever had to endure."

"Niall, do you know where they get pork from-"

He raised his hands as if to fend me off. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I don't need the whole lecture on animal cruelty again." Resting his elbows on the counter and leaning forward, he attempted to peer at what I was doing. "Are you sure you know how to cook this dish? I mean, you're not exactly a whiz in the kitchen."

"Relax, I wouldn't have survived this long if I didn't know how to cook a few dishes," I said—and then invalidated my point by dropping an egg on the floor.

"Oh, bravo," Niall cheered sarcastically.

"Shut up. I haven't cooked with eggs since I switched to vegan." I watched the yoke spread across the tiles with vague dismay. "Maybe if we just don't say anything my parents won't even notice."

"I'll get the goddamn mop. Just get back to cooking," Niall grunted.

"You're the best," I singsonged, grabbing a tomato.

"You're the absolute worst. Don't cut yourself with that knife."

Surprisingly, we managed to get through the rest of the cooking process without any major catastrophes and without the house burning down. (This merited another happydance on my part, and this time Niall joined in, waving the spatula and splattering grease all over my shirt—the dunce.) And when I cut up the vegetable frittata and served it up, Niall only took one bite before promptly emptying half the pan onto his plate.

"I told you so." I grinned at him slyly over my fruit salad.

"Diff if hrilly gud," Niall said through a stuffed mouth.

 I smiled at him sweetly. "If you just lived your life according to everything I ever said-"

"I would be in a mental asylum," he finished with certainty. "One frittata does not a role model make." He set his fork down and pushed his chair back from the table. "I need to get going soon, but I'll see you at seven in the evening. And then we'll go and look at a bunch of colored pieces of paper and-"

"Niall! Colored pieces of paper? This is going to be an amazing art exhibit."

"Let's be realistic here. I'm only going because two of your pieces are being featured."

I hid my blush by springing up from the table and collecting the plates to put in the sink. "Just in the student talent section. It was nice of Mrs. Pibble and Mrs. Domingo to even nominate me from our school."