Awkward Silence

By the time Jason arrived at Conner’s house, everyone else had gotten there. After being met at the door by Conner’s mom and introducing himself, he was shown into the kitchen, said hi to everyone that was there, and got to work on his dish.

As it turned out the table was empty except for Mel who was doing something with shrimp. Everyone else seemed busy for the moment and not paying much attention to what was going on at the table.

“Hi,” He greeted Mel with a smile and put down the bag of ingredients. “What are you making?”

“Hey, oh…um… bacon-wrapped shrimp.” She wrapped another piece of bacon around the shrimp and put a toothpick in it. Her blue eyes watched as he started to pull out the different ingredients for his dish. “How about you? What are you making?”

“Maque Choux,” Jason responded.

“I have no idea what that is,” The girl’s comment was light, more of a question than a statement.

“Oh, it’s a Cajun dish made with corn, onions, bell peppers, garlic, heavy cream, and Cajun spices. More of a side dish.” He was handed a cutting board and knife by Kaylee who figured out he must need to chop stuff. After thanking the girl, the boy set to work cutting up the vegetables.

“That sounds good,” Mel said.

“Yours does as well,” Jason responded.

An almost awkward silence hung in the air between the two for the next few minutes. Neither seemed to know what to say to each other. Melissa was trying to just pay attention to her shrimp, but it really didn’t take that much concentration. Jason was trying to seem like he was far more interested in chopping vegetables than was actually possible.

Kaylee who was standing next to her older brother, elbowed him. Matt responded with a nod, indicating he had noticed the two at the table and how awkward the silence between them seemed.

“I’m thirsty, Matt you want to help me get some sodas.” Kaylee then asked Mel and Jason what sodas they wanted and the brother and sister headed outside.

The awkwardness between the two continued until Mel spoke up, “I didn’t realize that you’d be here.”

Jason didn’t really know how to respond to that, “I just said to put me wherever.”

Melissa was also feeling awkward but wasn’t quite sure why. The two had agreed to just be friends. She was by no means ready to date anyone again, not even go on a date. There was though something about the boy that always piqued her interest. Maybe, she should just have Courtney stop her before jumping into anything.

So, the silence stretched until Kaylee and Matt returned with the sodas, by that time Mel was ready to cook the shrimp. Jason kept putting together his dish. Both wondered if it was always going to be that awkward between them.