By: Claire Liu

Scroll, swipe, text, click. I smile as my thumbs busy themselves on my Phone’s keyboard. My mom hates when I spend too much time on my phone, but she’s in a meeting right now, so she can’t do anything about it.

Dinner was on me tonight, but that didn’t really concern me. I’ve cooked my own food plenty of times. As I rummaged through the kitchen cabinets I inserted my AirPods and began blasting music.

I felt like Ramen today, and we only had two cups left. I usually microwave my noodles; cooking them takes too long.

Water, Microwave, Drain. So easy. Who could possibly mess up Ramen? Scrolling through texts on my phone, I prepared the noodles, my eyes still glued to the screen.

I made my way to the table, fingers still swiping and scrolling. Group chats were so active these days.

Click. Tap. Swipe. Before I knew it, the familiar beeping of the microwave echoed through the kitchen. My eyes stayed focused on my phone, I made my way to dinner.

Getting the cup out of the microwave was the easier part. Draining the water was the hard part. My hands trembled against the steaming cup as I carried the Ramen towards the sink.

Humming to Taylor Swift, I tilted the cup towards the drain, watching the water slowly seep out.

Ugh, when did I add this song to my playlist?

Ignoring the noodles slowly creeping towards the edge of the cup, I lifted an arm to skip the currently playing song.

Such a stupid move.

I watch in horror as my entire dinner falls into the sink. One by one, the noodles disappeared down the drain.

No.

No.

No.

No.

I shake my head in disbelief. Good Job, me.

That despair lasted about two minutes, before I came to my senses and realized there was one more cup of Ramen in the cabinets. I knew I had to be careful draining them this time. In a blur, I grab the cup, add the seasoning, and start the microwave.

Taking a seat, I immediately open my phone and inform my friends.

Guess what guys? I just poured all my Ramen into the drain.

I laughed at my friends’ replies.

OMG, only you could screw up Ramen!

Learn how to actually cook!

I guess I was a little too absorbed with my phone, because I didn’t notice my mom walk into the kitchen. I ALSO didn’t notice how the kitchen had suddenly gotten so smoky, with gray clouds coming from…. The microwave!

“Claire! Get off your phone!” My mom snapped. “And what’s that smell? Did you burn something?”

I flinch. I race to the microwave, coughing through the growing smoke now drifting around. Shoot. I forgot to add water. Mentally slapping myself, I squeeze my nose from the smoke and remove the cup from the microwave. The dried-up clump of noodles was burned to an ashy black crisp. Bye bye, second attempt at dinner, I thought as I tossed it into the trash.

I watched My mom fan the smoke towards the opened windows. “How am I supposed to trust you after this? If you had stayed on that phone of yours, the kitchen could’ve burned down!”

Yep. After that disaster I got my phone taken away for a month. But, fortunately during that time, I didn’t have a single cooking accident in the kitchen. Unfortunately, that was only because my mom didn’t trust me to cook my own food at all. I guess I had that coming. Lesson learned, Claire.