here and back again

Amber was attempting to make crepes, which looked more like a heavy pancake instead. Perhaps, this wasn't her best day to cook, after her first morning of campus classes.

"Don't say anything." She slightly frowned as she placed the mess in front of Kyle. It was dinner. Of course, Rosie had been easy to please. She played with hers in syrup along with strawberries.

"I wasn't." He looked back at her who was at the stove.

"Yes, you were, you know, yours would have been perfect." She plopped her own on the plate and pull extra cool whip on top. Hers were a bit burned while his might have been a tad undercooked.

"How do you know that?" He winced at her who sat down across from them at their tiny dining table.

She sighed. He always had a way of doing things better. How to get the outsides of baked potatoes crusty or how you knew when a steak was done without it being over cooked.

He took a bite then and ate quietly. She managed to work at the pancake, but she just wanted the strawberries.

"Look, I wish you'd gone to the west coast like you wanted to this summer." He finally said as if that would have made the difference about everything.

"Now, how could I have done that?" She tensed.

"You had your money saved up. You could have gone." He looked as if this was all his fault. Her unhappiness.

"That would have been completely selfish. This isn't about me, going off somewhere." She sighed.

"I'm sorry you have to spend all your time with Rosie." Kyle looked at her then.

"This is not about Rosie, really. I-I love Rosie." She sighed. "Its jut having to sit with that Aunt of Olivia's, day in and day out. Really, I'd rather stay away from her."

"I thought you two got along." Kyle squinted then as he forked through a few pieces of food and finally took a bite.

"She thinks we do. But, she, she's kind of crazy, Kyle. I think she needs real help, you know. I can't watch her like a hawk and Rosie too."

Kyle just nodded.

"She thinks I'm Olivia, half the time. And-and if that's not enough, this woman shows up and she tells her I'm Olivia, and she gets all weepy. And before I know it, she's crying on my shoulder and somehow, she seems to think she's got a grand-daughter."

"What? What do you mean?" Kyle winced more.

"I dunno. I don't even know for sure who this woman is, but-but it might be Olivia's mother." Amber shrugged.

"We have to tell Olivia." Kyle told her.

"I dunno. I know, it sounds like I'm making this up, but summer is over. I've got these classes now. And, and really, how much longer are we going to stay here, Kyle?" Amber hugged herself then.

"Maybe, it won't be bad this winter." Kyle sighed.

"We live in a tool shed."

"Carriage-house."

"More like an oven this summer and it'll be a deep freeze this winter." She told him.

"OK, we'll leave." Kyle looked at Rosie then.

"We could get into college housing or something." She guessed that wouldn't mean they'd have to get married. Or would it? It was sort of a happy thought, and yet it wasn't.