Somewhere between Christmas and New Years

"Were, you talking, to somebody in the bathroom?" Gage asked as soon as Macy opened the bathroom door.

"Oh, you're up." She looked down at him in his flannel pants as if she knew exactly what was up. She always had a way of side tracking him.

Macy just smiled and went off to the kitchen to see what Rico was cooking. He was going to follow, but he went to the bathroom instead to check on what she was cleverly talking about.

A few minutes later he was in the kitchen with her Mom and Dad and Rico flipping homemade flour tortillas. Rico made fresh fixings for the egg burritos. Honestly, Gage was certain Rico couldn't give out any secrets on his cooking because Gage was sure he made it up as he went.

"So were you talking to Chandler?" Gage casually brought up as he bit into a crispy bacon strip.

"What were we talking about?" As usual Macy had a way of avoiding things she didn't want to talk about.

Gage wanted to be mad with her, but he couldn't.

Rico brought Gage a paper plate with a hot tortilla and soft scrambled eggs.  Gage thanked him and went to fix it up.

"How is Chandler these days?" Macy's mom wanted to know. "I never see him."

"I think he has a boyfriend now." Macy shrugged.

Gage kept an eye on Macy wondering who she could be talking too. He knew for a fact it wasn't Chandler.

"Well, Dickie's seeing a cheerleader."

Rico looked at his father startled.

"What?" Everything was going so well. He didn't feel so bad about moving in with his father and Macy's mother now. All though, all his friends were still in Carpus Christie. "Oh..that.."

He remembered the Christmas ball. Why did he even mention it? It did seem important to his Dad that he was meeting the right people. "She's not a cheerleader, anymore, Dad."

Rico served his Dad next and then his wife Melanie. Naturally, Macy got up to help herself.

"But, you, like her." Her dad pointed out.

"I guess." He barely knew Caitlin, who looked quite miserable that night. But she was in a sparkly gown and she did look amazing. Her date stood her up and none of her friends were around.  Some would probably say it was his lucky night, but he wasn't quite so sure. "She seems nice." Actually, she'd been crying and he gave her his handkerchief. The white one his dad gave him. Actually, he'd never had a handkerchief in his life and wasn't so sure what to use it for. He'd given her the handkerchief and she kept it.

It was hard to figure girls out. Yes, he hung out with a lot of girls, growing up, but he'd never had a girlfriend.

Of course, he did the cooking. It was something his grandmother taught him. Rico came in handy for her card games, and he used to help out at his Aunt's cafe during the summer. He guessed they were expecting him to be a cook one day, Yet, here he was away from that world.

A part of him didn't know if he really belonged here. He knew Caitlin was out of his league. But if she wanted to hang out, he might be up for it.