Rylee sat at her kitchen table eating in silence, still tired because it was earlier than she usually cares to wake up. She looked up at Carl, who was in the kitchen talking to his mom as she made him waffles. Her mom loved Carl, and she always had, which is great that she didn't have to go through introducing a boyfriend to her.
After a few minutes, all three of them directed their attention to the hall by the front door, which they just heard open. A short moment later, Joey came into view, slowly walking toward them. The energy in the room quickly got a lot more tense than it was before. Joey stood a few feet away for a moment, nobody speaking, and he eventually walked into the kitchen, casually grabbing the orange juice from the refridgerator, and leaned against the counter where his mom was standing next to.
"how's your face doing after your, uh, fight with mickey?" Joey asked Carl after the uncomfortable silence, looking down at his cup of juice to avoid eye contact.
"it's fine." Carl replied slowly, "broke one of my back ribs."
"shit, carl, i'm sorry. I didn't-" Joey began to apologize to carl before suddenly pausing, realizing that his mother was engaged in the conversation as well. "I didn't know mickey was so aggressive."
"yeah, either did I." Carl snapped.
"well I did, he's a milkovich." shannon laughed as she flopped another waffle onto a plate, when she quickly stopped talking, realizing that Carl and Rylee are close with mickey, even though she thinks they were fighting, "sorry."
"are you working today?" Rylee asked her mom, changing the subject.
"no, I took the day off," She smiled, "I'm going on a date. what are you guys doing ?"
"we're gonna go over to my friend steven's house, and do some baking." carl told her before rylee could speak up.
"we are?" rylee asked quietly.
"Yeah." Carl nodded.
"what are you baking for?" shannon asked
"Uh, it's, uh, his sisters bake sale." He said, "for school."
"Oh, how sweet! carl you act tough but you're just the sweetest boy." she said, gripping his shoulders for a small second. Carl laughed lightly as he and rylee began walking down the hall to her room again.
"what are we really doing today?" she asked as she started getting dressed and ready for the day.
"were baking!" Carl repeated what he had told shannon.
"at stevens?"
"not exactly." He shrugged, "but with him."
"where?"
"stop asking questions." Carl laughed as he laid on her bed.
"what are we baking?" rylee asked after a short moment of silence, ignoring what Carl had just said.
"brownies, cookies, stuff like that." he replied quickly.
"i'm stressed, are you lying?" She laughed, even though it was a serious question.
"just get ready." he rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead after he got off of the bed to get dressed. They leave right away once they get ready, Carl taking her to an abandoned house in the woods behind a perkins. He places his hand on her lower back as he opens the front door, guiding her into the beat up old house, where steven had been smoking, rylee assumed because of the smell. Steven was already baking when they got there. He had bowls of flour and brownie mix on the dirty counter, and butter simmering in a pan on the stove.
