Talk About the Direct Approach...

Chapter Twenty-Four: Meeting the Parents

*Macy's POV*

"Come on Carter, you know you want me," I say in my impression of a gummy bear's voice, marching my gummy bear across his shoulder. Still mad that he lost the bet and had to drive me to the store to spend my winnings, he smacks my hand away. "You're such a bad sport." I pop the gummy bear in my mouth.

After Cayton and I were finished with our wonderful day at the park, I came home and showed Carter the mark. Then crushed his hopes like a bug when I explained the technicality of the bet, and how I had won. He put up a good fight, but with Cayton on my side, he gave in and gave me my money. Today, I just felt like rubbing it in and forced him to drive me to the store.

"You poor soul. I must have caused you to go broke, huh?" I ask. Still ignoring me, he keeps his eyes locked on the image on the TV. Laughing at his behavior, I reach into the bag and grab another handful, shoving them in my mouth. "Want some?" I ask Cayton, who is sitting right next to me.

"Why not," he shrugs, and I hold out the bag for him.

"You should let Carter know how good these are," I say. Carter mutters something under his breath that I don't quite catch. I just roll my eyes and choose to ignore his most likely rude comment.

After some minutes of silence, someone knocks on the door before just walking in. Trenton comes in, and I frown when I realize Tami isn't with him. I miss that little fireball.

"Hey Trenton! I haven't seen you since... the last time I saw you," I say with a smile. It has been a while since I've seen him. "Where's Tami?"

"She's been sick lately. I think she caught the flu," he says. I find it highly unlikely that she's caught the flu in August, but I don't question it because he looks a little distressed about it.

Cayton and Carter both stand up. "Where you guys going?" I question.

"There are some things that need taking care of. We'll be back later Princess," Cayton replies, leaning down and kissing the top of my head. When he turns and starts leading Carter and Trenton out the door, I jump up.

"Wait! I'm not staying here alone," I say.

"You're not. I have someone coming over soon," he says. I shake my head.

"Can't I go to Tami's? I'm sure Trenton would feel better if someone was there with her," I say, looking to Trenton for permission. He looks to Cayton to see if it's ok.

"I don't know, I would be more comfortable if you were here..." he says.

"Please?" I beg with my puppy-dog eyes, knowing he can't say no. He groans as he realizes he can't resist my adorable face.

"Ok," he says, almost reluctantly. I smile and give him a quick peck on the cheek.

They drop me off at Trenton and Tami's. Their house is a modern looking brick house with a large oak tree in the front yard, with a cobble walkway leading up to the red door. To me, it seems like something that suits them really well.

I don't bother knocking and barge right in. "Honey I'm home!" I yell into the quiet house. The door opens up straight to the living room, so I stand there as I cluelessly look around for Tami. She comes out from the hallway, looking worse than I have ever seen her. It isn't that she looks sick, just unkempt. Her usually straight red hair is piled up into a messy bun on top of her head, and she's in a pair of wrinkled pajama shorts and a tank top.

"Macy? What are you doing here?" she says. She sounds as normal as ever, which makes me further question her so called 'flu'.

"Coming to check on my sick best friend. And how is she?" I ask, almost accusingly. I've been blessed to have never caught the flu, but I've seen my mother when she caught it, and this is certainly not what she looked like, although Tami does look tired.