Family Comes First

B24

"Don't you dare."

"I wasn't going to do anything." I said, balancing my plate on my lap and raising my hand in a surrendering position.

"You are so mean," she pouted.

"You're the mean one." I retorted. "Stop lying."

Caroline took a moment to consider my words. "You're probably speaking the truth."

"Probably? I am." I nodded surely.

"Whatever," she grumbled.

"You know, I'm just glad your sister wasn't here last night." I commented, propping my feet up on the couch. "That would've been a mess."

"For sure," Caroline agreed, heaving a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

I scrunched my nose up in distaste. "I still can't believe you actually like cereal."

"It's better than what you are eating." she retorted. "Girl, Frosted Flakes is life."

"Got to disagree," I said, shaking my head. "Cereal is literally dried pieces of bread. And it's crunchy."

"That's the best part of it," she fired back, rolling her eyes.

"You can eat chips if you like crunchy stuff." I offered. "Why cereal?"

"It tastes good," she answered. "So much better than scrambled eggs and a peanut butter and jam sandwich. So plain, boring, and disgusting."

"Hey! Pb and J is amazing," I protested, picking up my sandwich and taking a huge bite out of it.

"Frosted Flakes is definitely better."

"The cereal also gets mushy in the milk." I pointed out. "Who likes soggy cereal? Definitely not me."

"Hey! Soft cereal is literally the best sometimes." Caroline objected.

"The key word is sometimes." I said.

"Well it depends on the cereal," she said seriously, looking me dead in the eye. "You see, when Frosted Flakes go in milk, the sugar dissolves into the milk. It makes the milk sweet."

I only got more uninterested in Frosted Flakes. "So you are technically eating bread then."

"No!" she said. "Frosted Flakes taste like the furthest thing from bread."

"That's what most cereals taste like," I shrugged. "Well, not exactly bread, but it's the best thing I can describe it as. You have to admit, soggy cereal tastes horrible."

"Whatever," she dismissed, neither agreeing or disagreeing. "But the best part of Frosted Flakes is when you eat the second bowl. So, after the first bowl is done and the milk is sweet, add more cereal into the bowl so you are eating crunchy cereal with a sweet milk. It's the best."

"I don't want to argue with you on why cereal does not taste good." I muttered.

"Because you know you'll lose?" she proposed.

"No." I immediately answered. "Because it's not worth the time and effort. Anyway, I don't want to talk about cereal of all things."

"Then what do you want to talk about?" she asked, propping her leg up and sitting in a yoga position.

"No idea," I replied nonchalantly.

"Hmm, what are we going to do after we eat breakfast?" she suddenly questioned. "And also, disconnect your phone. I'm going to turn off the TV."

"Yea sure," I nodded. "Well, I guess we can go out? Maybe walk to the nearest park and plaza?"

"Yeah, we can do that." she agreed, already standing up and gulping down her milk. "I'm craving empanadas. You?"