The Breakfast Serial
Chapter 1 -- Bacon and Eggs
By Steph
Summary: Four different couples, four very different mornings. There's a reason why it's considered the most important meal of the day.
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own them.
Dedication: Once again, to my PIC for coming up with so many good ideas.
Rating: PG-13
Michael: What comes before anything? What have we always said is the most important thing?
George Michael: Breakfast.
-- Arrested Development
She woke up starving. She looked at her tiny bedside clock.
Eleven a.m.
They had played a gig last night. Nothing too big; a high schooler's party. They had rocked it though. Rocked it like they hadn't rocked it in a long time. And they had made some money.
She closed her eyes again. She allowed herself to bask in the glory of last night.
Her stomach rumbled, taking precedence over her basking.
It was time to head to the kitchen.
Being quiet so as not to wake the boys, she started frying up some bacon. To say that her eating habits had changed since she had moved would be an understatement.
"That smells really good," a female voice said startling Lane. The voice, the girl, was on the couch.
She smiled sleepily up at Lane. "Can I have a piece?"
"Who are you?" Lane asked.
The girl sat up on the couch. Her makeup was smeared and her blonde hair was tangled. "Caitlin. Who are you?"
Lane didn't answer, only continued to fix her breakfast. She shouldn't ask, asking would provide her with answers that she didn't really want. But she had to know, had to ask.
She took a deep breath. "Are you…friends with Zack?"
Caitlin giggled. "Zack's hot," she exclaimed and fell back onto the couch. She was asleep again a second later.
Not wanting to deal with Sleeping Beauty, Lane took her plate of bacon outside. It was still gray and rainy outside, but she didn't care. It kind of fit her mood.
As she began to eat her breakfast, she wondered about Caitlin. Zack hadn't had any of his girlfriends over since she had confessed her feelings for him.
After pondering her confession long enough for her to make a halfhearted retraction, he told her that they should go out.
Which they did. Sort of.
They stayed in the apartment and watched a movie. Which wasn't that different than what they did when they weren't dating.
The only difference was Brian had been banished to her room and Zack had worn pants.
And they had kissed. And except for the fact that Zack was holding on to a slumbering Brian as he kissed her, the kiss was almost exactly how she imagined it.
And then her mother got involved. Her mother had screamed at Zack in a public place, made bizarre religious-themed threats and basically convinced Zack that her daughter was not to be touched or even looked at.
Thank you again, Mama Kim.
She promised Zack that she would straighten things out. But she didn't know what that would necessarily entail. She could yell at poor brainwashed Kyon all she wanted, but it wouldn't do any good.
Kyon wasn't the problem.
And now they were back to square one. Zack hadn't mentioned a second date or treated her any differently than how he used to pre-confession. They were back to being buddies and roommates. It was like the confession, the date and the kiss had all been in her head.
She sighed and ate another piece of bacon.
She looked up when she heard the front door open behind her.
"Hey," Zack called. "Why are you eating outside?"
"Felt like it," she said.
"Oh." He walked out and sat down beside her.
"When did we buy bacon?" he asked her.
"I bought some yesterday. It was on sale. We can afford it."
"Okay," he said. He snatched a piece off her plate.
"Hey!" she exclaimed. "There's some left in the kitchen you can make. Don't take mine."
"I'm hungry," he told her.
"Well, so am I."
"You still have a ton on your plate," he said. "It's not the end of the world that I took one piece."
"It just bothers me when people take things off my plate. It's not very hygienic."
"You've never had a problem with me doing it before," he muttered. "What's wrong with you anyway? We rocked hard last night and we made some decent money for a change. You should be happy."
"Happy?" she asked. "Let me ask you something. Who's the blonde on the couch?"
"There's a blonde on our couch?" he asked sounding interested.
Lane frowned at his interest trying to quell the quick flash of jealousy. "Yes. Caitlin. And she thinks you're hot."
"She's not with me. I don't know any blondes named Caitlin."
"Maybe she didn't tell you her name last night. Or maybe," she said feeling nasty, "she told you her name last night and you didn't care enough to remember it."
"Lane," Zack said patiently, "if I had a girl spend the night, she would not be waking up on the couch."
What was wrong with her? Had her newfound independence messed with her mind? Was it that she just missed Dave so much that she decided to fall for the first guy she saw? Zack wasn't a nice guy. Zack was a man-whore.
She needed to take a shower to get the stench of her ill-fated crush off of her. She stood up.
"I really don't know who she is," he said. "And besides, I wouldn't have someone over. Not now."
She sat back down. "Yeah? Why not now?"
"Well if we are…you know…dating, I'm not going to …uh…be interested in groupies."
"I didn't realize that we were still dating," she said. "I mean after my mom talked to you, I thought we were back to just hanging out like before."
"Listen, Lane, your mom is a psycho. No offense."
"None taken."
"Your mom is a psycho and getting screamed at in public…not cool."
"I agree."
He took another piece of bacon from her plate. This time she didn't object.
"I wonder," he began, "if Brian knows who the girl is."
He had changed the subject. She went along with it. "You think Brian brought her back here? Our Brian?"
"Someone has to know why she's here," he said. "I'm waking him up."
"Okay," she said.
He came back a few minutes later. "Caitlin is the sister of Brian's best friend. I guess she was at the party last night and needed a place to crash."
"How nice of Brian," she remarked sarcastically. "I wonder why he's suddenly feeling so charitable."
"He's not touching her. She's jailbait. Fifteen."
"Wow," Lane said. "I didn't look like that at fifteen."
"You don't look like that now."
"Thanks a lot," she said, feeling a little hurt.
He seemed to pick up on it. "I mean you're hot, but not in an in-your-face look-at-me-now kind of a way."
She was still a little confused. "That's a good thing, right?"
She thought it was a good thing. After all, he had called her hot.
No one had ever called her hot before.
"Yeah," he said.
"I thought you liked the in-your-face look-at-me-now kind of thing. I mean, seriously, Caitlin doesn't look all that different from what your groupies looked like."
"I've changed Lane," he said seriously. "Matured."
"Right," she said echoing his tone.
A second later, she turned to him and said softly, "I thought for sure that my mother had completely scared you off."
"She's a very frightening woman. And I am not known for getting along with parents even under the best of circumstances."
"Right," she said.
"However," he said. "If you are willing to date someone your mother hates…"
"I am," she said quickly.
"And she may come around," he said, although not sounding too hopeful. "I mean she ended up liking Dave, didn't she?"
"She ended up hating him less," Lane said. "She still hated him a little. She hates all boys."
"But Dave did everything," Zack said. "He played music for your family, ate tofu and tofu-related products... I'm not going to do that."
"Look," Lane said. "She's going to hate you know matter what you do. So I wouldn't worry about what Dave did."
"What I was going to say was if you are willing to date someone your mother hates, maybe we can try the dating thing again."
She smiled. "I'd like that. Maybe we can go somewhere this time."
"Sounds good," he said. "Are you free tomorrow night?"
"I believe I am."
"My uncle owns a Chicken Hut. He'll give us a discount."
"I can't wait," she said.
"Good." He squeezed her hand. "I'm still hungry. I'm going to fry up whatever's left of the bacon."
"Okay."
She remained on the step. She had a date tomorrow night. A real date.
She had no idea what a Chicken Hut was, but figured it was casual. Still maybe she should go to the mall and find something to wear.
The door opened again. "Hey," Zack said. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"Caitlin is making us breakfast."
"What?"
"She said she felt bad about crashing here last night so she scrambled us up some eggs."
"I didn't know we had eggs."
"Neither did I. But it smells good in there."
"Okay," Lane said. She followed Zack into the kitchen. Caitlin and Brian were already eating.
Lane snuck a quick glance at Zack.
Life was good.
To be continued…