"Is this the house...?" The boy stared at the house in front of him. He followed the stone path that led towards the door of the house, and lifted up his index-finger to the doorbell.

The finger hovered above the small button, he was hesitating, thinking if he should press the button or not.

Just then, the door swung open, revealing a girl with dark brown blackish hair, her eyes met with a pair of hazelnut coloured ones as soon as she appeared.
The two of them stared at each other, with shocked expressions, as if they were taken back.

"Elson?!" Grace exclaimed, surprised. "Is that you, El?" She asked. Was this the boy who she spend her childhood with?

"Are you...Grace?" His eyes widened to the size of plates as he stared at her.

She nodded quickly, smiling. "Yeah."

Elson beamed, walking towards her, holding up his hand and she obliged. "Hey, G."

Immediately, she wrapped her arms around him, engulfing him into a tight bear hug. "I can't believe you're really here!!" Grace screamed as he pulled away from the hug.

He winced, giving her a small nervous smile. "Your hugs back then were gentler. What happened to you?" Elson said while he rubbed his painful shoulders and arms.

Grace grinned, "I'm not the gentle doormat anymore, El. You should know that."
They fist bumped each other.

Elson patted her head, to which she grumbled about everyone patting her hair nowadays, saying, "Can I come into your house, G?"

Her eyes lit up and the scowl was replaced with a wide smile. "Hell yeah you can! Come in!!" Grace rushed into the house and closed the door behind her, once Elson had entered.

He looked around and smiled. "Still the same as usual. Even though its been years." Grace nodded.

"But mom got a new vase, and ended up breaking it in the end," she cracked a smile.
Elson laughed at the mention of her mother.

"Still clumsy as ever?"

"Hell yeah." Grace have a thumbs up. Elson chuckled at the action. "So what brings you here, El?"

Elson ran a hand through his hair, sighing softly, "I just wanted to see you..."

Grace raised an eyebrow at his sigh, knowing there was more to it. "And?"

"My mom sent me here to check on you. Also, she invites you to dinner at my house, G." Elson said, biting back a smile.

Grace knew that his mom would cook a whole feast when there were guests. "Guessing there is gonna be lots of food?"

Elson nodded his head, saying, "Yup. You know my mom, G."

"Count me in, then. Promise me that there is gonna be pistachios, El."

"...Damn. You really do love those green nuts, huh? How are they even yummy?"

Grace gasped. "They are the BEST. Do not offend my little babies, you...nutcracker!"

Elson rolled his eyes playfully, then said, "Whatever. Anyways, promise."

"Pinky promise!" She smiled. Then, held up her pinky finger. He intertwined their pinky fingers together.

Elson nodded. "Mhm."

-

"Tell me I look ugly in this dress." Grace repeated again to Elson. She was regretting her choice of wearing a dress now.

He chuckled under his breath. "You look nice." She groaned at his words.

"Stop it!" Grace exclaimed, folding her arms to her chest. "You need to say I look ugly so I can think of changing!"

"Nah. Mom likes it when you wear a dress, remember?" Elson said. He shrugged. "Besides, this is only for one day, G."

Grace grumbled under her breath about the dress she had on, as Elson pressed the doorbell.
Also immediately, the door opened and Mrs Cadres appeared in front of them, beaming widely. "Come in, come in, Grace!"

"Then what about me," Elson asked, frowning at his mother.
His mom turned to him and smiled.

"You can stay out here in the snow—" she was interrupted by another voice.

"You too, son!" Mr Cadres, yelled from inside the house. "Also, hey kiddo! Come in and talk to me!"

Grace and Elson stepped foot into the house, as the mother, Mrs Cadres, closed the door behind her.

The girl rushed to the kitchen, while Elson went to his room upstairs, to change his thick winter clothes into something else.
(Maybe a potato suit.)

Grace fist bumped the man, who smiled, "Hey, Willie! Cooking today?" She asked.

"Yeah," he nodded, letting out a laugh. "Penny forced me to."

"I thought she would be cooking today, guess not. Anyways, how have you been, Willie?"

"Oh, same as usual. Bored to death," Will said, shrugging. He took an egg and cracked it, the yolk slipping into the bowl and he dumped the broken egg down in the dustbin.

"Need any help?" Grace asked. Will shook his head, making her groan. "Come on, Willie! I'm also bored to death!"

A small chuckle escaped from his lips. "Fine, fine. You do the chicken cooking."
Grace smiled. Finally she has something to do.

"On it, captain!" Then she began to stir the chicken in egg yolk on the pan.

-

Elson took out his phone and saw 5 missed calls from someone. Smiling, he pressed the call button and pressed the phone against his earlobe.

A few moments later, a voice from the other side said, "Finally called?"

"I was busy, Jay." Elson rolled his eyes. "Anyways, why did you call me?"

"Do you know where Grace is?"

"Dude, she's at my house. Didn't she tell you?" Elson inquired.

Jay spoke from the other side, "No, she didn't. So I called you since Grass seems to talk about you."

Raising an eyebrow, Elson said, "She talks about me?"

A laugh escaped from Jay. "Yeah, whenever Grass talks about her past. Maybe sometimes, though."

Elson smiled. "I never knew that." Suddenly, an image pictured Grace talking on and on about how she hated wearing dresses.

"Well, now you do." Jay chuckled.

"Also, she's safe, Jay. No need to worry about your girl friend." Elson said, his lips tugging upwards.

Jay scoffed, "We're not in a relationship."

"Huh? I just said a friend as a girl?" Elson was confused now. He blinked a few times as Jay realised.

"Ohhh. Sorry," Jay apologised to Elson, which he shrugged at, saying its fine.

"Elson! Come down for dinner!" His mother yelled from downstairs.

He shouted his reply, "Okay mom! I'll be down in a minute!" Then, getting off the bed, Elson said, "Sorry, Jay. Gotta go and eat dinner."

"No worries. Bye, tell Grace to not stuff her face with food too much." Said Jay, laughing.

Elson grinned. "I will. Bye."
He ended the call and placed his phone on his table, then got out of his room, and walked down the flights of stairs to downstairs.

Elson walked towards the dining table and saw that his mom, dad, Grace were seated, and eating their food. He walked to the seat next to the girl who was stuffing her face with food, and said, "Hey."

Grace looked up as Elson took his seat beside her. "Oh hey, El." Her mouth was covered with tomato sauce. The sight made Elson chuckle.

He took a napkin and brought it to the tomato sauce covering her mouth. "Silly you. Your mouth is all covered with the bloody sauce," Elson said, wiping her mouth. "Also, I have a message from Jay."

Grace's eyes widened in horror. "Oh gosh. I forgot to tell him I went here!"

Elson nodded, bringing away the napkin from her no longer sauce covered mouth and placing it onto the table. "Its okay. I told him you were here."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Okay...so what's his message?" Grace turned to Elson, curiously wondering what was it.

He grinned, "'Don't stuff your face with food too much!'"

"Yeah yeah. Whatever," Grace rolled her eyes. "Its more like he's the one who does."

"Suree." Elson's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"What did you say?!"

Willie and Penny laughed. "He's just joking dear," Penny said, smiling. "How do you like the food?"

Grace smiled. "It's great." She said, giving Willie a thumbs up.
He laughed, grinning.

"Aw stop it! You're making me blush, kiddo," he joked.

Every one laughed. The four of them laughed and joked, talked about various topics. The fire in the chimney was burning hot, the orange flames dancing.
The house was warm and was filled with laughter.