Mac and Cheese. Everyone sat around discussing the foods they would eat when they left, the restaurants they would go to, the wine they would order or how they might even spend hours in the kitchen creating the meals that they would put together for themselves and their families to have a great meal again, Ross wanted Mac and Cheese.
Daniel told him how he made a great home made mac and cheese with ziti noodles, his own cheese sauce with chicken and bacon mixed in as well. Nope, Ross wanted regular Kraft Mac and Cheese, he would sometimes use a double packet of the cheese powder or throw in some Parmesan cheese from the shaker, but no big meal or fancy restaurant, just mac an cheese.
Truth be told he couldn't even name a fancy restaurant back home, he's driven by a couple but they aren't his thing. His family was a drive through family, their meals for the most part had a combo number assigned to them, his mother always working didn't have time for meals during the week and weekends they would sometimes eat together but she had two jobs and often Ross found him and his four siblings cooking for themselves making mac and cheese, grilled cheese, fried bologna and cheese, there was a lot of cheese.
While meal time and cooking wasn't a big event in his house, movies and television were the time they all sat down together. When they had a favorite they would watch it over and over again, they actually had to purchase ET three times on VHS because they played it so much the tape had broken. His mind filled with quotes and facts he picked up on from his movies far outweighed the knowledge he learned throughout school. He wasn't 100% positive what year the first president was elected but he did know that 1.21 jigowats was needed to travel back in time.
At school he wasn't one of the popular kids, but he was known, being a big kid he stood out in a crowd, and being that he was one of five kids the teachers new him from his siblings. He was the middle child of the group who were all 1 year apart, but being as they were all so close in age there wasn't really a middle child syndrome to speak of. When your older brother is only 2 years older than you its really not that big of a deal. When they were in high school, his younger brother was a freshman, his sister was a junior and his oldest brother was a senior. They all helped one another constantly, but for Ross helping out was the biggest part of his life.
He helped out his two younger brothers all the time with school work and their chores, his older sister always looked to him for help with boys she dated, putting them in place, he was as gentle as a big teddy bear but they didn't know that. His oldest brother often needed his help with covering up whatever trouble he got into the night before, whatever it was, Ross was there to help.
But now all he could think was, help me if you can, I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate you being round. Help me get my feet back on the ground, won't you please please help me. The group have all admitted that being trapped in this room for all these days, and especially the day they were all trapped in the small rooms, songs have just been playing over and over in their heads to help them relax and put their minds in a different space. Dalton and him had a big debate on the 'classics' versus the music of today. Dalton's point of view was that a band like Nine Inch Nails have changed the face of music, but Ross being a lover of The Beatles insists no band would even exist if not for the fab four. Of course he also thinks that capitalism itself and the world would have toppled if not for that appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.
Mac and Cheese and some Beatles playing in the background and watching anything George Lucas had to do with, its all he wants. But, now his life has changed in oh so many ways, his independence seems to vanish in the haze.But every now and then I feel so insecure, he knows that he needs help like he's never needed it before. He'll endure the pain, he'll endure the mental torture because if he doesn't he's not helping anyone in that room, or anyone back home, and he can't let them down.
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