The ride home with AJ was a silent one for the most part. No one had the guts to say anything. AJ smoked one cigarette after another. His friends never saw him smoke so much at once. AJ dropped off Howie first but neglected to say, "Bye." to his friend.
Nick and Tomi sat in the back quietly and Nick rolled down his window. "Nick, I'll call you later," said Howie.
"Alright," said Nick as AJ swerved out of Howie's driveway. The silence continued until finally Nick had the guts to say, "AJ..."
"WHAT?!" snapped AJ.
Nick slightly jumped but decided to finish his sentence, "Maybe we should go back for Kevin..."
"After all that? Hell no! We aren't wanted! If you want to go, go ahead, I'm going home," said AJ.
Nick looked at Tomi for suggestions but all she could do was shake her head and whisper, "I don't know."
"WHAT?" snapped AJ, again.
"Nothin'. And don't you even start with me, AJ," said Tomi.
"What are you gonna do about it?" asked AJ.
"If you don't shut up, you're gonna find out!" said Tomi.
"You guys, quit!" said Nick. AJ pulled up to Tomi's house and Tomi and Nick got off. "I'll call you..." said Nick, but he realized that he was only talking to a cloud of dust, "later."
Nick's pager went off and he looked at it. "Who is it?" asked Tomi.
"Howie," said Nick, "so what are you gonna do? Are you gonna come with me?"
"To go back to the tavern?" asked Tomi.
"Yeah, where else?" asked Nick.
"...I think I'll stay home," said Tomi, sort of hesitantly.
"What?? Why?" asked Nick.
"I sort of think Brian has a point... Maybe it's better for Brian and Kevin to work this out," said Tomi.
"I can't believe you're saying that too," said Nick.
"Nick, sometimes it's better that way," said Tomi.
"Well, I'm going back. I'll call you later," said Nick.
"See ya later," said Tomi as Nick ran off. As soon as Nick got home, all the questioning began from his parents.
After the storm of questions, Nick finally managed to say, "Mom, Dad, I need to go use the phone and call Howie. I'll tell you everything later alright?" He ran up to his room and dialed the number. Howie answered the phone, "Howie? So what are we gonna do?"
"My mom said I could borrow her car, I'll be over in a little bit. But once we get there, let's just watch and see what happens... Brian did have a point. They need to work things out first, but a little help from friends won't hurt," said Howie.
"Alright... I'll be out on my front porch," said Nick, as he said bye and hung up the phone. Howie came by in about ten minutes and they headed back downtown. They parked about a block away and saw that Brian was standing there by his jeep. They turned off the lights and engine and just watched. About a half an hour passed and nothing happened. But finally, about ten minutes later, a tall dark figure came out: Kevin.
He more wobbled out than walked out. "Kevin," called Brian.
Kevin looked up and saw his cousin. "I told you...all I want is to be left alone," he said. He tripped and Brian quickly came to his side.
"...We're going home Kevin. We need to talk. I let you have your time alone. It should have been enough time to think about the fact that you don't want to be alone. Come on, let's go Kev," said Brian. Kevin didn't push Brian away this time, partly because he could hardly walk because of being tired and drinking too much, and partly because he knew Brian was right. Brian helped Kevin into the passenger side seat and shut the door. When he turned around, he saw Howie and Nick walking toward him.
"Hey Bri," said Nick.
"How long have you guys been there?" asked Brian.
"Not as long as you've been there," said Howie, "He finally agreed to come home?"
"I don't know if he really agrees or not, but he can hardly walk," said Brian.
"He's not the only one. You both need rest. Come on, we'll talk at the apartment," said Howie.
"Alright. By the way, how's AJ?" asked Brian.
"Let's not bring up AJ right now..." said Nick.
"Alright... I'm too tired to think about him anyways," said Brian, getting into his jeep. Howie and Nick walked back to Howie's car and they followed Brian back to the apartment.
Once they got there, Brian tossed Howie the keys to the apartment so that he could open the door as Brian and Nick helped Kevin in. Kevin was asleep finally and Brian took Kevin to his bed. He came back downstairs and Nick asked him, "How is he?"
"Drunk, exhausted, and passed out," said Brian, "I don't think he'll remember anything I told him tonight. The only reason he came home was that he didn't have any energy left and he could hardly walk."
"I've never seen Kevin like that," said Nick.
"You're telling me..." said Brian, "I seriously don't know what to do."
"All we can do right now is be there for him, weither he likes it or not. He obviously can't cope with this by himself," said Howie.
"And we need to stop his drinking before it gets to be too bad..." said Brian.
"Do you want us to stay here for tonight?" asked Nick, "You know, to help you watch over things."
"Nah, it's alright, I doubt Kevin's gonna be going anywhere fast," said Brian, "You guys should get home, it's late."
"And you better get some sleep," said Howie.
"Alright, alright," said Brian.
"Call us tomorrow morning," said Nick.
"Alright. And by the way, thanks you guys," said Brian, leading the two out.
"No problem, wish we could do more," said Howie.
"Nite," said Brian.
"Good night," said Nick and Howie.
The next morning, Brian was woken up by the phone ringing. He finally answered it groggily, "Hello?"
"Hello? Brian? This is Mrs. Mitchell, is Kevin there?" asked Mrs. Mitchell.
Brian mentally woke up when he remembered Kevin and he looked around. "Mrs. Mitchell? I'll be right back," said Brian, setting the phone down and running to Kevin's room. He was gone. He looked around the whole apartment and checked outside, Kevin was nowhere to be seen. "Damn it!" said Brian, as he walked back into the apartment. He picked up the phone and said, "I'm sorry Mrs. Mitchell, I can't find him anywhere."
"Alright, I just wanted to tell you two about the funeral," said Mrs. Mitchell. Brian wrote down all of the information and hung up the phone. He then jumped into the jeep and drove down to the tavern. He stormed in and frantically looked around for Kevin. He couldn't find him and then, he ran out to the payphone.
"Hello?" answered Howie. Brian explained what was going on and Howie said, "Alright, I'll be there as soon as possible." He then hung up once to call someone else.
"Yo, whaz up? This is AJ...I'm not here right now so leave me a message and I'll get back to ya later....see ya!" said AJ's voice on the answering machine. Howie hung up and then got out his wallet then pulled out a small piece of paper that had "AJ's pager #" written on it along with the pager number. He paged him then waited about five minutes. Finally AJ called back. "Sup, D?" asked AJ, in his usual cheery tone.
Howie was a bit relieved. He thought that AJ actually forgot about the incident yesterday. "Hey AJ, can you drive me to the tavern we were at yesterday?"
"Now why would I want to butt into other people's business? Sorry D," said AJ.
Howie then thought, "I knew it was too good to be true." He then said, "AJ, Brian didn't mean what he said yesterday."
"I might believe that when he apoligizes," said AJ.
"Come on AJ, just do ME this one favor then," said Howie.
"For you, I'd love to, but I seriously can't right now. I'm out with my Mom right now. Otherwise, I'd do it D," said AJ.
"...Alright, talk to you later," said Howie.
"Peace out," said AJ, as they both hung up the phones.
"Mom, can I use the van again? Please?" asked Howie. Howie picked up the phone and paged Nick and explained what was going on. He picked him up and they drove down to the tavern again. They found Brian sitting on the hood of his jeep. He saw them and hopped off.
"Did you find Kevin?" asked Nick.
"No...sadly not. I asked around in there and none of them saw anyone matching Kevin's description," said Brian.
"Then what should we do?" asked Nick.
"Let's go back. I need to make a few phonecalls anyways," said Brian.
They drove back to the apartment. Brian went to open the door with his key but he found that the door was already open. "What's wrong, Brian?" asked Howie.
"I know I locked the door," said Brian. They stepped in and found the lights on. The three looked at each other and Brian shouted, "Kevin!!"
"Whas up?" said a voice from the other room. It was Kevin. He slowly came toward them, actually smiling, which actually scared Brian, Howie, and Nick more than comfort them.
"Kev... are you alright?" asked Brian.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be? My head hurts though," said Kevin.
"He didn't just ask that," whispered Nick, to Howie.
"Well don't just stand there, sit down. Do you guys want something to drink? Brian get them something to drink," said Kevin.
Brian, speechless, just did what his cousin asked him to do. He openned the refrigerator and he saw something that startled him. He found two 12 packs of beer. This probably wouldn't be too surprising to some households, but this was in a household that hardly ever drank. And besides that, that was the only thing to drink besides some bottled water. Brian tried to shrug it off and brought out two bottled waters and tossed them to Howie and Nick.
Kevin looked at the water and asked, "You couldn't find anything but water?"
Brian finally got annoyed and said, "Unless you want to give them beer!"
Right then, Howie said, "Nick, I think it's time to go." Howie pulled on Nick's shirt and he stood up bringing Nick up as well.
"Page me later, Bri," said Nick, as he was being dragged out of the room.
Once Brian heard the front door close, he said, "What the hell are you doing?"
"So I bought a few beers, what's wrong with that?" asked Kevin.
"A few? Since when is twenty-four cans of beer a few?!" asked Brian.
"I'm just taking AJ's advice and loosening up a little bit," said Kevin.
"Well you're taking his advice a bit too far. And since when do you take AJ's advice?!" asked Brian.
"Look, I just needed a little change, deal with it," said Kevin.
"You're dealing with it in the wrong way," said Brian. There was a small moment of silence then Brian said, "Mrs. Mitchell called today, she told me Angel's funeral was on Tuesday at noon."
"I don't want to hear about it," said Kevin.
"Kevin, it's your fiancee's funeral! You have to go. You have to face the facts, she's gone. I know it's hard, but you have to look at reality. We're all here for you, you should know that. You have to go with us on Tuesday," said Brian.
"I'm not going," said Kevin.
"Kevin!" said Brian.
"Brian, I'm not going," said Kevin.
Brian got fed up and went into the kitchen. He openned up the refrigerator door and grabbed the two packs of beer and headed out the backdoor.
Kevin heard the door close and went into the kitchen. He then looked in the refrigerator and found his beer was gone and he ran out the backdoor. He saw Brian throwing the beer into the dumpster. Brian then walked back towards Kevin and Kevin pushed Brian.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" asked Kevin.
"You don't need that," said Brian.
"You had no right to do that!" said Kevin.
"I had every right to do that. I can't watch my cousin do this," said Brian.
"Then get the hell out," said Kevin.
"What?!" asked Brian.
"Then get the hell out of my apartment!" said Kevin. Brian knew that Kevin was serious and then walked away. He went back into the apartment and got a bag of stuff including his basketball and slammed the door on the way out.
Kevin went back inside. He sat down on the couch. He picked up one of the pillows and threw it across the room. Meanwhile, Brian paged Nick. Nick and Howie were at the coffee shop that Kevin worked at. They were just sitting around fiddling around with things that were laying around, such as forks. Nick heard his pager go off and checked it. "Who is it?" asked Howie.
"Don't know, it's a voicemail," said Nick, getting up and walking up to the phone as Howie followed. He dialed the number and listened, then hung up.
"Well?" asked Howie.
"It's Brian. He just got kicked out of Kevin's apartment. He's waiting across the street," said Nick.
Howie tried to process all of this data at once. "Okay, this is great..." said Howie, "Come on, let's go pick him up." They headed back towards the apartment complex and found Brian with his bag. Howie and Nick rushed out of the car and Howie asked, "What happened?"
"As you can see, I got kicked out of the apartment," said Brian.
"How?!" asked Nick.
"I threw away Kevin's beer," said Brian.
"Okay, so now what?" asked Nick.
"We make phone calls," said Brian, "Angel's funeral is on Tuesday at noon."
They all went back into the van and decided they'd head back to Nick's house. Once they got there, they went up to Nick's room and called up AJ and Tomi. AJ said he was still busy at the moment so he couldn't come by but he would surely go to the funeral. Tomi came over shortly and joined them. "Hey Nick, could I stay here for a while? I'll help around the house and everything."
"Yeah, don't think my parents would mind," said Nick.
"So now what?" asked Tomi.
"I don't know exactly. It's Kevin that usually has the answers," said Howie, getting a little stressed out.
"For now, there isn't anything we can do," said Brian.
"And on top of that, we have school tomorrow," groaned Tomi, falling back onto Nick's bed.
"What a spring break," said Howie.
"It was going well at first," said Nick. Silence again.
"Uh oh..." said Brian, all of the sudden.
"What?" asked Tomi.
"I just realized something..." said Brian.
"Which is?" asked Howie.
"I forgot the keys to the jeep at the apartment," said Brian.
"Well, get used to being a predestrian for a while," said Nick.
"Well, I'm gonna go home and think things out and I still have homework to do," said Howie.
"Alright, see ya tomorrow, Howie," said Nick.
"See ya tomorrow, and thanks," said Brian.
"See ya, Howie," said Tomi.
"Later guys," said Howie, leaving Nick's room.
"You know what? I don't think we've ever had to face a problem this big before," said Tomi.
"I think you're right..." said Nick.
"I feel so helpless," said Tomi.
"You're telling me," said Brian. Another uncomfortable silence.
"Well, I'm gonna go guys. I wish I could do more, Brian," said Tomi.
"You care, that's more than enough," said Brian, as Tomi hugged him.
"See ya Tomi," said Nick, as she left. "Well, let's go downstairs and ask my parents." The two went downstairs and explained the situation to Nick's parents. They gladly OKed the decision, if Brian promised that he'd help out around the house.
Later that night, while Brian was helping Nick with the dishes, he felt something heavy leap onto his back. "Whoa," said Brian, as he looked onto his back. It was Aaron. "Hey Nick, I think I got a bug on my back, could you swat it?"
"I'm not a bug!" said Aaron.
"Okay," said Nick, swatting Aaron with his soappy hands. Aaron replied by kicking Nick in the butt.
Brian continued to wash the dishes while Aaron was on his back. Then Aaron decided he'd shampoo Brian's hair with the soappy dishwater. "Hey!" said Brian, taking Aaron off of his back and pinning him onto the floor. "Hey Nick, has Aaron had his bath yet?" asked Brian with a gleam in his eye.
Nick finished up the dishes and replied, "Um... nope."
"Hehehe..." said Brian with the look, "I think it's time for your bath Aaron!" Brian started tickling him and Aaron started to laugh hysterically. Brian then grunted and hauled Aaron over his shoulder and they headed toward the bathroom. About an hour later, all three boys were in Nick's room.
Nick's mom came by and said, "Boys, you all have school tomorrow. Get some sleep."
"Yes Mooooom," all three said in unison. Mrs. Carter smiled and shut the door.
Brian slept on Nick's couch and Nick and Aaron went to sleep on his bed. But in the middle of the night, Nick woke up and rethought everything that happened the past week. This was definately going to be a memorable spring break. But Nick wondered if he really wanted to remember it. He sighed, closed his eyes and went back to sleep.