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We got in and I started the engine.
“You know something, Preppy?” Kevin asked.
“What?” I asked, pulling onto the main road.
“I kind of like having a brother.”
I leaned over and rustled his hair. “You know, Kevin, I kind of do too.”
The water tower peeked out from the pine trees in the distance. The second big black cock in clear view. The salty air blew into the car and I inhaled it deeply, holding it inside my lungs as if it were the smoke from a joint. We drove passed the vasectomy billboard and then we came upon my favorite sign of them all, the WELCOME, NOW ENTERING LOGAN’S BEACH sign. I smiled like a preteen who’d just touched his first boob.
“What do we do now?” Kevin asked.
I grabbed him by the shoulder, giving him a hard squeeze.
“Now we celebrate!” I shouted, feeling a weight lift off my chest. “Tell me kimosabe, what are your thoughts on strippers and blow?”
“I think, yes,” Kevin answered, his face brightening.
I turned the car to take us to King’s house where he and Bear were waiting for us in the tattoo shop for a pseudo bachelor party which meant locking ourselves away from women and children while we get shit faced and talk about all the dumb, yet fun, shit we’ve done.
“Good. That’s what we’re going to do then. Strippers and blow.” I winked at Kevin and watched his smile fall when I added. “Minus the strippers.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Preppy
The second we got to King’s house and parked, Ray met us over by the car. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Ray asked.
“I’ll meet you inside,” Kevin said, heading into King’s shop.
“Anything for you, kid,” I said, draping my arm over her shoulder. I guess you could say I was taking advantage since King wasn’t out here to growl at me.
“I just wanted to say congratulations,” she said, but something about her smile seemed off.
“Thanks,” I said as she looked to the ground. “That’s it?” I asked. “You came over just to say congratulations?” I prodded, knowing when something was on her mind.
“No, that’s not it. It’s just that we haven’t really had the chance to talk much since, you know. Narnia,” she laughed nervously and fidgeted with her fingers. “I just wanted to tell you how much I missed you when you were gone. You were my best guy friend. I know we’ve all been busy with our own lives, kids and all, but I was kind of hoping, if it’s okay with Dre, that we could be best friends again because you’re here now, but I still miss you.”
I wrapped Ray in a hug and kissed the top of her head. “You were my first girlfriend, you know. Well, friend that was a girl,” I corrected. “I know we haven’t had time to sit and talk about things, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I never felt like you needed an explanation for things, well, that and the fact that King wants to murder me every time I look your way. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you. Ever. Fuck, in my mind we’ve never stopped being best friends.”
“It’s me,” she said, wiping a tear off her cheek. “It’s these damn hormones. Your buddy King went and knocked me up again.”
“Slipped one past the goalie did he?” I chuckled. “I thought your tits looked bigger.”
She playfully slapped me on the shoulder.
“I tell you what, how about one of these days after the kids are all in school I’ll come over and we’ll do lunch and have ourselves some girl talk.”
“I’d really like that, Prep,” Ray said. “But let’s make it breakfast. You can cook for me.”
“Oh yeah? I think I can manage that. Any special reason for the breakfast request.”
She put her hands in her back pockets and took a few steps backward toward the house. She looked at me with glassy eyes, some of the lingering sadness from earlier seemed to have lifted. “Because pancakes.”
****
After a few hours we left Kevin passed out on the floor of King’s tattoo studio and followed through with our amazing idea to row to Motherfucker Island at five a.m., which was fine with me. I’d done enough blow to be awake for at least a month. “I’m glad I’m so high. If I wasn’t, I’d probably feel how drunk I am,” I slurred.
We were sitting on the shore of MFI. Our pant legs rolled up to our knees, our feet bare. Passing a joint and a bottle of Jack between the three of us. Somehow the conversation switched from thinking of a nickname for Kevin to the night I ‘died’.
“All I remember is that when the bullets started flying I just kept thinking about Ray and needing to get to her. Bear, you’re like a fucking human wall, and Preppy you’re always so fucking quick. I just never thought anything would happen to you guys,” King said. “I think about that night a lot. What I could have done differently. How it all went so wrong. I can’t wrap my brain around it.”
I shrugged and avoided making eye contact with King by fishing out my zippo from the inside pocket of my blazer all the while feeling the intensity of his eyes on me. “I don’t think about it much any more. It’s not like we can change it. What’s the point?”
Bear cocked his head to the side and ignored my philosophy on not lingering on the past. “Come to think of it, you were behind King when it all started to go down, but then you moved in front of him until he barged into that store room where Isaac had Ray.”
“None of that shit matters now. Guess I just wasn’t as quick as you thought ‘cause I obviously didn’t get out of the way fast enough,” I said, whistling while I lit a cigarette.
Bear and King exchanged a knowing look. “What?” I asked, smoke coming out in puffs as I spoke.
King shook his head. Bear smiled. “Nothing, Preppy,” King said, patting me on the back and giving me a short squeeze on my shoulder. I passed King the joint. “Not a damn thing.”
“Good,” I said, looking out over the water on the lights of the town. The town I loved. The town where I lived with my family. My girl. My son. “Now can we get fucking high or what?”
“You mean higher?” Bear asked. “I’ll be awake until next Christmas after tonight.”
Bear and King changed the subject and soon we were all laughing about some dumb shit we did as teenagers.
Thank fucking God.
They didn’t need to know what really happened that night. I’d never admit it anyway. If the roles had been reversed I knew they would do the same thing for me.
Nobody needed to know I took that bullet for King.
That’s just what family does. They protect one another.
At least, that’s what THIS family does.
“Anyone want to make a gator run?” I suggested.
“No,” King groaned.
“Fuck you,” Bear said.
But when their eyes met mine they told me a different answer. Within seconds we were all racing toward the water, splashing through gator-infested waters like the idiots we were.
When we were safe on shore, breathing heavily, I looked over to my friends and we all broke out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Bear was still going when King leaned behind him and tugged on my arm to get my attention. “Thanks, Prep.”
I didn’t know if he meant for taking the bullet for him or for the excellent blow I provided for the evening, but either way I nodded and we went back to the debauchery at hand.
Because that’s what family does.
