Page 27 of In the Shadows

When I turned back around, I was met with the sounds of laughter bouncing off the kitchen walls. Brett shot orange juice out of his nose, served him right for laughing at me. And Joey looked like he was gonna bust a gut.

“You can all kiss my ass,” I pouted, stalking off to go find the one person who wasn’t laughing at me – Brandon. I found him up in his room playing on the race track Joey and I had set up for him before we left. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t destroyed.

“Ricky!” he yelled as I came in, once again launching himself up into my arms. “Play with me?”

“I’d love to, buddy.” I sat him down, taking my place beside him.

“You can be the blue car,” he said, handing it to me.

“Oooh a blue sixty-eight Mustang. My favorite.” I took it from him, placing it at the starting line.

“Ready?” he asked, handing me the control paddle.

“Let’s roll, baby.”

“Free, two, one,” he counted down before hitting his button first.

“Cheater,” I told him, smiling, but he only giggled in return.

We went round and round until he jerked his button and his car went flying across the room. “Nice air time, bro,” I told him.

“Not s’posed to do that, but it is funny,” he said, retrieving his car. “Go again?” he asked me.

“Only if I get a shiny green car,” Joey said.

We jumped, turning to find him standing in the doorway.

“Diamond and Brett are talking shop, so I came to find you two.”

He took the spot beside me, belly down, elbows up perched on the floor just as Brandon was. Brandon handed him a shiny green car as he’d requested. It looked like some sort of a Chevy. We placed all three cars on the track before Joey was given his controller and the countdown began.

“Free, two, one.”

I looked over at Joey, watching him smile at Brandon’s inability to say three. Cute as fuck, man, this little guy totally owned us.

I’m not sure how long we played before my mom came up to find out what was going on, “You boys okay?”

“Snack, Mommy,” Brandon said, running over to her.

“I just cut some apple slices with peanut butter for you,” she told him, kissing the top of his blond head before he bolted down the stairs.

“Hey Mom, I think we’re gonna head out to do some Christmas shopping. Any ideas for Brett or Brando?” I asked, putting the cars back into the container Brandon kept them in.

“Brandon will love anything you guys get for him. As far as Brett goes, I’m totally clueless so you’re on your own.”

We could hear Brandon’s giggles and screams from downstairs. “Again!” he yelled.

As we descended the stairs, we found Diamond swinging him through the air while making airplane noises. The more he giggled, the more Diamond made him fly. Seemed we weren’t the only two who were slaves to the little man’s charm.

Diamond stopped, midair swoop when he saw us staring at him. “What’s up, guys?”

“If you’re done playing pilot do you want to fight the crowds at the mall and do some shopping?” I asked him.

“I wanna go,” Brandon announced.

“You can’t, buddy, then we won’t be able to buy your presents,” I told him.

His face lit up. “I stay here and help Mommy.”

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