BRIAN

Justin went to get the boys and Jenny from his mother, I told him I would pick up some lunch and meet him back at the house. I was walking in and John comes flying past me and runs to his room. What the hell was that about? I decide he can tell me when he wants to. Justin and the kids come in about an hour later and John finally shows up and keeps silencing his phone. 

“Are we going to stay home?” Gus asks me.

“I thought we could play in the pool today.” I tell him.

“Dad, can we work on my sketches?” Gus asks Justin.

“If you want to, just bring your stuff outside. I can paint out here today.” He tells Gus.

“I want to draw too.” Jenny tells them.

“Let’s get a sketch pad and you and Gus can show me your stuff.” Justin takes them with him to get stuff from the study.

“What do you want to do Jacob?” I ask him.

“Do you think Uncle Drew would come over and play catch with me?” He asks me.

“Go ask your dad to call them, and Ted. We could have a barbeque.” I tell him.

Jacob runs off to ask Justin to call them all. I look to see John rolling his eyes at his phone.

“Walk of Shame?” I ask him.

“No. Night of a thousand stupid ideas.” He tells me.

“Brian do you want to invite everyone over tonight? It would be a way to get Deb off our backs about not having a family dinner.” Justin tells me as he comes back to the kitchen.

“Might as well, Carl might have to cook, because none of us have used the grill.” I tell him.

“It’s not that hard.” Justin tells me.

“You ever managed to not burn everything?” I ask him.

“Good point, but you know that we are going to have to include Michael, for Jenny.” He tells me.

“Is there any way you could tell Michael you lost his phone number?” John pleads with Justin.

“Why would you care?” I ask him. 

“Wait, what were you doing last night?” Justin asks him.

“Nothing.” John tells us as his phone goes off again. 

“Who’s calling?” I ask him.

“I’m nice one fucking time and this is my punishment.” John whines.

“Is this making any sense to you?” Justin asks me.

“Nope, but I think it has something to do with Mikey.” Justin and I look at John who hangs his head.

“Oh God, you didn’t?” Justin asks John.

“He was acting all needy and friendly, I was bored.” He tells us.

“I’ve never been bored enough for Mikey.” I tell him.

“Wait, I didn’t do anything like that, I just hung out with him. We ended up sleeping on Deb’s couch while watching Batman.” He tells us.

“Then what’s the problem?” Justin asks him.

“The problem is, when we got up he started planning on us doing something together, like we were friends.” He tells us.

“Just tell him you're busy.” Justin tells him. 

“I was hoping that ignoring him would do the trick.” He tells us. As another text message came in.

“I have to invite him, Jenny would expect it.” Justin tells him.

“Maybe by then he’ll think of a way to get you to go to Comic Con with him?” I smirk at John.

“Fuck you Kinney.” John tells me.

“Just saying, he is probably already planning the ‘John and Mikey Show’.” I joke as John’s phone goes off again.

Justin tells me that I need to go get stuff we need while he begs Carl to grill for us. Jacob and John decide to go with me. I call Deb and Emmett and ask what to get, because I honestly have never done this before. Emmett tells me to wait for him to get here and we can go together. Jacob tells me that if Drew was coming he wouldn’t mind staying home. When Emmett arrives with Drew and a football, we take off and leave Justin and the gang to get stuff. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Emmett asks John.

“He hung out with Mikey last night.” I tell Emmett.

“You and Michael hung out?” Emmett asks John as if he needed to hear it from John to believe it.

“I was at Babylon watching Ben and some guy dancing, and Michael comes up behind me acting really pathetic, I felt bad for him.” He tells us. 

“That's how it starts.” I tell him. 

“What?” John asks me. 

“Michael latching on.” Emmett tells him. 

“We don't even like each other.” He tells us as his phone goes off again.

“How did he get your number?” I ask him. 

“I didn’t give it to him. I only figured out it was him because I answered the first time.” He tells us. 

“What did he want?” Emmett asks him. 

“He was just asking if I wanted to go out tonight. I told him I was busy.” He tells us. 

“What exactly did you do with Michael?” Emmett asks him. 

“He came up and said he couldn't hold on to anyone. I told him it was his fault. Then he just seemed resigned to the fact that he was a loser. I was bored so I told him we could trash on the guy who Ben was with. I have to say, the guy has zero self confidence, because he was saying at least the guy could dance, unlike him. I ordered shots and got him trashed with me. We went to Deb's for food and watched a movie. Deb told us to stay because we were too drunk to drive. I woke up to Michael drooling on my chest. I left him on the couch and ran to Brian’s house. Now he's calling every ten minutes.” He tells us.

“Brian, I guess Michael found a new best friend to stalk.” Emmett tells me. 

“I guess John did what no one else has.” I smirk.

“What?” John asks us. 

“Got Michael to stop pining over Brian.” Emmett laughs.

JUSTIN 

Mom told me that Molly was coming tonight. I was excited because we haven't seen each other for a couple of months. She's been at college working on a degree for marketing. I hadn't told Brian that my sister was looking into advertising because she wanted to get a job on her own. I figured Brian would most likely offer her an internship if he was told, but like me, Molly wants to get things on her own.

“Aunt Molly, you're here.” Jacob runs to her.

“Like I’d miss a chance to see you.” She tells him. 

“How about me?” Brian asks her.

“Let's see, my childhood crush or my adorable nephew?” Molly pretends to think about it.

“Adorable nephew.” Jacob begs.

“Definitely adorable nephew.” She smiles at him.

“I'm crushed, Justin come over here and save me from my broken heart.” Brian tells me. 

“There there Baby, I still think your crush worthy.” I tell him in my best Emmett impression.

“And that's why ‘adorable nephew’ wins, no way you'd leave Justin for me.” She tells him. 

“Aunt Molly, come meet Gus and Jenny.” Jacob tells her answer drags her with him.

“Was that Molly?” Brad asks staring at her.

“When's the last time you saw her?” Brian asks him. 

“When she left for college.” Brad tells us. 

“I haven’t seen her since Justin left, but she grew up gorgeous.” Emmett tells him. 

“Yeah, too bad.” Brad tells us. 

“You wanted her to be ugly?” Brian asks him. 

“No, just that she's way too young.” He tells us. 

“How old are you?” Emmett asks him. 

“Thirty-three, too old for her.” He tells us and I start laughing hysterically.

“Stop laughing twat.” Brian tells me. 

“Brad, you realize that Brian is twelve years older than Justin, right?” Emmett asks him. 

“It's different for me, she's like my niece.” He tells us. 

“Not really, if you think about it. Tucker is my stepdad, not my actual dad.” I tell him. 

“Don’t you think it would be weird that I date my brother's step kid?” He asks us. 

“We kind of don’t really think anything is weird. Well, other than Michael’s new best friend.” I tease John who is walking quickly to us to get away from Michael.

“What do I have to do to get rid of him? He’s planning every night, he even said we could do stuff with Jenny.” John asks us.

“Wish I could tell you, I just got rid of him.” Brian tells him.

“John, we could take the boys to see the new Spiderman.” Michael tells him as he walks over.

“Why don’t you see if the boys even want to see it.” I tell Michael.

“All boys want to see superheros.” Michael tells me.

“I didn’t.” I tell him.

“I only did because you would whine unless we went.” Brian tells him.

“I was smart enough to run when you wanted to go.” Emmett tells him.

“I would have gone but you never asked me, not that I was interested.” Ted tells him. 

We all look at John, who’s squirming.

“I was drunk and Deb’s food was too good to resist.” He tells us.

“We could eat at Ma’s if you want before we go.” Michael tells him.

“How about we just have fun tonight and decided things later.” I tell Michael so John can figure out a way to get out of it, without hurting Michael’s feelings. Okay, so I was kind of thrilled that Michael latched on to someone other than Brian.

“Dad, can we go swimming?” Jenny asks Michael.

“Sure baby, let me go change.” Michael runs off with Jenny.

“I swear if he keeps this up, I’m going to Tibet.” John tells us all and looks confused when we start laughing.

Carl yells at everyone to come and get food an hour later. I was sitting on Brian’s lap when Michael comes over to sit with us. He wasn’t pissing anyone off and that had Brian curious.

“What’s going on with you?” Brian asks him.

“Not a lot, I started looking for a job.” He tells us.

“What about your store?” Brian asks him.

“Like I told Justin, it’s most likely going to close by the end of the year. I’m barely making it.” He tells him.

“Michael, you need to branch out into something other than comics. Most kids are gamers.” Brian tells him.

“I just always thought kids wanted comics.” Michael tells us.

“They do, but they are trending at games.” Brian tells him.

“We’ve been studying how to advertise a dying business and bring it back to life.” Molly tells him as she sits down next to Michael.

“You didn’t tell me Molly was getting into my field.” Brian tells me.

“I want to succeed on my own.” Molly tells him.

“Then do it with me, I don’t give people jobs as favors. I’d start you where all new people start.” Brian tells her.

“I was hoping Michael would let me use his comic shop as a project for school. I think there is a way to get kids to want the comics more than games.” She tells him.

“Tell me what you would do?” Brian asks her.

“Do you sell only new stuff?” She asks Michael.

“No. I have vintage too, but it’s hard to find.” He tells her.

“What’s your biggest issue right now?” She asks him.

“That they can go to Big Q and buy them cheaper.” He tells her.

“Why not turn afternoon’s into book parties? Like a group comes together to discuss the latest or past comics. Big Q might sell cheaper, but they don’t have a place where people can come and discuss their heros. It would work even better if you were to throw a party anytime a new comic is coming out, get them excited to come to your place because they get to get their geek on without having people think they’re strange. Put flyers up to tell people when the event is going to happen. Let them dress up for it. Do you have internet awareness?” She asks him.

“Molly, you're hired.” Brian tells her.

I got up and went to where John was hiding with Ted and Blake. I hadn’t really spent much time with Ted or Blake. 

“Escaped Michael?” John asks me.

“Molly was interested in seeing if she could help turn his shop around. Michael is about to lose it.” I tell him.

“Why didn’t he talk to me about it?” Ted asks me.

“I think he didn’t want to admit he was failing at it.” I tell Ted.

“There's no love lost between Michael and me, but I wouldn't want him to lose his business.” Blake tells us.

“Hopefully he won't use this to get sympathy from Brian.” Ted tells me. 

“For some reason he told me, not Brian at first.” I'm still puzzled by it.

“Maybe he wanted you to give him a reason to hate you?” Blake asks.

“There are hundreds of reasons he could choose, why one that makes me want to help him?” I tell him. 

“He probably expected you to be thrilled he wasn’t successful.” Ted tells me. 

“I couldn’t do that to anyone.” I tell him. 

“Michael could and would if it had been you.” John tells me. 

“I guess.” I tell him. 

“Just don’t let his problems come between you and Brian.” Ted tells me.

“I think John solved that.” I tell them as John groans.

“How did John solve it?” Blake asks us.

“After I told Michael that Brian retired as his hero, I think he found a new one.” I tell Blake.

“Man, you were nice to him, weren’t you?” Ted ask John.

“It was just sad watching him be down on himself. I mean he’s not bad looking, but his whining makes you want to throw his ass into traffic. Last night he was civil, so I just hung out with him.” John tells us.

“I think that’s how it started with Brian.” Ted tells him.

“I am not going to be his next Brian. I want to have a life and will not lose someone because Michael thinks he should come first.” John tells us.

“Just pray you’re a phase.” Blake tells him as Ted and I nod.

“Hey, I forgot to tell you, Lindsay is working at the Big Q as a cashier.” Blake tells us.

“Big Q can have her, she was trying to get an interview with me.” John tells us.

“I don’t think Big Q is going to work out for her either.” Blake tells us.

“Why?” I ask.

“She was having problems with the register and then told the customer she was waiting on that it would go faster if they would bag their stuff.” Blake tells me.

“Wow, guess we could skip the Big Q.” I tell him.