JUSTIN

I just figured out where Jackson gets his penchant for getting in trouble when he is unsupervised. I was sure Brian was kidding about the cat. I got home to Emmett and Brian arguing about feeding the cat spicy chicken or the can of salmon they just found. I look down at the kitten and at the two older people, I'm still debating about calling them adults. Emmett is reading labels and Brian is looking online to see if they should feed it to the kitten. The poor thing looks like a they've already overfed it. 

“Brian and I decided on Yum Yum for the name. Every time we feed him he purrs and it's like he says Yum Yum.” Emmett tells me. So, these two keep feeding it, I assume.

“How much have you two fed Yum Yum?” Do cats explode if you overfeed them?

They both look at each other, “First we gave it a piece of chicken, the problem is that cats don’t like spicy foods. Then Brian and I cut up some salmon and fed it to Yum Yum and he purred for more. We wanted to feed the baby some tuna, but you don’t have any. I gave him a can of goat’s milk, then I thought he might like the canned shrimp you had.” Emmett explains to me.

“You do realize Yum Yum’s stomach is the size of your thumb, right? Kittens can’t eat more than maybe half a can of kitten food.” I stare them down.

“Justin, it was begging for more.” Brian tells me.

“And purring at us when it ran out.” Emmett adds.

“It’s what a cat you idiots, they purr. He isn’t telling you he’s hungry, he is just making noise.” I tell the wonder twins.

I pick up the kitten, to save it from these two and see they opened quite a few cans and fed the cat. If this was Gus or Jackson, I would expect this kind of behavior.   

MICHAEL

I called Lindsay a few times, but she wasn’t answering her phone. She was probably at the gallery working, so I head there. Lindsay was sitting in her car, staring out the windshield. I walk up to her window and knock, it took calling her name to get her attention. I get in the passenger side so I can talk to her.

“Lindsay, I came to see if you found out anything about the writer.” I tell her.

“He’s that kid you and Brian brought with you to the hospital the night Gus was born.” She says distractedly.

“The kid Brian left Babylon with?” I ask her. 

“HOW THE FUCK WOULD I KNOW MICHAEL, I WAS HAVING A BABY, ALL I KNOW IS THAT YOU AND BRIAN BROUGHT HIM WITH YOU.” Lindsay yells at me.

“Calm down. Brian brought him, they picked me up, I didn’t invite the trick, Brian did.” I tell her.

“WHY DID YOU LET BRIAN TAKE HIM HOME? HE TOOK MY PLACE AND GAVE BRIAN A KID. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COMPETE WITH BRIAN’S NEW FUCKBUDDY?” Lindsay glares at me.

“You were never going to have a chance with Brian, even you couldn’t be that delusional.” I sneer at her.

Lindsay starts the car and shoots us into traffic. When I yell at her to stop, she pushes harder on the accelerator. She is clipping park cars on the side of the road. 

“I was the one Brian wanted when he fucked a woman Michael. I was the one he allowed to have his child. And I was the one who he turned to when he wanted advice. The only reason he bothered with you was because Deb took care of him, while you jacked off, wishing Brian would finally fuck you. Brian didn’t fuck you Michael because you’re a whining child with the intelligence of a snail. You run to a child’s soccer practice to get an autograph for a book written for children.” Lindsay is ranting at me and I want to get her to slow down, she’s weaving all over the road.

“I can’t pretend to be friends with you anymore. Every time you open your mouth, every person in the room loses brain cells. We are going to get off the merry go round together Michael.” She smiles at me.

Lindsay heads under a bridge and into a parking lot. I finally hear sirens and thank God they’ll pull her over. Lindsay speeds up and heads out of the parking lot and toward the water.

“LINDSAY YOU HAVE TO STOP. ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?”  I scream.

“No Michael, not us, just you. I can’t listen to you anymore. It’s torture to pretend I like you enough to listen to your inane chatter and the ‘why can’t Brian love me’ or my favorite, ‘Brian is my best friend’. I would rather drown than be subjected to the Michael Novotny whine track the rest of my life.” She tells me. I scream as the car goes airborne into the water. We’re going to die. 

BRIAN

Justin tells Emmett and me to go to the pet store and buy our kitten supplies, then pick up the children from school. We were bored waiting for Justin to come home. It’s not our fault Yum Yum came to the backdoor. Justin told us both that the food bowl was off limits to anybody who thinks purring means hunger. 

We walk into the store and I tell Emmett to get a cart. We need to get a lot of supplies. Emmett picks up a rainbow sweater and throws it in. I look at the cat post and see this jungle gym set for the cat, I hope they deliver. Emmett and I fight over what kind of food, Emmett thinks because it has fish a cat would want it. I grab ten cans of each food on the shelf and put it in the basket, I don’t care what Justin says, Emmett and I know the cat wanted food.

We picked up the kids and head to the diner to pick up Deb. Jackson and Gus were excited about the cat, but wanted to know why we bought so much stuff. I told them both that my cat was going designer all the way.

DEB

I was just about done with my shift, and sat at the counter talking to Kiki. A guy asks me if I heard about Lindsay and Michael. 

“I don’t talk to either of them much, why?” I ask.

“Lindsay and Michael were in a car that was speeding, they didn’t slow down. The car drove through the jogging trail and went airborne into the water.” He tells me.

“Was anybody hurt?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, they wouldn’t let anybody get close enough to see.” He tells me.

Brian and Emmett come through with the kids and I tell them what the guy told me about Michael and Lindsay. Brian tells Emmett to take the boys home and let Justin know what’s going on. Brian calls Ted and tells him to pick us up, so we can find out what happened. I hope Michael is safe. I might not like the shit he does but I don’t want him dead. 

Ted picks us up and we head to where the guy tell us to go. I hope Michael wasn’t killed. The police blocked off any way in, I was demanding to know what happened.  

“One of the people in the car is my son. I just need to know if he and Lindsay are alright.” I tell them.

“If we could get them to come out of the water, they’ll be fine.” He tells us, pointing at the two of them.

He lets us through and the car is in waist deep water and Lindsay and Michael yelling at each other. The cops all stood at the water's edge, none of them bother to go in the water.

“You fucking tried to kill us you crazy bitch.” Michael yells.

“Michael it’s waist deep, I just wanted to ruin Sam’s favorite car. God, you’re such a chicken shit.” she yells back.

“Your a fucking psycho. You wanted to kill me, you told me that.” Michael tells her.

Get the fucking facts straight, I said I’d rather drown than listen to you whine.” Lindsay sneers.

“MICHAEL NOVOTNY AND LINDSAY PETERSON, GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF THE WATER.” I yell at them.

“Ma, she tried to kill me. She was speeding and just drove us into the water. Brian you need to make sure Gus is doesn’t go anywhere near her.” Michael runs up and tries to hug Brian. Brian blocks both of them and turns and walks away with Ted.

“Glad you're not dead but that is all I am.” I follow Brian and we leave the park and head to Justin’s house.

LINDSAY

I was sitting in my car trying to think of something to do with it. Sam loves this car and probably thought it was safe from me. I wanted to do something that would make it impossible to keep the car. Michael shows up and gets in the car to talk. I was still angry that Michael was with Brian that night and didn’t prevent Brian from fucking JJ and knocking him up. 

Michael was talking in his usual whiny voice, wanting to know all about what I found out. I just wanted to scare him so he would shut the hell up. Michael reminds me again that Brian wasn’t going to be interested in me and I started the car and sped off. I clipped every car I could and drove until I see water. Once water gets in you never get the smell out. Michael is screaming he’s going to die. I wanted to tell him the car wouldn't  be completely submerged, but Michael is practically pissing in his pants. We land and I roll down the windows I want as much murky water to fill the car as possible, Michael gets out and starts screaming. He can’t even scream without sounding like a whiny child. 

Well, the car is done, it makes me smile. Michael and I continue to yell at each other while people watch from the shore. Deb cuts in and tells us to get out of the water. I see Brian and Ted walking away. Deb tells us she was glad we didn’t die, but then it was back to the being ignored again for us. Michael tried to get Brian to talk to him but Brian just kept walking away from him.