It was late afternoon by the time Brian and I left our little haven and started heading back home; and for the first time since I’d been placed with Grandma Annie, it was last place I wanted to be. Spending the day alone with Brian had proved to be more than just a convenient way to escape the insanity of my family discord; it afforded me the opportunity to finally realize that no matter how shitty you believe your life is, there’s always the potential that what the next person is going through is a hell of a lot worse.

Case in point, Brian allowed me to be privy to the fact that the only reason he was still under the state’s guardianship at his age, was because of a major fuck up regarding his paperwork. He said that had given him the lame excuse of having to verify his year of birth because what they had on record conflicted with every single document he ever signed. (Why doesn’t this surprise me in the least… but the state’s perfect right?) After spending the extra year at Webster Cantrell, the powers that be had finally cleaned up their mess and Brian was officially free from the confines of living within the limits of an unwanted authority.

Well this solved the mystery of why Brian felt the need to get completely shitfaced last night. I still wasn’t clear on how he wound up in the county lock-up though. I knew I was playing with fire, but I couldn’t resist putting the screws to him just a bit about his recent journey into sloshville.

“So this was why you were piss-ass drunk huh? You were celebrating your emancipation, relishing in your new found freedom.” I said with a smile as I playfully gave his shoulder a little shove.

He snorted and with a roll of his eyes replied “Yep. It was my way of saying farewell and fuck you to all those assholes that pretended to care about me. As a matter of fact, they’re the ones who called the police on me anyway.”

There wasn’t much conversation after that. We were navigating our way to the park’s exit in companionable silence when my stomach suddenly let out loud growl.  I guess in my haste to get as far away from my mother as possible, I negated to have anything to eat before leaving.

“Seems like it’s time to feed the beast,” Brian laughed and I felt my face redden in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry, but in my defense we did leave before eating breakfast,” I huffed

I suggested that we stop by Krekel’s to get a couple of sandwiches and a pint of lemon ice cream to share since we were already heading in that direction anyway. Brian wrinkled his nose in disgust at the mere thought of even stepping foot inside the local eatery.

“You actually eat that shit?”  He asked incredulously “Do you have any idea how fattening that crap is Justin?”

“Are you kidding me? I hardly need to worry about getting fat Brian and neither do you. Besides, the tomato burger is my favorite.” I stated matter-of-factly.

 Ok I admit it took a little convincing for me to get him to even consider eating at the famed burger joint. He only agreed to go after I assured him that he could find something on the menu that wouldn’t offend his delicate pallet. I was grateful for that because quite frankly, I was starving and didn’t have the patience to wait until we got home to prepare a meal.

“Oh my god, would you look at that!” I said rather excitedly as we approached the parking lot and our eyes landed on one of the city’s most talked about attractions, the infamous Krekelcaddy or as Daphne liked to call it the barnyard pimp on wheels.

The Krekelcaddy was a big-body Cadillac that had been fashioned to look like a giant rooster. The front part of the car’s body was painted with red and white stripes, while the rear was painted as if feathers adorned its ass-end. The head of the cock (no pun intended) stood proudly erect on the car’s rooftop with the tail protruding from the trunk.

“That has got to be the ugliest fucking thing I ever saw,” Brian admonished with a roll of his eyes.  It was my turn to laugh now and I did so until tears began to fill my eyes at Brian’s disdain for the offending vehicle.

“Come on big guy, let’s get you inside before you permanently lose your sight due to staring at such a monstrosity,” I said as I put my arm around his shoulder, giving it a little squeeze before steering him toward the door.  He ruffled my hair and gave me a smile in return but it wasn’t one of his usual restrained, guarded smiles; no this one was different. It was genuine and uncensored, and I felt something akin to pride at the fact that Brian was starting to feel comfortable enough around me to let his guard down, if only a little.

 Even though the start to my day was unequivocally less than desirable, the handsome lad that was keeping me company, made it all look like simple window dressing in comparison.

Half an hour and two full stomachs later, we finally arrived home. As soon as we walked in though, hurricane Annie swooped down and hit us harder than the freak spring ice storm of 1979. As we all stood in the foyer she gave us a thorough tongue lashing; telling us how inconsiderate we were for not calling to at least tell her where we were. She further went on to rant about how scared and worried she was that my mother had driven me away and how she thought I might never come back.

“Grandma….me leaving without saying goodbye to you, is something you never have to worry about.” I told her as I pulled her slight frame into a hug.

“If you ever did, I would kick your uppity butt ‘til hell won’t have it again….you hear me?” She whispered affectionately while wiping a stray tear away from her cheek. She then turned and pointed a finger at Brian.

“And as for you young man….”

Uh oh… I knew sooner or later Grandma would rake Brian over the coals about the events that led him to have to dry out in our guestroom. I kind of felt sorry for him because he had no idea what he was in for, but on second thought it would be amusing to see him try to use his bravado against such a formidable opponent.

“You’d better shape up and get your act together. Just because you call yourself mad at the world, that doesn’t give you the right to behave so abhorrently.”

I put a hand over my mouth and snickered as watched Brian standing there wide-eyed, with his mouth hanging open. Oh but she wasn’t done with him yet.

“Furthermore, the next time you find yourself in the county due to poor lack of judgment, neither I nor my grandson will be there to save your perky little ass…do I make myself clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” Brian said quietly, looking down at his hands.

 That was the first, but definitely not the last time I would see Brian humble himself.

“Good, now that that’s settled, you’re more than welcome to stay for rest of what’s left of the weekend if you’d like.”

To my surprise, Brian had agreed to stay on with us for the remainder of the weekend when the offer was put on the table. After dinner we spent the evening watching the movies I had recently rented from blockbuster. At around 10:00 I decided to call it a night, seeing as I had to get up early for school the next day.

I was roused from my slumber however, when I felt my bed dip in the middle of the night. I turned over and rubbed my eyes until I could clearly focus on the image sitting next to me.

“Brian? Is something wrong?”

“No it’s just that….” He let out a weighted breath before continuing. “Just that…I….” Brian was obviously having a difficult time trying to express whatever it was he had to say.

“What is it Brian?” I asked imploringly.  He then leaned over and gently kissed my cheek and whispered in my ear “Thank you Sunshine,” and before I could offer a response he was gone.

I sat there completely stunned as I tried to will myself back to sleep. Unfortunately for me sleep didn’t come and before I knew it the sun was coming up, signaling Monday morning’s arrival and the end of my whirlwind weekend.