My Brothers From Quebec

“My brothers! From another mother! How was the flight?” I asked with a big smile because I was so excited to get to spend a week hanging out.

“Long… So long, I had about six packs of mixed peanuts,” Jacoby wore a dark leather jacket. He was looking even more mature in his face. I could see that his facial hair was coming in more.

“Dude, it was only three and a half hours! You call that long?” Mark, his older biological brother questioned. “It was time for some music and then one long movie.”

“What movie did you watch? Also, look at you… with those movie star shades… looking stellar, bro!” I gave Mark a big hug.

“Return of the King.”

“Nice, good choice! We should do a Lord of the Rings movie marathon sometime!”

I gave Jacoby a hug next.

“That’d be fun!” Jacoby smiled at the idea.

“Well, let’s grab dinner. Sound good? My stomach is growling like an angry panda.” I paused because of an idea that flashed into my head. “Speaking of angry pandas, how does Chinese food sound?”

Mark and Jacoby nodded.

“Is there a Chinese restaurant named the panda or something?” Mark questioned, with eyebrows raised.

I laughed,“Sure enough… you guessed it and let’s go!” I led the way. After helping with some of their luggage.

In the car, I put on some Coldplay music at first but then Harry Styles “Sign of the Times” came on after.

“This song is beautiful but something about it feels so dang sad,” Mark frowned for a half second and picked up a sticky fidget spinner that was in the front cup holder of the car. It was sticky because Coke had spilled on it at some point in the past.

“Agreed,” I replied and changed it to the movie soundtrack of Lord of the Rings.

We got Chinese takeout and drove to an Air B & B.

Jacoby peered out of the back car door window. “Wow, this is such a nice Air B & B beach house!”

“Yeah, the pictures looked pretty dope to me!” I felt so happy about the find. “It was an amazing deal too.”

“Just meant to be!” Mark said as he opened his car door to get out of the car. “Let’s check it out.”

We toted the duffel bags inside and looked around the beach house. The house had a beautiful back porch with a grill. Indeed, the house was simple but comfy.

“Wow, check out that view! The ocean waves are so nice!” Mark pointed at the waves rushing in. Moonlight shone down now. Stars freckled the sky like pepper spray.

“It’s definitely not cold here,” Jacoby took off his jacket.

“Ok, dinner is served.” I had found the kitchen and grabbed plates and forks.

The three of us munched on our food in silence for a few minutes.

“I’m walking out to the beach after we eat,” Jacoby stated and watched to see my response.

“Oh yeah, we gotta! I didn’t choose a beach house for nothing!” I pushed off one of my shoes with my other foot.

“Pewwee! Your feet is stanky!” Mark was overly dramatic and covered his face.

“Shut up, pretty boy!” I joked back. Taking another huge bite of food, I took off my socks. Throwing my socks at Mark, I started to run out to the beach.

The rest of the night was full of joking around, wading in the waves, and catching up since the last time we had all been able to talk. I felt happy and they were too. The stressors of the rest of life were perfectly on hold.