My Best Friend's Brother

Traffic Jam

Aria stood in the parking lot packing her stuff into the car as Hal talked to one of the security guards. 

“When you say lifetime ban, I mean, who’s lifetime are you talking about?” He asked.

“Ow! Mom, let my feet touch the ground.” Reese exclaimed as Lois held him and Malcolm by the back of their necks.

“Don’t ever ask me for anything ever again. I should’ve given birth to chimps. Then at least I know to expect this kind of behavior.”

They all got into the car and Hal drove as Lois continued to lecture the boys, Aria had her ear buds in and was listening to Temptation by Destiny’s Child. They were all practically boiling inside the car, sweat beaded down their faces.

“Hal, stop swerving.” Lois instructed her husband.

“The darn silver Toyota’s been tailgating me for the last three miles.”

“Just pull over, let him pass.”

“Oh, flashing the brights. It’s going to be like that, huh?” Hal stepped on the gas jolting them all back at the sudden speed.

“Good lord, Hal, he could have a gun.” Lois scolded her husband, “Just let him pass.”

“All right, silver Toyota, you win this round.” Hal slowed down and waved for the vehicle to pass. “Go ahead, get there two seconds sooner! That guy is just an accident waiting to happen.”

Unfortunately, Hal was right. 

~~~

“That was so cool.” Reese said, “Did you see that truck jackknife and flip over? An explosion would’ve been nice, but you can’t have everything.”

“Yeah, Reese, this is great.” Malcolm told him sarcastically, “Now we’re stuck here for hours with no food and no air conditioning.”

“Both of you are ridiculous.” Aria stated and she walked up from behind them. “Someone could’ve died.”

The brothers rolled their eyes as the three of them walked away from the police tape.

~~~

“This totally sucks. It’s like an oven out here. What is the point of wandering aimlessly through traffic?” Malcolm complained as they walked around.

“So we can find cool stuff like this.” Reese said as he picked up a dirty old sock. “It smells like gasoline.”

“Ew, put that down.” Aria smacked his hand causing him to drop it.

“Guys, can’t we just go back to the car? My feet are killing –” Malcolm’s complaining was cut short.

“Ice cream man!” Reese and Aria shouted as they ran towards the group of kids crowding around the ice cream truck.

“Go away!” The man exclaimed loudly, “There is no ice cream in the truck!”

“He’s lying!” A girl shouted, “There’s tons of ice cream in there!”

“The ice cream in the truck is not for sale! It is against the law for me to sell ice cream in the middle of traffic!”

“This is just wrong! You can make money and please children. This is a senseless act. You are evil – pure evil!” Reese yelled, his face scrunched in anger.

“Well, if you kids are not willing to discuss this sensibly. . .” The man trailed off before he climbed into the truck and closed the door behind him.

“You son of a. . .” Reese screeched.

“Bitch!” Aria finished. It was hot and all she wanted was a nice cold ice cream to help her cool down, she was ready to break in and steal the ice cream if she had to.