My Best Friend's Brother

Poker II

Aria, Scott, Thomas and Aria’s father arrived at the Wilkerson house. Hal had invited Noah to play poker and said to bring the others along, Scott and Thomas were excited to see if they could get any embarrassing stories about Aria. She was dreading them finding out about the stupid things she had done because she knew they wouldn’t let her live it down.

“Hey, Hal.” Noah greeted the man as he welcomed them in.

“Hey, Noah. So, you kids are going to be hanging out in the boys’ room and Brian’s daughter is here with one of her friends.” Hal informed the three young teens.

Aria led the boys to the room and greeted the other guys and awkwardly greeted the girls. Aria was usually awkward around people that she didn’t know, she had obviously seen the girls around school but that didn’t mean she’s spoken to them.

She knew their names were Chandra and Kristen but that was really it. However, they were fawning over Stevie and were just shouting for some reason.

“Would you like something from the kitchen?!” Kristen asked loudly.

“No. . . thank you!”

“He doesn’t want anything!” Kristen told Chandra, still speaking loudly.

“Do you think they’ll offer to change his diaper next?” Reese snarked to the others.

“I can’t believe Stevie’s putting up with this.” Malcolm shook his head. 

“Should we get him a blanket?” They heard the girls ask each other.

“You know what? I’ll take care of it.” Reese announced to them before he made his way over to the girls.

"Would you like a blanket?!” Kristen asked Stevie.

“Girls, let me explain something. Stevie here is no different than the rest of us.” Reese placed his hands on Stevie’s shoulders. “He plays video games, he does chores around the house, he goes to the movies with friends. He leads a completely normal life. Which just makes it sadder that he only has two months to live.”

“What?” Stevie looked at the older boy confused. The others were confused too but wanted to see where this was going.

“Stevie, they had the right to know.” Reese gave him a look to play along.

“Oh, my God, is it true?” Chandra asked the bespeckled boy as she placed her hand on his shoulder and crouched next to him along with Kristen. Stevie stared at Chandra’s hand for a moment.

“I’ve been told. . . I’m very brave.” He said.

“Aww.” The girls rubbed his shoulders to comfort the apparently dying boy and the others just watched as their jaws dropped.

“Yeah, the doctors are baffled. Stevie’s brain is growing too big for his head. It’s pressing up against his skull. They say he only has two months before it explodes.” Reese told the girls with fake sympathy as he walked to the other desk.

When they turned back to Stevie he put on a sad face. “It’s called. . . encephalo. . . neuryop. . . alitis.”

“Are they always like this?” Scott asked Aria in a low voice.

“They’ve done crazier.” Aria sighed.

“How horrible!” Chandra cried as she and Kristen comforted him some more.

Malcolm quickly grabbed Reese. “What are you doing?”

“Helping Stevie. It’s weird but it feels good. I like being the hero.”

“You’re pimping a fatal disease to take advantage of a girl.”

“For good.” Reese said as if that made it any better.