To Infiniti & Beyond

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Eva is back at college for the week, Brynn is missing in action, so I find myself calling Jake to see what he's up to.

"Hey, do you want to hang out?" I question as he picks up the phone.

"Beau is over to dads right now if you wanna come join."

"Sounds good, see you soon."

Beau is Jake's long time best friend. They met when they were on a rec football team at six and seven years old. Ten years later and they're still best buds. Beau has always been good to Jake and he's a lot of fun to hang around, I look forward to catching up with him tonight.

I pull up to my dad's house. His truck isn't here which means that dumb and dumber are the only two home. I note that the upstairs lights are off, but the garage lights are on. I shut my car off and head inside.

Beau sees me first, "whats up, fucker!?"

Jake looks up from his phone at me and then back at his phone.

"Hey," I greet them as I shut the door.

As I turn back around, a wad of duct tape hits me on the forehead. I glare at Beau who just laughs in an over exaggerated manner and slaps his knee for dramatics. I roll my eyes but smile nonetheless.

"What do you guys want to do tonight?" I inquire.

"That depends," Jake looks up from his phone again, "do you feel like driving?"

"If we've got nothing better to do," I shrug.

They both hop up simultaneously and almost knock me down as they push past me to get through the door.

"Shotgun!" Jake calls out as they're sprinting to my car.

Beau ends up beating Jake to the passenger seat. I shake my head as I laugh in amusement.

Once we're all settled in my car I tell Jake he can have the front seat on the way home, this appeases him. He sits in the middle of my back seat leaning up to help Beaux cue songs as I back out of the driveway. What have I gotten myself into?

We find ourselves at Walmart first. The drive there was fun but chaotic. Beau was practically hanging out the window screaming at people as we passed them while the music blared.

The boys decide they need a shopping cart. Jake jumps in and Beau starts to run. He aims a defenseless Jake at one of the poles and lets go. Him and I bend over laughing clutching our stomachs as the crash of the metal cart echoes in the parking lot. A couple of bystanders look but carry on with their lives.

Inside of Walmart the boys are slightly less rambunctious. Emphasis on "slightly." They're all hyper - drifting the cart around corners, voicing weird noises, making out of pocket comments - I just hang a few feet back observing as I silently laugh to myself. Their ADHD is so entertaining when I'm not the victim of its actions.

I don't know how, but they got me roped into purchasing fireworks for them. They blew $150 in less than ten minutes of being at the store. We load them into my car after checking out and head to wawa for snacks as per their request.

Our wawa trip was short lived and we raced home to light the fireworks.

We do the noisy ones first, then Beau decides to light a small one and aim it at Jake. This results in a war. They each grab as many of the small fireworks as possible and sprint to cover. They take turns chasing after one another trying to get a hit on their respective targets. I'm sitting in a lawn chair as the chaos ensues, realizing it got too quiet too quick.

Before I know it, they come out from behind a row of bushes - one firework per hand - with me sighted as their next target. I jump up so quick that the lawn chair flies backwards and falls over. I scramble around the other chairs trying to get free of the unintended obstacle course and they keep gaining on me. Curse their longer legs!

I'm screaming borderline bloody murder (but in a subtle joyful way) as they chase after me manically laughing. Fireworks wizz past me, "watch my hair!" I struggle to pull my hood over my head while still running.

After what feels like an eternity, the fireworks are empty. We all call a truce and meet back by the lawn chairs. I pick my seat back up, Jake leans on a chair, Beau lays sprawled out on the ground.

Once we catch our breath, they go back to the rest of the fireworks, let me light a couple, and then complete the grand finale.

I ended up taking Beau back to his house. On the way there we got to talking. Just like Jake, he also matured a great deal since I last saw him. Conversations flowed easily and when he left I felt refreshed after talking.

This night couldn't have gone any better. I'm looking forward to my next adventure with them.