The Boy's of Westbrook

~Brave~ Chapter II

Chapter II

Damien was right about it being a scorcher outside. After Eric had gone upstairs to say hello to a few family members he missed after having to run by and bring his bags downstairs. He walked out one of the four glass doors to the upper patio. Then walked straight back inside. He had forgotten how hot it was after he got out of the truck with his dad. They had to walk down a steep hill, the entire way Eric dreaded falling because that would have been a disaster in itself. And embarrassing.

The cicadas were still buzzing outside, even after Eric let himself back inside. He could barely rest his arms on the wooden beams for fear this his arms might fry off. The air conditioning was a blessing. But not even that seemed to completely cool him off, because upstairs had a lot of windows with no drapes. Usually Eric liked this part of the house best because it had a great a view. It still did.

The house itself was built on the lower end of the hill. The entrance led first into a sunroom after walking past a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen window. Three walls consisted of nothing but wide windows as the sunroom. One door led to the upper patio. Christmas tree lights in the colors of red, white and blue decorated the banisters out there showing this family was proud to be American. There was both a Mexican and an American flag flapping in the wind out there too.

To the left was a rickety siding wooden doors that opened into the second living room where Eric was now. A kitchen was in the corner to the right from where he currently sat. Just a bit further, was a hallway for another bedroom to the right, bathroom to the left, and a master bedroom at the end of the hall. Eric never went in there. He was respectful of his aunt and uncles privacy.

There were two couches, both unoccupied. Eric's Aunt Olivia was in the kitchen cleaning. No matter how many times Eric had offered, the woman who could barely speak a lick of English shook her head aggressively. So Eric didn't bother offering this time, even though he was sorely tempted to. He needed something to keep him busy to help soothe his ridiculously broken heart. He was trying not to think of the man he often fantasized about, was downstairs. That was closer than Eric ever allowed. And that was precisely why Eric stayed smart and didn't let many people in. There was less chance of being let down. Eric knew he was still being foolish but he was human.

There was still tonight, all of tomorrow, another night and then the morning to get through. If Eric could make it.

So now Eric was conflicted with turning on the TV, joining the family members down by the docks to fish, joining the others to go for a lap around the lake boat ride, reading his book or seeing if his cousin Veronica had arrived. Veronica was the tall girl, so she too was socially awkward even when it came to family reunions. They often sought each other out whenever they could to keep each other company. Or they would end up on opposite ends of the field twirling their thumbs, feeling ashamed of themselves.

Veronica may not have gotten Eric 100% of the time but it was as close as it could get. Maybe she got him 85% of the time. They never minded being in each other's presence even if they weren't talking. Veronica was the kind of person Eric could have around without feeling the pressure to fill the silence with mindless talk like the rest of the family seemed to want him to do.

They used to hang with another cousin, Trey. That was back when he was considered as a pipsqueak, because he was like the runt of the family. Past tense was. Now he was the opposite and took great pride in showing off his body. He hung with the cool cousins now. The cool cousins being like Martin and Frankie. There was Rubio, Chris and Alejandro too. That about summed up the cool kids of the family.