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~ 7 ~

 

“I can’t believe you actually broke the boat, Howie.”

“Shut up, Kevin! It’s not my fault. The engine just decided to stop working.”

It was comedic timing that the second the two of them had reached the deck, Howie had tried to move the boat which caused the engine to let out a small cry of help in the form of major sputtering sounds before dying altogether.

“Well that didn’t sound good.” Kevin said, trying his best not to smile.

Of course Nick didn’t try to hide his feelings as he walked over to his friend and pat him on the back, “Way to go, D! Kevin just said he was afraid this was going to happen. You totally called it, Bro!”

Howie looked really annoyed as he took a deep breath and began pacing back and forth on the deck. “I don’t know why this is happening. Everything seemed to be working fine before.”

Kevin walked over and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “It’s okay, D. We’ll just call for help. No big deal.”

“Maybe not to you, but my brother is going to kill me!”

Nick laughed as he once again dangled his feet over the water. “Maybe you should have let me drive the boat!”

Howie was ignoring the teenager and instead kept playing around with the steering wheel as if that would magically make things better. Kevin decided to help, standing next to his friend and placing a hand on his shoulder, “I don’t think that’s going to do much. We might as well just sit back and enjoy the day. I mean we are on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Things could be worse, right?”

Howie looked at Kevin suspiciously, “Did you take a heavy amount of drugs while you were below deck?”

Kevin shook his head, “Just trying to make the best of the situation.”

“I know and it’s a little odd!”

“Hey!”

Nick laughed at that. “Howie’s got a point.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Howie and Nick both looked at each other before the younger of the two answered, “You aren’t exactly the most optimistic guy on the planet.”

“I’m a realist.”

“You’re a Debbie Downer!”

“I am NOT!”

“Kevin, you know there are those glass half full people and then the glass half empty people. You’re like the guy who is holding the broken glass because it shattered from all your negativity.”

Howie started laughing at Nick’s analogy but all it was doing was angering Kevin which maybe was proving their points. “Whatever.”

“Hey, that’s my line!”

“Do you think it’s easy having to be the one that everyone counts on to do the right thing all the time?” Kevin asked both his friends as the sun slowly sank behind a cloud as if to coincide with the mood shift in the boat. “Do you have any idea the kind of pressure I’m under to make sure you all do the right thing all the damn time?” He paused for a few seconds to make eye contact with both of them and then shook his head, “Maybe that’s why I seem so serious all the time. Someone in this group has to be!”

“I call bullshit!”

Kevin turned to Nick, “Excuse me?”

“Bullshit!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean shit that comes out of a bull, Kevin!”

Kevin tilted his head slightly which made Nick giggle. “Huh?”

“This right here has nothing to do with our band. We are on a vacation, trying to fish on a beautiful day and yet, you are here being all serious and anal.”

“I was just accused of taking drugs because I was being positive.”

“Yes, but then you got all serious and anal about it.”

Kevin looked over at Howie for some support but all he got was a shrug, “The kid’s kind of got a point.”

“Fine! Then you know what? I’ll just sit here and not say anything and I’m sure that will make both of you pretty happy.”

“Could you try not scowling too?” Kevin didn’t say anything but turned to look at Nick as he continued, “Because I don’t know man…your brows just kind of like… do the talking for you.”

He tried not to laugh. He tried to keep a serious look on his face, but the look on Nick’s just made him crack a smile. “You’re such an idiot!” Kevin said as he shook his head and lay down on the deck, shielding his eyes from the sun which once again came out from behind the clouds.

~*~

“I spy with my own eyes…”

Both Kevin and Nick sighed because they knew what the next word out of Howie’s mouth was going to be.

“Something….blue!”

“Uh….could it be the water…again?” Kevin asked sarcastically as they all lay on their backs staring up at the sky.

“Ding Ding Ding!”

“How did I ever know?”

“Lucky guess, it could have been the sky.”

“Yeah, like the last five times you went…D, you seriously suck at this game.” Nick whined.  “And no offense, but this is the worst fishing trip I’ve ever been on. I’m surprised the fish haven’t jumped onto the boat and bitch slapped us yet.”

“The night’s still young.”

“But I’m not. I swear how long are we just going to sit here? I feel like I’ve aged about ten years.”

“I thought you were the one that wanted to stay, Nick.”

“That was before I realized how incredibly boring the two of you could be.”

The three of them had been floating on a dead boat for more than four hours now. In which time, they had swam, argued, took a short nap, argued some more, ate some lunch, argued some more and then started playing ‘I Spy’

All right, I guess I’ll go again. Kevin said looking around for something they haven’t used yet…“I spy with my own eyes…Nick...why is your ass beeping?”

“Well that’s a new one.” Howie said as he opened his eyes at the sound that Kevin alluded to. “You are beeping.”

“No, I’m not!” Nick said all defensively as clearly a beeping sound was heard coming from his shorts.

“Do you have a pager?”

Nick rolled his eyes and took it out of his back pocket, “Well duh…”

“When did you get that? I don’t remember you having one before.” Howie said curiously watching as Nick looked at the number.

“Howie did you bring that huge ass phone with you?”

“Yes Nicky, but I decided not to use it to call for help.” When Nick looked confused by Howie’s attempt at sarcasm, he shook his head, “Of course I didn’t. The last thing I need is to get it wet. You know how expensive those phones are?”

“Did your parents give you that?” Kevin asked as he watched Nick nervously shift his position as he stared at the number. “Is that them trying to call you?”’

Nick hesitated slightly before answering, “Yeah…they need me to call them right away.”

“Well, they’re out of luck then.” Howie answered before closing his eyes to the sun again. Kevin however wasn’t buying it.

“When did they give that to you?”

Nick shrugged and placed the beeper beside him but he seemed nervous, uneasy and on edge, all things that alarmed Kevin. “How come we didn’t know you had that?”

“Sorry, I didn’t know I had to report every little thing I got from home.”

“Just that, I’m surprised you haven’t bragged about having it yet. Seems like something you would have talked about by now. Does Brian even know you have one of those?”

“God, can we stop talking about my stupid pager already?”

“What do you think your parents want?” Howie asked with his eyes still closed to the sun.

“No idea, they probably are just checking up on me to see if I’m having a good time.”

Kevin was still looking at Nick suspiciously as he continued to explain, “They gave it to me when they knew I wasn’t coming home.”

At that blatant lie, Kevin looked over at Howie who was staring right back at him.  Apparently, in his haste to not tell the truth, Nick had forgotten that this vacation was unplanned.

“Well, that’s good then, Nicky.” Howie answered. “We’ll make sure we give them a call as soon as we get back on dry land.”

Howie was sitting up too now. Both men thinking the same thing as they watched the youngest nervously shift while biting on his bottom lip, “I spy with my own eyes…” he said looking out into the big ocean.

 

 

 

Chapter End Notes:
Thanks for reading and the reviews. It helps to know you're liking this story. I admit I'm kind of struggling on this one for whatever reason, so the feedback is helping. I shall be back next week with another update! Happy Ramadhan to all my Muslim friends. :O)