He was dreaming a most wonderful dream. There he was sitting in the middle of the ocean. The waves were extra calm but yet a cool breeze came off the water occasionally misting his face. His cheeks were hot, very red from the sun. If his mother was there she would have yelled at him for not putting enough sun block on. He hated to wear that stuff though; he kind of liked the feel of a nice healthy burn.
He smelled her perfume as she ascended the stairs. Her hair up and looking just perfect, her skin radiant and her body just….wow! He walked towards her ready to put his arms around her and kiss her neck. She loved that most of all. He closed his eyes and advanced towards her, smiling and hopeful that this was only the beginning… “Nick”
“Yes honey?”
“Oh God did you just call me honey? Wake the hell up!” Nick grimaced when she opened her mouth and a male voice came out. Figures she was possessed…that explained so much really.
“Nick wake up!” He opened his eyes to find Kevin hitting him on the shoulder. “Ow! What the hell man?”
“I think we’re lost!”
“You woke me up to tell me that?”
“No…I woke you up to get you to look at the map again…honey!”
Nick scowled at Kevin as he grinned, “You were having a good dream I take it?”
“Yeah until you and your stupid hat had to spoil it.”
“Sorry…now where the heck are we? I’ve been driving for over an hour and I don’t see anything even close to a lake around here.”
“Why didn’t you just stop and ask somebody?”
“Who am I going to ask a gopher or something? If you can’t tell there’s not a whole lot of traffic up here.”
“You could have pulled off to the side and read your own damn map,” Nick said as he continued to nurse his arm, “That really hurt! I bet I’m going to bruise!”
“Stop being such a baby and tell me where we are.”
Nick pulled open the map, “It looks like we’re in Kevin’s a jerk Ville”
Kevin turned to his friend, “Oh does that mean we passed Nick can get out of my car and walk lane?”
Nick answered with an eye roll before looking back down at the map, “So what have we passed?”
Kevin turned his eyes back towards the road, confident that he had won that little battle, “We have passed trees…lots and lots of trees.”
“But nothing else? Like no exits or streets or anything?”
“There was a bale of hay a few miles back.”
“Yeah…that’s not going to help me Kev.”
“I think we went the wrong way Nick.” Nick bit his bottom lip, fearing that this was going to happen. Why was he put in charge of the map? Kevin knew better right? There was no way that Kevin could possibly blame him for this. No way!
“You know that’s why I asked you if you were sure about which way to go.” Okay way…definitely way.
“I thought we were going the right way…”
“Well obviously, I don’t think you’d purposely steer us in the wrong direction.” He was pissed and Nick could tell because of the way he kept tensing his hands on the steering wheel. He never understood why Kevin was so intense. He really did worry that one day he’d get a phone call from Kristin saying her husband’s head had finally exploded off his shoulders.
“Just relax Kevin we’ll get there…”
“Yeah but by then the fish will be gone.”
“What? The fish won’t be gone Kev…it’s not like they work in shifts or anything.”
“But they just don’t bite as hard when it gets later. How far off do you think we are?”
“Not sure.” He didn’t want to rile Kevin up anymore than he already was, but his guess was at least an hour of backtracking had to be done to find where they hopped onto route 9.
“Next time you’re not sure of where you’re going…”
“I told you I wasn’t sure.”
“No you didn’t.”
“Yes I did, when you asked I wasn’t sure.”
“But then you said you WERE!”
“I lied.”
“Yeah I noticed…I knew that was going to happen.”
“Well you know what Kevin? It’s all YOUR fault for putting me in charge of the map anyway!”
“I know.” Nick grimaced; Kevin always knew what to say to make himself win an argument. All he had to do was say how was it my fault? And Nick could have used what he had been saving inside of him since he was abruptly woken up. The whole you are better at directions than me argument…but NO Kevin has to admit fault leaving no room for Nick to argue the point any further and in essence taking all the blame.
“Damn you Kevin!”
“Excuse me?”
“You just always blame me for everything.”
“Nick I only blame you for things when it’s rightly your fault…like now.”
And that was pretty much how their relationship worked, as long as they had known each other, butting heads over every little thing.
Nick always said Kevin was the one person in the band he didn’t want to ever be like. He sometimes even found himself hating Kevin…when he was younger. As he got older his opinion of his eldest band mate changed. He found himself admiring Kevin and even trying to emulate him. They were so much alike in so many ways, but both of them would never openly admit that. “Well I’m sorry then okay?” Nick huffed, playing his sympathy card now; make him feel guilty for berating the poor sleeping boy he had already hit in the arm.
“Apology accepted.” Ugh did it again! “I’m sure we’ll get there in plenty of time to catch a few fish,” Kevin said nodding at the road ahead of him.
“You know Kev…” Nick sighed, “Oh never mind.” And Kevin couldn’t help but smile.
They drove for about fifteen minutes in silence, Kevin basking in his silent victory while Nick sulked about losing, all the while rubbing at his arm.
“Your arm still hurting?” Nick nodded. “I’ll live.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah I’m sure.” Nice and loud, “Smart ass.” In a whisper.
“I’m sorry I hit you.” Nick laughed, “Yeah I know…and thanks.”
Nick decided to distract himself from the small spat he had and from the pins and needles that were still living in his legs from sitting for too long and decided to explore the depths of the glove compartment.
“What are you doing?”
“Just looking for stuff.”
“Uh…you always go through people’s personal stuff?”
“No…only yours.”
“Lucky me.”
“You hiding any girlie magazines in here Kevin?”
“What do you think I’m AJ or something?” Nick ignored the last statement as he once again pulled out the can opener; “You are so weird Kev.” He investigated further to find a spoon, a pocketknife, three pairs of sunglasses, one of which Nick decided to claim as his own, the owners manual for the car, a hair scrunchy which once again Nick claimed as his own placing what little hair he had left on top of his head into a tiny pony tail which shot up making it look like he had a furry stump growing out of it, but probably the weirdest item of all...
“Toothpaste?”
“Yeah what about it?”
“You have toothpaste in your glove compartment! What kind of raving psychopath are you?
“First of all that comment made NO sense whatsoever, and secondly I guess I’m the kind that likes fresh breath, not that you would know what that’s like or anything.”
“My breath is minty fresh thanks! Here smell,” He said moving in close to breath into Kevin’s face.
“No get away from me!”
“Smell me Kevin…Smeeeellll meeee…” He was talking like ET just for kicks now and as much as he didn’t want to Kevin found himself cracking up. “You are nuts you know that Carter?”
“This is coming from a man who has tooth paste in his glove compartment. Bah to that!”
“Well when you have fish breath you’ll be begging to use my toothpaste and I’ll laugh.”
“Okay Kev…you do that.” Nick giggled as he placed everything back into the glove compartment. “Oh and don’t forget the scrunchy, Kris would kill you if she saw you wearing it.”
“Why? I don’t have cooties.”
“Yeah you do.”
“I would take it off my head but my arm hurts SOOO much I can barely lift it,” He said pretending to reach for his hair and moaning as he did. So Kevin decided to help by reaching over and ripping it off himself. “OW! Jeez man what do you want to kill me or something on this trip?”
“Hey that sounds like a plan!”
“Aw now you hurt my feelings Kevin,” He said, playfully pouting.
Kevin placed his arm on Nick’s shoulder and squeezed, that always made Nick feel good. That gesture said despite all the small arguing and fights he didn’t mean any of it. He never really did. It took Nick a long time to figure that out though. Many nights of bitching about Kevin to anyone who would listen, including Kevin himself.
“Hey look! We’re at the beginning all over again, now shall we take the road less traveled?” Nick nodded, “Um...yeah I think it’s that one.”
“Are you sure this time?”
“Shut up Kevin.”
And he did, as he turned down Rural route nine going in the RIGHT direction FINALLY.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you like it?
