“So, this is what you dragged us out here to do?” Nick asked in disbelief as they pulled into a parking lot.
“Yup.” Kevin simply replied as he pulled his car into a stall.
“To do some grocery shopping with you?” AJ asked this time, glancing back at Nick, who was seated in the back, but was leaning forward to be situated in between him and Kevin.
“Yup.” again, another simple reply from Kevin as he shut his car off and took the keys out of the ignition.
“We’re actually gonna get out of this car, grab a shopping cart and do some grocery shopping with you?” Nick voiced.
Kevin rolled his eyes, “My my, nothing gets past you two huh?”
The three of them got out of the car and began to make their way over towards the store. “You couldn’t have came here by yourself and done this? You just had to drag our asses outta bed at four in the morning mind you, to join you?” Nick whined.
“Now, where’s the fun in doing this all by myself? When I asked you guys yesterday if ya’ll were gonna come down and visit with me, a little someone said specifically that there was always tomorrow and that I’d still be here in the morning. Well, it’s tomorrow, and it’s morning, and you guys are here with me. Isn’t it great?”
“Would you be offended if I said no?” Nick muttered under his breath, causing AJ to snicker.
Kevin simply ignored him as he grabbed a shopping cart and began to wheel it into the grocery store. “Lets see here…” he mumbled to himself as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
Eyes widened a bit, AJ glanced over at Nick, “Good lord, the man has a fucking shopping list.”
“I told you we need to get a few things.” Kevin said as he began pushing the cart towards down towards the breakfast/cereal aisle.
“I bet you any money he’s gonna grab some type of whole grain cereal.” Nick whispered to AJ as they watched Kevin scan through the boxes of cereal, finally settling on one and grabbing a box of cereal that was titled “Bran Nuts”.
“Bran Nuts Kev?” AJ asked as he watched him place the cereal in the cart.
“Yes, why?”
“Because it’s fucking Bran Nuts.”
“It’s a whole grain healthy cereal.” Kevin reasoned as he began pulling the shopping cart along behind him, his back now facing the two.
Nick snickered as he leaned over to whisper to AJ, “Told ya.”
AJ smirked as they followed Kevin, who was too wrapped up in looking the cereals over. When he was sure Kevin was heavily occupied and wouldn’t pay them any attention, AJ quickly shot out and grabbed a box of Cocoa Pebbles. Nick watched in silence as AJ quietly placed the box of cereal in the cart.
Smiling, Nick shot out for a box as well, grabbing Lucky Charms and quietly placing it in the cart. As the three continued down the different aisles, Kevin was still so heavily preoccupied in looking everything over and gathering all he had wrote down on his list while AJ and Nick continued throwing random grocery items they wanted into the cart.
When Kevin finally got to the end of his list, he released a sigh and folded the paper back up. “Alright, I think we’re good to go.” Kevin said as he slipped the folded list back in his pocket and turned around to face Nick and AJ, only to find his attention being immediately drawn to the overfilled shopping cart. “Uh… what the hell is this guys?”
“This, is stuff Nick and I want.” AJ replied matter-of-factly. “And after you waking us up at four in the morning and dragging our asses outta bed to go do some grocery shopping with you, we think it’s only fair.”
“And we deserve it.” Nick chimed in.
Kevin stared at the two, “Fine.” he finally replied after a long moment of silence. “You guys do deserve it.” and with that, he pushed the cart into a checkout line and began to unload the items and place them on the conveyer belt.
As Nick and AJ busied themselves with their own little conversation, they failed to notice that Kevin had taken out all his items first, followed by theirs. When everything was out of the cart and ready for checkout, Kevin grabbed the divider used to separate the groceries and placed it in between his items and all that Nick and AJ had grabbed.
“Hello,” the older male clerk greeted, “did you find everything okay today?”
“Yes, thank you.” Kevin replied with a big smile, glancing over to his two younger friends to notice that they were still wrapped up in their conversation.
“Okay, your total comes out to $42.58 sir.”
“$42.58?” Nick and AJ whispered in unison. “Was everything we got on sale or something?” Nick asked as they both turned around to still find their stuff waiting to be checked out while all of Kevin’s groceries were checked, totaled and bagged.
“What the hell Kev?” AJ whined.
Kevin laughed, “What? You guys said you deserve these things, and I truly agree, so knock yourselves out. No one’s stopping you guys from getting what you want.”
“The whole point of doing this Kev is to have you buy these things! This was supposed to be your treat to us for coming out with you.”
Kevin rolled his eyes over to the clerk, “Kids.” he whispered before he turned his attention back to Nick and AJ. “Oh man, I’m sorry you guys. You should’ve been more specific. But I already paid for my stuff… maybe next time.”
The clerk laughed at the banter that was taking place before him as he began to checkout the rest of the items, “So, who’s gonna pay for this?”
Both AJ and Nick looked at each other in silence, as if waiting to see who would be the first to budge. “I didn’t bring my wallet.” Nick finally replied sheepishly.
AJ’s eyes widened, “What?! Who in the hell travels without their wallet?”
“Uh, I do, for this case anyway, it’s not like we knew where we were going anyway, I don’t recall anyone,” he shot a look over towards Kevin as he said this, “telling us that we were gonna do some grocery shopping.”
“But you do recall the man saying that we were gonna GET some things, notice how I emphasize the word GET.”
“Shoots, I thought he was talking about wood… or something…”
“Then, if I were you, I’d start taking all my shit outta this checkout line seeing as how you don’t have the money to pay for it.”
“Noooooo AJ, please?” Nick whined, “The guy is halfway through with checking out our stuff, you wouldn’t want to anger and frustrate the poor man by having him take out all the stuff and undo it, would you?”
The clerk laughed, “This has nothing to do with me, because if requested we have to do it, it’s our job.”
“Well, okay but you know if situation was vice versa I would pay for your stuff.”
“No you wouldn’t Nick.”
“Please!”
With a heavy sigh, AJ took his card case out from his back pocket, “Either way, I’m making my collection when we get back.”
~*~*~*~
Kevin relieved a heavy sigh as he drove up to the driveway of the lodge, thankful he would soon get out from the small confinement that seemed to home and echo the pestering voices of AJ and Nick. As soon as he parked, he turned the car off, ripped his keys out of the ignition and quickly jumped out, briskly walking towards the back of the car to open the trunk. Once he popped it open, he grabbed his groceries and began to make his way towards the lodge.
“Try not to make any noise as ya’ll carry your stuff in, yet try to hurry because we got stuff to do.” Kevin said softly as he opened the door with a spare key Brian had gave him.
Both AJ and Nick looked at each other, “Well, you heard the man.” AJ said as he himself began walking towards the lodge.
“Yeah, I heard the man say to not make any noises as YA’LL carry the stuff in. I don’t know if you know this, but ‘ya’ll’ is plural.”
“Who’s treat was it?” AJ retorted, which caused Nick to remain silent. “Lets go sweetheart.”
“You always counteract with that shit. You said it yourself that you’re only gonna make your collection when we got back, so technically, you didn’t treat me because I’m only paying you right back!”
“I decided that I don’t want your money anymore. Besides, you make like it’s a million and one bags to carry in.”
“Well, it is a lot of bags.” Nick grunted out as he hauled as much shopping bags as he could out of the car, pouting all the way into the lodge.
AJ, who remained standing there, sighed and walked towards the back of the car. He loved picking on his younger brother, but this situation reminded him a lot of the younger days. They’d always boss Nick around, hell, even AJ fell comfortable bossing Nick around, even though he was two years older. But AJ was also normally the first to cave in and help the kid out with whatever he was being told to do.
He shivered as a cool breeze blew past him, pulling his leather jacket tightly to his body. As he reached out to grab the groceries from the back of the car, he stopped when he noticed a small snowflake land on his hand, and quickly melt away. He looked up to the sky and was greeted by a shower of the soft flakes of snow. Just in time, he thought to himself as he pulled the groceries out.
As he turned to walk the groceries into the lodge, he was greeted by Nick, who was walking out, but was also staring at something behind him. He finally registered the sound of a car coming up the driveway, and turned around to find a patrol car pulling up.
Face twisted in puzzlement, AJ walked the groceries up to the entry way and placed them on the ground, turning around and standing beside Nick to stare at the cop, who was now getting out of his car.
“Good morning fellas.” the cop greeted as he walked towards them, taking his hat off. “Sorry to be here so early in the morning, but I’m looking for a Brian Thomas Littrell.”
“Is there a problem officer?” Nick immediately asked.
“Oh no, of course not, just wanted to have a word with the individual who rented this lodge. I’m Officer Rick by the way.” he said as he held his hand out.
Nick shook his hand, “Nick.”
AJ shook his hand next, “AJ.”
Officer Rick nodded and smiled, “Nice to meet you guys. Now, is Brian anywhere around?”
“You guys almost done, we got things…” Kevin said but stopped in the middle of his sentence when he walked up towards the door and saw AJ and Nick standing there, talking to a police officer.
“Are you Brian Thomas Littrell?” Officer Rick questioned.
Kevin shook his head, “No, but I’m his cousin, Kevin Richardson.” he introduced as he stuck out his hand.
Officer Rick shook his hand, “Nice to meet you sir, Officer Rick. I’m looking for your cousin because I would like to have a word with him.”
“He’s actually still asleep, but is this a message I can pass along to him?”
“Will you guys be staying here with Brian?” when he received nods in reply, he continued his explanation. “Well, since you’ll be staying with Brian, I just wanted to warn you guys of a storm system heading our way. We’re expecting hard snowfall within the next few hours or so, and it isn’t expected to clear out for the next day or two, so we’ll be dealing with a few deep feet of snow. Just wanted to remind you of the hazards of driving in this condition and we highly suggest not trying to go anywhere and to stay within the lodge during the storm.”
AJ and Nick glanced at each other while Kevin gave a small nod, “Good thing we got our shopping done and stocked up on things.”
Officer Rick smiled, “Yes, very good thing, and looks like you guys came back just in time.” he said as he held his hand out to catch the falling snowflakes. “Looks like this system could be moving in earlier than expected. But, in case of emergency, please do not hesitate to call, Brian should have the emergency contact numbers. Once the storm clears up, we’ll send up some trucks to plow away the snow and clear the driveway and road.”
“Thank you so much for coming up here to inform us.” Kevin thanked as he held his hand out once again.
Officer Rick nodded and shook Kevin’s hand, followed by AJ and Nick’s. “No problem, just doing my job. You guys take it easy and enjoy your stay here.” and with that, he walked back to his car, got in and drove off.
They stood there for a while in silence, watching Officer Rick drive away. Kevin slapped a hand down on AJ’s shoulder and gave him a hearty pat on his back, “Okay, lets finish up getting these things in the house because we got some cooking to do.”
“Did he just say snow storm?” Nick finally asked, breaking himself out of his phase.
“Did you just say cooking?” AJ interrupted with his question.
“Yes Nick, he said snow storm, and yes AJ, I just said cooking. Now, can we hurry up and get the rest of the groceries in here please so we can start?”
“Why the hell are we cooking for Howie and Brian? Better yet, why the hell are we doing a surprise breakfast for those two?” AJ grumbled as he picked up the groceries he placed on the ground and walked it into the kitchen.
Kevin rolled his eyes, “Do you think you can handle the rest?” he asked Nick.
“Am I the only one that’s concerned about this snow storm?”
“No, I am too, but I know well enough to say if we do exactly as Officer Rick advised us to do, we’ll be just fine. You make like you’ve never experience a snow storm before Nick.”
“I’ve never experienced a snow storm while staying up at a resort or lodge and had officials advise to wait out before.” Nick pointed out.
“If it makes you feel better, Brian and I were practicing boy scouts, so you should feel safe.”
“The phrase ‘WERE practicing boy scouts’ does not make me feel safe Kev, but thanks for trying.”
Kevin chuckled and slapped his hand down on Nick’s back, giving his tensed shoulders a relieving squeeze. “Don’t worry kid, we’ll be fine. Now, lets hurry up and get these things inside so we can start cooking.” and with that, he turned and walked into the lodge.
Releasing a sigh, Nick made his way back over to the car to grab out the remaining groceries. He looked up to the sky, not liking how dark it was becoming, and it was only 6:30 in the morning. Grabbing the rest of the grocery bags, he closed the trunk of Kevin’s car and began to walk towards the lodge, failing to notice that there had been a car that had pulled up and parked itself a few feet away.
