Childhood Bestfriends with Hollywood's Golden Boy

Childhood Bestfriends with Hollywood's Golden Boychapter18

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Recap: The man in the red cap banged his had on the table and shouted in an unmistakable southern accent that Id known all my life and had told us both the best scary ghost stories in the world in when we were little.

“I TOLD YAH YOU SHOULDN’T BET YOUR SLICE OF LEMON CHEESECAKE HAROLD!!!! YAAAHHHEEE!!! THAT CAKE IS MINE!!!!” 

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Ari and I burst into giggles as Pete jumped up and pumped his fists in the air, oblivion to our presence behind him.

“ WHOOOOPPPPIIIEEEE!!!! I AM THE CHESSMASTER!!!”

At this we burst into all out laughter.

The man opposite Pete shook his head, pushing his tortoiseshell rimmed glasses up his nose and sighing “look here, your making a fool out of your self Pete, even that young couple behind us are laughing at you”

Immediately, we both tried to stifle our laughter, I clamped by hand over my mouth and I could see Ari clenching his jaw to try and keep quiet.

Pete gave a bark of laughter with his back turned to us still “ HA! There aren’t any young people round here Harold!! Lordee your vision must really be going huh?”

Harold huffed “ Turn around, their still laughing at you” he said stubbornly as we tried to stifle our laughter.

Then Pete turned around. When he caught sight of us standing on the porch he broke out into a big smile holding out his arms “ Ari!!! Ella!!! What are you two kids doing here? I thought you weren’t back till tomorrow!”

“ Hey Grandpa, I got back from Australia yesterday morning. We thought we’d make sure you weren’t causing hell for the other residents and Helen” Ari said. He steped forward and gave Pete a big hug.

Ari’s Grandpa had been a big part of his life, since his dad died when he was two.

His personality was larger than life and you couldn’t help but warm to him, over the years I’d come to think of him as if he was my Grandpa too. He used to tell us the best scariest stories (despite our parents warning him not to because we’d have nightmares), he was all our birthday parties, family barbeques and school performances cheering.

And he taught the both of us to play chess, his favourite game in the whole world. Ari was actually really good and he had developed amazing strategy from years of playing Pete. I, on the other hand, liked playing but found trying to predict your opponent’s next move really frustrating, so I hadn’t ever cultivated my skills.

Grandpa Pete and Ari used to have long games against each other that would span hours, chatting as they played. Pete used to let us win when we were younger but since we’d gotten older I’d only seen Ari beat Pete once and I was smart enough to know I couldn’t compete with the ‘chess master’.

I smiled at the both of them hugging, I knew Ari had really missed Pete since he’d been away.

After Pete hugged Ari he turned to me “ Come over here and give me a big ol’ hug Isabel!”