Best Friend's Brother But It's My Brother's Best Friend

12: If you could wake up having gained any one ability, what would it be?

Any one ability? I don't know, maybe like being able to teleport? I think that'd be pretty cool. Or maybe see the future. One of those two.

Nick's transition back into being home barely happens. One minute, we're walking through the door and Clay is knocking gently on his door so they can have a much needed chat, and the next all three of the boys are baked as cakes on the couch watching baby sensory videos and demolishing the food Ma sent us home with. Men.

I can't say I'm mad though, it was definitely a point of worry for me. I hate when people are fighting, especially over me. I'm really glad they worked it out.

It continues on like that for about a week, all the boys just messing around and having fun, doing alt streams and playing games other than minecraft. I join Clay in playing Geoguessr and I'm surprised at how good he is at it. George comes to play too, and the three of us manage to win a few battle royale matches without moving, including me yelling "Peru!" at a barren road and somehow being right. It's fun, it's easy, and it's the perfect distraction from our new "Ultra Quarantine", as we have dubbed it. We get to leave the house collectively once a week to go to the store, taking turns in teams of two because Suit said to. It's rough, but we've been through this before at the start of Covid, so we just pretend that that's what's been happening instead of addressing the fact that there is a man trying to kill me.

Today is Nick's birthday though, so we've saved our weekly outing and gotten approval from Suit to go out all four of us for dinner at Nick's favorite restaurant, and meet our parents there as long as we get tailed by the plainclothes outside. It's more than I'd have thought we'd be allowed to do, but they have been tracking the IP of the account he messaged me from (and has continued to use to message me, but I haven't read those) and apparently right now it's in southern VA, where my college is. So, with a warning to be careful and wear a mask because of the pandemic, Suit approved the expedition.

We're taking my car, because as much as Clay protested, we can all actually fit comfortably in the SUV my parents handed down to me when I turned 18. Plus, the app we need to park in the city has my car registered to it. He's still grumbling as we get in the car, opting to sit in the back with George who 'doesn't like to look at the backward dashboard' and leaving my brother and I to torture them Texas style with the most disgusting country we can find. I manage to keep my composure until Nick starts playing Wheeler Walker Jr., and even George, who hates country music about 3 million times more than Clay does, bursts out laughing during Drop 'Em Out. After the giggles die down, he plays whatever playlist the three of them listen to while recording, and while I recognize one or two of the songs, most I don't know.

It continues like this until we're trying to find somewhere to park in the city where the expensive ass steakhouse Nick loves is. Some things never change, and the impossibility of finding parking in the city that's any semblance of near where you want to be is one of them. Eventually, there's an underground garage that has openings and will let me use the app to pay for it, so we pull in, park on the third level from the surface, and start the journey over to the restaurant. It's actually quite the nice day, slightly cloudy and 70 outside. A couple other parts of the state are getting some crazy ass weather right now, but it's really nice out here.

The restaurant is the emptiest I have ever seen it, but that's most likely due to the pandemic dictating that restaurants can only operate at 25% capacity, so most of the tables still have chairs put up. Our parents are waiting, chilling at a big booth with masks around their chins. Mom lights up, jumps up and does her little mom jog over to us before wrapping Nick up into a hug and squealing, literally squealing.

"Ma, calm down." He says, struggling to pull away from it, but I would bet my whole ass it's a show for his friends because that boy is a momma's boy and a half and once cried over not getting a goodbye hug from her during his senior year of fucking highschool. She hugs me too, greets Clay and George very similarly, and then bustles back over to the table, the four of us following suit. It's a corner booth with one long bench, and so we end up putting Nick next to our parents, then Clay between Nick and I (because we are the epitome of children when we eat out together and WILL throw food at each other and steal from each other's plates, so it's better to have a buffer.) and George on the end.