R.L. Mathewson Chronicles

There was another heavy sigh while Darrin stood there, leaning back against the wall and gestured to the crazed duo fighting over what had once been a whicker basket or some piece of shit decoration that he just really didn’t give a flying fuck about.

“Would someone please do something before they destroy the entire store?” the manager demanded, but Reese noticed that the bastard hugging his arm to his chest wasn’t manning up and going in for a second attempt to break this up.

“What would you suggest?” Reese asked dryly as he leaned back against the wall near his twin and absently waved away another elderly couple pausing long enough to take photos to post on Facebook.

“How exactly is this supposed to guarantee that we never have to worry about running boring man-type errands again?” Zoe had to ask as she parked the car in front of what she liked to deem, “One of those stores on hell put here on earth just to torment women and bore them to death.”

Haley rolled her eyes and shook her head as though it really should be more than obvious why they were there. “This is the ultimate insult to men,” Haley announced with a self-satisfied sigh as Zoe just sat there, blinking at the blue and white sign, wondering if her best friend had finally gone nuts.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Haley whispered, barely moving her mouth as she threw the cranky store clerk a quick glance to make sure that he was still reminiscing about all the good times he used to have with his sister-in-law when his wife went out of town with some guy that apparently was quite well-acquainted with said sister-in-law.

“I-I don’t know,” Zoe admitted after a few seconds, keeping her eyes locked on row after row of small little cardboard boxes with shinny, little metal things that neither one of them had any clue what they were.

“I’ll fix it when I get home, sweetheart,” Trevor promised with a quick kiss and a smile.

Zoe opened her mouth to argue, but she knew that he had a busy day ahead of him. So, instead of bugging him to fix the kitchen light before he left so that she could see what she was cooking without having to squint, she simply rose up on her toes, gave him a hug and a kiss goodbye that almost led them back upstairs to the bedroom, or her bent over the kitchen table, and reluctantly handed over the large cooler packed with the food that she made for him and the boys.

Trevor was taking all the boys with him today while he worked on their apartment houses and rentals and she was looking forward to a break. For the past few months she’d taken care of their boys as she did her best to homeschool them, but she had to be honest that she mostly just made up an assignment she prayed would challenge them and hoped for the best.

“Make sure that you tell the kids how much I love them,” Jason said, pausing to cough weakly as he pulled the covers up to his chin.

“Jason, I-”

“And I know that after I die that you’ll eventually want to start dating again and even consider marriage,” he said, cutting her off with an accusatory glare as though she was already considering it, “but ignore those feelings and continue mourning me until your dying day.”

At this point Haley really had to fight the urge to roll her eyes, because this was just getting pathetic.

“And make sure that they bury me somewhere with decent shade. I don’t want my gravestone to fade,” he said and this time, she did roll her eyes.

“Uncle Jason, there are two men at the door,” Johnny explained calmly, which he would admit freaked him out a bit, because when the twins were calm it was because they were already coming up with a way to fuck someone over for their own entertainment.

Basically they were Bradfords who’d peaked early.

“What time is it?” Jason asked, forcing his tired eyes open so that he could glare at the alarm clock until the fuzzy figures that he was seeing started to make sense.

“I’m hungry,” Cole announced around a yawn as he laid on the floor, with an arm thrown over his eyes, sounding completely bored, which was kind of funny since he was currently being interrogated by his parents, Uncle Trevor and three police officers that didn’t look particularly happy with him or his cousins.

“Me, too,” Sebastian seconded from where he lounged on one end of the couch while on the other end, his twin, Johnny was sound asleep.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Darrin said, sighing heavily as Jason and Trevor sat there, checking their texts and their latest scores on their video game.

“Do you really need us to go in and hold your hand?” Jason asked, not bothering to look up from his phone and Trevor swallowed back a yawn.

For a minute all Darrin could do was stare at the two assholes that got him in this situation. “You’re the reason I’m here in first place, you little prick!” he snapped.

“How do you figure that?” Trevor asked, sounding bored as he continued to play a game on his phone.

He gave them an, “Are you fucking kidding me?” look that said it all. Granted, when it came down to it, it was really his fault for taking his cousins’ advice.