"Maybe we should just wait for your mom to get back," I suggested to Two-Bit."She knows how to do this."
"We'll be fine. And she's working late tonight, remember? Besides, what man of the house can't grill?" Two-Bit asked nonchalantly as he turned the grill on.
"The one that's never touched a grill before because he sits on his lazy butt watching Mickey Mouse," I retorted.
"Girls find that cute," he nodded curtly in my direction.
"Yeah, until you burn their house down," I muttered under my breath.
"Heard that!" He called over his shoulder."And that happened only one time! And it wasn't the whole house! Just the back porch!"
"I don't know what's harder to believe: That girls still want to go out with you, or that you're still alive." He just waved me off.
"Hey, Emma," I greeted my young cousin. She was sitting in the grass while playing with her doll."What number do you call in case of an emergency?"
"911," Emma replied brightly.
"And if you're clothes catch on fire?"
"Stop, drop, and roll."
"And if you get a minor burn?"
"Run it under cold water. Why?"
"Your brother's cooking, that's why," I winked at her. Tomorrow was the first day of school and Two-Bit wanted to make the last night of summer vacation special for us. I reminisced this summer. I spent a lot of time with my friends and family. I hadn't seen much of Chicken because he was always out with "Daisy Duck", as I liked to call Cathy(Ponyboy's a chicken and Cathy's a duck, get it?). We still talked a lot, but no time actually hanging around or going places like we used to.
Two-Bit ended up burning the food he was grilling, but at least there was no fire. Thankfully, he makes a great peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich. He always adds something to spice it up a little, too. Then me and Emma have to guess what it is. This time it was garlic salt.
After dinner, the three of us played cards. I wanted to play Crazy 8s, Emma wanted to play Go Fish, and Two-Bit vouched for Poker. His solution was to combine all three games. At first, I was skeptical, but it turned out to be tons of fun.
Then, Two-Bit and I tucked Emma in for bed and read her a story. She wanted to hear Smoky The Cowhorse, Two-Bit wanted to read her The Lorax, and I was all for reading a part of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Two-Bit's solution, once again, was to combine all three. I had thought, This oughta be good, as he began his tale of The Lorax, The Cowhorse, and The Wardrobe. It was the funniest story I'd ever heard and afterwards, Emma couldn't sleep. If anything, The Lorax, The Cowhorse, and The Wardrobe woke her up even more. It was my turn to solve an insane problem that night, so I read aloud from a cookbook until Emma fell asleep.
Then I did the dishes while Two-Bit sat at the kitchen table with his feet up, giggling at the bedtime story he had created. He thought it was dream come true and I thought I was going to have nightmares about Edmund's encounter with the frozen Once-ler in the Cowhorse's ice lair.
Finally, the time came for me to go to bed too. I graciously flopped my rag-doll body across the covers and buried my head in the pillows and hugged my baby blanket with a massive hole in the middle to my chest. I almost fell asleep instantly, but Two-Bit chose that time to walk by the open bedroom door and whisper,"For Narnia!" I was tempted to throw a pillow at him, but was too tired. Instead, I hissed,"Be quiet!" right before falling into a, surprisingly, nightmare-less sleep.