Becoming a tad overwhelmed, Minkus thought that maybe she had ditched him. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. He can name countless incidents in which he was stood up.
Sighing and twiddling his thumbs over one another, he waited outside Casey's apartment building.
She was running a bit late and Stuart almost left, but then he heard her shout, "Wait! Wait, I'm here!" He turned around and saw her putting on her left shoe as she exited the building. "Sorry, I'm late. My alarm clock didn't go off on time," she apologized.
Minkus stared at her a second then shook his head.
"That's okay. Are we all set to go?" he asked her.
She gave a hearty grin and nodded.
Minkus walked with her down the sidewalk as they made their way to the subway. Going down the flight of stairs, they hurried to catch the train before it left. Allowing Casey to enter first, Minkus was about to step on when the train suddenly began to move. The doors started to close and he ran after the train, trying to get on.
Casey's eye expanded and she reached out her hand quickly but she knew Minkus wouldn't catch up in time, so she jumped off, landing awkwardly on the pavement. Stuart caught up to her and helped her up gently. She dusted herself off and sighed.
"We missed the train. How can we get there now? We certainly don't have any extra money for a taxi with the museum being that far from here. And the next train to get there isn't running until about three more hours."
"Oh, this is all my fault. I'm not as athletic as most men. I should've been able to have caught up to the train. No wonder my father is usually disappointed in my physical abilities." Minkus was sounding sorry for himself; complaining on how he's more of a nerd and a dork rather than a normal man.
Casey grabbed his hands and looked at him.
"Don't say those things. Not everyone can be athletic. We don't have to go to the museum today. We can go some other time."
"Okay . . . But what about our-"
Casey smirked.
"Let's just go to a bar. They have karaoke! It'll be fun," she reassured him.
Minkus was skeptical but gladly agreed and Casey wisped him away as he couldn't help but smile to himself.
Boring.
Boring.
Lame.
Seen it already.
Boring.
Ugh, why is this on again?
BOOOOO!
Can't there be anything on the TV today? There's never anything good on!
"Duck season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Duck season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Duck season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"Duck season!"
"Wabbit season!"
"I say it's duck season and I say, 'fire'."
Eric grinned as Bugs and Daffy began to argue with one another. It was a classic cartoon scene and being that it was, it made Eric giddy that he had finally found something worth watching.
As he continued to laugh and giggle and smile at the immaturity that circulated within the Looney Tunes characters and episodes, he began to remember a long time ago when he and Cory would get up early on Saturday mornings and watch them together.
Those times seemed so long ago. Now he rarely spends time with his brother. Yeah, they hang out, but it's usually when it's with other people. And although they spent some time together trying to get those gifts done for everyone, he still felt like he had missed something.
Cory seemed aggravated with him most of the time and they didn't really get along much.
Trying to figure out why, Eric began to pace around his apartment.
What was it that made us so distant? Was it me? Was it him? Was it something one of us did that we don't realize had effect on our brothership?
That's when a light bulb formed. Even with his stupid antics and ways, Eric wasn't completely useless. He could have his own smart tendencies. This was one of those moments.
Running to the phone, he dialed his parents' house.
The phone rang three times before Morgan answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Morgan, where's dad?"
"He's—"
"Go get him. I need to talk to him," Eric interrupted.
Morgan rolled her eyes.
"What's it to me?"
"Just do something nice for your big brother, Weasel," he mocked.
Morgan smiled to herself at the nickname he would call her occasionally. "Okay," she said. "I'll go get him." She set the phone down and hurried to the backyard. Alan was repainting the fence. He remembered doing that before after Cory had accidently painted it green. The memory made him smile and he stroked the paint brush gently as the fence started to turn a brighter shade of white.
Morgan walked up to her father and tapped his shoulder.
"Eric's on the phone. He said he really needs to talk to you."
"Why?" Alan questioned, continuing to recoat the fence.
"He didn't say. He sounded like he needed to talk to you badly though," Morgan explained, waiting for her father's response.
Alan put the paint brush down and grabbed a wash cloth on his way into the kitchen. He took some of the paint off his hands and grabbed the phone as he went to the phone on the wall.
"Eric, what do you need, son?"
"Dad!"
"Mmm, yes?" Alan responded into the phone.
"I was wondering, is there anything that me and Cory did when we were younger that made us seem so . . . distant?"
"Well, Eric, I don't think you and Cory are distant. You moved to New York with him and you see him a lot. At least you're not like me and your Uncle Howard. We're still not really on speaking terms. I've tried calling him, but I think he's still mad at me for—"
"Yeah, yeah, dad. I just want to know about me and Cory. I'm not interested in the Uncle Howard situation. I already know about it."
"Son, just talk to your brother. Brothers fight, but you two seem close enough to resolve anything that has happened between the two of you."
Eric glanced around his apartment.
"Thanks dad . . . I guess . . ."
"Look, just talk to Cory. Maybe you're just being paranoid. Why're you bringing this up anyway?"
"He just seems mad at me a lot of the time. I even saved his life! He was grateful for a second then later on he still looks as me as if I'm the town idiot."
"Eric, you're not an idiot."
"Dad, let's face it. I am an idiot. I'm a complete moron. People have always said that about me." Eric sighed as he sat down on the couch, running his hand over his beautiful, brown locks. "I finished college, but I had to take a year off because I was too much of an imbecile to get into any real colleges. I can't amount to anything."
Alan felt awful for his son.
He never really grasped the concept of Eric going out into the real word. He just didn't think his eldest son was cut out for it. He wanted to keep him close to home and let him work at the store, but he realized Eric would be alright. Eric was always alright once he got used to things.
"Eric, you're not a moron. You're very smart in your own . . . special way. You're not useless and you can be whatever you want to be. Just . . . don't be a model . . ."
Eric gave a small, sighed chuckle.
"Yeah, I think I'm done with modeling. That experience has left me with my mind made up about that."
"Now see? You've learned through and experience. People who are stupid, don't learn. They just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. You're not stupid, Eric. You just need experience."
"But dad, Cory will still always look at me as if I'm a moron . . ."
"Your brother's being the moron. He needs to learn some things too. You guys just need to talk it out and figure out what's wrong."
Alan smiled as he heard Eric thank him and say goodbye.
Eric hung up his phone and Alan returned his back to the wall.
As he turned around, he was greeted by his wife, Amy. She was smiling at him with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Mmm, who was that?" she questioned, shooting up one of her eyebrows. "Was it our son, Eric?"
Alan nodded.
"It was our son, Eric," he said in a low tone.
Amy chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You're a good dad." She complimented him. "You really handled that well."
"Do you even know what we were talking about?"
"I . . . heard a little bit of the conversation from the phone in the living room."
"Amy!" Alan gasped with fake surprise.
"Oh, hush up," she said, placing her palms on his chest and looking up at him. "I just wanted to see if my baby was okay."
"I assure you, darling, that our son will be just fine."
"I know he will, Alan. I have faith in him."
Alan grinned weakly down at her.
"I do too . . ."
He watched him closely.
He noticed how his eyebrow would twitch slightly and the way he'd run his hand over his peppered hair. The older man's lips would move up and down in a calming motion and he'd keep his hands folded on top of his desk as he stared directly back at him.
Cory raised a brow and rubbed his chin in thought.
He'd been watching many different news channels whenever he wasn't trying to sell magazines—which he doesn't succeed in a lot of the time.
The reason he was studying a lot of the news people was because he'd found some of his old recordings from high school. He even found the one that got Janitor Bud fired a few years back. He never could recall why he'd kept it.
While Cory rummaged through the box, he found the "CHICK LIKE ME" article. He read it over and suddenly, all these dreams of becoming a news reporter or a journalist came flooding back to him.
He remembered how, when he was younger, he wanted to become a baseball player, but he abandoned that dream. Most little boys do dream of becoming a big sports star, but life got in the way for Cory. Then we he got into journalism and filming things, he wanted to do news-related things.
But he had abandoned that dream too . . .
"Why did I ever do that?" Cory asked out loud and to himself.
He flipped the channel to a different news station and watched the woman reporter on there instead.
With his old dreams setting themselves back inside his mind, he got up quickly and ran out the door.
Author's Note: This was unbelievably short, I know. I do apologize for that. And I know I haven't updated in awhile, I'm sorry about that too. I just got really busy and I hope to continue to type more chapters of this story. Just know, writer's block hits me a lot and if I don't update for a long period of time, that doesn't mean I've abandoned the story, it just means I'm trying, but it takes time.
Also, you might have noticed the difference in how I type the dialogue and such. That is because I realized I was typing it wrong, so I will continue to do that correctly.
Thank you to all that reviewed! I do appreciate and adore the feedback!