Sam slowed his run to a slight jog as he approached the familiar beach house. It had been eight years since Balthazar's surprisingly classy graduation party, but something about the simple white house seemed to stand out. As he reached for the front door knob, an image of Balthazar's face squished between couch cushions mumbling something about using the back door popped into his head. While that could have easily been some sort of sexual innuendo, it couldn't hurt to go around back. It turned out to be the right decision. Once moving around the side of the house, you could see far out into the atlantic ocean. The blues and greens mixed together, occasionally broken up by the white crested waves. He walked to the end of the wrap around porch and felt the salty wind brush past his face and through his hair. There were some good things about this island.
Sam moved to the sliding glass door hoping that Balthazar hadn't lied about peace, quiet and decent coffee. Upon opening the door he realized that it had in fact been a falsehood. While he could smell something delicious, someone else had already arrived and was blasting Madonna's "Like a Prayer". He moved through the simple living room to see the one and only Gabriel Novak singing and dancing in the middle of the kitchen holding a silver mixing bowl.
Golden eyes met hazel and with one last shake of his butt, Gabriel turned off the music blasting through the house.
"Hey Sam-a-ramekin! Did you enjoy your morning run?" Gabriel said as his eyes started looking up and down Sam's sweaty body.
Sam raised an eyebrow "Sam-a-ramekin? Is that really the best you can do?"
"It's not my fault you're standing right next to the ramekins I need for the sufflees!" Gabriel said with a smile, that a younger Sam would have found infectious.
Instead Sam snorted and turned to look in the cabinet closest to his head to look for the ramekins.
"Isn't it a little early for souffle?"
"Never! I almost decided on chocolate souffles and then decided thatĖwould be too decadent for breakfast."
Sam grabbed the ramekins and turned to face Gabriel still looking placed the silver mixing bowl on the table and raised his hands.
"Hey no one is forcing you to eat them. Go somewhere else for breakfast then."
"I could go home. Bobby makes great pancakes"
"Did I end up in some sort of weird time warp? You're sounding just like a certain 13 year old I used to know. He was about this tall" Gabe hold his hand up to his own shoulder "thought his brother was some sort of hero, couldn't keep his nose out of a single book?"
"I'm just saying souffles never have been and never will be an appropriate breakfast food."
"He seems to be even whinier than I remember, but luckily for you small child, I am not making you souffles, but instead cinnamon buns."
"So that was just a cover up for the bad nickname!" Sam took his victory over the other man with a little too much pride.
"You caught me Little Man Sam. I was lying to you from the start. So are you staying for my delicious pastries or heading back to Bobby's?"
"I suppose I could stay"
"No one can say no to my tasty treats" Gabriel punctuated his exclamation with a wink. "You do seem awfully tired. Everything ok?"
Sam sunk onto a stool across the kitchen counter from Gabriel. "Let's just say I had a rude awakening last night. What about you? Your nicknames this morning lack their usual shine."
"My best friend got drunk and disappeared in the middle of the night. I was hoping he would have turned up here."
"He's probably going to be the one enjoying Bobby's pancakes this morning. I thought that he didn't get like that any more?"
"Hammered to the point of being belligerently truthful? He's usually better around Cassie, but last night instead of an housewarming party we had a good old fashioned drunk Cassie pity party. Everyone was required to participate. I'm impressed he made it all the way to Bobby's."
"What the hell happened last night?"
"Clearly your big brother has left you out of the loop. Cassie just so happened to land an english teacher job at the alma mater so Bal and I agreed to help him move in. Unfortunately we arrived too late to stop our dearest Cassie from renewing his declarations of affection to your bro. He of course reacted with a rather forceful rejection as one would if you have spoken in eight years."
"They were still dating when Cas left for college. They didn't break up until that summer."
"This is where Bal's part of the story comes in because while he will always take Cassie's side he is the last person whose shoulder I would suggest crying on while intoxicated. The truth just came spilling out." Gabriel paused, made a coughing noise and launched into an exaggerated British accent "Cassie darling. I love you but you fucked up. You fuckn' run every fuckin time things get tough. You are the biggest fuckin coward I know. Dean would have to be a bigger fuckin idiot than I could have ever fuckin imagined to take you back. You fuckin abandoned him just like his fuckin father. Everyone he loves fuckin leaves him. You think he would take a chance with you again, you need to fuckin think again. And then he stormed out."
"That would explain why he showed up banging on the door at 2 AM with half a bottle a whisky. He offered it to Bobby in exchange for a night on the couch. And" Sam makes a noise as if he is clearing his throat and attempts his own Balthazar impression "Sammy, Dean I am so fuckin happy-"
"Is that supposed to be Balthazar because that is a terrible impression."
"Hey! It was not worse than yours"
"You made him sound Australian!"
"Yours was totally Irish!"
"No way! I am a master of accents." Gabriel declared with a flourish of his arm.
"Anyways. Balthazar told Dean that he could become Dean's new best friend in exchange for more whiskey and keeping his head out of his own ass. When asked about his own best friends he complained with one of them trying to cut him off- congratulations I did not bet on you being the responsible one"
"Just because I work in reality television doesn't mean I want my life to actually look like that"
"And his other one was horrible at relationships, apologies and romance. Dean should just forget all the Novak brothers because they are all going to hell, but hey you and I could still make it to heaven, maybe. We managed to drag him to the couch to pass out,"
"For the record if Bal isn't getting dragged to hell neither am I."
"So I won't get to see either one of you in heaven. Such a shame." Sam shook his head with a small grin. "And you didn't actually explain this whole not speaking for eight years. By my count it's seven.
"What you and I didn't know is that my dearest baby brother decided breaking up with Dean was too hard and it would be better to just NEVER contact him again. Which he ended up changing his mind on two days ago."
"Dean never mentioned that"
"Well, hope springs eternal."