Nathan and I walked into the house expecting to see or at least hear Luke and Gabe right away. Instead it was silent. Silent maybe, but something smelled delicious.
"Huh, I thought for sure we would have the two stooges in our face as soon as we walked in." We had been walking through the living room as Nathan was talking and when we turned into the kitchen we saw Gabriel and Luke, who were apparently oblivious to the fact that we had come home.
Luke was at the stove top, his back to us, and head bobbing to whatever he was listening to in the ear phones that were in his ears.
Meanie was sitting at the kitchen table flipping through a magazine. His head was propped up on his hand and it was tilted to the side so he couldn't directly see us. Nathan cleared his throat and Meanie's head whipped up to look at us, a big smile on his face. Luke didn't even turn around.
Nathan picked up a napkin from the table, squished it into a ball, and threw it at Luke. It hit directly in the back of Luke's head and he turned to look at us as he was pulling the earbuds out.
"What'd I miss? Welcome back Sweetie." He grinned at me. "Gabe said that I was getting annoying talking about our date tonight, so he put me to work cooking everyone else dinner."
Meanie grunted and said "Fucking annoying. I said you were being fucking annoying and a pain in the ass." Meanie stood up from the table and walked over to me. "How was hiking trouble?"
"Great Meanie! We had lunch with a view and crossed a stream." I looked at Nathan and smiled, remembering his face when he realized he lost both his flip flops. Nathan started laughing, obviously having the same memory as me.
"What's so funny?" Meanie was looking back and forth between Nathan and me.
"Let's just say that the stream crossing didn't go as planned. Nathan packed us flip flops and we started off with two pair and only came back with one." I was trying to hold in my giggle as I spoke.
"One pair?" Meanie looked confused.
Nathan answered him "No, just one. One flip flop." With that the both of us started laughing.
Meanie pointed a finger at Nathan. "You better not have fucking lost those brown sandals I picked up in Manhatten last year. They were a small fortune, but you're so picky about your damn footwear that I didn't have a choice."
I looked at Nathan and his cheeks tinted red. His eyes grew wide and then he ran straight down the hall. By the time Meanie got around me, I heard the bedroom door slam shut and something scrapping on the floor. At the sound Meanie stopped moving towards the bedroom and tilted his head back as he sighed in frustration.
"What is that noise?" I asked.
"That was Nathan moving the dresser in front of his door so I can't get in and kick his ass."
I heard Nathan shout from the other side of his door. "You couldn't kick my ass Gabe! I would lay you on yours before you even lifted a finger. This is just so Sang doesn't have to witness your embarrassment."
"Fuck you Nathan!" Meanie threw his hands up in the air and stalked into the Living Room. I could hear Luke laughing in the kitchen.