32 - The Brothers Harrison
Of all the songs to be woken up by, it just had to be this one, huh? Marty groaned in pain, his hand grasping a nearby pillow to cover his head in a vain attempt to escape the terrible sound. After another thirty seconds of the banshee screetching on how she doesn't like her crush's current girlfriend, Marty just couldn't take any more of the cruel torture. "Someone turn that shit off already!"
"Told you that would work," remarked Dan in a smug voice to somebody else. "You owe me ten bucks, dude."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the other person snorted, who Marty recognized to be none other than his boss, Rob. "Not like that was much of a bet though. That girl really can't sing worth a damn."
"She is really damned hot though," a third person said from the other side of the room, none of them hurrying to turn the horrible 'music' off during the conversation.
"True," both Rob and Dan agreed.
"Why can I still hear that crap playing?" Marty shouted from under the pillow. Or rather the couch cushion, he realized after another moment. Well, it could've been worse. Might be tempted to kill myself if Nickleback was playing instead of Avril Lavigne.
"Right, sorry about that," the third person said, turning of the source of the claxon. "Better?"
"Very much, thanks," he groaned, his hangover choosing now to make its presence known. And boy was it ever a doozy. "Ow, what time is it?"
"Just about one o'clock in the afternoon," Dan answered. "Thought we'd let you sleep in as much as possible before heading out for breakfast."
"Lunch, actually," the third person chimed in, who the groom-to-be now recognized as none other than Neil, bassist for the Ragged Dolls.
Oh, that's right, the band was partying with us last night, Marty remembered with a wince, the daylight hurting his eyeballs like hot pokers. "Where are the other guys?"
"Well, Scott, the complete lightweight that he is, went home about twelve o'clock last night, while Stephen ditched us back around the third strip club when his latest boy-toy called for some booty," Neil explained.
"That Stephen guy was gay?" Dan wondered aloud in surprise, only to instantly shrug it off. "Well, actually that explains a lot about his behavior at the club last night."
"Any way, I should probably be booting it now," the bass player stated. "The girlfriend is probably getting worried." He nodded at Marty. "See you tomorrow, man."
"See you then," Marty nodded and gave him a small salute-like wave, barely able to sit up on the couch. He flinced when a hand fell on his shoulder.
"I need to be heading home as well, Martin," Rob announced with a chuckle. "Kelsey and Riese texted me about an hour ago, more or less demanding I bring home something from Sutton's. See you tomorrow. And congratulations again, kid."
"Thanks," he groaned. slumping forward.
"Looks like it's just you and me, lil' bro," declared a gleeful Dan, pretty much throwing himself into the empty space beside the younger Harrison brother on the couch.
"Yay."
"You say that with so much enthusiasm," his only sibling laughed.
"That's as much as you're getting from me right now," Marty stated in no uncertain terms.
"Fair enough," shrugged Dan, turning on the television after grabbing the remote from the coffee table. "Go take a shower, then we'll go for our very late brunch."
The younger Harrison was about to protest, but decided that maybe a shower would help wake him up and rose from the couch to stumble towards the hotel washroom instead.
A half hour later found the brothers Harrison standing in line at a nearby McDonald's in desparate need of something greasy to counteract the effects of last night's escapades.
"If this crap kills me, I am so haunting you, dumbass," declared Marty with all seriousness.
"If this crap kills you, it'll probably kill me, too," countered Dan with equal sternness. "Pussy."
"Dipshit."
"Felliatio giving monkey herder."
"Donkey raping shi-"
"May I take your order, sirs?"
Marty glanced at the cashier who'd interupted him, then to his brother and back to the cashier and then back to Dan again. "Well?"
"Well, what?"
"You're buying, so make the order," he explained with an innocent expression.
"Fine," sighed Dan in exasperation. "Four Big Mac combos, please."
The cashier grinned knowingly. "Hungover, huh?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," Marty confirmed.
After receiving their orders and commandeering a table for themselves, they sat down in relative silence between them. Marty had just finished his first combo when Dan decided it was time to break the quiet that the younger brother had been enjoying by letting out an obviously fake cough.
Oh, boy, here we go, thought Marty in annoyance, somehow knowing this was leading to a touchy subject. "What?"
"That obvious, huh?" Dan smirked, a fry in his fingers.
"Just out with it, Danny," he sighed.
"I don't know if I should," his brother replied. "You know, seeing as last time I brought this subject up, you chased me right out the door of that pretty little townhouse you own."
It took a moment for Marty to recall what Dan was referring to and another to keep himself from reaching over to slap him upside the head for doing so again now. "Oh, for fu-"
"Hey, now, remember where we are, Marty Bones," a smirking Dan cut in. "Family restaurant and all that crap, right?"
He narrowed his eyes at the older Harrison boy. "Don't be a dick, Dan."
"I'm not trying to be a dick here, bro," explained Dan, his smirk now replaced by a serious expression that Marty had only ever seen once or twice in his entire adult life. "No joking or teasing on my part this time. Are you sure you're marrying the right girl?"
"I'm marrying the right girl," Marty answered with forced calm.
His brother gazed at him for another moment before nodding. "I believe you."
"Praise the Lord," he muttered, bitter.
"Look, I know I haven't exactly been the best big brother I could while we were growing up, but at least I'm trying now, right?" Dan said in exasperation, still uncharacteristically serious. "I mean, look at the rest of our clan, Marty. Our parents are complete and utter selfish bastards who refuse to come to your wedding just so they can avoid each other, while our beloved grandparents refuse to acknowledge our existances because the mess those three idiots created more than two decades ago. So like it or not, you and I are the only family the other has, okay? And I'll be damned if I see you end up making the same mistake our parents did. Understand?"
Marty blinked in shock at his brother, then nodded slowly in response.
"Alright then," he nodded, taking a bite in the process. He swallowed the food and continued. "So if you're absolutely sure that Andy's the girl you want to spend the rest of your life shacking up with, I'll be honored to stand up at that altar while you do so, okay?"
"Yeah, okay," the still shocked groom-to-be agreed.
"I got your back, bro," Dan promised, returning his attention back to his burger.
The younger brother watch the older for a moment in stunned silence, only to feel a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Thanks, Danny.
BROS!