“Goodie,” Morgan said.
“I wondered why it was so quiet,” Hollis said and then leaned forward to mess up Chase’s hair.
“Look, be happy I was gone for a few minutes. There was a small flood in the kitchen, and I had to help.”
“Glad you helped,” Morgan said.
“Very helpful of you,” Hollis added and reached for some trail mix.
“You should be glad. The flood could have spread and shorted out the TV. Then we wouldn’t have been able to watch the TCF event.” Chase picked up a plate of cupcakes and stood in front of me. “Can I offer you a cupcake, Patrick? I can attest that these are indeed scrumptious homemade cupcakes. I sampled several while I assisted the head baker. I frosted them.”
I took one off the plate and smiled at him. This family was just too much. They were so much fun to be around.
“Thank you, Chase,” I said and began licking the frosting. “Mmm, this is good.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you noticed my talents in the kitchen.” Chase offered a cupcake to Morgan and then brought the plate back toward me. “Take two. Hollis is watching his figure.”
“Thanks, man,” I said as I took another cupcake. Chase set the plate down on the coffee table and then sat on the floor. He leaned his back against the front of the L-shaped sectional that the rest of us sat on.
“Okay, quiet down, Chase. It’s about to start,” Hollis said as their parents appeared beside the couch.
“We’re going to go upstairs and watch a movie,” their dad said.
“Is it R rated?” Chase asked.
“Chase, we can put a cartoon on in the loft for you to watch instead of being down here with the older boys.”
“Then I would need to speak with management because I deposited my allowance to go toward the TCF event.”
Morgan leaned forward and covered Chase’s mouth with his hand.
“Help yourselves to drinks in the fridge,” their mom said as they walked away.
“Chase, behave,” their dad said over his shoulder.
“Yes, yes. I’m behaving.”
I had so much fun watching the TCF event and eating home-baked snacks. It was a night full of relaxing and fun. Stuff I never had done before. The three of them were so easy to be around, and they all were able to relax and lounge around. None of them ever looked over their shoulders, wondering who was coming for them. I wanted this life.
After the TCF fight, the four of us cleaned up the coffee table and put the leftover snacks away while we talked about the fights. Chase imitated some of the fights. Hollis picked him up and wrapped his arm across Chase’s stomach and put his hand on Chase’s throat.
“I think I got you, Fireball.”
“Whoa, unless you want to be covered in the contents of my stomach, you should put me down,” Chase replied.
“Here,” Morgan tossed the plastic lid to the container for the cupcakes at Chase when Hollis set him down.
As Chase put the lid on the container, their parents came downstairs to get him.
“Peace out, guys. I’m going for my beauty sleep,” Chase announced as he held up the peace sign and went upstairs.
Once the kitchen was cleaned up, the three of us headed upstairs.
“Wanna play cards for a bit, Patrick?” Hollis asked me.
“Yeah,” I eagerly replied. I probably sounded like a dork getting excited about cards, but I’d never had friends to do things with. I was eating all of this up and didn’t want it to end.
“Morg, wanna play cards?” Hollis asked when we reached the top of the stairs.
