Learning to Fly

Well, since I know at least some of you are wondering, I did not get busted for drinking at Rhett's Halloween/birthday bash. How, you may ask? Well, Jordan was pretty damn toasted to say the least from whatever debauchery went on at Spivey’s Halloween party...shindig...thing, and was passed out in the passenger seat, so Charlie was driving. Me and Caleb got picked up sometime after three in the morning and while we definitely weren't drunk, we were a teensy bit alcohol-induced giddy. I'm pretty sure Charlie knew, because she gave us a sly smile after asking us how our party went and we told her we had a great time and behaved, but she said nothing besides a simple "Good" and took us all back to the house.

Oh Willie "bumped into me" in the hallway at school. And by bumped, I mean shoved into the lockers when of course no teachers were there to see anything. My throwing shoulder was sore as fuck but considering what he has put me through in the past... that was a win. Oh, and we played fucking dodgeball in gym. Because of fucking course. I think Coach Lester and Willie have an evil, psychic "Torture Jesse" connection. I mean, it all makes sense when you stop to think about it.

But anyways.

November was full steam ahead. Me and Caleb were doing great. Grant and Rhett treated us just like... ok I'll stop before I "pull a Bill Clinton'' as Jordan would say. Grant treated us the exact same. Rhett kept trying to get all the juicy gay details about us and watched us like a hawk for any "totes adorbs" moment she could go all fan girl over.

So yeah, not quite Thanksgiving yet, but we were getting there. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and there was no Caleb in my life. Honestly, I don't even remember what he was doing but it sadly didn't involve me.

It was almost noon o'clock and I was staring intently into the fridge trying to determine what was going to be my lunch. Options weren't particularly great today. I'm not a huge sandwich guy and I don't care for leftover pot roast, as good as it was fresh. I was about to open the freezer drawer and see what kinda hot pocket action I had going on when big brother came strolling into the kitchen with all the swagger of, well, Jordan.

"Shut that fridge baby bro — me and you are going out!"

"Oh, to lunch? Sounds great! Where and what's the occasion?" I asked excitedly, quickly shutting the fridge.

"Well it occurred to me it's been awhile since we've just hung out together. Way too long in fact. And since the `Boys are on their bye today and Caleb is apparently preoccupied this would be a perfect opportunity to spend some quality `bro time' together," he explained.

Huh, I guess it has been awhile since we've done something together now that I think about it... hey wait a minute!

"You're not just suggesting this because the Cowboys aren't playing this week, are you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

"That's preposterous!" he scoffed. "I absolutely love my little brother more than the Cowboys!"

"So if they were about to kick off, you'd still suggest we go and hang out together."

"Of course I would! After the game," Jordan replied with a grin.

"You know, if I ever doubted your love before, it was soooooo confirmed right there," I smirked back.

"That's the spirit bud! So, whaddaya say?"

"Sure, why not," I chuckled lightly. "Where did you have in mind?"

"Dave & Buster's!" Jordan announced.

Oh, hell yeah.

"Well what are we still doing here!?" I nearly shouted, my excitement barely contained (I do love me some Dave & Buster's).

"And that's what I thought," Jordan smiled back at me as he walked over to where his leather jacket was hanging and put it on, grabbing his keys out of his pocket.

"Look at you," I teased. "Still trying to look like a badass in that thing?"

"Do or do not. There is no..."

"You are not Yoda and that doesn't even apply here! And you don't for the record!"

Jordan gave a barely suppressed laugh and replied, "You're such a nerd. You gonna grab a jacket?"

"Nope!" I declared as I reached for the door. "Long sleeves for the win... HOLY HELL IT'S COLD OUT!" I yelped as I quickly slammed the door shut while Jordan didn't even bother to contain this laugh.

I opted to ignore him as I hurried over to where we hung our jackets and quickly threw on the biggest and burliest jacket I could find, zipping it up and pulling the hood over my head.

"Ready?" Jordan asked with a smirk.

I replied by offering him two thumbs up, turned and proceeded to try going outside again.

"Ahem."

"What?" I asked, my hand on the doorknob.

And then, right on cue, I heard a whimper from my growing boy (He was up to about 15 pounds now. They grow up so fast...).

"Fine! I'll let the needy one out first!" I said with mock exasperation before quickly saying, "I'm kidding, Phillip — I love you!" as I jogged over to the back door and let him out.

We pulled up to the Frisco mall about 15 minutes later, opting to park by the Cheesecake Factory entrance. As we walked across the bridge connecting the parking garage with the mall, I decided to see just how much I could get out of this bonding experience.

"So, Cheesecake Factory's right there. Open. For lunch. Right next to us."

"I have heard this rumor, yes." Jordan smirked.

"Seems like a great place for a pair of brothers to have food and bond..." I said hopefully.

"You know what? You're right."

That seriously just...

"We can get cheesecake to go from there after Dave & Busters."

Damn that master level troll! Well, at least I'm getting cheesecake! Caleb gonna be so jelly.

"Red velvet cheesecake will suffice," I beamed.

"Of course it will. God forbid you'd try a different kind!" Jordan teased me.

"You always get the tiramisu cheesecake!"

"Touché, baby bro. Touché."

We made our way into Dave & Buster's and grabbed a table, and, because Jordan, it absolutely had a view of all the TV's so he could get his football action on. Whatever, I was gonna get my game on and cheesecake was in my future, so I claimed victory on this day!

"Wanna eat first then play some games?" Jordan asked me as we took our seats.

Right on cue, my stomach grumbled loudly. I looked right at my brother and replied, "Food. Now. Please."

Jordan chuckled before his eyes quickly looked up and behind me. I turned around just as our waitress arrived and cheerfully asked us what we were in the mood for.

I ordered a Cherry Limeade while Jordan opted for a Corona with a lime. And knowing how we both roll when it comes to our appetizer game, he didn't even have to ask me before ordering a round of garlic parmesan cheese curds. Because if you don't love bite sized cheese sticks, we just can't be friends.

As the waitress jotted down our initial orders and walked off, Jordan turned and gave me a funny look, prompting me to ask, "What?"

"It's nothing," he replied dismissively. "I was just thinking about the first time we came to one of these."

I was a little taken aback by that. Not in a bad way, just, a little surprised Jordan would be thinking about that. Outside of it being my seventh birthday it wasn't anything too remarkable.

"You’re talking about when I turned seven, right?" I asked him, a hint of curiosity in my voice, hoping to convey to him my desire to know where that came from.

I assumed it worked because he nodded, a small smile forming on his lips before replying, "Yeah, back when we lived in that crappy apartment in San Antonio," he paused to chuckle before resuming, "I never really had the opportunity to do something really fun for your birthday before. We were always moving and too damn broke too," this time he paused to give me a small, sad, if not apologetic, smile. "But dammit if I wasn't determined to make that year different."

"Still my second favorite birthday after Tom Petty," I told him, smiling fondly at the memory of being a wide-eyed kid at the sight of more video games than I could possibly imagine existed.

"It was a great birthday," Jordan agreed. "I wasn’t sure what you loved more, the chicken wings or that damn Jurassic Park game!" he added with a hearty laugh before taking a swig of his beer.

"Four words: T-motha-fuckin-Rex."

Jordan smiled and nodded his head knowingly.

Jordan then began to go on, I don’t really remember about what, because as he spoke, I couldn't help but feel my mind be transported back to those early days. My first memories were dominated by ones of us constantly moving from one small, cheap apartment to the next. One random school with no friends to the next. I remembered the roach-motels always being one bedrooms, Jordan always sleeping on whatever second, third or probably fourth-hand couch we could get at the time while always giving me the bedroom.

"Jordan?" I cut in.

"Yeah bud?"

"Why did you always give me the bedroom back then?"

This time it was Jordan who was slightly taken aback, apparently not expecting that question. But before he could answer the waitress returned with our drinks.

"Here you guys go! Those cheese curds will be out shortly! Need anything else while I'm here?" she asked cheerfully.

"Thank you! But, um... I honestly haven't even looked at the rest of the menu yet so I'm definitely gonna need another minute or two. Jesse?" he asked looking back to me.

"Um, yeah same here," I told her.

"Ok then! Well I'll be back with that appetizer soon!"

With that she gave each of us a big smile and walked off to take care of her other tables.

"Well then I guess we should figure out what we want..."

"Jordan. My question?" I interrupted him.

"Oh, right." He paused to think for a second. "Well, I don't know exactly. I guess I just figured it was important to make sure you had your own space. You were a kid. You needed, hell deserved some kinda normalcy," he told me.

It was easy for me to believe that. Looking back to those early years, hell all my life, Jordan always put my every need first. Not just the bedroom either, I know for a fact there were whole days, even days at a time, he went hungry just to make sure I had three square meals. I remember on a few instances trying to give him some of my happy meal or cereal or whatever I was eating that particular meal but he would just smile and refuse it, telling me he had "eaten earlier and a growing boy needs all the food he can get" even though I knew damn well that he hadn't.

But even if that was easy to believe, there was one memory that I couldn't shake.

It was when I was six. I remember it had been a hot Texas night. Humid too. Like, really humid. The AC in that particular inner-city apartment was barely existent (In fact, I am positive this is where my nudist streak started. I regularly stripped out of my clothing at night in an attempt to stay cool. Including this night) and I had woken up sometime late that night really thirsty. I climbed out of my bed and slowly opened the bedroom door, peeking out to see if Jordan was still awake.

"Jordo?" I asked quietly into the darkness.

"Jordo are you awake?" I asked a little louder.

After receiving no response beyond the outside sounds of the city, I tip-toed out of my room, not wanting to wake him, and headed towards the kitchen. As I made my way to the entrance of our little galley kitchen, I turned and looked back over to where I knew the couch was and made out the image of Jordan passed out, facing the front door like he always seemed to.

At first, my young mind didn't think much of it since I had seen him sleep that way before. I made my way over to the kitchen’s light switch and flicked it on and waited as the dim bulb flickered on. Once it did, I looked back over at my brother to make sure he was still asleep. But this time, something caught my eye. I noticed a glimmer of something under the pillow Jordan was using. And not only that, whatever it was, Jordan appeared to be ­holding it.

Despite not wanting to wake him, my curiosity got the better of me, and I began to sneak over to him. But before I could make it far, I accidentally stepped on a Hot Wheels car I had left out and I let out a yelp.

It was enough to wake up Jordan, who almost instantaneously went from being asleep on the couch to one knee being on the floor with a cold, determined look in his eye, holding the pillow strangely in front of him, concealing whatever the gleaming object was.

For a moment I stood there, confused and terrified of my own brother.

But as quickly as Jordan had reacted to my yelp, he reacted to my scared shitless face and the loving, nurturing brother I had always known instantly returned.

"Oh, hey Bud…​what are you doing up—​and why are you naked?"

At 6 years old, I immediately assumed I was in some kinda trouble and started apologizing.

"I'm... I'm sorry Jordo. I-I got really hot so I took off my clothes and then I wanneda drink so I…​I..." At that point I began to cry because I've always been a cry-baby apparently.

Jordan immediately stood up, putting the pillow back down with the strange object still hidden underneath it before hurrying over to me and calming me down.

"Okay Jordo. Um, can I maybe have a juice box? Please?" I asked hopefully.

At my request, Jordan's face contorted from a genuinely happy smile to a sad one and almost dejectedly answered, "Sorry buddy, but we are out. But I promise, I'll get more as soon as I get paid ok?"

"Okay Jordo," I sighed in disappointment before remembering, "What was that thing you was holding under your pillow?"

Jordan's face almost instantly turned to one of concern before quickly telling me, "It's nothing you ever need to worry about bud. Now let’s get you that water, ok?"

With that he ushered me into the kitchen and poured me a big cup of water and then carried me back to my bedroom and tucked me back in before heading back out to the couch.

After that, whenever Jordan tucked me in for the night he always made sure I had a big cup of water to drink so I wouldn't need to get up and get one. I didn't question it, but it always felt weird to me. I always felt like Jordan had been keeping something from me and didn't want me to come out and see what it was…​

"Earth to Jesse."

I quickly snapped back to reality at the sound of my brother's voice and him snapping his fingers right in my damn face.

"You drifted off to god knows where bud," he chuckled before adding, "and we need to order before our waitress gets back with the cheese curds."

I shot him a look to let him know of my disapproval of his attention-grabbing methods, which got, sigh­, another chuckle, and proceeded to just ignore his ass and focus on the menu.

"Chicken and waffle sliders. Boom." I announced as I dramatically threw down my menu and pointed at my desired edible. Because it was totally unclear beforehand.

"Excellent choice. I think I’m going to go with this steak and shrimp on lobster linguine. Surf n' turf has yet to let me down. Regardless of that dumbass internet quiz that convinced you for a few months that I was going to die from eating bad shrimp," he teased.

This demanded an eye narrow and the curt response of, "I was nine."

"Does not excuse you from tossing out a whole plate of grilled shrimp! I had spent all day dreaming of that meal!" Jordan laughed. "I had just gotten that job at Goodyear and was finally making a decent wage and I wanted to celebrate!"

That was another good memory. We were living in Amarillo by now in an apartment that was at least bug free now, if still a bit on the run down side. I don't even know why we moved there. Honestly I don’t know why we ever moved when we did. But I always knew the signs in the weeks leading up to being told.

"Jordan what's wrong?" I asked my brother as we finished watching Semi-Pro. Normally a Will Ferrell movie would have my brother rolling, but this time he seemed reserved and distant. "You look really worried and upset lately. Ever since you got that phone call."

"Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing bud. Just a lot on my mind—​wait what phone call?"

"A couple weeks ago I heard you talking on the phone to someone really quietly. When I came out of my room later you looked really worried for a moment before you saw I was there..."

"Did you hear anything in particular?" I remember him asking with a keen interest. And he was really interested in my answer.

"No not really..."

"Ok good. Just another thing you don’t need to be worried about ok?"

I resigned myself to the fact Jordan wasn’t going to tell me anything, letting out a sigh and asking, "Are we about to move again?"

Now it was Jordan’s turn to sigh, though I wasn’t entirely sure if it was in relief over me dropping my questions or because he wasn’t exactly thrilled himself about the idea of moving. Though that didn’t stop him from trying to spin it into a good thing.

"Yeah bud. Aren’t you kinda tired of this swamp? I was thinking maybe giving the Texas panhandle a try and see how we like it."

The idea of moving again in absolutely no way thrilled me but I nodded solemnly and we were both silent for a few minutes before I started to ask him, "Does this have to do with the..."

"Buddy, let’s just drop the puppy incident."

And just like that, we were on the move again.

Money was even tighter than usual our first month in Amarillo. Jordan was having trouble securing a steady job and resorted to all kinds of odd jobs just to make rent and put food on the table (mostly for me). Honestly when I turned nine that month I was shocked Jordan had scraped together enough money to get me not only a small ice cream cake, but also a Waboba Tosy AFO (The light-up, flying saucer-looking boomerang thingy). But then again, Jordan ALWAYS did something for my birthday. Or Christmas. No matter how broke we were, hell or high water, Jordan made sure they happened for me even if I could never figure out how he got the money to.

But finally one day, he caught the break he deserved.

He was driving his beat-up, old Jeep Grand Cherokee home from doing some day labour when he came across a lady broken down on the side of the road. Her AC pulley had locked up and caused her serpentine belt to snap, shutting her car down. To make matters worse, her phone had died and she couldn’t call for help.

Jordan, being the good guy he is, pulled over to see what was wrong with the, apparently, very distraught woman. After popping her hood and instantly seeing the problem, he quickly explained exactly what the problem was and how to fix it and offered to do it for her right there. He then drove to a nearby auto parts store, bought her a belt, and quickly installed it while bypassing the locked up pulley so she could get home.

As it turned out, the lady’s nephew was a manager at a local Christian Brothers and after she told him about what Jordan had done, he reached out to him (the lady had gotten Jordan's number so she could pay him back even though he tried to refuse. He's always been such a goddamn boy scout) and asked if he was interested in a job. Jordan of course said yes, went in and showed off his knack for cars and got hired.

That night we went out to eat at the Fat Cat Fish & Grill and Jordan ordered a plate of grilled shrimp while I was in the bathroom. Right as it arrived I remembered the quiz I had Jordan take earlier that day about bad shrimp being his demise and immediately smacked it off the table.

Yes, Jordan (and several fellow customers and our waiter) looked at me in utter shock and disbelief and I’m sure he was about to give me a thorough tongue lashing before I reminded him of said quiz.

Jordan blinked a few times, taking a moment to process what I had just said, before he began to crack up laughing so hard he started crying (as did the, sigh, waiter). I remember going from concerned I was in HUGE trouble to my face going red in embarrassment and frustration at what I perceived to be a lack of appreciation for my life-saving move.

It didn’t take long for the manager to come over to make sure everything was ok and once Jordan stopped laughing enough he told him everything was fine and explained what had happened. And to my further embarrassment and frustration, the manager let out a hearty laugh and said, I quote, "That's the funniest darn thing I've heard all week!"

After another laugh, he told Jordan that he would comp the shrimp seeing as, "He had narrowly avoided certain death" (See? Someone appreciates my effort! I tell myself), helped the waiter clean up the mess, talked Jordan into trying some alligator (Apparently the millionth thing that "tastes just like chicken") and headed back to whatever he was doing before, still chuckling.

Things improved dramatically from there (from Jordan's new job, not the shrimp incident. Well, technically from there too, but…​whatever). Not only was Jordan getting paid both regularly and decently, he quickly stood out for his customer service, integrity and ability. This led to a few raises over the course of the next year and a half, a transfer to a shop in Lubbock (I told you before, we moved A LOT) and ultimately an ASE certification so he could be called a "Master Mechanic."

After finally receiving our food and devouring it, Jordan and I went out to the game floor and both began hitting up games. I made my way over to the Jurassic Park game (because of course) and began trying to survive dinosaurs. This went on for the better part of 40ish minutes while I hunted various Dinosaurs before deciding to move on to another game and also see what Jordan was playing. I found him at the Aliens Armageddon game absolutely taking those damn Xenomorphs to task.

I had never really paid attention before, but as I watched him play I couldn’t help but realize what a great fucking shot Jordan was. I mean, I know the guns weren’t real but you still had to aim and shoot with them and it was almost like Jordan couldn’t miss. And his reaction time? Unreal. Just about every time an Alien would appear on screen he was already on it and blasting it without missing a beat or shot. It was ridiculous!

"Just gonna stand there and watch or do you wanna pick the other one up and get in on this action?

It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me and then another spent in amazement he knew I had been watching him when he had seemed to be so zeroed in on the game.

"Uh... huh? Um, yeah, sure!" I stumbled out as I walked up next to him and grabbed my assault rifle, swiped my game card and joined in.

By the time I joined, Jordan was already over halfway through the game. I was really just along for the ride, basically serving as mop up duty as my brother did the real work. Before I knew it we were taking on the final boss; a giant, flying version of the Alien Queen. Trying to stop her from destroying "The Ark", a spaceship the human population was trying to flee earth in after it was overrun by the Xenomorphs.

Equipping us with grenade launchers and going into slo-mo whenever she would attack, the game made it too easy for us (Jordan) to take down the Queen. I watched as the vessel took off into outer space (leaving us behind, ungrateful dicks), burning up the Queen before she made one final lunge at us with Jordan blowing her head clean off, ending the game.

"Holy shit you must have shattered the top score!" I exclaimed as Jordan’s score compiled on the screen.

"Think so? Neato," Jordan said coyly.

I turned and gave him a dumbfounded look.

"Neato my balls! You know exactly how good you did! When did you find time to play arcade games!?"

"Oh come on, we used to go to Dave & Buster's all the time back when we lived in those couple of places around Houston! I had plenty of time to hone my skills," he said dismissively.

Yeah, but that's stupid good. I'm onto you big bro! Also…​

"You know, come to think of it? I think the last time we went to one of these was in Houston! How is that possibly!?"

"Was it really?" Jordan asked (possibly rhetorically) as he paused to ponder it. "Huh, I'll be a sonuvabitch. I think you’re right."

Around Thanksgiving the GM of the Christian Brothers franchise Jordan had been working for announced he was taking ownership over a few Kwik Kars in the greater Houston area, convinced Jordan and some other guys he really liked from the Lubbock store and other stores to come with, and next thing I know I spend the week between Christmas and New Years moving to just outside of Houston. But I got an Xbox 360 out of it for Christmas. So I took it as a win.

We didn't move into Houston itself (At least not yet. I promise you, if I ever have to move again, it'll be too soon), but into an area right outside called Jersey Village. And after having the misfortune of torturing myself with a small marathon of Jersey Shore, I was justifiably horrified by the thought of living there. Fortunately it would happen that Jersey Village is nothing like Jersey Shore.

School there wasn’t too bad. No Caleb's obviously, but no Willie's either. In case you need a reminder, I sucked ass at making friends. You know, being the new kid every year. Or semester. But I actually did alright in Houston. I made enough of an impression on one of my classmates to get invited to his birthday party at Dave & Buster's (Because that makes the flashback relevant!) at the end of the school year.

To be completely honest, Jamal may have invited me out of pity. And because he was a super nice dude. And his mom thought Jordan was the perfect person to help chaperone a bunch of tween boys because she was a single mom. Though come to think of it she did seem to spend a bunch of time really close to Jordan smiling and laughing and complimenting him while he played shooters and... and holy fuck Jamal's mom was trying to pick up Jordan that entire time I am so fucking oblivious.

Moving on.

That was one of the few times pre-Caleb that I had a legitimately good time with a bunch of other kids outside of school (We had an unlimited videogame pass. So that maybe, kinda sorta, helped). This was back when they still had The Lost World: Jurassic Park arcade game (Still my favorite arcade game ever. Stfu if you have any smartass comments!) and I remember one of the kids there, Ben was his name, joining in with me early on and playing through the entire game with me.

After completing the game I remember heading back to the table we were all situated at for food (Jamal's mom got the Ultimate B-Day package. So in addition to the unlimited video games, there was a badass buffet of food available) and began to pig out on pretzel dogs and four-cheese pizza bites before digging into the party bags we were giving.

Ben pulled out his Pixy Sticks and looked at me, giving me a goofy grin before tearing one open and pouring some in a line onto the back of his hand and joked, "Hey Jesse look! I'm Scarface!" (Ben apparently knew his movies and just assumed I knew who the fuck that was. I definitely made it a point to learn later.)

He then snorted the shit right off his hand!

I was flabbergasted. I had had Pixy Sticks before but had never considered having them any way other than the one intended by Willy Wonka. But then Ben sneezed and a rush of red dust shot out his nose, causing me, and Ben in return, to crack up like a pair of hyenas.

"Here," Ben offered as we calmed down from laughing, "You try!"

I took the stick-shaped package from him tentatively, wondering if this was a good idea despite how funny, and harmless, I found him doing it was. I looked from it to him, my hesitation clearly evident, prompting a form of either prodding or encouragement from Ben, which one depending on your point of view I suppose.

"C'mon Jesse don’t be a p--" he paused and looked around, remembering where he was. "Kitty cat! It'll be fine!"

I looked apprehensive at him before slowly pouring some on the back of my hand as he had done, taking a moment to study the red powdery substance. For what? I had no idea. But ultimately I succumbed to peer pressure and the want to impress what was right then my closest thing to a real friend.

I took one last glance at the stuff and did exactly what Ben did. But unlike Ben, I immediately began coughing and sneezed it right back out, much to his amusement. But in absolutely no way to the amusement of my brother.

"JESSE JAMES KOENIG!"

The sound of my brother’s angry roar was enough to make all the color drain from my face. Even Ben looked terrified. Jordan NEVER yelled at me, so I knew I had to have messed up BIG TIME.

I turned to face him as he stormed over to me, my eyes down to avoid the stares I knew I was getting.

"I-I'm sorry Jordo... I d—​didn’t know I was doing anything wrong..." I got out before tears of embarrassment and fear began to run hotly down my cheeks.

I felt Jordan grab me by the wrist and pull me out of my seat and practically drag me over to a corner. He then kneeled down to where he was about level with me and gripped me firmly by the shoulders all while I silently sobbed, knowing what he was mad about but clueless as too why.

"Jesse look at me," he said assertively.

I slowly looked up at him, knowing to look at his irate eyes.

"What the hell did you think you were doing right there?" he asked crossly.

I attempted to answer, but my lips only managed to quiver as I continued to look at him in teary-eyed fear.

Jordan pressed on, "What possibly could have made you think pretending you were snorting cocaine was even REMOTELY ok!?"

This just caused me to sob some more.

"Jesse, answer me NOW."

Knowing I would only make him angrier, I managed to squeak out, "I don't know what you mean," so quietly that I’m surprised Jordan even heard me.

"You were pretending to snort cocaine!" he snapped, his voice becoming more forceful.

At my blank, wide-eyed stare, his demeanor suddenly softened. "Oh shit, you don't even know...Fuck. " Jordan let out a sigh and rubbed his face, now embarrassed by his reaction, remorse setting in.

"Jesse, I’m so, so sorry. That, that was uncalled for. Christ I can’t bel... I don't know what I was thinking..." and with that he pulled me into a tight hug before adding another "I'm sorry."

I was too upset and confused to provide any kind of verbal response, but I did hug him back. If only just for my own comfort. But that seemed to satisfy him enough as he broke the hug and gave me a small smile and said, "Good. do you…​do you wanna go back to the party...?"

I quickly glanced back over to the arcade section to see a few of the people from Jamal's party looking over at us and a brand new wave of mortification came over me. I slammed my eyes shut and jerked my head back towards the ground and rapidly shook it.

The small smile Jordan had had disappeared and he nodded solemnly.

"Ok bud. The party time is over anyway. I'm just gonna go tell Mrs. Curry ok? Stay right here."

I nodded silently, still facing the ground with my eyes glued shut. I felt Jordan's grasp leave my shoulders as he got up and headed over to find Jamal's mom and surely explain to her what had happened, making me feel even more embarrassed. After seemingly an eternity, I felt Jordan’s hand lightly touch my shoulder. I Jerked my eyes open and looked up at him in a bit of a startle.

Jordan smiled softly at me and gently cooed, "Ok bud, lets go."

I quickly looked back down at the ground and let Jordan guide me out. Before too long we were in Jordan's brand new Chevy truck, the same one he drives to this day.

As we began to head home in silence, I heard Jordan sigh, indicating he had more to say.

"Jesse, I’m truly sorry for how I reacted. That was beyond uncalled for. I should have known you had no idea what you were doing or why it was wrong. As hard as I try, I guess I have a lot to learn about being a parent huh?" he told me, adding a small, awkward chuckle at the end.

"So I'm not grounded?" I sniffled.

"Oh god no. I'm the one who should be grounded, bud," he quipped, causing me to crack a smile and giggle a little at the thought of him being grounded.

Jordan chuckled as well, though I think it mostly out of relief from seeing me cheer up some, before his expression got stern again.

"But bud, just don’t do that again ok? Cocaine is BAD stuff. So bad you shouldn’t even pretend to do it."

I knew what cocaine was, but I didn't even know that you were supposed to snort it, much less how bad of a drug it was. Still, even I knew Jordan was dead serious so I just nodded and simply said, "ok."

"Ok," Jordan nodded as he turned on some random music station and continued driving us home.

The last remaining couple of weeks of school were awkward as hell, needless to say. I did everything in my power to be invisible after Jordan told me I still had to go and finish up despite my embarrassment after what HE did. But I guess he eventually felt bad enough to make up for it (or maybe not. But I like to believe it was because he did) and we moved to another apartment within the Houston city limits, allowing me to go to a new school where no one knew me.

I had started playing Mario Kart while I had been remembering all this, using up the last of the money on my play card while Jordan had gone back to our table to close the tab.

I hadn’t played the game in a few years but it was hard to get reacquainted with it. Even if I had only played it on a vintage N64 console Jordan had brought home one day. I remembered it being a bunch of fun, even if the graphics were dated as shit. But it was a real treat seeing how much fun Jordan was having playing it. And not just because we were playing it together either. Apparently when he was a kid this was one of the few games he had and played it as often as he could. Hence why he was so ridiculously excited when he brought the damn thing home with the ancient console.

I remember at first the odd-as-fuck control was sending me for a loop and pissing me off like crazy as Jordan repeatedly whooped my ass. I almost quit in frustration before Jordan talked me into giving it one more go with the promise of taking me out for a treat if I managed to beat him.

As we fired up another race, Bowser’s Castle if you’re wondering, it started out much like the previous ones. Me sucking ass and getting frustrated. But I hung in there, with lots of encouragement from Jordan, and slowly but surely I managed to work my way back into the thick of the race.

I didn't win this match but I managed to sneak into a third place finish. Jordan congratulated me for my improvement and decided to see if I could pull off a victory with another chance and selected Special Cup, starting us off on D.K.'s Jungle Parkway.

I actually rather enjoyed this map; jumping across a river with a steamboat was pretty cool, and I was managing rather well, sitting in fourth place as we entered the final lap, with Jordan, obviously, in first. I managed to nab an Item Box and lucked into the lightning power. I quickly used it, causing all the other characters to be "struck" by lightning, shrinking them and reducing their speed as well as making them small enough to run over.

I had unleashed the Mario Kart Universe equivalent of Thor’s wrath just as we had reached the big jump. Jordan had unfortunately picked up the Super Star power, making him invulnerable to everything, so he was able to complete his jump with no issue. But the NPC's had no such protection and while I didn’t run anyone over, despite how satisfying that would have been, I did ensure the two in front of me and the ones immediately behind me would be unable to get across the river, forcing them to restart the jump at proper size.

Once I landed on the other bank, I made a quick left turn and went after Jordan who I could see just ahead. We both hit the next round of Item Boxes, him getting a banana peel that I avoided and me getting a green shell, which I missed him badly with.

"My god bud, that was a terrible shot. Is there another racer I don’t know about 500 yards to my flank!?" he practically marveled.

"You shut your whore mouth," I grumbled in retort.

"Jesse James where did you learn that?" Jordan asked in equal parts surprise and amusement.

"Internet," came my clapback.

Jordan gave me his usual amused chuckle and quipped, "Just me and you basically. Think you can take your big bro down?"

"Oh yeah, you’re going down!" I boasted.

We traded light-hearted jabs at one another as we made our way though the course. As we neared the bridge though some of our competition had managed to catch back up. Since Jordan was using Toad his character was classified as a "lightweight", meaning he was faster but if hit by a "heavyweight" driver like Bowser (Because of course I chose the dinosaur-turtle-dragon-thing), he would spin out.

I tried ramming him to either make that happen or at least cause him to hit the barriers on each side of the bridge entrance so I could take the lead but unfortunately I was unable to get a clean hit on him and Jordan made it onto the bridge with the lead and me and Princess Peach in close pursuit.

"Nice try bud but I’m almost on my way to victory!" he teased.

"Dammit," I muttered. But I knew I had one last shot at victory in the cave.

The second we entered we all bee-lined for the Item Boxes. Luck though was on my side, Jordan hit a Fake Item Box, giving him nothing and causing him to curse under his breath. I hit mine and nabbed a Mushroom.

I let out an excited whoop and instantly activated it, giving myself a critical speed boost. Jordan countered by making a super sharp turn, allowing him to remain neck and neck with me as we barrelled towards the caves exit and the last stretch of raceway.

I realized now my only option was to try and ram him off to the side or else Toads superior speed would allow him to inch out a victory. But then I heard the sound of a Turtle Shell being fired. Princess Peach had managed to nab a Red Turtle Shell which had auto-locked onto me. I looked helplessly at the screen, knowing I had lost, when suddenly, just as the shell was about to hit me, I watched as Jordan somehow managed to get just enough in the way and got hit instead!

"Damn, the bitch got me," Jordan said, though not at all sounding too upset at his loss.

"OH MY GOD!" I screeched in excitement as I zoomed across the finish, winning the race.

"Well look at that you won bud!" Jordan congratulated me, giving me a huge grin and offering me a high-five.

I returned his high-five as I jumped up and celebrated. Which consisted mostly of fist pumps and some hoots and hollers.

"I cant believe that red shell hit you instead! I thought for sure it was locked in on me! Oh my god that was incredible!" I exclaimed excitedly, while Jordan watched happily before I paused as a thought struck me.

"Hey wait a minute... that shell was locked in on me. Did you...?"

"Me what? I had no idea that thing had been fired. I was just trying to avoid your ramming!" Jordan claimed innocently.

I narrowed my eyes at him, pointing my finger in the process, and told him, "I'm gonna just choose to believe that. Now about that treat you promised me?"

"Put your shoes on baby bro! We are going to the Cheesecake Factory!"

And that’s where I found myself now, staring at the glass display holding all of that amazing deliciousness as I listened to Jordan make our orders at the to-go counter.

"I need one tiramisu cheesecake and one red velvet cheesecake please. That'll be all for today," he told the waitress with a smile.

"No problem sir I’ll have that out for you in just a minute!"

As she went to get our desserts, Jordan turned to look at me.

"Have a good time today?"

"Yeah of course!" I replied, turning to face him. "Is there a reason I wouldn’t have?" I asked with curiosity.

"Not that I know of. You just seemed rather distracted today. Anything you wanna talk about?"

I realized I had been going deep into the memory vault today. And as smart as Jordan was, there was no way he wasn’t going to notice.

"I'm all good. Just had some things pop into my head. Some memories and what not."

Jordan gave me the faintest look of concern before joking, "Good memories I hope!"

"Well, minus the Pixy Sticks episode, I'd say so," I replied with a smile, intentionally leaving out the memory of that hot night in San Antonio.

Jordan gave me a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah... still sorry about that bud. Definitely wasn't my finest moment."

"It's ok," I reassured him as he turned to grab the to-go bags from the waitress. "As it turns out, it ended up being a good thing strangely."

"Oh really?" he said quizzically. "How so?"

"Well," I began as I started to follow him out of the restaurant and towards his truck. "If that hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have felt so bad for me that we ended up moving that summer to Houston itself."

"Is that why you think we moved into Houston?" Jordan asked with an interested look.

"Is that not the reason!?" I questioned him incredulously.

"Yeah, you know what, we will just go with that," answered before quickly adding, "So this was going where?"

"Well I was gonna say and that's how you met Spivey which led to us coming to Mckinney where I met Caleb and my other friends and you met Charlie I guess but it sounds like you weren’t really that guilty over it after all!" I charged, though it was in jest honestly which Jordan thankfully did pick up.

"You know I still feel bad about that! And yeah I guess that did play somewhat into it. But there were other reasons as well," he informed me as we got into the truck.

"Such as...?"

"Adult ones bud."

I slumped in my seat, sighed and gave a look that just screamed,"REALLY!?"

"But," he continued, "I like the dot connection there. Works pretty well. I'm happy we ended up here. I don't think we will ever have to move again. Unless you want to."

He gave me a cheeky grin as he said that last part.

"Not a chance in hell Jordo," I scoffed.

"Jordo? haven’t heard that nickname in awhile!" he said with a fond look.

"Yeah it has been a couple years hasn’t it? Thinking I oughta bring it back," I decided, giving him a loving smile that he returned before reaching over and tussling my hair.

"I dig it bud."

And with that he put the truck into gear and we began our trip home. And while Jordan may not actually be completely perfect, and I still have A LOT of questions about our parents and some things in our past, I wouldn’t trade him or the time spent with him for anything in the world.

Alrighty, three new chapters to be (hopefully) enjoyed! I swear this story isn't abandoned guys! I'll crank out new chapters as I can!

Please email me anytime at JesseJamesNiftyEmail@Gmail.com and I'd be more than thrilled to respond to any and all comments, questions and yes, constructive criticism!