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Author's Chapter Notes:

I almost forgot to post this tonight lol I have to let you know I am starting school this week so i'm going to try to keep this regular update thing going but if I miss a few down the road please don't hold it against me!  In the meantime, thanks for reading! You guys rock!! *hugs anyone reading this*

 

 

 

 

If I had to sum up Friendship in one word, it would be Comfort.  ~Adabella Radici

  ~ 7 ~ 

 

The Salmon Fiasco  

I watched and tried my hardest not to laugh as Nick attempted to scale the fish we had caught. He told me that he would be in charge of making us a nice fish dinner for supper and not to worry my pretty little head over it. I should go call Kris and talk to her and my son while he got the fish ready. “Go do what you gotta do and leave me here with these guys,” he said to me as he literally shoved me towards a tree to call my wife. Why a tree? It’s Nick. Why anything?

 

So, I did what I was told to do. I called my wife, talked to my son and found myself homesick for a few minutes. Kris didn’t believe me when I told her how many fish we ended up catching especially the big one Nick affectionately named Gigantor. I am glad I took a picture of that one with my phone. I promptly sent it to her with an ‘I told you so’ as the text message.

 

I also called to check up on Howie. He seemed to be in good spirits. He said he was happy to hear about our camping trip and that next time he’d like to come. Maybe we could use an RV because now apparently he’s an old pro when it comes to driving them around.

 

Nick was right, he did sound very calm but he was a little more morose during our conversation. I think out of everyone, Howie isn’t afraid to let his guard down in front of me. It’s always been like that for the both of us. Either way, he sounded like he was coping well and I was happy to hear that. I promised him that I would keep him informed on our little trip and that I would let him know if AJ and or Nick managed to get lost or injured. His bet was on AJ but I still had my money on the youngest one.

 

“You sure you don’t need help?” I decided to ask when Nick let out his third “Fucking fish” in a matter of a few minutes.

 

“I’m good.”

 

I laughed and pointed to his cheek, “You have some fish guts right there.” I said, once again trying not to laugh.

 

He wiped them off with a disgusted look on his face, “Thanks.” He said and smiled at me.

 

“I can really do that if you want.”

 

“Kevin, I said I could handle it!”

 

“That was over an hour ago.” I really was trying to just let him be, but I was starving and by the looks of it, he had only managed to scale one fish.

 

He gave me a defeated look and handed me the fish, “I give up! God I am so hopeless! What will I do if I’m ever trapped out here in the woods all alone?”

 

“Let’s hope that never happens.” I looked at the fish and tossed it aside, “We’ll have to get rid of this one. There’s nothing left to eat.”

 

“Luckily we caught a ton of them.” Nick said as he took the fish he had massacred and threw it into the woods for some lucky raccoon to feast on later. “Let’s not mention this part to AJ and Brian or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

 

“Don’t worry your secret is safe with me as long as you don’t do anything to piss me off.”

 

“That’s not going to be an easy thing to do.”

 

“Don’t sell yourself short. You haven’t really done anything to piss me off in a very long time.”

 

“What was the last thing I did to make you really mad?” He asked me. I knew that question was coming. I had to think back a long ways to come up with an answer.

 

“The salmon.” Ironically enough, I realized it was a fish incident that had me almost killing him.

 

He instantly nodded in recognition, “Ah yes,” He said “I almost forgot about that.”

 

I’m not exactly sure how he could forget about the salmon fiasco because it was the one time in my life I was almost arrested for battery. I can’t even remember a time when I had lost control as badly as I did that night in Sweden.

 

We were on the Never Gone tour in Stockholm and it was one of those more stressful legs where we were all rush rush rush. None of us had gotten much sleep and were ready to bite each other’s heads off. The odd thing was, while everyone was in a sour mood, Nickolas was bright and cheery.

 

We had a busy day of interviews even though we had the day off of actually performing. I wanted nothing more than to just sleep the day away. I felt cold number 875 coming on and I wanted to be able to beat it, but no, our management had other ideas. So, we were all forced to bond over dinner.

 

I know I’m making it sound like we hated being in the same room together when we weren’t on stage. It really wasn’t like that, but just like every job in the world, there comes a time when you need to take a break from your coworkers. No matter how much you love them.

 

I remember all of us sitting at a long table not saying one word to each other. I kept coughing and so did Howie. Brian must have looked at his watch every five minutes and AJ sat twiddling his thumbs. Nick however sat there with a huge grin on his face, whistling as if he didn’t have a care in the world. This was the one freakish time where he was healthy as could be and everyone else was sick. Normally, it was the other way around. “What’s everyone ordering?” He asked when the room was too silent for his liking.

 

“I’m not really even hungry. I think I’m just getting soup.” I answered him. The thought of eating made my stomach do flip flops.

 

“Soup? That’s so boring Kevin!”

 

“I’m not hungry.”

 

“But even still…I think I’m going to get the salmon.”

 

“You hate salmon.” Brian said as he once again glanced at his watch. I wanted to take it off of him and throw it in the Koi pond that ran through the place. Yes, that’s the kind of mood I was in.

 

“I love salmon.” He argued.

 

“No, you don’t. You said it was the most disgusting thing you have ever had in your life.” I added, because I remembered the ruckus he caused after ordering it all those years ago.

 

“I think you’re all on crack.” He laughed when he said it, rolling his eyes.

 

“Whatever.” My cousin was smart. He decided that arguing with the kid was pointless. I on the other hand, wasn’t quite that much of a genius.

 

Let’s just say that by the time I was done arguing with Nickolas Gene Carter, I had actually stood up, grabbed him by the collar and was shaking the boy, saying something like “You hate salmon God dammit!” AJ and Howie had to pry me off of him and what made it worse was the boy was giggling the entire time. He thought it was the funniest thing ever, until we were asked to leave or else the police were going to be called. How that ended up not being all over the local newspaper is anyone’s guess, especially since the restaurant was pretty packed.

 

I don’t think any of us ate that night and I swear that the word salmon wasn’t uttered by anyone for the rest of the tour.

 

“I still think I do like salmon.” He said, giving me a shit eating grin.

 

“I tell you what; you can eat all the salmon you want when if you catch it!”

 

“Does that mean we’re going fishing again?” He asked with a hopeful smile on his face.

 

“No, it does not.” I answered quickly, just to shatter his dreams.

 

“That’s okay, because fishing is our thing anyway! We wouldn’t want AJ or Brian getting in the way of OUR thing now, would we?” I had to laugh at him. He was so much like a little kid sometimes. I knew telling him that fishing was our thing was going to make his day.  “Kevin, how on earth did you do that so fast?” He pointed to the second fish I had managed to scale during our salmon conversation.

 

“Just practice I guess.” Truth is, I had this fishing thing down to a science. He had no idea how often I went fishing. I managed to even teach Kris how to do this as well. She could probably fish us all under the table. Wow, what an oddly placed metaphor.

 

“Do you suck at anything, Jesus… sometimes it’s just annoying!”

 

I love that he puts me up on a pedestal. It used to bug me when I was younger but now I just enjoy it.

 

“You are good at your fair share of things too you know.”

 

“Pfft! Yeah right… like what, farting America the Beautiful?”

 

I gave him a look, “Yeah…like that for instance.”

 

He rolled his eyes at me as he cracked open a bottle of beer. “Kevin we know I suck at life.”

 

“No you don’t. Look at all the weight you’ve lost, how much have you lost anyway?”

 

“I’m not sure, about 60 pounds maybe?”

 

I hadn’t noticed how much weight he had lost until we went fishing. His pants which were usually so tight I thought they would bust at the seams, were actually falling off his ass. I have to admit that I was a little worried about his method of weight loss. I mean I think it’s great he’s lost all the weight he has as long as it was done in a healthy manner. I know…I know…you can’t win with me. One minute I’m calling the boy a pork chop and the next I’m worrying he’s not eating enough.

 

“How did you do it?”

 

“I stopped eating bad foods and starting exercising and drinking wheat grass and algae.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

 “It’s good stuff, have you tried it?”

 

“Wheat grass yes, algae, not so much.”

 

“And you call yourself a nature freak?”

 

“I have never called myself a nature freak.”

 

“Okay, well then I’ve called you a nature freak but not anymore. Not unless you jump in the lake and lick some algae off of some rocks at the bottom!”

 

I shook my head at him, “All done.” I said when my last fish was scaled and ready to be cooked.

 

“Wow Kevin, that was really quick.”

 

“I say we get these babies on the fire, unless of course you just want to go find some algae to lick.”

 

“You know the guys tease me about that too!”

 

“Well I am still one of the guys.”

 

“Are we going to be eating all of those tonight?” He asked when he saw the huge pile of fish.

 

“No, we aren’t. We’ll make two of them tonight and pack the rest of them in ice for tomorrow when AJ and Brian get here.”

 

“You didn’t gut Gigantor.” He said while pointing at the large fish.

 

“No, he’s staying in one piece so I can say I caught this bad ass huge fish!”

 

“Just don’t be a stereotypical fisherman and shellac him to your wall.”

 

I had every intention of doing just that, thank you very much, “Please, I would never do that.” I lied. One white lie will not kill me. He gave me that look that told me he knew I was full of shit.

 

I have to say our dinner was very good. I let him cook the fish over the fire while I prepared some rice. We even had dessert. “I love astronaut ice cream! It reminds me of being a kid.” He said when he popped opened the packet.

 

“Me too.”

 

“Do you think astronauts really eat this stuff?”

 

“Probably not.”

 

“Well, their loss then!” He took a huge bite out of the strawberry line of fake ice cream and then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “I had a lot of fun today.”

 

I looked over at him and nodded, “I did too…can I tell you something?”

 

His eyes widened and he smiled, “Ooh is this going to be some kind of confession?”

 

“Not really…well kind of maybe?”

 

“Then confess away…”

 

“I’m kind of nervous about tomorrow.” And I really was. I’ve seen all the guys at least once since I left the group but never all together like we will be for the next two days. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about that or if it would be awkward or not. I didn’t want it to be. I wanted it to feel natural.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because it’ll be weird having us all together again.”

 

“I hear ya, but I don’t think you’ll have to worry. I bet it’ll be just like old times.”

 

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

 

“And if it’s not, then we’ll leave them and go fishing.”

 

I laughed at him and then remembered I had a gift I wanted to give to him before the other guys got here. I stood up and went over to our tent, reaching into my backpack I grabbed out a book. When I came back outside, Nick had broken into his second packet of astronaut ice cream. “I was still hungry and even though I lick algae off of rocks, I still can appreciate the finer things in life.” He confessed as he shrugged at me.

 

I sat down beside him and tousled his hair. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person that is allowed to do that to him anymore. “I have something I want to give to you.” I said handing him the book. I have been wanting to give this to him for a long time but I always put it off because honestly, I didn’t think he’d bother even opening it up. Most likely it would have ended up thrown away or given to someone else.

 

He turned it in his hands and read the back cover. “A family friend gave that book to me shortly after my dad died. I was lost and had absolutely no direction in my life until I read that book.”

 

He didn’t say anything but turned it over to look at the cover, I decided to continue because I didn’t want him to feel like I thought he was directionless. “I’m not saying that’s where you are in your life. I just think it’ll help you think a little more positively. I mean you seem a lot happier Nick, but this will help you try to look on the bright side of life.”

 

“Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results by Norman Vincent Peale,” he said reading the title. “Thanks Kevin.”

 

“You’re welcome. Maybe it’ll help you not be so down on yourself all the time. I hope you really read it.”

 

He nodded and placed the book at his side, “I will.”

 

“While we’re alone I just wanted to say again how very proud of you I am Nick. Seriously, you’ve grown up so much within the last two years.” I felt inspired to suddenly pull the boy in for a hug to which he gladly accepted kissing me gently on the cheek.

 

“Thanks Kevin, it really means a lot and so does this,” He said pointing at the book.

 

I grabbed some marshmallows out of the pack of goodies and handed him a stick, “Who wants some roasted marshmallows?” I asked as if there were a ton of us sitting by the fire.

 

“Oh I do! I do!” He said grabbing a marshmallow and sticking one in his mouth and smiling at me while it oozed.

 

“Maybe I should take the grown up remark back!”

 

He stuffed another marshmallow in his mouth, making it harder for him to speak. “Soully, no tagbags!” he cracked himself up and both marshmallows came flying out of his mouth landing on the book I just gave him. “Sorry, hehe.”

 

I shook my head and tried not to smile.