Chapter Two

Brittany:

“Oh, I can’t do it! You do it, Emma!” Brittany thrust her sealed paycheck into Emma’s hands. Then she stood back with her sweaty hands clasped tightly together underneath her chin.

Emma rolled her eyes.

“Brittany, it’s a paycheck, not a bomb. Will you relax?”

“No!” Brittany groaned while turning a small circle on her heel, “Emma, if this doesn’t add up to the $500 I need today then… then…”

“No Asia, right?” she finished quietly.

“Right… And I have to go to Asia or else my life is officially ended!”

Brittany turned another circle.

Emma just sighed while raising an eyebrow. She, more than anyone, aside from Brittany, wanted to see Brittany go to Asia, but… did she really believe a few weeks’ worth of Chick-fil-A salary would do that?

“Okay, here goes nothing.” And with that Emma ripped open the envelope. Her eyes fell upon the digits. But before she could even open her mouth to read them off, Brittany had torn it from her grasp to eat up the sight for herself.

“$324!” she exclaimed in exasperation, “But I worked extra shifts!”

Brittany haphazardly folded the scrap of paper and shoved it into her pocket. And before Emma could utter a word, Brittany had whirled around and went charging down the street from where they stood underneath the Chick-fil-A sign.

Her feet started off at a quick trot but slowly evolved into a jumbled run down the street until she turned a corner onto her slum street. Brittany never slowed until she finally burst through her front door with tears of defeat streaming down her flushed cheeks. She was met with the sight of her foster dad sitting on the couch with a beer can in his hand and the television blaring out the news of the day.

“Whoa! You look like you just got ran over by a car!” he exclaimed drowsily. Brittany was actually almost grateful to see him still up and not very drunk yet.

“Rob, I need to ask you a favor,” she blurted out while darting up to where he lay.

“Brittany, I’m trying to watch TV.”

She moved around so that she was in between him and the news reporter.

“Move!” he screeched.

“I will after I ask you something and get a good answer. Got it?” she demanded while crossing her arms in authority. Both he and Brittany knew that he could not say no to whatever it was, especially partway drunk, his most vulnerable stage.

“Okay? Ask before I miss all of it!”

“I need $200.”

“Ha! Forget it! I didn’t spend that much on my wedding ring so what makes you think I’d just hand it over to you?”

There was an awkward pause that caused a dramatic shift in the feeling of the conversation. Brittany had had no intention of telling Rob until the very last second when he couldn’t say no. But now, Rob knew he had to know because he could tell it was something juicy, to put it in his words.

“Um, well… The people I work for at the newspaper want me to go to Asia to cover a story there to see if I’m worthy of a scholarship. But I still need $200…”

Instantly, before Brittany had even finished talking, Rob had burst into an uproarious fit of laughter.

“You-you’re joking, right?” he managed to get out after five straight minutes of guffawing, “Tell me your kidding… you are kidding, right?”

“No!” she exploded, rather hurt by even this wasted man’s scoff, “I am not kidding and I still need the money! So I can I please have it now?”

He just gave off a small, sarcastic laugh that made his gray eyes dance with sadism. Rob ran his fingers through his thick, matted, brown hair and sighed.

“I’m your foster dad, not your real one. So, I don’t think I have to.”

“No father has to!” she retorted, denying herself the luxury of feeling pain at the comment, “But sometimes… they just do. Besides…” she tested a different approach, “I’ll be gone for three weeks.”

“Take it! But I only have $50. Good luck with that, Brittany!” he fairly snorted in contempt.

She just rolled her eyes and leaned forward to take the money from his trembling, sweaty hand.

Aaron:

“Where did I put my shampoo!” Aaron practically shouted in his annoyance. He threw his hands up in the air and did another stomp around his disheveled room. He hadn’t even considered the need to pack up until a few hours before his plane was scheduled to leave.

“Calm yourself,” Dustin popped his head into the room with a white bottle sticking out of his palm, “You left it in the other shower.”

Aaron turned to his cousin in relief.

“Thanks, man,” he said as Dustin tossed the bottle to him.

“No problem. So…”

Oh, great! Aaron thought. Whenever Dustin said ‘so’ it usually came right before some strange notion about whatever Aaron was about to do. He turned to face his roommate.

“So, you going to Asia to find a girl?”

“What?” Aaron exclaimed in disgust while throwing one of his dirty shirts at him. Dustin just laughed it off while dodging the toss.

“I just thought that maybe you got tired of not having a girl sometimes.”

“Dustin, that’s the difference between you and me,” he joked, “You always have to flirt with some girl whereas I,” he paused to lay his hand across his chest, “Can’t stand the sight of a female.”

Dustin leaned his bald head against the door frame while chuckling.

“Well, they’re not hurt because the feeling is mutual.”

“Out!”

And with that Aaron threw several more dirty T-shirts at the fleeing cousin.

Joe:

“Say it.”

“Say what?”

“You know what.”

“Joe…”

“Stephanie…”

Stephanie rolled her eyes and leaned back against the car behind her.

“Joe, I didn’t drive you to the airport to stand here and watch you miss your flight.”

Joe chuckled and pulled up the handle of his rolling suitcase.

“I won’t miss it. I’m always fashionably late,” he joked.

“Well, I’m sure the pilot won’t appreciate your fashionableness.”

The siblings laughed together in their last few minutes together. Then there was a small awkward silence that gave Joe just enough time to feel sick to his stomach. He would miss Stephanie… He couldn’t believe he had actually allowed himself to admit that, but… he would. He knew he would. She was the only real friend he’d ever had and now he had to leave her behind for two weeks minimum!

“Joe,” Stephanie placed her warm hand on his cheek, “You’re going to be great.”

“Thanks.” He smiled to push to back the tears.

“I mean it,” she returned the grin, “Those businessmen aren’t going to know what to do with you.”

“Well, I hope they do! I hope they know to make sure the business plans follow through!” Joe snorted.

“Don’t worry. Like you said, you were chosen out of how many other capable men?”

“Sixty.”

“Sixty? I thought it was fifty.”

“I went through the list last night and counted sixty.”

Stephanie just chuckled lightly. Only typical Joe would actually go through the list on his last night at home and count all the other men that didn’t make it to Asia. He was more of a goof than even she fully understood.

“Okay, well, you better get up to at least the front doors of the airport!” she teased.

“Yeah,” he said while swallowing the lump in his throat. For a thirty-year-old man, he sure felt like a kindergartener at that moment. He never cried… never, especially not when leaving his sister for a whopping two weeks. Joe had never been so grateful for no other friends there to see him in his emotional weakness.

“Well, bye, I guess,” she said slowly. Joe lifted his eyes to hers and was slightly surprised to see her eyes glazed over with… were those tears?

“Yeah, bye, and thanks for the ride.”

They both leaned forward and hugged one last time before Joe turned from his sister and best friend to take off for the airport.

Stephanie watched him slowly trudge off towards the double, automatic doors that would be his first step to Asia. Her heart beat inside her and her hands shook. She had to say something.

“Joe!”

He turned to look at her with a slight touch of confusion in his brown pupils.

“I love you!” Stephanie called to him.

He smiled, releasing a tear from his cuticle.

“I love you too, sis.”

“I’ll be praying for you.”

More confusion and shock sparked up in his eyes but he already turned away before she had a chance to really study it.