"Are you calling me fat?" I sat up as he pulled into the overcrowded parking lot at the mall.
"Yeah, a fathead." Brian glanced around. "You sure about this? Look at this place."
"It's all good. Come help me out of the car and let's get this shit over with."
"Fine. Let's get the gifts and eat." Brian got out of the car, and I opened my door and grunted as he helped me to my feet. "Be careful and don't slip. Busting your ass is funny when you’re healthy. Busting it now would be another trip to the hospital."
"Shut up, and stop treating me like a child." I positioned the crutches under my arms and moved toward the escalator that would lead up to the chaos.
"Let's swing by the old Vanning place on the way to get a burger." Brian suggested and reached out to help me, but I swatted him off with my crutch.
"Why? I can't afford it, anyway." I glanced to my left as three girl's going down the other side called out to me.
"Finn! Is that you? What happened?" The blonde in the group puffed her bottom lip out.
"You poor baby. You need us to take care of you?" the brunette threw in.
"No thanks, ladies. I'm good." I turned back up as Brian called out.
"I'm not good. I could use some TLC."
I laughed and got off the moving staircase. "Come on and stop looking needy. That's half your problem."
"I am needy." Brian moved up beside me and looked around at all of the people. "What are the odds that we're going to run into a hundred women that call out your name? This is going to be depressing."
Someone called for me behind us and I rolled my eyes. "We'll be done soon."
"Not nearly soon enough," Brian mumbled.
* * * *
We stopped by the old Vanning place on our way over to Burger Stop, but as I suspected, someone had purchased it. It was a beautiful old mansion that was built in the early nineteen hundreds. It would have been the perfect spot to turn into a ski lodge, the lodge I'd been dreaming about since I was a teenager.
"Hey, you still down about the old mansion?" Brian reached over and squeezed my shoulder as we walked up to the restaurant.
"No. It's going to be years before I can ever consider getting my own fixer-upper. Someone made a good purchase. I'll just be interested to see what they do with it." I shrugged and almost lost my footing.
"Be careful, man. Shit. Your dad will kill us if you get hurt again." He held the door for me, and I laughed.
We would always be fifteen in our heads, no matter how old we got.
The hostess showed us to our seat, and I ordered a drink before pulling out the blue box that had Chloe's necklace in it. I popped it open and ran my finger over the forever heart. "You think it's too much?"
"What? No." Brian reached across the table. "Let me see it up close."
I handed it to him, and let my hands drop back into my lap. "I love her."
"Really? Already? It's been two weeks." Brian looked at the necklace, shrugged and handed it back to me. "She's going to love that. It's pretty, and honestly, I think it's just about showing that you cared enough to get her something. You get extra points. You're on crutches and you got her something."
I smiled, knowing I could always count on Brian to make me feel better. I left the conversation on my feelings for Chloe for later in the evening, and if he wanted to talk about it, he was going to have to bring it up. I didn't want to have to defend something that made no sense, and yet it just was.
"This is true." I picked up my drink and took a long swig of it. "Oh, man, I found out what was up between my dad and Chloe's."
"What? Tell me."
"They grew up together, like you and I did, and then in college I guess Jonathan fell in love with some girl, and Dad stole her right beneath his nose." I shook my head, not being able to fathom something so horrible happening between me and Brian.
"Damn. That's awful. I don't know what I would do if you did that shit to me." Brian sat back, sipping at his beer and looking around.