I laughed. “It’s not that serious, Oliver.”
He waved his hands in the air. “Brooks Tyler Griffin. You were on Snapchat. Sticking your tongue out. Pretending you were a fucking dog.”
I narrowed my eyes and kept fishing. “For the record, yes, I was on Snapchat, but I was snapping to our fans. You remember them? The people who support us? It’s important to give them a piece of me, Oli. You should take notes. That’s why the fans like me more than you.”
“Ha! Doubtful. Plus, when did you start saying, ‘I love you, Maggie,’ in a dog voice to your fans? I get it—some people’s fandoms have names. Demi Lovato has Lovatics. Justin has the Beliebers. Beyoncé has her Beyhive. But I mean, ‘I love you, Maggie’ just doesn’t roll off of the tongue as well.”
I turned to flip Oliver off, and he flipped me two of his own birds.
Touché.
The sky was growing cloudy, and the water was still. The only noise around was the four of us shouting whenever we thought we caught a fish—which we never did. Looking backward, I could hardly see the huge cabin, and looking forward, I could somewhat notice the town stores. Perfect location. All we could hear was the water moving ever so slightly.
“All kidding aside, I’m really happy for you and Stacey, Cal,” Oliver said, picking up Calvin’s guitar and having no damn clue how to play a chord.
“You think management is gonna be pissed?” Calvin asked.
“Ha! Of course they are. One of the lead singers of The Crooks tying the knot, breaking hundreds of hearts around the word? Management is going to try their damn hardest to talk you out of it.”
“Yeah, I figured. But well, they are already pissed at us for missing shows. Might as well piss them off a bit more to see how many gray hairs we can give them.” Calvin snatched his guitar from Oliver’s hands and walked over to me as I sat behind the steering wheel. I picked up my guitar too and started playing the intro to our song “Split Ends”. He joined in, playing on his guitar. Oliver started singing the lyrics, and Rudolph just kept talking to his plant. Working with your best friends could’ve easily caused issues, but that wasn’t the case with my band. Other than the twins arguing with one another, we worked together effortlessly. Sure, we disagreed sometimes, but it was never over something we couldn’t fix.
We stayed out on the water all afternoon. As the sky got darker, we started working on new lyrics. Our creativity was almost unstoppable when we got into our happy music zone. When the first raindrop hit us, Calvin suggested we finish back at the cabin, so I started up the boat’s engine to begin the voyage home.
It only took a few minutes before the sky turned black, and rain started hammering against us. Rudolph jumped on the edge of the boat and held Nicole in the air. “Yes, my darling! Drink it all up! Drink up the water of Mother Nature!”
“It’s a fake plant, you idiot,” Oliver bellowed over the rain. “It doesn’t need water!”
“Don’t listen to the lonely boy, Nicole. My brother’s never been in love with anything, besides tacos.”
“Tacos are life!” Oliver shouted, shaking his fists in appreciation as a flash of lightning struck over our heads. “I love you, tacos!”
“So,” Calvin said, rocking back and forth beside me as we headed for home. “Want to be my best man?” he yelled over the winds.
I wiped water from my face. “I already bought my tuxedo, dude. Me being your best man was a given.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but I figured it was polite to ask.”
“That’s because you’re growing a vagina. Vaginas are much politer than dicks.”
“Yeah, that’s what your mom told me last night.”
“That’s funny, your mom didn’t say much of anything last time I saw her. Then again her mouth was pretty full, so talking was probably not an option.”
He reached for my ‘empty’ beer can to throw at me, and when he went to he paused, narrowing his eyes. “You’ve been drinking this for the past four hours and it’s still full.”
“I—”
He went to sniff the can and gasped. “FOUL PLAY! Brooks has been spitting his shots into his beer can!” The twins gasped just as he did and started chanting with one another.
“FOUL PLAY! FOUL PLAY!”
The louder they grew the louder the storm screamed. The waters were growing more and more wild as the storm grew bigger and louder. Rougher.
“Don’t worry!” Rudolph stumbled with Nicole wrapped in his arms. “We still got another bottle of Fireball over here,” he shouted. As he moved closer to my direction, I saw him tipping a little too much to the edge. Jumping up from my seat, I asked Calvin to take the wheel and rushed over to my drunken friend.
“Whoa there, Rudolph, careful! A little too close to the edge.”
Rudolph snickered and pinched my cheek. “You’re such a sweet vagina, Brooks Griffin.”
I laughed out loud, soaking wet. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“That’s just because America’s Sweetheart Maggie May doesn’t speak. If she did, she’d say some poetic shit, I bet.” He paused, and his eyes grew wide. “FOUL PLAY! I mentioned a girl. I need a shot! FIREBALL!” He launched toward the bottle of Fireball, and as he moved the boat rocked. His body bent over, causing him to hang from the edge of the boat. I gripped him tight, pushing him back toward the boat. As I shoved him to safety, the storm knocked our boat sideways, making me stumble over my own feet.
“Shit!” I hollered before hitting the heavy waves. The water was ice-cold as I fell under.
“Brooks!” my friends yelled, hurrying over to the edge of the boat and tossing me the life preserver ring.
“It’s not an official trip until someone falls into the water, right?” I shouted, laughing as my arms wrapped around the ring. The guys chuckled with me and started pulling me in, until there wasn’t a reason to laugh anymore.
I grew closer to the boat, and pain shot through me. “Fuck!”
It happened in a flash, in a rushed moment.
The boating propeller struck my right side.
In point-one-second laughter transformed into horror.
In point-one-second my life shifted as I began to drown.
Blood. I couldn’t see it, but I knew I hurt too much to not be sliced open.