Brotherly Love (cont.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               (Don)

A cold voice rang out in the darkness, “Man, he shouldn’t be alone right now. What are you thinking, Don?”

I stopped short. I hadn’t given J.D. a second thought. I’d just felt sorry for myself because of how his reaction made me feel. What kind of brother does that? I gazed off at the guys standing outside the Dairy Queen, and I wished it was any other night than this.

A few years ago, it wouldn’t have mattered if J.D. and I had fought. It would just be a brother thing, and once we’d stormed about whatever we were angry about, we’d be okay. Lately though, there was no pleasing J.D., and the way we’d parted, he wouldn’t want me around tonight anyway.

Suddenly, a rough  object  something furious hand wind blast of air pushed me from behind slammed into my spine spinning me around until I collided with the earth.  After a while, I found the strength to raise my head enough to notice a football lying innocently next to me on the ground.

I’d had the wind knocked out of me before, but this time beat all. It took a while for my body to respond to what my brain was telling it to do. Finally At length, I crawled managed to crawl over to a lone tree and pulled wrenched haul myself upright.

Laughter floated across the road as several vague elusive shadows materialized from the darkness, and then quickly disappeared into their waiting I watched sadly as they vanished one by one into their cars. As the engines roared to life, I realized what I had needed to do. It was time to step up and be more than just a little brother, it was time to be a friend.

* * *

A single bulb glared nakedly next to the worn, wooden door as I slipped silently up the steps to of Richie’s father’s house. I lifted my hand to knock and thought, “Man, what I am doing here?”

Heavy feet trudged across the bare floor.  , and in response to my hesitant knock on the door My heart pounded as I waited for J.D’s reaction when once he finally opened the door.