No, We Don't Come Easy

January 27th, 2009

Minnesota was definitely not where Kennedy wanted to be right now. He wanted to be back home in Arizona with his friends, his band mates, his partners in crime. Not here. Not in this freezing cold state where all it does is snow everywhere. Not in the two-inch layer of ice under the snow. Kennedy sighed to himself as he stretched on the couch in the living room of the house he'd be staying in for the next two weeks.

He was here with his brother, but he still didn't like the idea of cold when he could be in the nice warm weather back home. His friends were back in Arizona having fun, having band practice and hanging out without him. He still wasn't used to the cold.

So when he stepped outside to get the morning paper, he jumped right back in after yelling obscenities. He slid on his rather large coat with a faux-fur hood, and a pair of long-johns. Then he slid on a pair of jeans over that and slid into his Converse Chuck Taylors, knowing they wouldn't hold up to the snow, or ice for that matter. Then he pulled on some gloves while still muttering cuss words to himself. He took his grey and black plaid scarf and folded it into a triangle manner around his thin neck. So he braced himself for the cold and stepped outside again, this time smiling to himself because he was now all bundled up. Then he carefully walked down the driveway, cautious as to where he stepped. There were patches of thick ice, patches of ice that would break any second, and patches of ice that were as slick as a banana peel. He grunted as he bent down to pick up the paper, but yelped in fright as he felt something cold hit the side of his face. He stood up straight and looked around him.

It was then that he heard childish giggles coming from behind a bush across the street. They peeked their heads just slightly above the bush and giggled again, then pointed towards Kennedy. He only rolled his eyes and shook his head at the three boys laughing at him, then his breath caught in his throat when he saw a girl walk out of the house. She looked about his age, and in Kennedy's eyes, she was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen.

"Taylor, I told you to stay inside, didn't I? You are such a pain in the ass." She groaned loudly in frustration, then started pulling the boys inside the house. Kennedy smiled to himself as she walked back in, slamming the door in the process. Then he picked up the paper like he had originally planned and walked back into his brother's house, shaking all the snow out of his hair that the boys had thrown at him.

"Jeeze," His brother laughed from the hallway. "What happened to you?"

"Some boys across the street threw a snowball at me," Kennedy rolled his eyes, causing his brother to laugh even harder. "What?"

"Those runts? Across the street in the white house, yeah?" Kennedy nodded, pressing his lips together. "I should've told you about them when you came here. They're always trying to pull a prank on me at sometime. And trust me; that's not the end of it." He laughed again with his mug of coffee in hand, then walked away, still chuckling to himself. Kennedy shook his head, rolled his eyes and took all his layers off, leaving on his long-johns and Glamour Kills shirt. "Hey, Ken!"

"Yeah?" Kennedy called out to his brother.

Trent emerged from his bedroom, a rather large box in his arms. "I have to get ready for work, but do you wanna go and put this package in the post office for me? I don't have time." Kennedy sighed, then simply nodded and took the package from him, then set it on the couch. "Thanks man."

Kennedy took his time getting ready. He was a rather stubborn boy, and he most definitely did not want to go out in the coldest of Minnesota's days. So he took a shower that shouldn't have been as long as it should, and took extra time fixing his hair so it was at least not sticking up in every which way possible. Then he took an extra two minutes brushing his teeth and washing his face. Took an extra ten minutes eating breakfast, and took an extra five choosing what to wear during his little 'outing.' He wasn't lazy, just protective. His bright yellow car could not stand the amount of damage it was risking by driving through the icy streets of Bloomington. Kennedy merely shuddered at the many zeros that would pop up in front of his face if he had even rear-ended somebody.

Then Kennedy remembered he hadn't even so much as opened the paper he went through so much trouble to go outside and get. So he smiled softly to himself, as he had found more time to waste so he could be warm for just a little bit longer. He sat down at Trent's kitchen table and took a sip of his coffee, then slowly opened the paper and read over the headlines.

'Ice Storm Causes Many Homes of Bloomington Without Power'

Lucky for Kennedy and Trent, they still had power and were enjoying it as much as they could. Kennedy smirked to himself, then turned the thin page of paper. The edge merely nipped his finger, causing Kennedy to mutter cuss words again to himself, then suck on his finger and glare at the paper staring back at him. So far, Bloomington wasn't liking him very much.

I might as well get it over with, he thought to himself, then rolled his eyes. He trudged over to the cabinets above the kitchen sink and searched for any sign of a band-aide. Then only thing he found was a box of Hello Kitty band-aides. He laid his head back on his shoulders and sighed to himself, then regretfully took one out of the box, un-wrapped it and stuck it on his finger. He grimaced at the kitten grinning back at him with that stupid bow in her hair, then got his coat on and stood behind the closed front door. Then he sighed, slipped on all his layers again, and grabbed his keys and phone. He looked at the doorknob, not really wanting to leave the house, but hesitantly turned the knob anyway. The door was open, and a crisp wind blew into his face, causing him to squint his eyes.

The girl was outside her house again, shoveling snow off the driveway, though Kennedy knew it wouldn't do any good. The ice was worse. He sighed and started walking to his car, careful of where he stepped. He slid a few times, but safely made it to the bright yellow Mustang that hurt his eyes. Then he groaned in frustration once he realized there was about a half-inch layer of ice all around the windows of his car. So he unlocked it, and desperately tried to open the trunk to get the ice scraper.

Meanwhile, the girl stood back, watching him try to get into his car. She chuckled to herself. Must not be from here, she thought, then shook her head and went back to shoveling.

Kennedy spent about another two minutes trying to get the trunk to even budge, and when it finally opened, he almost fell over on his butt, but caught himself. He wiped the 'sweat' off his forehead, though there really wasn't any. Not in this weather. He found the ice scraper and spent about fifteen minutes scraping every inch of ice off his car. He took a deep breath and smiled to himself. He had survived this obstacle, but knew there were many more to come.

He slid into his car easily and grimaced when he felt the cold of the leather beneath him. He immediately started his car and turned the heat all the way up, rubbing his hands together in front of one of the vents beside his steering wheel. As he waited for the leather to full heat up beneath him, he looked through his iPod that was plugged into the tape player. He scrolled and scrolled through, but found nothing. So he decided to just put the damned thing on shuffle, but groaned loudly when 'Umbrella' by Rihanna came through the speakers. He sighed and pressed the next button, then laid his head back on his shoulders as 'Punk B****' by 3OH!3 came on. He needed a content song, something that would calm him. Something that would get his mind off of the cold weather and off of Bloomington, Minnesota. Then 'Transatlanticism' by Death Cab for Cutie came on and Kennedy smiled softly, keeping it on. Once the car was warm enough, he easily slid out of the parking space he had made, then drove off slowly, careful not to slide any. He watched the leaning trees that were tired from too much ice piled onto them as they passed by, and the people shoveling snow and scraping ice. Kids played in the snow, making snow angels with their parents and having snowball fights.

Then Kennedy realized he didn't even know where the post office was. He'd barely ever been here. So he turned on his GPS and talked to it subconciously.

"Please state your destination," The robotic woman's voice said.

"Post office," Kennedy sighed, feeling stupid that he was talking to a non-existant woman.

"Nearest post office is: UPS, 3478 on Third Street."

"Thanks," Kennedy muttered, then rolled his eyes. I just told a robot 'thanks.'

He went through the twists and turns of the neighborhood Trent lived in, then eventually found his way outside of the gates.

"Turn left onto Wellington Road," The Robot said.

Kennedy did as told and turned left slowly, careful not to slide again.

"Go straight into Downtown Bloomington," She stated.

"I know that," he rolled his eyes, then turned the GPS system off. Once he reached downtown, he found the post office and sat in his car for a minute, enjoying the warmth. He parallel parked easily next to the curb, put a quarter in and the meter told Kennedy he had an hour to do what he came to do. Thankfully, for Kennedy, the post office wasn't busy today, and he could easily send the package Trent needed him to send, then go back home and be as warm as possible.

It was then that Kennedy's phone vibrated, causing Kennedy to fumble with the package in his hands and pull his phone out of his back pocket. "Hello?"

"Come back home, Kennedy!" Pat screeched over the phone, causing Kennedy to smile the tiniest bit. "John's being a douche!"

"I can't, Pat. I've still got two weeks to help my brother, then I'm coming home. Trust me on that." Kennedy rolled his eyes at the thought of Bloomington.

"But - but he's giving orders, Kenny," He could almost hear Pat pouting over the phone.

Kennedy chuckled, "He's the lead singer, Pat. He can do whatever the fuck he wants." An old couple turned around and glared at Kennedy slightly causing Kennedy to just roll his eyes again as they turned back around. "Look, I've got to go, man. Just - tell John to stick it where the sun don't shine, alright?"

"But - he'll kick my ass for it!"

"I know," Kennedy laughed, then hung up the phone.

Then Kennedy bit his lip in fear as he dropped the package. He stared at it for a second, grimacing at what had just happened, then bent down and ripped it open, worried to see what was inside that could have been broken into pieces. He removed the styrofoam peanuts and sighed a breath of relief when all he saw were files filled with papers.

Then he sneered at the fact that he would have to repackage it, taking up more of his time. He sighed, put all the styrofoam back in and asked an employee for some packaging tape. She handed it to him and he re-taped it, closing the box again.

He went through the slow process of sending the package, then sighed in relief when he sat in his car seat again. He drove towards his brother's home again, then strained his neck to see what was happening. Of course there had to be a wreck. After about fifteen minutes of not moving at all, Kennedy turned his car off and called his brother.

"Hello?" Trent answered as he shuffled around the kitchen, making dinner.

"I'm going to be home a little later for dinner tonight, man." Kennedy rolled his eyes and shivered.

"What's going on?" Trent asked, taking a bite of the pasta he was boiling.

"I'm stuck in traffic. There's a wreck up here or something. I don't know. Just - stick my dinner in the fridge, will you?"

"Alright," Trent sighed, then hung up the phone. He knew Kennedy didn't want to be here, but he thought it was good for him. Kennedy deserved a little struggle for once in his life. For the past two years, Kennedy had gotten what he wanted. Trent just wanted to show Kennedy what it was like to have to fend for yourself once in a while and what it was like to be absolutely stranded.

Kennedy smiled in excitement as the line started to move. He quickly started his car again, then slowly started following the people in front of him. It was too cold for this.

About an hour later, around nine o'clock, Kennedy returned to Trent's house and smiled in relief. He was rather tired and just wanted to go to sleep. He didn't even care about his stomach at that point in time. As soon as Kennedy stepped out of the car, he fell on his butt, then let out a yelp.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" He heard a girl's voice panic. He looked up above him and saw the girl with worried eyes looking down at him. "You took a pretty hard fall there."

"I'm fine," he muttered as she helped him up. "It's just cold."

"Might as well get used to it," she chuckled.

"How do you live here? I've only been here for two days and I'm already dreading it."

"Well, you probably haven't seen Minnesota like I have. Are you sure you're okay?" She looked at him with those worried eyes again and Kennedy smiled softly.

"Yeah, I'm great. Just tired," he said and she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Alright, well...night," she smiled and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"Night," he said softly as she walked away.

"By the way," she called out, causing Kennedy to look up again and raise his eyebrows. "Nice band-aide."

Kennedy walked up his brother's driveway as carefully as possible, then quietly entered the house, smiling as the warmth hit his face finally. He took off all his layers and sat down on the couch. It was then that he realized he hadn't even gotten the girl's name.

He laid his head back on the the couch and sighed, "Damn."