Eternity

Joe’s POV

“Dude, you okay?” Kevin asked me while I was slowly sinking lower into his couch. I was staring at the TV and flipping through the channels, but I kept landing on shows and movies about weddings. It was driving me insane.

“I’m fine.”

“Biggest lie in the world, bro,” he sang and sat down on the arm of the couch. “Seriously, Joe, what’s bugging you? You’ve looked miserable for the past couple weeks. And we haven’t seen Alexa come around. What’s going on?”

“Kevin, seriously, I’m fine,” I answered and flipped through a few more channels until I was able to find a show about sharks. That was okay with me.

“You don’t look fine,” Danielle said as she entered the living room. She handed me a glass of soda and one to Kevin before sitting on the couch beside me. “Maybe you need a night out with your brothers or something.”

“Yeah, why not? You, Nick, and I haven’t had the chance to really hang out except for rehearsals and stuff”

I rolled my eyes, hoping neither of them saw it, and sat up a little on the couch. “I’m not really in the mood to go out anywhere.”

“And you’d rather stay here and watch killer sharks all day while you slowly sink into our couch?” Danielle asked with a slight chuckle to her tone.

“It’s like you get me,” I said in all seriousness.

“Oh, please,” she shook her head and stood up. “Just go out for a bit and grab some food. Joe, you look like you can use a bite to eat; or a few.”

Danielle patted my knee and left the living room, leaving me and Kevin watching the TV. “She’s got a point,” he nudged my arm. “Let’s get Nick from mom and dad’s and head over to that place we used to go to as kids.”

“Oh, you mean that kid’s place on 8th street?”

“Uh, yeah! They have the best play place ever.”

I rolled my head to face him and he had a huge smile on his face. “Kevin, you know we’re like way too old to get on the play place now, don’t you?”

“Yeah, and your point is?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me like I was being stupid for asking.

“Alright, fine,” I finally agreed. “Call up Nick; tell him we’re on our way to pick him up.”

Within twenty minutes, we were on our way with Nick to grab some food. I was sitting in the passenger’s seat of Kevin’s truck, leaning back as far as the seat would go, staring at the roof.

“What’re you staring at?” Nick asked as he leaned over me, completely blocking the roof with his head. I pushed his face away from mine and put my chair sitting back up. “Ooo, a little temperamental today, aren’t we?”

“You got that right,” Kevin agreed.

I glared at him for a second and turned to stare out the window.

“Okay,” Nick let the last syllable last a little longer than usual.

“He’s having lady troubles,” Kevin said to Nick.

“Dude, shut up,” I groaned and covered my eyes with my hands. “I’m not really in the mood to talk about it, okay?”

I knew we hadn’t arrived to the fast food place, yet Kevin pulled the car over to the side of the ride. I sighed heavily and uncovered my eyes.

“Did you have to stop for a phone call or do you really wanna try your wonders to find out what’s wrong with me?”

“Well,” Nick started, “we can always try to beat it out of you like we used to. Although, now that we’re older, it won’t be as funny or as easy.”

“As much as that might be true, I could probably take both of you down,” I responded and heard both seatbelts for Kevin and Nick un-click.

“Come on, Joe,” Kevin nudged my shoulder. “We’re not driving anywhere until you tell us what’s been going on.” He turned off the car and shifted in his seat to face me.

“Okay, I’m not really diggin’ this whole idea that you’re kind of kidnapping me right now. So, here’s the deal: if I tell you something, will you stop asking me to tell you something?”

Kevin looked to the back seat to get an agreement from Nick and finally nodded his head. “Fine.”

“Alright, then,” I started and thought quickly about how to tell them something without actually telling them everything. “Well, I told her we should—,” and trailed off with a mumble so they didn’t hear me.

“What?” Nick asked and shook his head.

“You can’t get out of this one, dude,” Kevin said. “We know your tricks, so just get it over with already. Like—like you’re about to rip off a band-aid. Just say it fast.”

I was tempted to sigh loudly, but I knew that would make them more irritable than I was, and I knew for a fact that having two irritable brothers against one was a bad idea.

“Seriously Joe,” Nick cut in. “We can help you out with this.”

Now or never, I guess. “Fine,” I breathed in. “Alexa and I are taking a break from each other.”

“Taking a break?” Both Kevin and Nick said at the same time.

“And I think we might be calling everything off.”