Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

That was essentially how my two weeks at home went; spending time with Becka during the day while mom was at work, and then eating dinner with my mom, talking, playing a board game or watching a movie before going to bed. It was nice, relaxing and definitely something I’d needed, but I couldn’t help but miss everybody from Pittsburgh. We all texted quite a bit – Sid was back in Cole Harbor, Kris and Marc-Andre were up at a lake together with their families in Quebec, TK was with his girlfriend, and Jordan was at his parents’ place. Shelley, Steve and the kids were at his parents’ place for a week before going out to Florida to spend some time on the beach and go to Disney World. Jordan had called a couple of times, trying to organize when I’d go out to Thunder Bay to see him. We’d decided that I’d leave for Ontario two days after Becka went back to Pittsburgh, and had booked my flights and everything. I just hadn’t expected it to sneak up on me so quickly.

“All right, give me a call when you land, okay?” mom asked as she worried over me in the Winnipeg Airport.

“Yes, I will mom; Jordan will be waiting to pick me up,” I repeated, and she nodded as she pulled me in for one last hug.

“I know sweetheart. Have fun – say hi for me,” she said.

“Of course mom – see you in a couple weeks,” I answered, and a few minutes later was going through security and only a half hour later was sitting on the plane waiting for the plane to take off. It was only a two-hour flight to Thunder Bay, and I managed to sleep for the entire flight. I woke up when the Flight Attendant tapped my shoulder to remind me to put on my seatbelt for descent. After getting my luggage I made my way to the main part of the small terminal, and immediately saw the two extremely tall men standing along the wall; baseball caps pulled down low and sunglasses on. A smile came to my face as they saw me; both the blonde and redhead’s faces lit up and huge matching smiles graced their faces. It was so easy to see the sibling resemblance between the two of them when they smiled.

“Cam!” Jared pulled me into a quick hug once I was within arm’s reach. I hugged him back, unable to keep from laughing at his excitement.

“How are you Jared?” I asked as we pulled away.

“Good, good. Bored though,” he grinned, and the next thing I knew Jordan had pulled me into a hug.

“Oh my God I missed you,” he whispered in my ear as he held me close.

“I missed you too Jord,” I whispered in reply before we pulled away and started heading towards their vehicle.

“So, how was Manitoba?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“Same as it’s always been, I guess. It’s weird, that was the first time I’d been back,” I told him, and they both nodded.

“It’s weird, right? I mean, you expect something to change but everything is exactly the same… it’s almost creepy, like they’re trying to keep things identical to how you left,” Jared agreed.

“Yeah, exactly. But it was good, to just relax and everything, and spend some time with my mom. Oh shit, I’m supposed to call her since I got here,” I quickly pulled out my phone and called her, but ended up getting the answering machine. So I left a quick message before hanging up and getting into the backseat of the truck.

“Oh no – guest gets shotgun,” Jordan informed me, and I shrugged.

“It’s really okay; I mean, Jared’s got long legs anyway,” I argued, but Jared shook his head.

“How are you supposed to see anything sitting in the back?” he insisted, and finally I moved and he somehow got his long body into the backseat of the Chevy half-ton. We had about a half-hour drive to get to the Staal farm, and when we got there the yard was empty, as was the house.

“Nobody’s home?” I asked, and Jordan shook his head.

“No, I think everybody must be at Eric’s or something,” he said, and I followed him inside, Jared right behind me. Their house was gorgeous, and I took in the beautiful woodwork in the kitchen as Jared got himself a glass of water.

“Want anything? Pop, water, milk, juice, beer…?” he asked, but I shook my head.

“No, but thanks anyway,”

“All right, if you say so,” he grinned, before striking up a random conversation about how I liked Ontario compared to Manitoba. Not that I’d been here all that long or anything. I was just beginning to wonder where Jordan was when he came down the stairs, a duffel bag in hand.

“All right, ready to go?” he asked, and Jared and I looked to each other in confusion.

“Go where?”

“To my place,” he answered, and I shrugged. I really had no idea what his plans were for my time here.

“You didn’t tell me you guys were heading out to your place!” Jared complained, following me as I followed Jordan back out to his truck.

“Come on, I haven’t seen my girlfriend in two weeks dude, we’ll just spend a couple days at my place then come back here,” he answered.

“Can I come with you? Come on, I want to see Cam too! And Eric’s still being a dick to me,” Jared complained, but Jordan shook his head and sighed.

“No Jared; just us. We’ll be back before you know it – go spend some time with your friends or something,” he rolled his eyes. Jared huffed before wrapping his arms tightly around me.

“You can’t leave without me if I take Cam hostage,” he announced, and I raised an eyebrow at my tall red-headed captor.

“Really? Really Jared?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do,” he answered, before looking back to Jordan.

“Can’t you ask Marc if he wants to go camping or something? I know he’s not impressed with Eric right now,”

“But Lindsay doesn’t want to do anything like that because it hurts her back and Marc won’t go further than ten feet away from her – it’s like he’s on an invisible leash,” he argued, and Jordan groaned.

“Come on Jared, can you let Cam go and we can leave already? You’ll live – it’s like three days, four max,” Jordan said, and attempted to pull his brother’s arms off of me. Jared let out a beller and held on tighter, and soon I found myself yelling as they basically wrestled around me.

“LET ME GO!” I yelled, and finally Jared did, and Jordan took full advantage of it by tackling his little brother to the ground.

“Cut it out you two! Jesus Murphy!” I pulled Jordan away from Jared who sat there pouting on the grass.

“Seriously? So you’re just gonna take off to the lake and leave me here by myself?” he pouted, and Jordan nodded.

“Pretty much, yeah,” I sighed, not knowing what to do in this situation. Next thing I knew Jordan picked me up and slung me fireman style over his shoulder.

“Jordan what the hell are you doing?” I asked, flailing uselessly as I couldn’t do anything about my current situation.

“We, my dear, are leaving Jared to be a baby by himself,” he announced, setting me down in the front seat.

“I do feel bad; he’s obviously a little upset,” I told him, and Jordan shrugged before pecking my lips.

“He’s a big boy – he’ll get over it. If he were in my shoes he’d do the same thing,” he assured me, before closing the door and going to his side of the truck. Jared stood up slowly and headed toward the house. I rolled the window down and called to him.

“See you soon, okay? We’ll have to have a movie night or something,” I suggested, and he perked up a little bit.

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise,”

“Okay. Well, see you in a couple days?”

“All right, sounds good,” I waved, and he waved back. Jordan reached across to do the same thing and Jared responded by flipping him the finger. I laughed as Jordan started the truck and we headed back the way we’d come. He seemed to be taking a different way to get back to town though, and after a moment his cheeks turned a little pink.

“I don’t want to run into any of my family if they’re coming back from Eric’s – I want a few days of just us,” he admitted, and I couldn’t help but giggle. He was too damn cute for his own good.

“As funny as it is that you’re hiding in a big-ass half ton that’s pretty cute,” I replied, and he shot me a grin as he reached over to hold my hand. We stopped in town to grab a few groceries, and then Jordan stopped at the LB to get a case of beer before we continued on our way. It was about an hour-long drive out to the lake, and while the scenery was beautiful I was almost nodding off in the front seat.