“I really don’t understand your craziness.” Bria sniffled. “Why is it that anytime you buffoons go through anything, you lose your minds?”
I shrugged, not able to come up with the kind of answer that she needed. Bria, as much as she was empathetic and understanding because that’s what her job as a social worker required, didn’t know shit about what we went through overseas. The lengths at which I’d go for my brothers. The commitment I made to them went deeper than anything else I’d experienced in my life, pretty much. If I had to quantify it, I’d put it directly behind the level of devotion I had for Chloe. And if I ever had to choose between the two? I’d burn in the fiery pits of Hell while trying to make that choice.
So when I saw the first golf cart turn the corner, riding down the center of the street, I pushed up off the steps. Remy drove with a ridiculous pink helmet on his head, and a pile of rainbow streamers reaching out behind him, almost hitting Linc in the face. Linc, on the other hand, was dressed in the bigger portion of a purple dinosaur costume. He’d decked out his golf cart to look like an egg, and his matching purple helmet cracked me up. As they raced along, barreling down the street, the light from the streetlamps reflecting off their vehicles, I fought the urge to turn and flee.
Another two golf carts turned onto our street, but I didn’t stay to see what Dom and Logan had done to themselves. Instead, I went around the side of my parents’ house and grabbed the unicorn helmet and pajamas that I’d picked up online. Once I was dressed, I pulled my rig out and beeped the horn when I creeped from the shadows.
By the time I got there, everyone was parked, looking absolutely ridiculous, and each of them were offering Bria a hug.
“You all look ridiculous,” I announced cockily. “Seriously. A dinosaur, Linc? And what are you supposed to be, Remy?”
Remy, all six foot three of him and enough muscle that he made me feel like I needed to get back into the gym, flipped his helmet hair around and snapped his fingers in my face. “You’re just jealous because Nox made me beautiful.”
“He has no clue what he is,” Linc offered helpfully. “Nox wanted to make his costume, and Remy’d let him do anything at all to him.”
There was no arguing that. Nox had every single one of us wrapped around his finger, and he had since the day he’d been born. His father, Danny, had been another of our unit to die.
Dom coughed, scratching behind his rainbow-colored tutu, and nodded toward the golf carts. “Are we doin’ this or not? Emma and I have the same weekend off for the first time in a month, and I plan on… I plan on things that aren’t any of your business.”
“I’m not ready yet,” Logan interrupted with a groan. “This stupid zipper won’t zip.”
He was wearing something fuzzy and green, but I couldn’t figure out what it was because the whole thing was folded over and Logan was grunting with the effort to force the zipper up.
“Buffoons,” Bria said while shaking her head in the dim light. “Move, Logan. I can get it.”
“No.” He stepped back. “It’s next to my dick, and while I’m a crazy man, I’m not an idiot. Not gonna happen. Especially,” Logan added as an afterthought. “With the fact that you’re friends with Teri. I know she’d be happy to have you cut me.” With a sharp tug, we all watched as he succeeded in fixing the zipper and swatted away Bria’s hand simultaneously. “See? I didn’t need you.”
“The Cookie Monster,” Dom deadpanned. “That’s the best you could come up with?”
Logan, not one to be outdone, gasped and slapped his hand to his chest dramatically. “I am green, sir. The Cookie Monster is blue. No. I’m the Grinch, thank you very much.” He grabbed the black helmet that he’d put at his feet and slammed it on his head. “Now, I believe we have shenanigans to get up to tonight.”
He stormed away, which would have been more impactful if he didn’t have an inflatable giant green ass attached to his costume.
“See you later, Bria.” Remy slapped Linc on the shoulder and the two of them practically ran to their respective vehicles, like we had already started the race.
“Be safe.” My little sister pulled me into a tight hug, something I wasn’t quite expecting. “I don’t want to have to bail you out of jail.”
Dom snorted beside me while adjusting his own costume. “Please. Five of Birch’s finest out for a night of ridiculousness? Who’s gonna call the cops? We are the cops.”
“Plus,” I added while rolling my eyes. “Nothing that we do is gonna be illegal.”
Bria let me go, and I fixed the unicorn helmet on top of my head, double-checking my horn to make sure that I hadn’t messed it up. After all, if I was going to be out like an idiot, I needed to be a good-looking idiot.
Turning back to see the darkened house across the street, I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “Keep an eye on Chloe?”
Bria’s somber eyes met mine as we both turned away from the house we knew better than our own.
“Of course I will.” She sighed deeply. “What are the chances of Chloe letting me in?”
“You? I bet she’ll open the door for you with a smile and a hug.” Dom started walking away. “It’s only us and Sebastian here that she’s going to hate for the rest of her life.”
“I’m gonna murder him,” I muttered. “It’s Ian, Dominic!” I hollered at his back, purposefully trying to get a rise out of him, but all I got was him flipping me the bird without looking.
“Go, Ian.” Bria smiled half-heartedly at me. “Go do buffoon things. Go remember Kev. He’d want you to kick their asses and take the trophy.”
I snorted but didn’t say anything. Bria was right. Kev would be clambering all over the opportunity to take first in the Ridiculympics, which we’d started during our first deployment.
The trophy.
While I walked away from my sister and took my seat behind the wheel of the golf cart I’d commandeered for the night, I thought about that rusted piece of crap we’d had to sneak home in our duffels.
“You got the trophy?” Remy called out loudly over the sound of our minuscule engines whirring.
I nodded, pointing to the back of the golf cart. “Dad loaded it up before the funeral.”
“We gotta get something new.” Linc pulled up next to me, keeping pace with his ridiculous purple dinosaur. “Damn, that thing is getting old.”
Our trophy was ridiculous. We all knew it. But I also knew as much as we complained about it, we’d never do anything to replace it. After the years spent in the sand, the piece of old metal was practically priceless.
Which is why we were racing through Birch in the middle of the night, heading to the cemetery on golf carts dressed like imbeciles.
Kevin would have wanted it. In fact, we’d sworn after Danny died that if we ever lost another one of us that we’d mark the occasion with exactly what we were doing.
“How many events are we doing tonight?” Linc shouted as we pulled into the cemetery parking lot. “Dom’s not the only one with someone waiting up. Kennedy will be out here in her Mucks with a machete in hand if I don’t make it back before the sun comes up.”