A Month To Live - Extras

The Night of Many Shots (3/4)

'You haven't realised how clumsy I am yet, have you?' I asked, frowning at George as he shifted a pallet out of the way of the garage door.

'Never noticed,' he said, leaning the pallet up against the wall and dusting his hands. 'It'll only make this more fun.'

'You ever rode on this thing before?' I asked as he disappeared inside and began wheeling it out.

A freaking tandem. Somehow, I found it really difficult to be surprised at the fact that he had a tandem in his garage. I'd never even seen one in real life, just in some of those old black and white films. Or on TV when those guys did serious competitive racing.

'Nah, it's Benji's,' he said, kicking the stand out and letting is rest in the driveway. 'My oldest brother,' he confirmed at my confused face.

'You give all your brothers these cute nicknames?' I snorted as he moved the pallet back inside.

'What you mean Jojo, Benji and Cooper?' he called over his shoulder.

'What's wrong with Cooper?' I frowned.

'His real name is Dale,' George said as if I'd understand his explanation. He let out a sigh when he saw my visible confusion. 'You never watched Twin Peaks?'

'No.'

'Told you, my references are totally wasted on you,' he said, shaking his head and shutting the garage door.

'Think my mom's seen it,' I shrugged.

'Well, maybe I should hang out with her then,' George snorted, lifting the two paint cans and carefully placing them in the basket. 'Wow, perfect fit.'

'Okay,' I said, clapping my hands together. 'Where are we going?'

'It's almost dark now,' George replied, picking up one of the backpacks and holding it out to me. We'd just spent the better part of an hour tearing open the tennis ball tubes and filling two of his backpacks with them. And he still hadn't told me jack shit.

'Yeah, I realised,' I said with an eye roll, looking up at the darkening sky. It was around seven now and I was quite relieved that the sun was on its way out. I needed some cold night air.

'Now that we have the cover of almost darkness, we can proceed with the master plan,' George said as I shrugged the backpack on. 'Come on, I'll steer!' he added, snatching the second backpack up.

'Question.'

'Yeah?'

'Why would we need tennis balls and not tennis rackets?' I frowned.

'Holy shit! I nearly forgot!' George exclaimed, eyes widening. 'This is the exact reason I chose you!' he added, tearing open the garage door again.

I couldn't help but laugh as I heard him crashing around inside. Various objects were thrown before he finally emerged with two rackets in hand.

'Can't believe I almost forgot. I've only had a couple of drinks, I should still be thinking pretty clearly,' he grumbled, wedging the rackets into the basket at an awkward angle. 'Okay, Betty! Hop on!'

'Sure thing, Skipper.'

'Skipper?' he asked frowning in confusion as I carefully hopped on the back seat. I could barely reach the floor so ended up standing and resting my elbows on the handlebars while I waited for him to get on the front seat.

'Madagascar,' I smirked. 'He's that crazy penguin... always seems to be working on some kind of plan.'

'I name you after the hottest voted cartoon character and you call me the name of an animated penguin?' he asked, raising his eyebrow at me.