My Best Friend's Brother

Francis Escapes

Aria had woken up late that morning and wasn’t able to meet the boys at their house but she had managed to catch the older two as they headed towards the school.

“Hey, wait up!” Aria called out as she jogged up to them, they turned and greeted her though Malcolm seemed to be distracted with his thoughts.

“Where were you this morning?” Reese asked with furrowed brows.

“My dad and I were running late this morning, he dropped me off down the block before rushing to work.”

The three walked into the building and went their separate ways, Aria’s first class was English which she was very grateful for. English was her best subject and she always managed to get her work done early leaving her plenty of time to relax before her next class. Lunch had rolled around and Aria sat with Stevie and Malcolm eating her lunch before realizing that Malcolm was staring at her lunch.

“Do you want half?” Aria asked as she held up the uneaten half of her sandwich, Malcolm was quick to answer and she watched as he devoured it.

“Thanks.” He said with his mouthful, she gave him a look of disgust before nodding.

“Let’s play Ironside. I’ll be. . . Ironside.” Stevie suggested.

“I don’t want to play stupid Ironside.” Malcolm snapped as he finished his half, Aria raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“What’s the matter with you?” Aria questioned.

“It’s Francis. He escaped from military school and hitchhiked all the way here.”

“Your brother?” 

“Yeah, and he’s all scraped up and smelly and hungry and dirty, and now he’s hiding out at the creek. If my parents catch him, he’s dead. He’s talking like he’s crazy. I don’t know what to do.”

“Squeal.” Stevie said bluntly.

“What?”

“Squeal. Rat him out.”

“I can’t do that. He’s my brother. I promised him. I can’t tell anybody.”

“You told us.” Aria pointed out, she knew it was only a matter of time before Francis was found by his parents. He often didn’t think his plans through.

“Yeah, but by the time Stevie tells anyone, he’ll be a thousand miles away. You wouldn’t rat out Francis.”

“Tou. . .che” Stevie wheezed, Malcolm had a point Aria wasn’t going to rat out Francis but she also thought that this was a stupid idea.

~~~

Aria sat at the dinner table with the Wilkersons, Malcolm had hardly eaten any of his food. It was obvious that he was trying to save food for Francis as he pushed it around his plate to make it seem like he was eating.

“Gosh, I had such a good day at work today. I got to work in the cash–only line today for the first time in a month, and my register came out to the penny.” Lois gushed, “Plus, that creepy new assistant manager sliced his hand open with a box cutter. Spent the whole afternoon in the emergency room.”

“Here’s to him.” Hal held his cup up in a cheers motion before taking a sip. “Honey, this chicken is absolutely delicious.”

“Oh, well, it’s this little recipe I came up with. It’s like Shake n’ Bake – but for pork.”

“How about that? That’s one for the recipe box. Let's call it uh,  ‘chork’. All in favor?” Aria raised her hand as well as Reese and Dewey but Malcolm seemed lost in thought. “No one for ‘picken’? Chork it is. Brava.”