Close To Me

Chapter 2

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE TWO OVERGROWN CHILDREN DID TO ME!" Scott yelled while stomping into the kitchen and interrupting the family dinner and pointing an accusatory finger at Chris and Blake.

"Do we even want to know," Carly rolled her eyes while Chris and Blake started cackling hysterically.

"Tell us Uncle Scotty!" Ethan piped in.

Scott sighed dramatically before sitting down at the table while his mother silently served up a plate of food for her son as he told, "I went home and when I got to my bedroom those two loons had put all these creepy pictures of Nicolas Cage all over. They even got a freaking bedspread with his face on it!"

Hearing this sent everyone into a round of laughter but of course Chris and Blake were completely hysterical. Ever since Lisa started having family dinners every Sunday night with Blake and her mother Carla, it seemed as though they got a weekly updated on some prank the inseparable pair had pulled.

"I really thought you two would stop pulling pranks by the time you were adults but apparently I was wrong," Carla, Blake's mother, shook her head with a soft snicker.

"You got to admit the Nic Cage bedspread with matching pillow cases is pretty great," Blake replied while Chris nodded.

"At least it's better than Chris making me pee my pants when Stephanie was coming to babysit us," Scott said making Chris burst out in another round of hysterical laughter.

"Even I admit that one was mean!" Blake put her arms around Stella who had climbed up in her lap. "Ethan and Miles, don't listen to any of these stories. Don't do what Uncle Chris and Auntie Blakey do."

"I think they're funny!" Ethan giggled.

"I don't wike it!" Miles pouted.

Lisa just laughed before saying, "Ethan is Chris and Miles is Scotty."

"At least Ethan doesn't have a Blake that makes a terrible twosome!" Scott replied.

Blake just smiled and threw her arm around Scott's neck and planted a big kiss on his cheek as she overdramatically said, "Oh you love me and you know it."

"Unfortunately that's true," Scott playfully sighed.

Everyone then settled in for the meal that they all had enjoyed every week for the past 31 years and talked about their upcoming family Disney World vacation which also had been a tradition for the group.

"Chris you're flying straight to Disney World from reshoots right?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah and Blakey is coming with me too," He filled everyone in but then turned to his best friend and said, "Blakey I have to take you to this one restaurant in Atlanta, you're going to die."

The two then got lost in their own world and babbled back and forth about all the things they were going to do together while they were there. Lisa stared at the two and softly said, "Quite the duo they are..."

Carly recognized the look in the mother's eyes and leaned over the table to softly say, "Mom, stop planning their wedding in your head!"

"I....wasn't," Lisa smiled, knowing she was caught. "I was just remarking how they're quite the pair and always have been."

Shanna just shook her head added in, "They've been best friends their whole lives and if they've made it to 33 years old without dating already, I don't think they will now."

Scott scooted his chair closer to the opposite end of the table that Chris and Blake were at, still lost in their own conversation, so that he could add, "I wouldn't be so sure about that...."

"Me either," Carla agreed.

"Why do you say that?" Shanna asked her older brother.

Scott looked over at the two sparkly eyes friends who were eagerly going on about their trip before looking back at his family, "There's always been something between them. I think they just can't plan that idea themselves but I think if something sparked them, then I think they'd see what we all see."

Carla smiled before saying, "Blakey loves him... she just doesn't know it."

"Chris is the same, I can tell by the way he looks at her when he thinks nobody else is looking. It's not a coincidence that no other girl has been right for him," Lisa agreed.

"Mom, you and Carla have been planning Chris and Blake's wedding since they were like 5, I don't think anything will change now," Shanna replied.

Lisa just smiled at the two who were still lost in conversation before saying, "Well maybe we'll just have to help plant some of those ideas when we're in Disney World."

"I like that idea!" Carly beamed.

At that moment, Chris and Blake had finished their conversation and Chris reached over to tickle Stella who was still tucked in Blake's arms while she asked, "You like what idea?"

The group shared a nervous look before Scott covered, "That we'll go on Pirates of the Caribbean first when we get to Disney."

"NO! WE HAVE TO GO ON STAR TOURS!" Blake shouted.

"No way Star Wars nerd, we're totally going on Pirates first," Chris protested.

This of course launched the two into another passionate conversation while Lisa and Carla just shared a knowing look and the two were instantly a bit more excited for Disney World than ever before.