Home - 6. Part 6

The next morning Troy woke me up as promised, by gently kissing me. The second I opened my eyes and saw his completely black face I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, grinning, but I couldn't even answer him.

After a couple of minutes there was a big tear stain on my pillow, and I tried to stop laughing, but whenever I looked at Troy it got me going all over again.

"Cody, you're starting to scare me," he said very seriously, which made me laugh so hard that my whole face was tensing up, tears were streaming from my eyes and I even had trouble breathing. Poor Troy actually looked really worried, so I quickly took my sweater from the nightstand and covered his head with it. Slowly I calmed down a little.

"Cody, I'm totally freaking out right now," Troy said nervously.

"No… It's ok… Come with me," I managed to say. I grabbed his hand and we both got up.

"Do you want me to keep this on my head?" he asked.

"Yes please."

I led him to the bathroom, placed him in front of the mirror and then pulled down the sweater. When he saw himself his eyes widened.

"Jesus," he gasped with a pretty shocked expression and I laughed so hysterically that I had to bend over.

"I'm not even mad, I'm just relieved that you haven't gone insane," he said. "Come on, let's show the boys."

We walked back to our room, quickly got dressed, and then went downstairs. Michael and Dylan were in the living room and as soon as they saw Troy they burst out laughing too. After about ten minutes Troy had had enough and headed to the RV to wash his face. The boys came over to me and both gave me a high-five.

"Way to get revenge," Michael said.

"Thanks," I replied.

"We've already fed Lucky and Barklay by the way."

"Great, thank you. You two make us look like such lazy bums, you know?"

"We don't mind taking care of things, so you can be lazy all you want, as long as you don't get drunk or start being mean to us."

"No, never, I promise."

"We built a park. Wanna see it?" Dylan said.

"Sure, I'd love to."

Dylan showed me the park and then explained all the other new additions to his city to me in great details. After a while Troy returned with a towel over his head that had two holes in it for his eyes. It still looked funny, so we started to laugh again.

"It's not coming off," he said, annoyed.

"Well, how about you try to remove it with the tickle-machine?" I asked, smirking.

"Screw you!"

"Don't be a sore loser, you had this coming and you know it."

"Whatever. Have fun at the celebration, cause there's no way in hell I'm showing up there looking like this."

"Come on Troy, where's your sense of humor? So you'll make a couple of people laugh, what's the big deal?"

"I doubt Terrie will find this very amusing."

I turned serious instantly.

"Oh no, what have I done?" I said, alarmed.

"Don't worry, we know how to get it off. We'll tell you tomorrow, right before the celebration, but only if you stop covering it up till then," Michael said.

"Jesus… Fine," Troy replied and took off the towel, sighing.

After about fifteen minutes the boys and I had calmed down enough that we could finally have breakfast.

"What are we going to do today?" Troy asked while we were all eating oranges in the living room.

"I don't know, but we have to do something useful, for once," I answered.

"How about we clean the house and the RV?"

"No, Troy, you have to talk black now," Michael said.

"No, don't Troy, that would be really racist," I said.

"You would know, Nazi-boy," he replied.

"Don't you start with that again or you'll stay black till we run out of Magic Marker."

"You just wait, I'll teach you not to mess with me."

"Oh my God, Troy, swear you won't do anything to me!"

"No, I'm gonna, you can count on that."

"Then you're sleeping on the couch from now on."

"That won't stop me."

"Troy, are you really that petty? For once I beat you at something and you know what? I kind of needed that. Do you seriously want to take that away from me?"

He thought for a second.

"No, I guess not. I'm sorry."

"Thank you… So we're good now?"

"Yeah, we are."

"Good. Now, how about you clean the house and I do the laundry?"

"Deal."

"Boys, could you give me all your dirty clothes, so I can wash them for you?"

"Sure," Michael answered.

After we had eaten I gathered everything that needed to be washed while Troy was looking for cleaning products and then we went to work.

About one and a half hours later the laundry was drying in the attic, the house was spotless and we had just finished the RV together. I went outside to empty the buckets, but then I suddenly saw something in the distance that made me drop them and my eyes widened in horror.

"God help us," I gasped.

Troy came over and followed my line of sight.

"Jesus Christ!" he said, totally shocked.

There was a sea of monsters, probably a million or more, only about half a mile away and they were all heading in our direction.

"Quickly, grab as much stuff as you can, we're leaving in five minutes!" Troy yelled, but I was too terrified to move. "Cody, snap the fuck out of it, we need to hurry!"

When I didn't react he took a hold of my hand and dragged me inside.

"Boys, pack your things, as fast as you can!" he yelled

"Why, what's going on?" Michael asked.

"There are hundreds of thousands of freaks coming this way!" Troy replied.

"Oh, yeah, we know. Don't worry about it," Michael said, completely unfazed.

"You don't get it, we have to leave or we're all gonna die!"

"No, we won't. Just move the RV in front of the path to the door, so Barklay and Lucky can still go outside to pee, then close the curtains and relax."

"Jesus! Listen to me, you might not think they're dangerous, but they are, especially in groups, and as I said there are hundreds of thousands of them out there. And we can't just hide, cause if they stick around we'll be trapped and eventually starve to death, so we have to run, right now!"

"Hold on," Michael sighed and pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. "Wyett, are you there?" he said.

"Yes, hello. How can I help you?" Wyett answered.

"Cody and Troy are freaking out because the stinkers are here. They want to run. Could you maybe talk them down for us please?"

"Sure thing. Put them on."

Michael handed Troy the walkie-talkie.

"Hello?" he asked.

"It's Wyett. Don't panic, they're not dangerous. Just stay inside and you'll be fine," Wyett answered.

"Why the hell wouldn't they be dangerous?"

"They just aren't, you have to trust me on that one."

"I don't think I wanna take that chance."

"Please, I give you my word that they won't attack. Just wait it out, they'll all be gone very soon, for good."

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"Because we're the ones who have caused this event and we know exactly what we're doing."

"Jesus… How?"

"I'll answer all of your questions at the celebration tomorrow, alright? Now, I get that you have a hard time wrapping your head around this, but believe me, if I weren't convinced that the boys are safe with you I would've picked them up hours ago."

"Fine, but you better be right or there will be hell to pay."

"Fair enough. See you tomorrow, bye."

"Satisfied?" Michael asked and took back the walkie-talkie from Troy.

"Why didn't you warn us that this would happen?" he replied.

"Because you're scared of the stinkers, so we figured the sooner we tell you the longer you would freak out."

"Do you know what they're doing exactly?"

"Getting rid of the stinkers."

"Yeah, but how?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you. Ask Wyett at the celebration, he can explain it way better than me anyway.

"But you're absolutely sure that we're safe here?"

"Yes, 100%."

"Fine then. I'll move the RV," Troy said. He went outside and blocked the path to the door while I closed all the curtains and then we both watched the monsters through a window as they came closer. When they had almost reached us Barklay suddenly started to bark and Lucky to meow.

"Down boy," Michael said and petted the dog, which thankfully made him stop barking.

Soon we could hear the countless groans from the monsters that were passing the house. It gave me goose bumps all over my body, the bad kind.

"Come on you guys, let's play a game together," Michael said. "It'll take your mind off the stinkers."

"No, we have to stay alert in case they attack," I replied and Michael sighed, got up and walked over to the big window that led to the front yard.

"Watch this," he said and opened the curtains. There were a bunch of monsters walking by just inches away from the glass. Suddenly he started to bang against the window with his fists. "Hey stinkers, there are four juicy humans in here, come and get us!" he yelled really loudly. I was so horrified I couldn't even move, but after a few seconds I realized that the monsters were completely ignoring him, like they couldn't see or hear him. "They're like hypnotized or something, so please just relax already, ok?"

"Ok. We'll try. Sorry," I replied.

"What do you want to play DJ?" Michael asked.

"You decide!" Dylan answered.

"How about Scrabble?"

"Mm-hmm."

The four of us sat down at the table and Michael set up the game. The boys wanted to play as a team, so Troy and I did too. In the beginning I had a hard time concentrating, because I was still terrified, but after a while I slowly started to relax a little. Troy was really good at Scrabble, which didn't surprise me, but at one point he formed an incredibly obscene word and then winked at me.

"That's disgusting Troy," I said, trying to sound indignant, which made him laugh.

"Come on, they won't even know what it means and it'll score us enough points to win," he replied.

"I'm not even sure if I know what it means," I said and then leaned over to Troy's ear. "And I think we should let them win, ok?" I whispered.

"Fine," Troy sighed.

We did everything we could to lose, but I got the feeling that they were trying the same thing, because when they won by two points Dylan seemed really disappointed.

Next we played Pictionary and this time we decided to give our best, so we would beat the boys. It turned out to be impossible though, because they each guessed everything the other one was drawing like they could read each other's minds. Troy and I, however, struggled pretty badly and barely got any points.

"Rocket, tower, barrel, road…" Troy said, trying to guess what I was drawing, but then the time ran out.

"It's pasta Troy!" I said, slightly annoyed.

"Jesus Christ!" Troy replied, laughing. "How on earth is that supposed to be pasta?"

"Well, that's obviously one piece of spaghetti."

He laughed harder.

"Under a microscope maybe."

"I just didn't want you to confuse it with hair, that's all."

"Yeah, good job Cody, really."

"You're a jerk."

"Aren't you good at anything? I want you to win too," Dylan said sadly.

"How about Pandemic? You play it cooperatively, so we could all win," Troy replied.

"Oh? Mikey, you wanna?" Dylan asked.

"Sure," Michael answered.

Playing Pandemic was a great idea. The four of us had a lot of fun and Dylan was finally happy, because no one had to lose anymore.

When he had successfully saved the world I suddenly realized that the groaning had stopped. I looked outside and sure enough the monsters were gone, so we opened all the curtains and then decided to have the rest of the casserole for lunch. Michael insisted that we had to eat it cold and he was right, it tasted even better that way.

After we were finished the boys fed Lucky and then we continued to work together on Dylan's LEGO city, which was already filling up half the living room.

"How long have you two been married?" Dylan asked.

"We're not married," I answered.

"Oh? But you're wearing rings."

"Yeah, Troy did propose to me, but we haven't met anyone who could marry us since."

"I could marry you. I'll marry you right now, 'k?" Dylan said excitedly.

"Thanks, that's really sweet of you, but you're not a priest or a judge, so it wouldn't count."

"I could be a priest or a judge. Mikey told me I can be whatever I want, even the President, because there are no more laws or rules that say I can't be."

"That's kind of true."

"Mm-hmm. So I'm a priest now. Want me to marry you?"

"How about it Troy?"

"Heck yeah!" he answered.

"But wait," I said. "Could we do it later, at sunset maybe? I'd like to have some time to think about my vows."

"Mm-hmm, no problem," Dylan replied.

"And could you please tell us how to get the Magic Marker off? I just can't take him seriously looking like this."

"There's bleach under the sink in the kitchen. If you add some water it should do the trick," Michael said.

"Thank you. Come on Troy."

I watered down some bleach and then I helped Troy clean his face.

"You know," he said while I was working on him. "If the freaks are really gone now we could go to LA tomorrow and do some serious looting."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Electronics for example. I mean, we don't have to worry about making noise anymore, so we can use the generator. But other stuff too, like clothes and whatever else we find."

"Sure. And they probably have a pump at the camp. We could borrow it and also get lots of gasoline."

"Yeah, good idea."

"By the way, I've been thinking. How about you ask some people at the celebration if they want to form a baseball team, so you could play once a week or something?"

"That's right. Why haven't I thought of that? That would be awesome."

"I bet the boys would like to play too."

"Of course, the more the merrier."

When Troy finally looked normal again we both tried to write our vows. Troy was finished twenty minutes or so later, but I had a much harder time and struggled for over two hours before I was satisfied. Afterwards I went over to the living room and was immediately assigned a house to assemble by Dylan.

"Hey boys, I thought of something," I said. "What about your plants? Do you think they were destroyed by the monsters?"

"No, there weren't any stinkers supposed to pass through that area, but we built a fence around it just in case," Michael replied.

"You've built a fence? By yourselves?" I asked, surprised.

"No, we had some help."

"Oh, ok… Why didn't you ask us to help?"

"We did it weeks ago."

"You've known about what would happen today for that long?"

"Of course. It took months of preparation and that was only the beginning, they're planning to get rid of the stinkers everywhere."

"That's really unbelievable," Troy said, astonished. "I mean, I felt like just surviving was such an accomplishment, but then you made us look like fools and now you're telling me that those guys came up with a way to basically save the world while we barely managed to stay alive?"

"Don't feel bad, I'm sure if you had met each other sooner things would've been different," Michael replied, "because if you have no one to keep you company or to watch your back you're totally screwed. I know I wouldn't have survived without DJ and those guys couldn't save anything on their own either."

"I guess, but still."

"Hey boys, do you want to come to LA with us tomorrow, to loot some stores?" I said.

"Tomorrow's the celebration," Michael answered.

"We'll be back long before that."

"No thanks. What do you want to get anyway?"

"A TV, some movies, clothes and whatever else we can find."

"You can get all of that at the camp. They have everything and it's much safer, because there could still be some stinkers trapped in a store or something."

"I don't know, I feel like we're taking advantage of them as it is and we don't really have anything we could give them in return."

"Just tell them it's for DJ and me. They owe us, big time. Besides, they have more than enough to spare, trust me."

"What do you think?" I asked Troy.

"Hey, if they wanna give us free stuff who are we not to take it?" he replied.

"I guess. But Michael, could you maybe call them and ask if it's ok? Just to be on the safe side," I said.

"Sure, no problem," Michael answered and pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Wyett? Are you there?"

"Yes, hello. Are you alright?" Wyett said.

"We're great. What about you?"

"Everything is going as planned, thanks for asking."

"The guys wanted to go to LA for some stuff, like a TV and clothes, so I told them that you could hook them up, but they're too embarrassed to ask for anything."

"Tell them not to be silly and to come over right away."

"Ok. Thanks Wyett. Bye."

"Bye."

"You heard him," Michael said. "Try to get the biggest TV they have."

"We will. Let's go," Troy replied

"We have to pick some flowers for Ashley on the way," I said.

"Sure."

We headed out and after about an hour I had gathered a giant bouquet of colorful flowers. When we arrived at the camp we were greeted by Wyett.

"Hi there," he said, smiling, and shook our hands.

"Hey," Troy replied. "You sound cheerful. Did someone just change your colostomy bag?"

"You want one? A bag filled with crap, that's like a sex toy for you, right?" Wyett answered and they both laughed.

"That's disgusting, and offensive," I said indignantly.

"Calm down little gay, I was just joking around."

"Yeah, and he barely knows what he's saying anyway, cause of the dementia," Troy said.

"He's right," Wyett said, chuckling.

"Fine. Where's Ashley?" I replied.

"I don't know. Probably out helping someone. Why?"

"I picked some flowers for her."

"Of course you did. I'll make sure she gets them. Now let's set you up. Come with me."

We followed him to one of the houses and went down to the basement through a side entrance. It was filled with all kinds of electronics.

"Michael said you need a TV, is that right?" Wyett asked.

"Yes, if you can spare one," I answered.

"Sure we can and I have just the thing for you. Eighty inches, Ultra-HD, whatever that means, and it has 3D. The boys will love it."

"Do you have movies too?"

"A couple," he said, grinning. "They're over at my house. Is there anything else you need from here? Except for a Blu-ray player of course."

"No, thank you."

"Alright, let's go then."

Troy and Wyett carried the giant TV over to the RV and I brought the player. I gave Wyett the flowers for Ashley and then we went straight to his house, where he immediately put them in water.

"Can I offer you something to drink?" he asked us while we were standing in the kitchen.

"Yeah, that would be great," Troy answered.

"I know you like beer, but what about you little gay? Maybe something fruity?" Wyett said and laughed. "Sorry, that wasn't even intentional," he added.

"Water will be fine," I replied, slightly annoyed, and glared at him.

"Come on now little gay, I'm not trying to be a jerk, I actually like you a lot. Can't we be friends?"

"Not as long as you call me little gay."

"What do you want me to call you instead?"

"Cody!"

"Cody it is then. Now as my daughter would say, let's hug it out, bitch."

Before I could protest Wyett was hugging me. His cologne smelled pretty nice actually, which led me to believe that Ashley had picked it for him.

"You like me already or do I have to squeeze harder?" he asked and I wanted to giggle, but suppressed it.

"Yes, I like you," I answered, pretending to still be annoyed, and he let go of me.

"Excellent. That's settled then… You want one too gay boy?"

"No thanks, I don't want my clothes to reek like old man all day," Troy replied, they both laughed and then Wyett got us our drinks. A beer for Troy and something red for me.

"What's this?" I asked, frowning.

"Just try it," Wyett said, so I did. It was some kind of fruit punch and it tasted incredible. "Good, right?" he asked.

"It's fine," I answered as indifferently as I could.

"You can have water instead if you want."

"No, that's ok," I quickly replied and held the glass closer to my body, which made Wyett laugh.

"Let's find you some movies."

We followed him down to the basement where there were hundreds, probably even thousands of books, CD's, DVD's and Blu-ray's neatly lined up on shelves. First we looked for 3D kids' movies with animals in them for Dylan, then we tried to find something for ourselves.

"Hell yeah, they have all the Marvel movies. We're gonna binge-watch the shit out of them," Troy said excitedly.

"How many can we take?" I asked Wyett.

"As many as you want, but we'd appreciate it if you'd bring them back," he answered.

"Oh, yeah, of course."

After about twenty minutes we had had more than enough movies, so we went back upstairs.

"What else do you need?" Wyett asked.

"New clothes would be nice," I answered.

"Hey, do you have tuxedos by any chance?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," I said.

"I think we have a couple of suits. Why, what do you need them for?" Wyett replied and Troy leaned down to my ear.

"Can I invite him to our wedding?" he whispered and I nodded. "We're getting married. Tonight actually. Would you and Ashley like to come?" he said.

"Of course. We'd be honored," Wyett answered.

"Great. We're doing it at sunset, so be there around 4:30, alright?"

"Who's gonna marry you?"

"Dylan. He said that he can be whatever he wants, cause there are no more laws, and decided to be a priest, so he can marry us."

"That's adorable, but I just had an idea. Why don't you do it tomorrow, at the celebration?"

"No, I wouldn't feel right about that. I mean, I'm sure all the people here are very open and accepting towards gay people, but making them watch two guys get married, that would be pushing it, I think."

"Don't be silly, it's just one more reason to celebrate, so it's perfect. But I tell you what. I'll ask around at dinner and then I'll call you afterwards. If even one person here doesn't like the idea we'll blow it off, alright?"

"I don't know."

"We'll think about it, ok?" I said.

"Sure thing. Now let's find you something to wear," Wyett replied.

We finished our drinks and then went over to another house where they stored countless clothes. After showing us around Wyett looked for the suits and ten minutes later he had found a few in different sizes.

"Ties should be in that box over there. Take whatever you need and then meet me at my place, alright?"

"Ok, thanks," I replied and he left, so we both picked a suit that we thought would fit.

"Turn around," Troy suddenly said. "And no peeking."

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously. "I mean, why?"

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, right? So we shouldn't see each other in these yet either, just to be on the safe side, you know?"

"That kind of makes sense… Ok, fine," I replied. I turned my back to him and we both tried on the suits.

"Mine fits," I said.

"Mine too."

We took them off and started to look through the other clothes. When we had everything we needed we brought it to the RV and then went over to Wyett's house. He let us in and we sat down in the kitchen together.

"Are you all set now or is there anything else I can help you with?" Wyett asked.

"Do you have a pump? We want to get some gasoline at a gas station," I answered.

"What do you need it for?"

"The tank by the house, so we can use the generator."

"I have a better idea. I'll just follow you home with one of our gas trucks later and fill up your tank for you."

"No, you've been too generous with us already, so thank you for the offer, but we'll get it ourselves."

"Actually, I insist, because the fuel out there will go bad very soon, if it hasn't already, and it could cost you your generator. Our fuel is stabilized and we have plenty to spare, so I won't take no for an answer."

"Don't you have to vote on stuff like that or something? I mean, how can you just give away your supplies like this? If everyone would do that you'd soon have nothing left for yourselves anymore."

"No, we all own a share of everything, in case someone wants to leave, so I don't have to ask for permission, because I'm only giving away what's mine."

"Oh no, that's even worse. Now I feel awful," I said guiltily.

"You're sweet, but don't worry, I have more than enough and I'm happy to help. And for what it's worth, if it weren't for the boys I'd be much less generous with you."

"Still, I wish we could repay you somehow."

"Just make sure the boys never lack for anything and we'll be square, alright?"

"Of course, thank you so much Wyett… And I'm sorry that I was such a jerk to you."

"It's water under the bridge little… I mean Cody."

"No, it's ok, you can call me little gay if you want. I don't mind anymore."

"You can call me master," Troy said dryly to Wyett.

"Kiss my ass, master. No wait, you'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?" Wyett replied and they both laughed.

"Hey, by the way, the boys mentioned that you owe them, big time. What did they mean by that?" Troy said.

"I told you about the group of bad seeds that joined us a couple of months ago and that in the end I had to shoot two of them and then we banished the rest, right? Well, over the next few weeks they constantly attacked us and tried to burn down our houses. That's why there are still so many traps around the camp. They killed four of our people and several were wounded. It only got worse and worse and we actually started to think about finding a new place to live. But then one day the boys suddenly showed up and handed us a map with very precise directions to a cabin where the guys were staying. We immediately went there and surprised them. They didn't wanna surrender of course, but we had the advantage, so we manage to kill them pretty quickly. Inside the cabin we found two dozen grenades and Molotov cocktails. It looked like they had been preparing to destroy our camp once and for all. A lot of us probably would've died and we would've lost everything if it weren't for boys, so yes, we definitely owe them big time."

"Wow, why didn't you tell us about that yesterday?"

"They were pretty dark times, so I don't really like to talk about it if I don't have to."

"Oh, sure, I get it."

"Before I forget, what should we bring to the celebration tomorrow?" I asked.

"The boys and good vibrations," Wyett answered, grinning.

"No, seriously, we can't come empty handed, and we won't."

"Fine, I guess we could always use more wood."

"Done. What else?"

"Nothing, that's it."

"Ok."

"We should get going then, so we can start collecting wood right away," Troy said.

"You want a trailer?" Wyett asked.

"Yeah, that would be great actually."

"Alright, let's go."

We all went to the RV and drove to their parking lot where they kept at least thirty cars and ten different trucks. After Wyett had hooked up the trailer he followed us back to the house and refilled our gas tank. When he was done we invited him in. Lucky and Barklay greeted us at the door as usual and the boys were playing in the living room, so we walked over to them.

"Hello there. How's it going?" Wyett said and they both greeted him happily.

For the next twenty minutes or so they showed him their toys and the LEGO city. He seemed really impressed and constantly smiled at us. Next he and Troy carried in the TV and then started to unpack it.

"Wow, that's one huge TV," Michael said, amazed.

"So huge," Dylan added.

"It has 3D too," I replied.

"That's awesome. What movies did you get?" Michael said, so I handed him the bag with the movies.

"See for yourself," I answered and they did.

"Oh my gosh, they're all about animals," Dylan said excitedly. "How are we gonna decide what to watch first? It's impossible."

"We'll figure it out," Michael replied, grinning, and ruffled his brother's hair.

Wyett helped us mount the TV and when everything was working properly he left. Troy and I immediately headed out too and started to look for wood.

A couple of hours later we came back with an already half-filled trailer. We both took a quick shower and then I prepared a salad for dinner.

While we were all eating at the table we told the boys about Wyett's suggestion to get married at the celebration. They really liked the idea and right when we were done discussing it Wyett suddenly called on the walkie-talkie as if on cue.

"Hello? Anyone there?" he asked.

"Hi Wyett, what's up?" Michael answered.

"Are the guys with you boys?"

"Yes, they're right here. Why?"

"It's about the wedding. I've asked around and I thought I just let everyone tell you themselves how they feel about it. So here we go," Wyett said.

"Hi, this is Mike. Heck yeah!… Hi, it's Paul. Go for it!... Hello, Beverly here. I would be delighted and honored to be part of your wedding… Hey, it's Keith. I'm on board, 100%... This is Isadore. I think it would be lovely… This is Erica. I agree, lovely… Zarah speaking. I am intrigued…" It went on like that for a while. "Hi, it's Ashley. Well, duh! What a no-brainer! Oh, and thank you for the flowers Cody, they're beautiful."

"There you have it," Wyett finally said. "So, will you do us the honor?"

I looked at Troy and he nodded.

"Yes, we will. Thank you so much," I answered and we could hear them all clapping and cheering through the walkie-talkie. I was really moved and felt more fortunate than ever.

"See you tomorrow. Have a nice evening," Wyett said.

"Thanks, you too. Bye."

"Do you think everyone meant it?" Troy asked.

"I don't know, most of them probably did and the ones who weren't thrilled about it could've objected, but didn't, so it should be fine, right?" I replied.

"I guess."

"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" I asked, slightly worried.

"No, of course not. I was just wondering. Sorry," he said and gave me a kiss, which made me grin.

We finished our meal and then the four of us worked on Dylan's LEGO city for a while. Soon it started to get dark, so Troy lit a couple of candles and I prepared some popcorn. When it was ready the boys made themselves comfortable in the middle of the couch and I cuddled myself against Troy next to them. Dylan, who was on Michael's lap, had picked "Finding Nemo" for us to watch and I thought that it was really great and that the 3D was impressive, but Dylan seemed to enjoy feeding his brother popcorn a lot more than the movie. Even after the bowl was empty he always looked at Michael whenever something funny happened and they laughed together or just smiled at each other. It was very sweet.

About two hours later the movie was over and we were getting tired, so we said goodnight to the boys and went to our room.

"You know," I said when we were lying in bed. "Neither of us has had a bachelor party."

"You want one?" Troy asked.

"No, not at all, I think spending a night without you would be awful. I'm just saying."

"I don't get it either. From what I know the point of a bachelor party is to celebrate your last night of freedom. That's kind of fucked up, don't you think? And it doesn't any make sense. I mean, I can still do whatever I want except that everything is a hundred times more fun cause I have you to share it with. And then there are the strippers. That's just wrong and gross. Also, if you get shitfaced the night before the wedding you'll be hung over on what's supposed to be the happiest day of your life. So the whole thing is just incredibly stupid and backwards if you ask me."

"You're so sweet," I said, smiling.

"I'm not trying to be."

"I know. I love you, so much," I replied and gave him a kiss.

"I love you too."

"Good night."

"Good night."

I decided that it had been too long since the last time I talked to God, so I folded my hands, closed my eyes and started to say a prayer in my head. "Dear God, I'm really sorry I haven't prayed in a while, there was just so much going on that I totally forgot. But I guess you already know that, huh? Then you've probably also seen how incredibly blessed we've been, with the house, the boys, Barklay and now the people at the camp. In case you had something to do with it, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. But I need to ask you for one more thing, if that's ok. Please help Troy cope with whatever left him so terribly scarred. I want nothing more than for him to be as happy as he possibly can be. And if you can only make that happen for one of us, please let it be him. Thanks again and till next time. Amen." I cuddled myself against Troy and fell asleep right away.