Shark watched the weather channel with a heartbroken look on his face. He’d been hoping for sunny skies and fresh air all week.
Instead, there was nothing but heavy rain and a flash flood warning.
The brunet was on the verge of tears as he looked down, at the picnic basket that was going to end up not being used.
Next to him, Sinbad didn’t look as upset, but rather frustrated. “Well, that puts a hell of a wrench in our plans.”
“This isn’t the same table we were sitting at last time, right?”
Shark felt the need to ask considering the ‘unpleasantness’ that had transpired last time they were at this particular restaurant.
“No, we got rid of that one. Given what happened, we decided it was best not to use it for its purpose again.”
Sinbad looked over his menu to see if anything looked good tonight. “Made good bonfire fuel, though.”
(WARNING! Mentions of child abuse and drug usage)
I can honestly say I’ve landed myself in worse situations…
Nah. What am I saying? This is probably the best outcome for a guy like me.
I’m still low-ranking at the place I’m working at now. But I’m cool with it. Maybe if I can work a little harder, I’ll get promoted.
There are…reasons I can’t seem to put forth more effort, though. Yeah, there’s the customers who can’t seem to be satisfied no matter what I do, but…
Sinbad balanced himself carefully between the wall and the cheap, crappy bathroom sink.
He was still drying himself off from his well-needed shower. Apparently, one of the customers decided tripping him up while serving someone else was funny.
After thoroughly patting himself down, Sinbad found himself staring in the mirror. He couldn’t properly admire himself, though, because of a knock at the door.
“Hurry up, stupid! I have to brush my hair.”
The redhead ignored Lolly as he began to rummage through his pants pockets. He made sure to wipe his hands dry before taking hold of his phone.
“All right, gotta get a nice position here…” More knocking, this time louder and more aggressive.
“Don’t pretend you can’t hear me!” He now struck a hopefully suggestive pose, then took a picture.
He wrote a short caption, then sent it off.
…
Dennis was busy setting up a theater backdrop when he felt his phone vibrating. He tried to ignore it, in favor of doing his work.
“Probably just the boy asking me to get donuts after work,” he muttered to himself. He continued setting everything up, and then checked his phone after he was done.
When he sat down, Dennis pulled his phone out to read the message. His eyes widened at the contents of what was sent.
Instead of an innocent request from his son like he was expecting, he got an eyeful of a certain naked redhead.
“Oh, my word…” He tried covering his eyes, and went to compose a reply telling Sinbad he got the wrong ‘Mister Racket’.
…
The response Sinbad received wasn’t the one he was hoping for. Instead of a flustered reply from Shark, he got a reply that was in a completely different tone:
“Look who you sent that to Mister Rotter”
Sinbad’s cheeks turned almost as red as his hair when he saw the name Dennis instead of Shark. He typed up an apology, nearly fumbling his phone in the process.
“OH SHIT SORRY BOSS”
“I will send it to him and explain what you were doing”
It was still so embarrassing to accidentally send a nude picture to his former boss and boyfriend’s father. Sinbad didn’t think he could look Dennis in the eye when he got home.
…
Most people thought Shark was weird for wanting to go swimming at night. Truth be told, he just didn’t have enough money to renew his gym membership, and needed to get back into exercising.
He was sitting in the changing room, getting ready to go home, when he got a message from his father. He read it with a confused expression:
“Courtesy of Mister Rotter”
Opening the attachment led to quite a shock. Shark had seen Sinbad naked plenty of times, but normally Dennis didn’t have to get involved with it.
With everything known, he at least appreciated the gesture. The brunet then closed out of the message, and resumed redressing. He’d bring it up with them in person when he got home.
(This is a WordPress only post)
Dennis flipped through the slightly outdated tabloids, scanning for anything remotely interesting. Next to him, his daughter was doing the same, albeit with more enthusiasm.
“Can I get some of these?” Lolly held up a small stack of magazines, when she finished the one she had.
The patriarch looked at the newsstand prices, and his eyes widened in shock.
“Oh hell, child! Buying all those would take up nearly my entire paycheck! Just get one.”
Lolly’s expression darkened. She pulled out the one she wanted the most, then threw the rest back onto the magazine rack. “How long until Ren and Stimpy get back with the cart?”
…
Sinbad was having a hard time figuring out which kind of TV dinner he’d be in the mood for tonight. He knew he was in the mood for something able to be put on bread, and he was getting tired of nothing but pizza and chocolate pudding.
“What’s better for a sandwich, turkey or Salisbury steak?” He looked over his shoulder. “Dude, I asked you a question.”
Turning around, Sinbad realized the brunet was nowhere in sight. He was about to go off in search of him when Shark came back with the cart. Apparently, he’d gone off to the other side of the frozen food section, considering what he’d brought with him.
“Shark, go put the corn dogs back.” Hearing his request caused Shark to grab hold of the box and clutch it to his chest.
“You can’t make me do anything!” Shark then flopped onto his back and began sliding off.
…
Dennis and Lolly were still at the magazine section when Shark passed by them like a human floor buffer.
“Hi, Dad. Hi, Lolly. Sinbad’s got the cart.” The other two Rackets watched with confused expressions as he continued to scooch away. In his arms was a large box of corn dogs.
“Um…” Lolly looked over at her father as if to ask him if this were a normal thing in the family.
Dennis made an amused sound. “Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing I’ve seen happen to a Racket in this place.”
“What would be the weirdest thing?” Now her father took on an expression of unpleasantness.
“Let’s just say your Uncle Bill is the reason they don’t sell Funyuns anymore.”
At that point, Sinbad came by dragging the cart behind him, looking mildly irritated.
“Did Shark go this way?” The other two pointed in the direction Shark had gone. “Thank you.”
…
Shark was still tightly holding the corn dogs when Sinbad found him hiding in the DVD bin.
“Come on, man. Are those corn dogs that important to you? What’s wrong with the freezer pops you usually get?”
The brunet poked his head out of the pile of DVDs. “I want something different than those. And I haven’t had corn dogs in a really long time, so…”
“You wanted ‘em so badly, you dragged yourself across the floor?”
Now Shark dove back into the DVDs and uttered, “Uh-huh.”
The redhead then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, you could’ve just asked me first. But if you want them that badly, okay, I’ll get them for you.”
“Really?” Shark popped back out with a hopeful look on his face.
“Yeah. Now unless you’re gonna rummage around for anything in there we might not have on Netflix, get out of the bin and let’s go pay for our stuff.”
Sinbad glared intently at the shopping list in his hand. He had half of the items listed crossed off already. Behind him, Shark was looking unusually interested in the flavored condoms.
“Hey, Sinbad! They have bacon flavored!” Hearing that got him to look up incredulously.
“You gotta be shittin’ me.” Shark shook his head, and held up a package showing the flavorful contraceptives. “…You are not shittin’ me.”
The brunet gave him a hopeful look. “Wanna get a package?”
“When was the last time we got to just sit here and look at the sunset?”
“Too fucking long.”
Shark and Sinbad took the opportunity today to go watch the sun setting over the horizon. Dennis offered to go with them, but they insisted they needed their alone time.
“Isn’t that pretty?” Shark stared in awe at the fiery ball of death that was disappearing over the horizon. The orange and yellow hues that resulted were indeed a sight to behold.
Sinbad shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.” They then quietly watched, as the beach sand seemed to become a bit cooler.
He then began squinting towards something on the lake, much to Shark’s confusion.
“Hey dude, do your grandparents own a kayak?”
“I think so, why?”
Being in the house brought little relief from the scorcher that was outside.
If anything, it just meant a place to lay down on the floor. The alternative was going outside and risk spontaneous combustion.
Laying on the floor was exactly what Shark and Sinbad were doing right now.
