The Long Way Home by Phillip Overton

  Chapter 7

  “You ready to go?” Barry asked as he poked his head inside the bathroom door.

  “Give me a minute.” Doug replied, trying not to cut himself as he ran the razor blade up his neck and under his chin. The last thing he wanted to do was change shirts again. He had spent half an hour picking out a shirt to wear tonight, only to spill coffee down it and have to start the process all over again.

  As his brother had told him so many times already, ‘you’re going out to have a few drinks and meet some chicks, not sell a house.’ It wasn’t as easy as it sounded though. For Barry this was a normal Saturday night. For Doug it was stepping out single again for the first time in eight years, and a lot had changed since 1973. In the end, Doug settled for a pair of black jeans, an open neck, long sleeved lemon coloured business shirt he normally wore to work and told himself he was just going to have a beer and something to eat with his brother. He finished shaving and liberally splashed on the aftershave.

  Barry was waiting in the kitchen for him when he was finally ready. He stood leaning against the sink dressed in blue denim jeans and a black corduroy jacket that he wore over the top of a black t-shirt. His hair was combed back neat with a part in the middle and he wore a new pair of black leather shoes, shined to the tip of their pointed toes. Doug thought Barry oozed with cool compared to his humble dress sense.

  “Let’s go.” Doug said as he grabbed his car keys from the kitchen bench and shoved them in his pocket.

  “Cool, let’s go have some fun huh?”