At First Sight

Chapter One

Wanderlust. It was an actual thing. A condition of the mind where the person afflicted is filled with an intense desire to travel. If wanderlust existed, it was reasonable to think naturelust did too. Drew had been home less than 48 hours and he was already planning his escape. 

The back of Wes's head corrupted the view of the setting sun while Keaton grew impatient with his brother. Wes stared off into the distance in relative silence, broken only when Keaton's stomach growled. 

"I'm dying," Keaton griped. "Let's go." 

Drew cleared his throat and spoke to Wes. "Just watching you think that hard is giving me a headache." 

Wes spun around, his eyes narrowing. "You think that hard all the time." 

Valid point. Drew was about to say as much when Keaton's voice chimed in again.

"C'mon bro, I'm starving. What do you want for dinner?" 

"Anything. Whatever you want is fine with me," Wes said. 

Drew reached into his pocket to retrieve his keys. "It's astonishing how useless that answer is. Keaton, let's go. You," he said to Wes, "go enjoy your damned view and get the dazed and confused out of your system."

He headed for the door where Keaton was slipping his shoes on. “About time. I’m so hungry.” 

"You're always hungry." 

Drew's SUV was parked on the side of the building. There was no point in parking in the underground garage when he had zero intention of staying any longer than required. Weariness crept through every inch of his body, his shoulders and back sore from all of the heavy lifting. The idea of a hot shower and a long sleep had grounded itself in his brain and aside from his mission to get food; it was all he could think about. 

Once he sat behind the wheel, gravity shifted all his bones and joints into a resting position, which only made them ache more. He brought a hand to the back of his neck and rubbed. "Remind me why your brother didn't hire movers again?" 

"I don't think he thought we had that much stuff," Keaton replied. "Can we get burgers? I haven't had a good burger in a long time.” 

Drew wanted a burger, good or otherwise, about as much as he wanted a kick to the head. The regret for allowing Keaton to choose was immediate. He should have just driven them to one of the local cafes that offered take out trays of fresh, homegrown eats. Hindsight was everything. 

Keaton settled into his own seat, a satisfied smirk on his face. "The new place is so sweet." 

Drew nodded, his eyes fixed on the road. "Yeah, it's pretty nice." 

By all accounts the apartment was awesome: spacious—almost obnoxiously large, with show home quality finishing and jaw dropping views. If a person was into that kind of thing, the place was a palace. 

“You don’t like it,” Keaton accused. 

“I like it fine,” Drew corrected him, “but if it was my dime I’d buy a place somewhere in Costa Rica, Belize, somewhere in South America.”  A beach with rolling waves and a living, breathing backyard won over a cold, concrete jungle any day.  Drew felt like a kid at Christmas. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Sure, he wasn’t exactly hopping a plane to the rainforest, but a campground featuring Mother Nature in all her glory would do the trick for now. 

Their tour had been both exceptional and grueling. The energy night after night was electric and it had him wired and longing for some serious downtime. Keaton and Wes were like his own flesh and blood but he needed time away to reflect on everything.