#brolationship

It all started with a tradition

Every week, without fail, since seventh grade Nathaniel and Doug have been coming to the same smoothie bar down the street.

Always the same routine; sit down at the counter, wait for the other to come back from whatever club activity kept them, order a smoothie, and dive into fandoms, school, the latest middle school drama, and in general just hang out.

They were there since during the cafe's early days, so the owner, a nice middle aged dude who just had his first kid (congrats!), and them are friends thanks to their long time patronage

And so, one day in freshman year of highschool, Nathaniel was complaining to Doug about how he doesn't have any money and that his mom had really been getting up in his business about college now that he's in highschool.

The owner overhears and tells Nathaniel that he's been thinking about hiring a new employee since his last one quit on him and says he could go for a trial run. Nathaniel of course jumps on the opportunity. How could he pass up the chance to work at one of his favorite place to be?

It was a disaster. Pineapple chunks spewed everywhere, strawberries mashed in the sink, mangoes tossed into the fan, and in the middle of it all was Nathaniel, on his phone, furiously questioning Google.

As it turns out, Nathaniel was terrible in the kitchen. Well, more like he's scared of everything in the kitchen. Ovens, knives, and, you guessed it, blenders. (A past trauma from one of his older, more rambunctious cousins.) The only kitchen appliance/tool Nathaniel wasn't scared of is a microwave and that's not very helpful in a smoothie bar.

As much as the owner would like to hire Nathan, the owner really doesn't want or have the money to hire someone who can only do cashier work.

The owner helps him clean up his mess and in his gentle tone, albeit with more then a hint of exhaustion, to maybe find a job as a cashier at a McDonald's instead.

Giving the newly fired Nathaniel a pity smoothie, the owner waves to the embarrassed Nathaniel goodbye. The man himself was too busy dreading his mother's response after he had bragged about the job to wave back.

Thinking that maybe he should run away to Hawaii, he walks by Doug's house. Wait.

Backtracking in an almost comedic fashion, Nathan finds himself just standing there in front of the house as he argued with his inner voices.

On one hand, if he goes in he'll have to tell his best friend that he's afraid of blenders. On the other, if he goes home then he'll have to tell his mom that he got fired on his first day. In the end Nathan chose the short term option.

Smiling as the door opened, his smile twitched when Doug's jaw dropped.

"Heyy Doug! Um, do you mind if I crash here for a bit until I figure out how to tell my mom about-"

"Holy shit dude what happened."

"I'm getting to that."

The Happiest of Christmases from @drsallysparrow and @olivieblake!

As a gift to the world/ourselves, we have prepared an audio recording/podfic of Epistles, as read by us. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be read an indulgently funny series of letters by both a seductive, alluring British siren and a squeaky, indignant Disney character, and we desperately hope that you enjoy.