"King to F4. You keeping up?" Mark teased. He refused to be the first person to as a passing server for a pen and paper to start drawing out a board to keep track of. It would come to that eventually --it always did-- but not succumbing was just as much part of the game as the ultimate checkmate was. "And do not call your brother 'boy', Johnny. You know better than that and you don't have any reason to talk like that, do you? No. Malcolm hasn't done anything to you." Recently.
One of these days he was going to figure out a way to make Johnny understand that he was a smart kid and should present himself as such. Not as a backwoods hick who called Black men 'boy'. It was as if he felt the need to thrust one hundred years of missed parenting chances into every encounter they had. As a full on parental rant geared up in his mind, Mark had to once again stop himself from taking Johnny's beloved alcohol from him.
"The first thing you do as a best man is be nice to your brother-- he's going to be a groomsman. So is Thomas." Mark took the last gulp of his beer. "It's easy-- you keep the rings safe until the wedding, sign the papers as a legal witness, give a toast, and... plan a bachelor party. If you're up to that." He paused and gave a little laugh. "If you're asking me what a Best Man does, I'm guessing you and Evan haven't discussed it."