The two cousins had planned to settle in for a night of playing video games, but first, the boys, 15 and 17, wanted to walk to the nearby gas station for something to eat.

“Probably junk food,” said Genice Hines, the mother of the 15-year-old, with an eye roll and a smile.

It felt like a normal Friday night, until Hines received a call as she left work. Her son and nephew, two close friends, had been shot.

The boys were standing on the sidewalk in the 1300 block of South Independence Boulevard in the West Side’s Lawndale neighborhood when they heard gunfire, police said. They were about a block from the gas station at Roosevelt Road and Independence.

The 15-year-old was grazed in the head, and the 17-year-old was shot in the abdomen. They took themselves to Mount Sinai Hospital where they were both in good condition.