The City of Rossford

[ChrisGibson]

THE CITY OF ROSSFORD

“And then what happened?” Casey demanded.
His face was white and his hands were still clutching his stomach.
Sheridan automatically told the lie he had been given.
“And then when I went back for him he was gone.”
“There was only a trail of blood,” Logan threw in, and Sheridan wanted to look at him, ask him why he had to say that. But he didn’t.
“Oh, my God,” Casey murmured, putting his hands to his mouth.
“I never planned that, Loge. You know that.”
“And that really would have mattered if he’d died,” Sheridan muttered.
“Sheridan,” Logan muttered.
“No,” Casey said. “Sheridan’s right.”
“But you saved him,” Chay said to Sheridan.
“I came in at the right time and the right place.”
Casey got up and, still noticeably hurt, walked around the room, his hands massaging his head.
“Okay,” he began. “This is what we’ll do. We… How about you take off for a while and not come back until you’re ready,” he told Logan. “You don’t even have to worry about money.”
“I’m not worried about money,” Logan said in a small voice. He hated the idea that anyone would think of him as poor. And he had just taken home seven hundred dollars.
“Right,” Casey said, sounding distracted. “And then we’ll-”
“What we will do,” Ron interrupted, and they all looked at him, “is what I say.”
Casey looked at him.
“Clearly, you’re out of control over your business,” Ron said. “And, I want to see what Chay does. What you call work. Get up,” he said to his nephew, “and show me this website.”

Ron had pulled a folding chair up to the desk where, in the wheeled office chair, Chay usually wrote the articles for the site. There was a graphic picture of Logan hardfucking Burt Newcastle, whose mouth was open in a mixture of pain and pleasure, his hand reaching behind him to pull Logan in. Ron raised an eyebrow while Chay went red.
His uncle read:
“Burt Newcastle is back, and he’s been in the business for a while. This week we have one of my favorite pairings, a hard body with a bubble butt, and Logan with his sinewy arms and huge cock. I really got hard just anticipating this scene, and I know you will too.”
Ron stopped, looking at Chay.
Ron resumed:
“I love younger-older pairings. I love the way that Logan just really gives it to Burt with all the gusto of a young kid and, of course, Burt’s a long time powerbottom who really knows how to discipline this boy’s young cock.”
Ron finished reading, turned to his nephew and said, “You wrote this?”
“Yessir,” Chay said, quickly.
Ron looked at Casey.
“This is the work you had for my nephew that kept him from harm? This is the watching after you did for my nephew?”
“Well, you have to understand—” Casey began.
“Understand this,” Ron said, turning to Chay. “You’re done. This is finished.”
“You can’t do—” Chay started.
Whatever Chay was realizing, Casey was realizing something too, and he said, “Your uncle’s right. You can’t do this anymore.”
“What will I…? I need to work.”
“Nonsense, you’re fifteen.”
“But what will I do?”
Ron looked at his nephew and said, “You might try reading a book.”
Ron turned around and said to Casey, “I won’t always be here, and I can’t keep you from doing what you and my nephew are doing. And, it’s already done. I can’t undo it though I would if I could. But I’m serious when I say he is no longer under your employ. He can’t be living here. Noah doesn’t know how to say that, and James stays out of the way. But I know how to say everything on my mind, and I don’t care about being in the way. You understand?”
“Yes,” Casey said.
“Well, good.”
“Uh…” Logan began, “About what you said. About me not going back to work until I felt like it?”
Casey turned to him.
“I wanna go back right away.” He turned to Sheridan. “If you don’t mind.”
Sheridan didn’t say anything.
“I’m just going to be afraid if I don’t,” Logan explained. “And that’s the whole reason I went into this. I didn’t want to be afraid.”
“Are you sure?” Casey began, but he knew Logan was. Years ago, when he had been attacked by an overzealous fan, the first thing he had done was blog about it, and the second was to make another film. So he simply accepted it when Logan nodded.
“But about the escorting—” Casey began.
“About the escorting,” Ron echoed, and they all looked at him.
“I almost forgot,” he said.
“I’m going to be supervising that now.”

The phone rang and Fenn picked up quickly, thinking it was Caroline or Brendan, though Brendan shouldn’t have called. It would have just made more sense to come upstairs.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Fenn.”
“Daniel,” Fenn said. “Well, what’s up?”
“I don’t know,” Dan Malloy said. “I thought about coming over.”
Fenn looked up at the clock.
“But I thought I’d just call. And… I don’t know.”
“You sound strange,” Fenn said.
The truth was Fenn wasn’t so much solicitous as he was eager to get off the phone. He was tired now. It had been a long day and yet there were still things to be done.
“Yes,” Dan said, still sounding dreamy and slightly confused. “Well… I don’t know.”
“Dan,” Fenn said, tiredly, “you’re the priest, and I’m the parishioner. You’re supposed to be the one helping me, and I don’t seem like very much help to you. I don’t know why you’re calling or what’s going on. And, quite frankly, it’s been a very frazzling day.”
Dan did not ask about his frazzling day. He just said, “You’ve got a point.”
He just said, “I’m going to get off the phone now.”
Part of Fenn thought he should pursue it, find out how he could help. The other part thought he’d been stretched far enough already, and anyway, Dan had been in a strange mood a while now.
“Alright,” he said, feeling like he had to let Dan go right now. “I’m going to get off the phone. And you have a good night. Don’t do anything foolish or life threatening, alright?”
Dan gave a funny, slightly lazy laugh, and then he said, “Alright. I won’t.”
When Fenn hung the phone up, he thought, After we’re finished with what we’ve got to do, then we might have to drive past the rectory.
After talking to Dan, Fenn called Caroline.
“Hello, Uncle Fenn,” she said merrily.
“I’ve never been called that before. It’s not Layla’s style.”
“I’m on my way,” Caroline told. “Brendan is with me. Are you ready?”
“Very.”
“And is Todd coming?”
“Todd is out of town working on a film. Tom and Lee are on Dylan watch.”
“Well,” Caroline said, “Hopefully, before this night is over, we won’t need a Dylan watch anymore.”

TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE A DOUBLE PORTION AND THE SECOND PORTION WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF

THE OLD

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion. I am glad Ron is going to oversee Casey’s business. I wonder how Caroline can ensure Dylan doesn’t need to be watched anymore? I am very interested to find out the answer to that question! Things are really coming together for a strong finish to this story. Top notch writing! I look forward to the next portion and the start of The Old! I hope you’re having a good night!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I am having a wonderful night even as I wish the President's impeachment actually meant something and know he'll get away with shit again. (Um, that wasn't about the story.) You cannot imagine how excited it makes me that you are excited by this story and thrilled about the wrapping up of things. And yes, I love Ron, because Ron is one of those characters who has no qualms about stepping in and cleaning up messes.

 

[ChrisGibson]

FEATURE ONE OF OUR DOUBLE FEATURE

THE CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER ELEVEN OF THE CITY OF ROSSFORD

Keith built a fire that night, which he hardly ever did. In seminary they believed that busy hands and busy bodies kept the mind for God. They ran all the time, played sports all the time, chopped wood. Now he was sure it had all been to keep people front wanting sex. It never worked. At least it hadn’t worked for him.
It worked today because Keith didn’t want to think about last night or this morning. It worked because he didn’t want to think of how Dan had looked at him, or parted from him. He had thought, before, that he didn’t want to think about sex. But this is what it was like to really not want to think of it, to really want to stay away from a subject. He didn’t want to think about how he had felt last night, or what he had ruined. He wanted to chop wood and chop wood and keep on chopping.
He had finally put up a roaring fire. He’d gone through the mail. A new priest would be arriving. That was good. Actually everything was good. The truth was Keith had been good and faithful for nearly eight years, until he’d come back here. He had been dodging what he felt right now, which was shame. Attached to the shame was an anger and a disappointment that he couldn’t change, that he fell into the same holes over and over. Well, maybe this was the last straw. Maybe this was what would turn him around so that finally, his heart could belong wholly to God.
When the knock at the door came, he answered it almost dumbly, expecting nothing.
It was snowing out there. A little snow clung to the cold in his friend’s hair. Dan’s mild wide eyes were a washed out blue.
“Can I come in?” Dan asked him.
Keith nodded, and shut the door behind him.

“I knew what I was when I was nineteen,” Dan said.
Before the fire Dan sat all in black, his hands clutching his knees. There was something about the black of a priest that looked poor and sexless Keith observed. It looked weak and frail too. But on Dan it looked sweet. Dan was in his late forties now but his hair, so often ashen, looked golden in this light. He didn’t look like an old or aging man at all.
“I knew, for sure, that I was gay. And that was when I met Fenn. And what we had was so tender. It was so beautiful. I was never afraid or ashamed of it. And then, years later, for a short time, we had it again. And that was that. And since then I haven’t broken my vows. I never felt conflicted about breaking them with Fenn. Never. I remember, to this day, I remember Tom and him had ended and I came to the house and it was summer and he was, I thought, in need of love, and I wanted to love him. And I did. I had been ordained but it didn’t matter, not to me. And it was so good. That’s my memory of lovemaking.
“But us,” Dan looked at Keith.
“I don’t even know what that was.
“But I do,” he said, after a moment. “It was… lust. It was me, after a long time just really, really wanting to be with another man.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Keith asked him.
“Yes,” Dan said, his hands shaking. “Yes it is. Because it’s what you do. You were supposed to be my friend, Keith. I’ve always tried to understand what you do, why you do it, but I never approved.”
“And now you’re just as bad as me,” Keith said, smiling sharply. “Is that it, Danny? You’re a weak man just like me?”
Dan looked at him for a long time, as if considering this, then he said: “No. no, that’s not it. It’s that somewhere I always thought…” he stopped, unable to go on at first.
“Somewhere I always thought you loved me,” Dan admitted at last. “That one day I would make love again, maybe to you. And we spent last night together, and I don’t know what it was. I don’t know what I am to you. And here I am, and I’m here to do it again. And that scares me. You… used those guys in the movies you were with. You used that seven hundred dollars guy. And then me—”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” Dan said.
“I know how I always felt about you. I know I wanted what we did. But I also know… I don’t know,” Dan shook his head.
“And like I said,” he continued, “I still want us to keep doing what we did.”
“You’re here to go to bed with me,” Keith said.
“Yes.”
“I told you I came back for you,” Keith told him. “I came to you after all of the stupidness. I didn’t go to… Casey. Or anyone else. I didn’t go to Bryant and God knows the way he is he would have slept with me.”
“How is he?” Dan said.
“Nevermind. The point is… I came to you. I thought you understood that, Dan.”
Dan was quiet for a while, and then he reached out to Keith. Looking at him from the corner of his eye, he said, “Well then, come to me again.”
Keith cleared his throat, and reaching out to catch Dan’s hand, he said: “Alright.”


“Are you sure you want to make another movie right away?” Sheridan was saying.
They were in the large farmhouse kitchen at Casey’s house. Casey was still in the lobby talking to, or rather being talked to, by Ron Lewis.
“Well, I thought I wouldn’t want to make one again at all for a bit, and maybe I won’t,” Logan said. “But after today, I think yes. I think I have to.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Sheridan nodded.
“That hot guy today, that Brendan—”
“You think Brendan is hot?” Chay interrupted. Then, “Well, I guess he is, but I don’t think about it.”
“What is it about him?” Logan asked Sheridan. “He said you didn’t talk to him. You didn’t come to him? He’s gay and he cares about you. Why couldn’t you talk to him about yourself?”
When Sheridan didn’t say anything, Chay said, “I think I know why.”
Sheridan turned and looked at him.
Chay said, “A long time ago Sheridan walked in on Brendan and his boyfriend doing it.”
“It was the first time I saw two guys together,” Sheridan continued for Chay. “It was the first time I understood what it was. It used to turn me on. I used to go after them and watch. When I knew it was going to happen.
“You can’t ever tell,” he added, unnecessarily.

There was a polite knock on her apartment door, and this surprised her because only the landlord would knock. She had no friends. Getting up, she caught her hair in a ponytail, and debated not answering. Then she crossed the carpet and looked out of the narrow window by the side of the door. This told her nothing. There was no eyehole. She sighed as they knocked on the door again.
When she opened it there stood a blond young man in a car coat, a Black woman about thirty with springy hair, and between them a Black man in glasses who was in his late forties. She knew this because she knew him. She remembered him, and it jarred her.
Fenn Houghton walked into her apartment followed by Brendan and Caroline.
“Eileen Wehlan,” he said, “we need to talk.”

OUR NEXT FEATURE WILL BE HE BEGINNING OF THE OLD

WHEN WE RETURN TO ROSSFORD IN TWO NIGHTS, WE WILL BEGIN THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE CITY OF ROSSFORD

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great conclusion to the chapter! I can't help rooting for Dan and Keith even if what they are doing is the wrong thing for a priest to do. I hope this talk Sheridan had with Logan and Chay is a sign of good things to come. I don't know if there is going to be a happy ending for them now that Sheridan is a murderer but I can hope. I am very curious what is going to happy with Eileen. Great writing and I look forward to starting the last chapter in a few days! I hope you are having a great night!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I sort of love that Sheridan is a murderer. It gives him color and something to put on his resume. I am rooting for Dan and Keith because now they're finally being honest, and we can see how that business turns out in the final chapter. They will clearly be spending this and many other nights together! Eileen, Eileen, what the fuck are we gonna do with Eileen. All (or some) will be revealed come Saturday night/Sunday morning. Thank you for your kind felicitations and I hope you have a great evening ahead.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TWELVE



Y A R N



MEREDITH AFFREN WOKE UP in her clothes, which she hated, under the comforter. Mathan was snoring fitfully beside her and he grunted and woke up when she pushed herself up on the futon. Beyond the living room she could hear Milo and Dena.
“It’s morning,” Meredith discovered. She yawned, turning her mouth, and what she supposed was her bad breath, away from her boyfriend.
“It happens at the end of every night,” he said. He got up and shaking his legs out, headed for the bathroom.
She hoped he hurried up. Meredith was a little resentful of the fact that he had just gotten up and gone when she could feel the pinch in her bladder and had been up longer, if only a minute and a half longer. She looked around the room. For the first time in a long time there was sun and the illusion of spring. Gold orange painted the walls which were bare except for a few photos, one of her grandmother and grandfather when they were young, the wedding photo of Milo and Dena, one of Meredith. There was a crucifix, bare and dark brown against the off white wall.
“Meredith, are you up?” Dena was calling.
Her sister came down the hall, still in a housecoat, her hair falling over her shoulders.
“Honey, your head looks like a rat’s nest,” Dena declared.
“You’re one to talk.”
Dena reached into her head, frowned, and admitted, “You’ve got a point.”
The toilet flushed.
“Oh, thank God,” Meredith said.
“Call Mom and Bill,” Dena told her.
Meredith nodded. “When I get out,” she told Dena.
Mathan was coming down the hall, and Meredith said, “It wasn’t a gallant thing to do at all, making me wait for you to get out of the bathroom.”
“Now, I didn’t really know you needed to go, did I?”
Meredith made a face and went in.
On the other side of the door, Dena was saying, “Are you all still going?”
“We’re still going, and we’re still going as soon as I brush my teeth and pull a comb through my hair.”
“You don’t want to shower first?” Mathan said, yawning.
“Look,” Meredith said, turning on the water faucet so that no one could hear her pee, “if I think about it, I’m not going to want to do it.”
“She’s got a point,” Dena murmured to Mathan.
Despite the water faucet, they heard the toilet flush, and then Meredith opened the door and they saw her reaching for the toothbrush, putting toothpaste on it, pushing her hair out of her face.
“Should we call Chay and Sheridan?”
“What for?” Meredith said to Mathan, sticking the toothbrush in her mouth.
“To let them know we won’t be around today.”
Meredith, mouth full of toothpaste, shook her head and brushed vigorously.
She shut the door a little as she spat.
“No,” she said, coming up from the sink. “They don’t tell us anything anymore and, besides, they’ve got their own drama going on, I’m sure.”


“YOU’RE NOT SAYING MUCH of anything,” Sheridan told him as they pulled into the school parking lot.
Chay said, “I don’t know. There isn’t that much to say, you know?”
Because Sheridan did know, he said nothing. They stopped the car, and just sat in it. They were in the very end of the parking lot, right off of the football practice field. The stadium was in the distance. Closer to the school, other cars were stopping, and kids were getting out, boyfriends were letting their girlfriends out, packs of guys were climbing out of a van. Rich kids were coming out of their own cars that were more expensive than what the teachers drove.
“I’m not mad at you,” Chay said. “If that’s what you wondered. I just don’t know what to say. Everything’s so different.”
“Yeah,” Sheridan said.
“It doesn’t really seem like we’re still in the school year. I mean, it feel like it should be summer. Not almost March. It just seems like too much has happened.”
“I’m tired,” Sheridan said.
“A vacation. Christmas wasn’t that along ago, and now I need a vacation,” Chay was saying. “But, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough vacation, or there’s far enough to travel. Everything’s so crazy. Everything has been so crazy. And then when I think of Logan…”
Sheridan didn’t say anything.
“Is it true? About you and Logan?”
Sheridan looked at him.
“Huh?”
“That you and him are together?”
“Yeah,” Sheridan blinked.
“Um,” Chay said. And then, “How come him and not me?”
Sheridan didn’t say anything, and so Chay said, “It really doesn’t make any sense, you know? All of these years, and then… Him and not me.”
Because this deserved an answer, Sheridan gave one.
“You were with Casey. And you weren’t talking to me. And Logan and I just happened.”
“Well, none of it makes any sense,” Chay observed. Both of them were looking ahead, watching students walk into the back entrance of the school. Cassidy Lahler came out of the back door pushing her black dyed hair back as she lit a cigarette and Destiny came to join her. “For me to be with Casey. You to be with Logan. We should have been together.”
Neither one of them said anything for a while, and then Chay did speak again.
“I guess that’s all I’m saying,” he said.
There really was no other reason to sit in the car, so Chay turned to Sheridan, who didn’t seem to want to move. Sheridan said, at last:
“That guy… the one who attacked Logan, yesterday.”
“Yeah… you saved Logan.”
Sheridan nodded.
“The guy didn’t escape,” Sheridan told Chay. “I killed him.”

Meredith Affren chuckled after they parked. Mathan’s driving had become a little slower the closer they came to the large structure.
“It’s just not a place anybody wants to go,” he said.
After they had passed through the security booth, Meredith said, “It’s not a jail, exactly.”
“Well, it’s not exactly not a jail, either.”
It was long and grey, grim and ugly. Punishing. They parked as near to it as possible so that when leaving they could get away as quickly from it as possible.
“So this is juvy,” Meredith sighed. “And I thought he was lucky.”
“It’s better than prison,” Mathan told her, undoing his seat belt and pocketing his keys.
“Well, that’s what they say,” Meredith shrugged.

Once inside, they waited and Meredith commented: “It’s just like jail on TV.” She shuddered. “I don’t ever want to come here.”
Mathan smiled grimly. “Don’t worry. You’re not far from eighteen, and if you play your cards right, you won’t commit a real crime for a long time. Then you’ll go to prison instead.”
“You’re sort of a horrible person,” she murmured as, in an orange jumpsuit, looking considerably thinner, Kip Danley entered the room.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Lots going on in the start of this chapter and the end of this story is getting very interesting. I am glad Chay and Sheridan are talking again and it was also good to see them being so honest with each other. I didn't think Meredith would go to see Kip. It will be interesting to read what they have to say to each other. Great writing and I look forward to more! I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Thank you Matt. I hope you're not near those bush fires. Up until now, Sheridan has kept secrets from nearly everyone, and so has Chay in a way. But now all he secrets are out. Mostly. The Christmas holiday is on it's way, and I'm thinking about how I'm going to be posting (or not posting)

 

[CharmedFan28]

Thank you Matt. I hope you're not near those bush fires. Up until now, Sheridan has kept secrets from nearly everyone, and so has Chay in a way. But now all he secrets are out. Mostly. The Christmas holiday is on it's way, and I'm thinking about how I'm going to be posting (or not posting)

Luckily I am not near the bush fires. They are terrible and I hope they go out soon. Post as little or as much as you want over Christmas. If you want to take a week off or more that is fine by me.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well. I'm not taking a week off. But I will probably take Christmas Eve off to give you and whoever else is reading some time, plus it will be Christmas in Australia and even in the UK by then, a then maybe Christmas night.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER TWELVE

YARN

CONTINUED


“Well, you wear socks all the time. You get a thin blanket. But it’s not real cold. Let’s see,” Kip said. “You can’t carry pencils or keys or paperclips or toothbrushes. Or anything that might be a weapon.” He looked at both of them. “And you would be really surprised to find out all the things that might be a weapon.
“However,” he went on, “the good part is that I get out in time for summer school.”
“Not to trivialize,” Mathan said, looking around, “but I never realized how much schools look like penitentiaries.”
“Well, they’re locking kids up,” Kip said. “They don’t want us running all over town commiting the crime of being teenagers. They’d lock us up all the time if they could.”
Meredith murmured, “I think you’ve got a point.”
“I’ve gotten philosophical here.”
“Can I ask you a question?” said Mathan.
Kip nodded.
“The other guys? Whaddid they get?”
“Uh… the ones who couldn’t be placed… Two of them, nothing. Everyone who admitted to… rape,” Kip said in a quieter voice, “is in jail.”
Then he added, “And everyone except Wally and Donald will be out by the end of the next year.”
Meredith’s eyes went flat. She didn’t speak.
“It doesn’t seem fair?” Kip said.
“Well, Robin’s dead. And that’s that. And so is Russell for that matter,” Meredith added.
“The truth is, I don’t even know what fair is.”


In French class, Chay slipped a note to a distracted looking Sheridan.
He blinked, opened it and read.
“Where are Mathan and Meredith?” he whispered.
“Mr. Klasko,” Mr. Beauclair eyed him, “am I interrupting something between you and Mr. Lewis?”
Sheridan was ready to say, “No sir,” but Chay simply said, “We were trying to figure out where two of our friends were. They sort of disappeared. And,” Chay added before, Mr. Beauclair could continue with the smart-ass remark Chay knew he was dying to make, “We’ve already lost one misplaced friend this year.”
“Yes,” Mr. Beauclair’s attitude changed.
“I need to step out,” Sheridan announced, standing up.
He left the classroom and then Chay said, “I need to step out too.”
But when he got up it was after putting his books in his bag. And then he picked up Sheridan’s notebook and French book and went out after him.
After shutting the classroom door, he looked at Sheridan, who was standing beside the lockers.
“What I said,” Chay said. “My note?”
“Am I alright?” Sheridan asked him. “No. Not really. Can we go?”
Chay showed him his books, and Sheridan nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his car keys.

Mathan’s phone buzzed while he was driving.
“You wanna get that?”
“No,” Meredith said. “Why do we have to carry cell phones?”
She reached into his pocket and flipped it open.
“Sheridan?” she said, after looking at the screen.
“Yeah, we were just checking up on you guys.”
“Well,” Meredith said, “you found us.”
“Not really. Where are you?”
“We’re out,” she said, feeling difficult.
“Fine,” Sheridan said, tonelessly.
“We went to the maximum security juvenile center to visit Kip Danley.”
“Oh,” Sheridan sounded surprised. “That was nice.”
“I guess.”
“We skipped school. I mean, we walked out of it after French. So we were there half the day. Chay is with me right now.”
“So, I guess you all are friends again.”
“Chay and Sheridan?” Mathan guessed, eyes still on the road.
Meredith nodded.
“Yeah,” Sheridan said. “And… we all need to talk.”
“Alright.”
“I hear it in your voice,” Sheridan said. “We need to talk, or else… we’re not going to be friends anymore. I feel it.”
Meredith didn’t know what to say. Sheridan had just put it in her face, very openly.
“We’ve been leading very, very separate lives,” she said after a while, loud enough so Mathan could hear. “And you—and Chay too—seem like you like it that way.”
“Well,” Sheridan decided, “that’s about to stop. No more secrets, alright? I mean not from you guys. Because there are things we have to be able to tell you, and you have to be able to listen, and not go all crazy.”
“That’s not fair,” Meredith said.
“I know. You’re right. It isn’t. I’m sorry for not trusting you guys. I’m gonna go now, alright?”
Meredith nodded, and then remembered to say alright. She hung up the phone.
“What was that all about?” Mathan said after a while.
Meredith sighed. “I’m not sure. I should be happy. And I am. But I’m a little scared, too. And I don’t really know why.”

Chay was sitting on the edge of Sheridan’s bed when his friend came back in, closing his cell phone. He could hear the clump of Sheridan’s shoes on the floorboards. He never wore sneakers. He almost always wore those old, brown casual shoes, and Chay had forgotten that. Sheridan slipped his phone into one of the pockets of his red hoodie and sat down beside Chay.
“They’re on the road. They went to visit that Kip Danley.”
Chay frowned.
“If not for Kip,” Sheridan reminded him, “none of those guys would have gone to jail. He risked a lot so Robin could get some justice.”
“But Robin’s still dead.”
“Yeah,” Sheridan murmured, his lips close to Chay’s ear.
Chay turned around and kissed him, and then pulled away, his friend giving him a questioning grin. He could still feel the softness of Sheridan’s lips.
“You kissed me twice and I let you get away with it,” Chay said. “I never made you accountable for it. I thought you were about to do it again. I wanted to beat you to it.”
“I wasn’t,” Sheridan said. Then he said, “Maybe I was.”
They looked at each other.
“I’m going to close the door now,” Chay said.
Sheridan raised an eyebrow.
“You gonna seduce me?”
“Yeah,” Chay said in an equally light voice. “Is that alright?”
He shut the door softly. Sheridan heard the lock click.
“I dunno,” he said, “Maybe.”
He shrugged and Chay sat beside him.
Then Sheridan said, “Is your heart beating? Like really, really fast?”
Chay just kissed him.
It felt so good. It felt so good to put his hands in Chay’s hair, to pull up Chay’s smaller body onto him, to let the thunder of blood in the ears, and the racing in his heart go as they fell onto the bed, and then he let Chay be in control, He lifted his arms as Chay removed his sweatshirt, and he leaned forward to kiss him, and then lay down as Chay unbuckled his pants and pulled down his jeans. Tenderly they began to undress each other, fumbling with shoes, chuckling a little until they were down to only socks and they lay on the bed together, kissing and stroking, touching. Chay’s mouth was on his throat, on his nipples on his belly. Sheridan was so hard. He felt his penis rising and Chay didn’t ask, and then Sheridan gasped and he closed his eyes while he lay on his back and Chay took him in his mouth. Sheridan looked down to Chay’s head. When the movement of his head commanded it, Sheridan opened his legs for Chay’s mouth, receiving gentle kisses on the inside of his thighs, being kissed all up and down until, surprisingly, he felt his eyes stinging with tears.
When he opened his eyes, Chay swam before him a little. He was not fragile like Sheridan had once believed. He was solid and dense like stone, and he rose up on his knees over Sheridan. His body seemed completely made of light but for the darkness of the hair of his head, and of the cloud over his sex. His penis was thick and Sheridan went to touch it, to stroke it, to make Chay moan a little, and then he moaned as he realized that Chay was moving to situate himself on him, as he felt the heat and the firmness of his buttocks, and then the hot tightness of being in him and then, as Chay’s hands came to rest lightly on his chest, brushing his nipples, and Chay leaned down to kiss him, to place his tongue in Sheridan’s mouth, Sheridan Klasko experienced the wild shock of being ridden.


Meredith and Mathan sat on the sofa, tired, while Todd brought out cups of soup.
“Thank you,” Fenn said in tender amazement. He put down his cigarette and looked with love on Tood, who was setting the trays down, while Lee continued smoking.
“Well, it’s just soup. And Fenn does the cooking most of the time anyway.”
“Um,” Lee leaned forward and inhaled.
“Tortilla soup,” Todd said. “I’ll bring out the chips.”
“So what all happened with the crazy lady?” Mathan said.
“Dylan’s mother?” Fenn raised an eyebrow. “We went over and found her. We promised to bring Dylan by her place for visits.”
“You what?” Meredith said.
“Meredith,” Fenn said, “she’s his mother.”
“She abandoned him,” Meredith protested, jabbing her spoon into the soup as Todd came out with a bag of tortilla chips.
“But now she’s back, and I can’t see keeping her away from her son,” Fenn explained, sprinkling chips into his large mug.
“That’s awfully big of you,” Mathan said.
“It’s awfully necessary,” Fenn said. “And it doesn’t make Dylan one bit less mine. I prefer her being with him when one of us is accompanying them to her sneaking up in the park.”
“But,” Mathan started. And then he finished.
“What?” said Lee to his nephew.
Todd sat down beside Fenn and took one of his cigarettes, lighting it, and then shaking the match out.
“Nothing,” Mathan said.
“What’s to stop her from coming around anyway?” Meredith said for him. “What’s to stop her from doing something crazy?”
“Caroline,” Fenn said.
Mathan looked at his cousin.
“Your new cousin, Caroline,” Lee said.
“She’s more than a Tarot card reader, less than a voodoo queen,” Fenn said. “She put a mojo on Eileen Wehlan, right there in her apartment. Put all the curses of hell on her if she ever decided to run off with Dylan.”
No one laughed. They all looked at Fenn in shock.
“You believe her?” Meredith said, at last.
“She is not the first in the family,” Lee said. “And she won’t be the last. Lula used to keep a voodoo jar over her door to keep all of her men in line. I know her mother did. They were from New Orleans and before that, I guess from Haiti.”
“I only know a little of that,” Fenn said. “But the important thing is if you had been there you would have believed it. And what was more, Eileen Wehlan believed it. It’s good as I can hope for. Better, actually.”
Meredith still looked a little unconvinced, and Todd said, “You know this world is strange. You know there’s stuff beyond reason.”
“And speaking of beyond reason,” said Lee, who had nothing more to say about the voodoo buried in the Houghton family, “how was your class cutting trip?”
“Good,” Meredith reported. Then she amended: “Well, necessary, really. You know? I couldn’t not go.”
“I was just thinking… It’s just… someone was telling me about these Indians, or these feminists or something…”
“Indians or feminists?” Mathan looked at her.
“Oh, shut up.”
“You can’t tell them apart?”
“Maybe they were feminist Indians,” Todd cracked.
“Anyway,” Meredith said, “my point is they were trying to preserve a forest from being destroyed, and they threaded yarn through all the trees, right? They thought it would just give the loggers a hard time, make things a little more difficult. But it turns out chainsaws can’t cut through yarn. They got tangled; some of the chainsaws were even destroyed. Some loggers were hurt. They were undone by yarn.
“People are always trying to do the big things to save the world. You know? But, it’s the little things, little thing after little thing that does it, I think. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know. But, it just isn’t as hard as we think it is to do something good, and being there for Robin till she died, or for her mother, or even for Kip Danley… Well, that’s the good I can do.”
After a while she looked at them all and said, “What?”
“You are an amazing girl,” Lee said simply, “and my nephew is amazing for having the sense to choose you.”
Mathan’s phone buzzed and he reached into his pocket.
Meredith, who had gone red, turned to look at the phone screen.
“It’s Sheridan,” Mathan said. “He wants to know when we’re coming over.”
Meredith said, “Tell him as soon as we’re done eating.”
“He and Chay really want to talk to us.”
“I really want to talk to them,” Meredith said. “And I’m so nervous. I don’t know why.”
Lee and Fenn looked at each other, their dead cigarettes hanging from their hands, and then Lee said to his nephew and Meredith, “As amazing as you have been already, and always are to me, you may have to be amazing one more time before this night is through.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was an excellent portion! I am glad Sheridan and Chay made up and are having fun together. I don't know where that leaves Logan but I guess ill have to wait and see about that. Meredith is really a great person to go and see Kip. I wonder how she is going to handle Sheridan's revelations? Its going to be interesting no matter what happens next. Great writing and I look forward to the next portion!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Meredith has always been a great person with deep reserves, to me she is the strongest of the new characters,and it seems like she will have to be stronger yet. I think this has actually been the best Rossford store, if I do say so myself,and I do. As For Sheridan and Chay,I will quote myself again: I don't know if they're having fun, but they are having sex. Casey and Logan are both fully grown adults and porn actors who have been prostitutes and Logan is stil la working prostitute, so I doubt he would be very affected by Chay and Sheridan doing anything. Since the book is about to end, and I can't really start a new plot, I think things will be alright, or as alright as things ever get in Rossford.

 

[ChrisGibson]

ROSSFORD CHRISTMAS PORTION

“STOP,” CHAY WHISPERED. “Just a moment.”
Sheridan sat naked on the edge of the bed, his body white in the darkness and his tee shirt raised above his head.
As he lowered his arms he said, “They’ll be here in a moment.”
“I know,” Chay leaned up on the side of the bed. He touched Sheridan’s hip. His hand went a little up his side.
“I just wanted to touch you is all. You know?”
Sheridan looked down at him. He kept up his arms which were still in his tee shirt.
“I know,” Sheridan said. He let down an arm and he touched Chay’s hair.
“Last time you just left. Well, you didn’t leave. You drove me home, and you said it would never happen again.”
“I know,” Sheridan said.
“I’m not accusing you.”
Chay sat up and he reached for his underwear. He began dressing.
“It’s just… I want to hang on to this. Because it might not happen again.”
By now Sheridan was in his underwear and tee shirt, holding his jeans. His hair was sticking up.
“What do you mean it might not happen again?”
“Well, I mean… It might not. Right?”
“I just assumed it would.”
“But Logan.”
Sheridan shook his head.
“Logan gets paid to have sex with tons of other people. I don’t know why Logan should be in the way of me and you.”
“You love him right?”
“What’s that got to do with us? You love Casey.”
“It’s only...” Chay began taking a hand through his long hair, untangling it with his fingers. “What does it make us? I thought that we would have today, and then go back to Casey. And Logan. I don’t mind if you love him. He’s my friend. But I love you.”
Sheridan had pulled back on his hoodie, and Chay reached across the bed to turn the lamp on and begin unrumpling the bed.
“Does this room smell funny?” Sheridan said, jamming his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and squirming into his still tied shoes.
“It smells funny because it’s been closed up all day. Not because of sex. I’ll go get the air freshener.”
“Listen, Chay,” Sheridan said, as Chay went to open the door.
“I’m not so good at talking like I should be. But…. Whatever we have with anyone else, I think that takes a backdoor to what we have with each other. What we always had. Don’t you?”
Chay nodded.
“I’m saying I want to keep doing this with you. Alright? Don’t think you can’t ever call me and I won’t be there. I don’t know how the rest of this will work, but we’ll work. Alright?”
Chay nodded.
Chay opened the door.
“Chay?”
Outside the hallway was dark. Sheridan’s parents weren’t home. Chay nodded.
“I’m sorry I fucked shit up. But I love you, you know that right?”
Even with today, the truth was Chay had not known. He had hoped, but he hadn’t known. He nodded though.
Sheridan followed him, shambling along to the bathroom with his hands in his pocket.
“You wanna stay together tonight?” he asked him.
“Yeah.”
“Good, I want that too.”
Downstairs there was a knock at the door the same time both of their phones went off.
“Meredith,” Sheridan said while Chay, reaching into the bathroom for the air freshener said, “Mathan.”

Mathan Alexander and Meredith Affren sat on the sofa across the coffee table from Chay and Sheridan.
“You look really, really beautiful,” Sheridan said to Meredith.
She made a face.
Sheridan shrugged. “You just do.”
“Well, what about me?” Mathan said, crossing a leg.
“Why do you think I have my legs crossed?” Sheridan said, sarcastically.
“You’re an asshole.”
“I’ve got a perpetual hard on for you, Mate.”
Chay burst out laughing at this, and then he said to Meredith, “You went to visit Kip Danley?”
She nodded.
“That must have been horrible for you.”
“It was worse for him,” she dismissed it. “But now, what do you guys want to tell us?”
“Well, that’s direct,” Sheridan said.
Meredith nodded, a little mercilessly.
Mathan bumped her shoulder with his.
“Give them time.”
“We don’t need time,” Sheridan said, suddenly. “We’ve had enough time. See, and this probably won’t surprise you too much, I’ve been really stupid. For a real long time. And… I love Chay. And that’s it really. I love him. And he loves me.”
Meredith and Mathan, slowly, looked at each other.
After a time, Sheridan said, “Well, come on guys, say something.”
“It isn’t really a surprise,” Meredith said, more to Mathan. “Is it? Why do I feel surprised, then?”
Mathan grinned and shrugged. “I sort of feel the same way.”
Sheridan grinned stupidly, grabbing his knees. But Chay did not, and Mathan noticed this.
“We have to tell them everything,” Chay said.
Sheridan blinked.
“You forgot?” Chay said in disbelief.
“Yes,” Sheridan admitted.
His face changed.
“Everything?” Meredith noticed him saying to Chay. Sheridan said it as if Chay were the one person who could make him do this. He said it the way she would say something to Mathan.
Chay nodded.
“Well,” Sheridan said, still looking at him. “Okay.”
And so Sheridan told them about working for Casey, about Chay’s affair with Casey. About Logan. This was hard. He never talked about sex with them, and he talked about Shelley and leaving her. The story was twisted and convoluted; many times he had to begin again, and part way through it Meredith said:
“I know that bitch. That’s Bryant Babcock’s niece.”
“Small world,” Mathan commented.
“Icky world,” Meredith said. She shrugged and gestured for Sheridan to continue.
He told the whole story up to where he beat the man over the head, cut him, came back and found him dead. He was shaking and going white and Chay had to help him through that part. When he was finished they had been listening for an hour, and Chay was stroking Sheridan’s trembling arm.
“Well… where is he?” Mathan said after a moment’s silence. “The body, I mean?”
“We don’t know,” Sheridan spread his empty hands.
“Whaddo you mean?”
“Someone took it,” Sheridan said. “Someone helped us take it away and said don’t worry about it. Don’t tell anyone. But… we told a few people. It was okay to tell you, I think.”
“Sheridan wait,” Meredith said, a little impatiently. “Who’s the someone? Not aliens. Not fairies? Who took this man away?”
“Brendan Miller,” Sheridan said. “He helped. But… It was Fenn,” Sheridan nodded to Mathan, “and—”
“Lee,” Mathan finished.
Sheridan nodded.
Meredith was quiet. She nodded her remembering what Lee had said to them before them when they were at Fenn’s house.
“No wonder,” she murmured.

When Meredith and Mathan were leaving, they stopped and looked at their friends.
“You want us to stay here?” Mathan said.
Meredith snorted.
Chay and Sheridan looked at her.
“Of course they don’t,” she said, knowingly.
Both boys went red and she said, “But you are coming to school tomorrow, right?”
“Of course,” Chay said while she reached out to hug Sheridan.
He clapped her on the back.
“I love you, you know that?”
“I know,” Meredith said, touchily, she parted from him. She hugged Chay.
Then Meredith turned to Mathan: “You ready?”
“I’ve been ready, and needed to be asleep an hour ago.”
“Yeah,” Meredith said. “Well, I need a shower, a shit and a shave, scuse the language. So let’s go.”
And then they were gone, and Sheridan and Chay looked out the door, looked at each other, squeezed palms, and then, pleased and happy, turned out the porch light, and prepared for bed.

Chad came home late that night. He was afraid to show up at all. He hoped that, somehow, this day and the discovery of what he had done would be gone when he got back. How had Bryant known? But how had he not known? They had been together so long, and really, Bryant knew everything. The better question, Chad told himself, was how had he thought an affair was a good idea?
It was a terrible idea. It was an awful idea. How could he have ever thought it would work? The mistake, once done, how could he dream of repeating it? What was in his head?
And so he came home, somehow believing in tiptoeing, believing in not being heard. He was in mortal fear of Bryant now, more than he had ever been. Certainly more than when Bryant had been his teacher.
He was walking around the apartment a while before he realized Bryant wasn’t there, and then, suddenly, he was in a rush to find him. He went from room to room as if, somehow, he could misplace or walk past a six foot, one hundred eighty pound man. There was no Bryant. He went to the bedroom opening the closets, peering behind the drawers even. And then he sighed.
He did not want to call anyone. He could not bring himself to call anyone. He just sat down on the edge of the bed, and then he sighed. Chad was there until he was nearly ready to fall asleep. He changed into shorts and tee shirt and turned back the bed. There, under his pillow, was the note.

From the sofa in Sean Babcock’s small apartment, Bryant said, “Thanks again.”
“No problem,” Sean told him. “We’re brothers, right?”
“I can’t believe Chad would do that,” Shelley sat in the chair across from Bryant. “You better talk to him.”
“I can’t talk to him,” Bryant said. “I need to be here right now.”
Shelley looked to Sean.
“Uncle Bryant needs us. We need to support him. Well, I mean, he needs you, Sean.” Shelley stood up. “He’ll have to need me later.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sean and Bryant demanded together, and then looked at each other.
“It means I have a little date tonight,” Shelley said with mild excitement.
“At ten o’ clock?”
“It’s not quite ten,” Shelley said to Bryant. “Besides, I’m grown. Matty doesn’t go to work tomorrow.”
“His name is Matty?” Sean said.
“His name is Matthew. He’s kind of a good old boy, but not really. From East Carmel. He says it’s a nice place. I might even go there.”
“East Carmel?” Bryant and Sean said together, but while Sean said it in a snobbish tone, Bryant said it cautiously, and added, “Does Matthew have a last name?”
“Anderson.”
“Christ,” Bryant muttered.
They looked at him.
Bryant shook his head. “Nevermind.”
“It better not mean he’s a killer or anything,” Shelley said. “For Chrissake, my last boyfriend turned out to be gay.”
“Your last boyfriend turned out to be a juvenile,” Sean reminded her.
Bryant dismissed this and told Shelley, “No. Matty’s not… There’s nothing wrong with him. But if I’m right… what’s he look like?”
“Redhead. Marmalade, I guess. Says he has a sister in town.”
“Goddamn!” Bryant groaned.
“Now, you’ve got me curious,” Shelley said.
“No,” Bryant shook his head, frustrated. “No, it’s nothing. It’s just… It all makes sense. It’s everything coming back on me. Have a good night, Shel.”
Shelley nodded, but as she left she called, “Sean? A word with you.”
Sean Babcock came outside into the hallway with his niece and shut the door.
“Alright? Do you really not want Bryant here so bad?”
“Whaddo you mean?”
“Because I’ll be glad to put him up in my dorm room if you really don’t want him. And you look like you don’t.”
“No,” Sean said. “He’s my brother. Of course I want him. He’d do the same thing for both of us. You know that.”
“I know,” Shelley said, twisting her purse around her shoulder. “I just wanted to make sure you knew.”
Sean nodded. “It’s just… complicated.”
“Is there some shit you’re not telling me?” Shelley said.
Sean said, “Yes.”
“And you’re not going to tell me, are you?”
Sean said, “No.”
Shelley Latham nodded.
Shelley Latham left the apartment her uncles were sharing, very confused.

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was an excellent Christmas portion! I am glad Chay and Sheridan told Meredith and Mathan everything. I am also glad that they have well and truly made up and are friends again. I wonder what Brian is going to do when he finds out Sean is the one Chad was having an affair with? Things are about to get very interesting. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Things certainly are coming to a head. I am not entirely sure what I'm going to do. I may post early afternoon (in the Midwest) and leave something up for Christmas, and then repost on Boxing Day Night. That looks like what will happen. I'm glad you took this Rossford journey with me, and... oh my gosh, Merry Christmas, Matt!

 

[ChrisGibson]

ACTUAL CHRISTMAS PORTION

Todd opened the door to the little library with his foot and entered with the two coffees. Bryant got up to take both of them. Todd shut the door and they both sat on the couch.
“It’s going to snow tonight,” Bryant said.
“It might at that,” Todd said.
“Can I ask you a question?” Bryant turned to him.
Todd took a sip of his coffee and gestured for Bryant to go on.
“Fenn is odd tonight.”
“Fenn is tired tonight.”
“He… When I told him about leaving Chad, he was different.”
“He thinks you should have thrown Chad out.”
“He told you that?”
Todd took out a cigarette from his breast pocket and lit it.
“No, but he didn’t have to. We’ve been together about twenty years. I know.”
“And then when I told him I was staying with Sean… It’s like it was all he could do not to scream. I know him by now too. I know that drove him crazy. Did he want me to stay with you all?”
Todd laughed.
“I’m sure he didn’t. We’ve got more than enough people staying with us. Not—” Todd added, “that you aren’t welcome if it ever comes to that.”
“Then what?”
Todd’s face changed now.
“So you know something too?” Bryant said. “What?”
“Bryant, it’s not my place.”
“Whaddo you mean? I don’t know what you mean.”
Bryant watched Todd’s face. He seemed to be going through a series of decisions, all under his skin, before finally, he sighed and said, “Have you ever wondered… Do you not care who Chad was having an affair with?”
“No,” Bryant said, his voice more fierce than he meant. “Why should I care about…?”
His voice died off.
They were quiet. Bryant felt that as long as they made no noise, time couldn’t go on, and then thought couldn’t go on. If thought didn’t go on one plus one would never equal anything.
But one plus one equaled two.
“I don’t believe it,” Bryant’s voice was small, almost ghostly.
Todd didn’t say anything.
“No,” Bryant said again. “But…” he was talking more to himself than Todd, “How could Fenn know? But if Layla knew. And Layla is… No…”
Bryant had set the coffee cup down, and he was looking from one open hand to the other. Finally he looked up at Todd, his usually olive face whiter than ever before.
“Chad… my brother?” Bryant said weakly. “They’re not… are they?”
Todd had thought he would say yes. Todd had imagined being fierce and full of rage when he declared the truth to his friend. Instead he just looked away, his face prickling with heat as if he was the one who had commited the affair.
Bryant’s voice sounded muffled and far off in Todd’s ears:
“I feel like I have to throw up.”

“Well, you can stay with us,” Todd said.
But Fenn, feet dangling from over the couch, shook his head.
“No,” he said. “No, he can’t.”
Bryant and Todd looked at Fenn and Bryant stood up.
“I understand.”
“No,” Fenn said, making a gesture for Bryant to sit down. “You don’t. You don’t understand at all.”
“I don’t have a right to be here,” Bryant said.
“I don’t follow you,” Fenn said, shaking his head. “So you certainly can’t be following me.”
“This is… fair,” Bryant said. “I would never have dreamed of coming here. I would never have dreamed of burdening you all with my problems. Especially you,” Bryant said to Fenn.
Fenn just looked at him.
“Oh, com’on,” Bryant said, miserably. “Stop pretending. You don’t have to be Saint Fenn all the time.”
He sat up.
“This is payback. It’s karma. You know it. I… I always knew it. I knew sooner or later I would find out how this feels. And it’s the way it should be.”
“Oh,” Fenn said. “Oh, yes. I’ve heard this already.”
“You mean other people told you the same thing?” Bryant said, shaking his head. “Of course they did. How can you sit here and pretend that somewhere in the back of your mind you aren’t thinking that this is just what I deserve? After Tom? I… I didn’t give a fuck about you. I just moved in and did what I did. I was just like Sean. If I were you, I would be happy.”
“Then you wouldn’t be me,” Fenn said.
He sat up.
“Look, I’ve had a long time to be angry and vengeful and all of it, and I’m done. I’ve been with Todd the better part of twenty years and whatever you did to me was before that. And over that is seven years of friendship. You still think I’m hanging on to what you and Tom did?”
Bryant looked at him.
“Everyone thinks I’m holding onto that. Layla and Dena were in grade school back then, not even, and now Dena’s having her first kid and everyone thinks I’m still holding onto it. You think I can’t let it go?”
“I never let it go,” Bryant almost shouted. “I never let it go,” he said. “There isn’t a day that’s gone by I’ve been able to let it go. And… sense we’ve been friends, it’s like it all happened yesterday. What kind of person would I be if I put it out of my head? That’s with me always.”
“Well, it’s not with me,” Fenn said.
“There is so much that is still with me. That’s why I understand Sean. That’s why I should have understood everything. I know what it’s like to be someone who doesn’t care, who has no problem trying to ruin something, who goes after someone who belongs to someone else. I know. It was me. It is me.”
“It’s not you,” Todd said, slightly angry. “Not anymore.”
Fenn said nothing.
The house was quiet. Outside they heard the sound of a car, which indicated Brendan and Kenny returning.
“All I know,” Fenn said, “is that the snow is getting worse and worse, and you need to get up because you can’t stay here.”
“Why?” Bryant’s voice was suddenly angry. “If you don’t care about what happened—”
“I didn’t say,” Fenn’s voice was even, “that I didn’t care about you fucking Tom in my bed. What I said,” Fenn continued, “is that I’m not angry about it. It doesn’t haunt me. But what does is the idea of taking abuse. I understand you want to keep punishing yourself for every bad thing you’ve done and, let’s be honest, between two old friends, you’ve done plenty. But what’s yours is yours. And that apartment is yours. I’ve got too many people walking in and out of this house for you to be sleeping in a spare room I don’t have, or a couch where everyone can see you look pitiful.
“Now I’m going to get dressed, and you’re going to put some shoes on and take that sad look off your face. You,” he turned to Todd, “are going to gas up the car. And then we’re going to your apartment, and we’re going to throw Chad the fuck out.”

IF SHE WAS HONEST WITH HERSELF, that day in November when he had shown up at the house, Layla knew she was in trouble.
The thing is, Will Klasko was, flatly, not all that. In a way his younger brother was much cuter, and then Aidan Michaelson had actually been fine. And after him, Kevin had been beautiful. If she’d had some sense, Kevin would have been exactly what she wanted.
But she didn’t have sense, what she had was Will in her system and so that Thanksgiving morning when he had shown up at her grandmother’s house, she had pretty much known it was all over. But then when he had stood up at the wedding, before her mouth could say a thing, her actions apparently already had, and that was the end of her engagement.
Layla Lawden was angry with Will, and that was that, until he’d shown up at the house again, and then they’d gone to the mall, and then she had made the decision. A few moments later, and only a few hours after he had knocked at her door, a few days after he had come back into her life, Will Klasko stood before her in the hotel room.
“Take off your clothes,” she said.
Like someone half hypnotized he had, his thick, floppy, slightly wavy hair in need of cutting, hanging in his face while he undressed, and then he stood before her naked and she commanded, “Now mine.”
Slowly, reverently, he undressed her, his eyes settling in sacred contemplation over every part of her brown skin, and then they stood like that and inside of her, deep in her she was shuddering, and she placed her arms around his neck and drew him to the bed. She wanted to be covered by him. Eight years since he had slipped a note to her back in high school, and now she wanted to be entirely covered by his flesh. She wanted the weight of his body upon her. Her hands moved up and down his shoulders, his sides, his ass, his thighs. They moved like that, sighs escaping Will’s mouth, Layla closing her eyes in pleasure.
After all the years, and after a great deal of tension since he had returned, she was just relieved when she placed her legs around him and let Will fuck her. He came in her like lightning, like some force that touched her clit and made light and music spring up. His touch, deep in her, went off like a telegraph through all the nerves in her body, shook her like a stone being dropped in water. She clung to him, her legs tighter around him, her hands in his hair, opening her eyes to see his face, almost frowning in concentration, reddening, perspiring. She closed her eyes to see him in her mind, and feel his mouth on her body.
With all the stresses of life, and there were many, and with all the times Will still managed to drive her crazy, and those were many too, there was this new thing which seemed like it had gone on forever. They had been associated so long with each other, but unlike Milo and Dena there was no marriage and unlike Kenny and Brendan there had been no sex. She wondered if people could tell, if they could smell the change once it had happened. What were they thinking when they thought of the two of them? Early in the morning, late at night, like right now, they moved together, her hands in Will’s hair, Will thick and firm deep inside of her, the drop of sweat she pursued to the tender cleft of his buttocks.
Will shuddered and spilled, and her body was already rocking. So often they rode on the orgasm like this, still surprised by it. She opened her eyes to see Will holding her, Will above her, his mouth opened in amazement and love as he climaxed.
They lay together.
“Are you still on the pill?” he asked her.
“Does it matter?”
“I was wondering,” Will said, his hands under his head after he lay back, “you don’t feel like getting married right now, do you?”
“I just escaped getting married.”
“That’s what I thought,” Will said sitting up.
“Are we having a Parisian relationship?”
“What’s that?” Layla lay on her side with her fist under her head. “Never heard of one of those.”
“Well, that’s because I just made the term up.”
Layla made a face. That was very like Will.
“It’s where you all are pretty much sure you’re staying together, but you don’t formalize it. You just keep on screwing without contraceptive and whatever happens happens.”
“Oh, an English marriage!”
“I never heard of that.”
“That’s because I made it up,” Layla said.
She lay on her back again.
“I hadn’t planned to have a baby. But… I hadn’t planned not to. You know? And with Claire and Dena, well, it does seem in vogue. I’m just… yeah. That sounds right. If it’s alright with you. I had planned to stay with you. That was my only plan.”
“Good,” Will said, sinking back into the bed. “I realized that I had a very hard time being happy without you.”
They heard a thump.
“What the hell was that?”
“The east gutter fell in the last snow storm. I think it may be hitting the wall again.”
There was another thump.
“No,” Layla disagreed. “I think it’s the door.”
“Who the…?” Will began.
Layla got out of bed, pulling on the satin gown Todd had bought her that Christmas.
Will pulled on his pajama bottoms and came after her, sweeping his hair out of his face.
“Hello?” Layla was saying when Will came into the living room. “Is someone there?”
“It’s me,” a miserable voice said on the other side of the door.
Layla, hearing the misery, did not wait to figure out who the ‘me’ was. She opened the door and in astonishment pulled Chad into the house.
“Chad?” Will began.
“It’s over,” Chad said, miserably. “It’s very much over.”

WHEN WE RETURN ON BOXING DAY, THE CONCLUSION OF" THE CITY OF ROSSFORD

 

[CharmedFan28]

With Christmas I forgot you were posting today! Sorry. I know it hurt Brian to find out what was really going on with Chad but I glad he knows now and made a decision about them living together and it looks like also being together. I am glad Layla and Will seems to be heading toward a good place together. Great writing and I look forward to the conclusion to this great story! I hope you have a great day on Christmas!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, I had planned to leave it as a sort of surprise, because I wasn't sure if I was going to post, and I'm glad you've really enjoyed the story. I'll post more and wrap it up tomorrow, and I just hope you've had a really good holiday.