CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
I think the Dylan Elias Lance thrupple is interesting but, I thought what they have with Lance might be limited with him living so far away.
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The Ends of Rossford
- Thread starter ChrisGibson
- Start date
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
Well, it certainly will be interesting to see how it all evolves. To me it's one of the most interesting things about the story. I'd say more tomorrow, but its already today.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
MORE SURPRISES AFOOT TONIGHT FOR OUR FRIENDS IN ROSSFORD AND ONE FATAL PIECE OF INFORMATION
Maia Meradan was of a height with Dylan and Fenn, with the same light skin as her mother, wide, mildly offended green eyes, and crinkly black hair that was tied in a ponytail.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Dylan demanded.
“What kind of greeting is that for family?” Maia murmured. Then she turned to Fenn and said, “Am I right? Am I not the closest thing both of these bastards have to a sister?”
Dylan took a long breath.
“Excuse me, Maia. I should have said: ‘What in the world are you doing in my apartment?’”
“Well, that’s better,” Maia decided, sitting back down, and crossing one leg over the other. “Not much better, mind you, but better.”
And then she said, “I’m fleeing.
“Elias,” she turned to the younger, dark haired man. “I’ve left your brother. Me and Bennett are through.”
Maggie Biggs lay half passed out on the sofa with a mild headache. This was the least she could do. After all, three years ago, when Ed Palmer had fallen for her, he had sugared her stepmother’s gas tank and knocked out the front windows of her father’s house. He had paid for all of it, and lost fifty percent of the trust he would ever have from a great deal of people so, on his first night of classes, she could wait up for him.
Earlier on his mother, Liz, had come by, and Maggie had offered her a cup of coffee, some doughnuts she had made with little skill, and the truth that Edward was doing later registration.
“He’d be late for his own funeral, you know?” Liz told Maggie. Maggie suspected she was right.
So it was about nine when Ed got there and sank on the couch, legs wide apart and threw an arm over her shoulder.
“You been waiting on me?”
Maggie didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep, and she crawled up to Ed, and wrapping her arms about him confessed, “I’ve been waiting on you.
“Not cooking for you, because I don’t do that. But waiting, I did make doughnuts.”
“Well, that’s a sort of cooking.”
“Not if you taste them. Your mom tasted one. She ate the whole thing, smiled and said it was delicious. That’s why I like her so much. Now my mom?” Maggie shook her head. “That bitch would tell the terrible truth.”
Ned hopped up.
“I’m so hungry I could eat a human arm.”
“Gross.”
“Point the way to those doughnuts.”
“On the counter on the other side of the kitchenette window.”
Ed reached through the window in the wall from where the kitchen looked onto the living room, and pulled a glass top from a plate of doughnuts. He set it down without really looking and then took up the doughnut and bit into it.
“Oh, my God, these aren’t bad at all.”
“Really?” Maggie sat up.
Ed thoughtfully chewed on the doughnut and swallowed half of it before speaking.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Ed said, coming back to the sofa. “I’m going to need several glasses of milk with these, and they definitely sit in your stomach like lead.”
“Thanks!”
“But it’s tasty lead.” He winked at her, and she slapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, I wanna see you cook,” she said.
“Fair enough,” Ed said with a shrug.
“Whaddit Mom come by for?”
“She wants you to call her. She was really mellow about it, but I think it might be urgent.”
Despite the hint that it might be urgent, Ed went on slowly digesting the doughnut. The lazy son of a bitch hadn’t even gotten up to get the glass of milk he said it needed so badly. She shrugged and went to get it herself. Ed didn’t understand. She’d made such a colossal fuck up of things she needed as many members of her family to like her as possible.
There was her father, Milo, and his whole family, including not only her great grandmother but, misfortune of misfortunes, Ed’s stepmother Meredith who was step sister and close to Maggie’s own stepmother, Dena, whom she had made her enemy with a great deal of teenage concentration. She paused over this, doing the family tree in her head. This made Meredith her cousin. Her possible stepmother-in-law one day, but definitely her cousin. She hadn’t known what a stupid idea it was to make an enemy of Dena Affren. She had not known the Affrens were so tangled in with Dena’s family. At the time she didn’t know that Ed would become her true boyfriend, and that his first cousin was raised in the home of Dena’s uncle, basically his son. She’d had no idea of the borderline incestuous ties of the residents of Rossford, Indiana or how when you screwed one over, you screwed about a hundred. Over time it had leaked out that she’d also encouraged a girl to sleep with and pretend to be pregnant by Bennett Anderson and who was Bennett Anderson? Well, it just turned out his girlfriend, equally long memoried and capable of vengeance, was the first cousin to her stepmother Dena, the foster sister of good ole cousin Dylan. And who loved them both and looked after them? Elias Anderson, one of the scariest motherfuckers she’d ever met. And in some way, all of these people should have been her friends. They should have been family. Things were, at best, uneasy between her and them. It probably, she had to admit, had something to do with the fact that she had never said she was sorry. No one knew how hard that was, though.
“Call your mother!” Maggie said at last, so loud Ed almost choked on his doughnut. “For fucks sake, call her!”
“Alright, already,” Ed said, with a laugh. He had no idea what the stakes in this were for her.
They didn’t have a landline, which Maggie thought they should get. She wasn’t so convinced that she had sprung for one, though. She wanted them to go in, jointly. Her mother had stopped paying for the apartment, and she refused help from Milo.
Ed took out his phone and called his mother.
“Hello.”
“It’s me.”
“You?” Then she said, “Ed? Ed, Lord, what have I told you about that ‘It’s me’ garbage.”
“It’s Edward, Mother,” Ed Palmer said. “Maggie said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yes,” Meg remembered. “Yes, I did. By the way, have you had her doughnuts?”
“Yeah,” Ed looked over at Maggie. “They’re delicious,” his voice was louder.
“Oh she must be sitting right next you,” Meg said. “Well, they aren’t bad, that’s true. But they could be a little lighter. I’m coming over next week to teach that girl how to cook, so you all need to figure out a good time for me to do that. But that’s not why I called.”
Ed was reaching the wearisome point he often did with his mother, and he said, “No, mother, it isn’t. So,” he prompted, “why did you call?”
“Well, you’re friends with Dylan, right?”
“We’re not close,” Ed said. “We talk, though. I guess we acknowledge each other.”
“Well, that’s what family does,” Meg said. “Look, I can’t blame him. Tom and Fenn are his parents and Eileen was so terrible to him. We just remind him of her.”
“Yeah,” Ed said. Personally, he was a little indifferent to his gay cousin’s personal drama.
“However,” Meg continued, “I need you to go talk to him for me.”
“Talk to Dylan?”
“Yes. Call him.”
“About what?”
“About his mother.”
“Oh, hell, Mom!”
“Just listen.”
“Mom, you want me to talk to a cousin who hardly acknowledges me about a woman he can’t stand.”
“Eileen is back. She’s here.”
“Then the last thing he needs is to hear about her.”
“She wants to see him and—”
“Mom,” Ed said. “I really don’t know Dylan that well. But I do know she tried to get into his life once and dropped the ball. I do know she dropped him off on someone’s door step and left for ten years.”
“But you don’t know that she’s dying!”
Ed stopped talking.
“That’s right,” his mother said. “If you’d just be quiet for a second, and let me finish then you would know that Eileen is dying.”
MORE TOMORROW
Maia Meradan was of a height with Dylan and Fenn, with the same light skin as her mother, wide, mildly offended green eyes, and crinkly black hair that was tied in a ponytail.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Dylan demanded.
“What kind of greeting is that for family?” Maia murmured. Then she turned to Fenn and said, “Am I right? Am I not the closest thing both of these bastards have to a sister?”
Dylan took a long breath.
“Excuse me, Maia. I should have said: ‘What in the world are you doing in my apartment?’”
“Well, that’s better,” Maia decided, sitting back down, and crossing one leg over the other. “Not much better, mind you, but better.”
And then she said, “I’m fleeing.
“Elias,” she turned to the younger, dark haired man. “I’ve left your brother. Me and Bennett are through.”
Maggie Biggs lay half passed out on the sofa with a mild headache. This was the least she could do. After all, three years ago, when Ed Palmer had fallen for her, he had sugared her stepmother’s gas tank and knocked out the front windows of her father’s house. He had paid for all of it, and lost fifty percent of the trust he would ever have from a great deal of people so, on his first night of classes, she could wait up for him.
Earlier on his mother, Liz, had come by, and Maggie had offered her a cup of coffee, some doughnuts she had made with little skill, and the truth that Edward was doing later registration.
“He’d be late for his own funeral, you know?” Liz told Maggie. Maggie suspected she was right.
So it was about nine when Ed got there and sank on the couch, legs wide apart and threw an arm over her shoulder.
“You been waiting on me?”
Maggie didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep, and she crawled up to Ed, and wrapping her arms about him confessed, “I’ve been waiting on you.
“Not cooking for you, because I don’t do that. But waiting, I did make doughnuts.”
“Well, that’s a sort of cooking.”
“Not if you taste them. Your mom tasted one. She ate the whole thing, smiled and said it was delicious. That’s why I like her so much. Now my mom?” Maggie shook her head. “That bitch would tell the terrible truth.”
Ned hopped up.
“I’m so hungry I could eat a human arm.”
“Gross.”
“Point the way to those doughnuts.”
“On the counter on the other side of the kitchenette window.”
Ed reached through the window in the wall from where the kitchen looked onto the living room, and pulled a glass top from a plate of doughnuts. He set it down without really looking and then took up the doughnut and bit into it.
“Oh, my God, these aren’t bad at all.”
“Really?” Maggie sat up.
Ed thoughtfully chewed on the doughnut and swallowed half of it before speaking.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Ed said, coming back to the sofa. “I’m going to need several glasses of milk with these, and they definitely sit in your stomach like lead.”
“Thanks!”
“But it’s tasty lead.” He winked at her, and she slapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, I wanna see you cook,” she said.
“Fair enough,” Ed said with a shrug.
“Whaddit Mom come by for?”
“She wants you to call her. She was really mellow about it, but I think it might be urgent.”
Despite the hint that it might be urgent, Ed went on slowly digesting the doughnut. The lazy son of a bitch hadn’t even gotten up to get the glass of milk he said it needed so badly. She shrugged and went to get it herself. Ed didn’t understand. She’d made such a colossal fuck up of things she needed as many members of her family to like her as possible.
There was her father, Milo, and his whole family, including not only her great grandmother but, misfortune of misfortunes, Ed’s stepmother Meredith who was step sister and close to Maggie’s own stepmother, Dena, whom she had made her enemy with a great deal of teenage concentration. She paused over this, doing the family tree in her head. This made Meredith her cousin. Her possible stepmother-in-law one day, but definitely her cousin. She hadn’t known what a stupid idea it was to make an enemy of Dena Affren. She had not known the Affrens were so tangled in with Dena’s family. At the time she didn’t know that Ed would become her true boyfriend, and that his first cousin was raised in the home of Dena’s uncle, basically his son. She’d had no idea of the borderline incestuous ties of the residents of Rossford, Indiana or how when you screwed one over, you screwed about a hundred. Over time it had leaked out that she’d also encouraged a girl to sleep with and pretend to be pregnant by Bennett Anderson and who was Bennett Anderson? Well, it just turned out his girlfriend, equally long memoried and capable of vengeance, was the first cousin to her stepmother Dena, the foster sister of good ole cousin Dylan. And who loved them both and looked after them? Elias Anderson, one of the scariest motherfuckers she’d ever met. And in some way, all of these people should have been her friends. They should have been family. Things were, at best, uneasy between her and them. It probably, she had to admit, had something to do with the fact that she had never said she was sorry. No one knew how hard that was, though.
“Call your mother!” Maggie said at last, so loud Ed almost choked on his doughnut. “For fucks sake, call her!”
“Alright, already,” Ed said, with a laugh. He had no idea what the stakes in this were for her.
They didn’t have a landline, which Maggie thought they should get. She wasn’t so convinced that she had sprung for one, though. She wanted them to go in, jointly. Her mother had stopped paying for the apartment, and she refused help from Milo.
Ed took out his phone and called his mother.
“Hello.”
“It’s me.”
“You?” Then she said, “Ed? Ed, Lord, what have I told you about that ‘It’s me’ garbage.”
“It’s Edward, Mother,” Ed Palmer said. “Maggie said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yes,” Meg remembered. “Yes, I did. By the way, have you had her doughnuts?”
“Yeah,” Ed looked over at Maggie. “They’re delicious,” his voice was louder.
“Oh she must be sitting right next you,” Meg said. “Well, they aren’t bad, that’s true. But they could be a little lighter. I’m coming over next week to teach that girl how to cook, so you all need to figure out a good time for me to do that. But that’s not why I called.”
Ed was reaching the wearisome point he often did with his mother, and he said, “No, mother, it isn’t. So,” he prompted, “why did you call?”
“Well, you’re friends with Dylan, right?”
“We’re not close,” Ed said. “We talk, though. I guess we acknowledge each other.”
“Well, that’s what family does,” Meg said. “Look, I can’t blame him. Tom and Fenn are his parents and Eileen was so terrible to him. We just remind him of her.”
“Yeah,” Ed said. Personally, he was a little indifferent to his gay cousin’s personal drama.
“However,” Meg continued, “I need you to go talk to him for me.”
“Talk to Dylan?”
“Yes. Call him.”
“About what?”
“About his mother.”
“Oh, hell, Mom!”
“Just listen.”
“Mom, you want me to talk to a cousin who hardly acknowledges me about a woman he can’t stand.”
“Eileen is back. She’s here.”
“Then the last thing he needs is to hear about her.”
“She wants to see him and—”
“Mom,” Ed said. “I really don’t know Dylan that well. But I do know she tried to get into his life once and dropped the ball. I do know she dropped him off on someone’s door step and left for ten years.”
“But you don’t know that she’s dying!”
Ed stopped talking.
“That’s right,” his mother said. “If you’d just be quiet for a second, and let me finish then you would know that Eileen is dying.”
MORE TOMORROW
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Wow lots packed into this portion! I don't know how Dylan is going to feel about seeing Eileen. Her dying might sway him a bit but I don't quite know how he is going to react. After a night of little sleep and a big day, I am just going to leave it there for comments on this story and say that I am eagerly anticipating tomorrow's portion!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I think you said more than enough, and I appreciate you reading. As you can probably guess, nothing mundane is going to happen. Dylan has been so calm and collected... And now this. Damn, Eileen Wehlan.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
FIVE
K I N D R E D
“Mom, can I go out with TJ?”
“At this time of night?” Layla Lawden looked at her son.
Liam, cat green eyed and dusky skinned, stood solemnly waiting on her word, though he wasn’t surprised when she said no.
“And don’t even think about asking your father,” she continued. “But, what you can do is stop running through your uncle’s house.”
“Hey!” Todd said, as Liam nearly bumped into him, running into the kitchen.
“Sorry, Uncle Todd,” Liam straightened up and walked past the tall, grey haired man.
“He’s full of nothing but energy,” Todd commented, coming into the living room.
“Will wants to have another one, and I’m still recovering from our nine year old. Who would have ever thought I’d say that.”
“Who would have ever thought that Fenn would be off visiting his twenty year old son?”
There was a knock on the door, suddenly, but, as Fenn so often said, it was merely symbolic. The door opened and red hair disheveled, long nose quivering, Bennett Anderson entered the house with his brother, Matthew, and his cousin, Riley Lawden.
“What’s going on?” Layla directed this more to her nephew.
Before the caramel skinned boy could answer, Bennett said, “Todd, do you know where your daughter is?”
“What the—?”
“Maia just up and disappeared,” Riley said.
“She disa—“ Layla began and Todd concluded, weak voiced, “disappeared?”
“Actually, they got in a fight and then she walked away,” Matthew said, levelly.
Bennett looked at his brother fiercely but Matthew, who was dark haired and pale, cool tempered like Elias, was unaffected.
“You should call Fenn,” he told Todd.
Todd nodded at the sixteen year old and Layla handed him the phone.
“What’s going on?” Liam came out into the kitchen
Bennett opened his mouth, but Layla said, “Nothing’s going on.”
“I need to call Tara first,” Todd decided.
Solemnly, Matthew shook his head.
“You should not call Tara.”
Layla, thinking of Tara, and thinking of how she herself would react at hearing her child had gone missing, agreed.
“Hello… Fenn… What? Huh. Yeah, put her on.”
Todd cracked a smile.
“She’s in Chicago!” Todd said. Then, “What are you doing in Chicago? You don’t just get up and leave town without telling your parents! If you were right here, I’d turn you over my knee, Lady, and thrash you—”
“Well, she’s found,” Layla said, casually turning away from the rest of Todd’s diatribe while he took the phone into the kitchen.
A few moments later he returned to the living room. Bennett’s brow was furrowed and his eyes beady.
“Did she have anything to say to me?” he demanded.
Todd thunked him on the head not without affectionate.
“No, Bennett Anderson-Stanley, she did not.”
“Where is she?”
“Staying with your brother and Dylan.”
“I should go to her.”
“You should not,” Todd said. “Son-in-law, you and Maia have some serious shit to work out.”
“Did you dig those up from under the sofa?”
Elias was unpeeling caramels and popping them into his mouth.
“Yes,” he replied, his mouth full of candy. “Yes, I did.”
“Well, now it is his sofa,” Maia told Dylan with a shrug.
“Yeah, but we just picked that thing off of campus after some other students left it. Good God, Eli!”
“That is kind of nasty,” Maia commented. But Eli just held out his hand, and offered her a candy.
“It’s wrapped,” he said, mouth still full.
“I’ll pass.”
Dylan got up and went across the room to light a candle in front of the altar and muttered, “You all are impossible.”
“Is that your prayer for the night?” Maia said.
“No, that’s my declaration of faith.”
“Why are you here?” Fenn said, bluntly. “What did Bennett do to you?”
“He’s just driving me crazy.”
“You all shouldn’t be living together.”
“Firstly,” Maia said to Elias. “You and Dylan are living together, and living with Lance at that.”
“We’re more mature,” Elias said, straight faced. Maia could smell the stick of Nag Champa Dylan had just lit.
“You’re something,” Maia said. “But my second point is we are not living together. We just live together.”
“Oh my God, repeat that to yourself,” Dylan said, returning to the couch to sit on the other side of Maia from Elias.
“We have another roommate. We’re just roommates.”
“I think Layla and Will pulled that about a decade ago,” Fenn said.
“Actually, you and Todd pulled it thirty years ago,” Dylan said.
“Well, now there you go,” Fenn said to his son.
“Is everyone going to talk like I’m not here?” Maia looked at them.
They began to laugh, but Elias was first to stop, saying, “Sorry, Sis. Why don’t you go on.”
“I just need some space from him,” she said. “From his doing stupid shit and not thinking. From his temper.”
“Well, there is that,” Elias agreed.
“You’re the calm on. You’re the one who makes sense,” Maia said to Elias. “It’s like Ben just doesn’t think. And sometimes it’s beautiful. Like he gave away three hundred dollars to this charity. Only it was mostly my money, and then I had to ask Dad for the rent.”
“I remember that,” Fenn noted.
“And it’s boneheaded shit like that, that is driving me crazy.”
The phone rang, and though Fenn got up Dylan said, “I got it, Dad.”
A few minutes later, they heard Dylan cry: “Hey! What’s going on?”
He sat down on the counter and began talking, laughing, smiling wide, whispering for about ten minutes.
“Laurel,” Maia and Elias guessed.
“Alright, girl!” Dylan laughed into the phone.
It was endearing and odd to hear a somewhat butch, white boy with a military hair cut call anyone girl. It excited Elias a little bit.
“May, it’s for you,” Dylan said, coming back into the living room.
“All of that talk, and it was for me?” Maia muttered, taking the phone.
“Laurel?”
“I just heard that you left Bennett?”
“Are you serious?” Maia said. “Is my business all over the world?”
“No, just all over Rossford.”
“Where are you?”
“With Moshe. In New York. But Riley called me and told me, so now I’m calling you. What the nut, cuz?”
“I need space from his dumb ass,” was all Maia said.
Laurel thought about this, and then said, “Well, yeah. There’s a point to that.”
“Hold on, there’s a call trying to get through.”
“Alright.”
Maia switched over and said, “Hello?”
“Oh, my God, Maia, what happened?”
“Meredith?”
“Who else?”
“This is ridiculous. Meredith, I’m fine. Meredith, I would love to talk to you accept Laurel’s on the other line.”
“Well, if you ever need to talk…”
“I will remember that. In fact, I will call you when I’m off the phone with Laurel.”
“Alright, Sweetie. Love you. Bubbye.”
“Alright. That was Meredith.”
“How did she know?” Laurel said.
“It’s about five hundred possible ways she knows. Anyway, I’m fine, and don’t have much to say. Except I promised Meredith a call back, and right now all I want to do is go to sleep.”
“Alright,” Laurel said. “Well, I’m getting off the phone. Haven’t really seen Moshe all day. I’ll be back in a few days. Love you.”
“I love you too. Get the hell of the phone.”
Maia hung up, but just then the phone rang again.
“Oh, my God,” Fenn muttered, exasperated.
“Hello,” Maia said, picking the phone up. Then, “Layla!”
“Yes,” Layla said.
“You’re the one hundredth person to call about Bennett, and I’m fine. We’re both fine.”
“That’s good,” Layla said in a strange voice, “and of course you know I care about you and Bennett. But this is about Dylan.”
“I’ll get him—”
“No,” Layla said, soberly. “Could you get Fenn?”
Maia felt suddenly serious.
“Yeah,” she said in a low voice.
“Fenn, it’s Layla. Come to the phone.”
“Do you have any facial expression?” Layla whispered to her uncle, over the phone.
“I’m sure I do.”
“Whatever it is, hold it,” she said. “And then listen.”
Fenn realized he was frozen in a grin, and then said, “Alright.”
“I just got a call from Meredith’s stepson.”
“Uh huh. Meg Callan’s son.”
“Right. He tells me Eileen Wehlan is in a hospital in South Bend. She’s dying, Fenn.”
Fenn said nothing, and Layla said, “Your expression? Right now? How is it?”
“The same,” Fenn said through a grin.
“Will you tell Dylan?”
Fenn lifted a finger because Dylan was signaling him. He said, “I’m taking this outside.”
In the hall that smelled of cooking and carpet and, in some way he couldn’t explain, Chicago, Fenn continued as he went down the steps.
“He doesn’t love her. Or if he does the love is covered in hate from the time she left. He certainly doesn’t know her.”
“I know. But doesn’t he need to know? And how would he feel if he wasn’t told?”
“Especially with so much of his blood family in the city.”
“Right,” Layla said.
“Well… And you want me to tell him?”
“Ned does.”
“I think that’s a mistake. I think Ed should tell him. Ed is his family.”
“He’s actually a little afraid of Dylan.”
Fenn sat down on the little stone bench in the courtyard of the apartment. A way off, he could hear the rattle of the El train. Students were walking down the street.
“Fine,” said Fenn. “Fine. I’ll let him know. I’ll tell him now.”
When he was off the phone with Layla, when he was feeling that it was already a very long night, Fenn made another call.
“Hello,” Dylan said.
“Come down here,” Fenn said.
Above, the curtain opened and Dylan looked down. Fenn waved to him.
“Um, alright,” his son said.
A couple of minutes later, Dylan was there and Fenn touched the seat.
“That was a call from Layla that came from your cousin Ed who called our house.”
“Alright?” Dylan sat up, his senses tingling.
“Your mother is dying, and she wants to see you,” Fenn told him.
MORE TOMORROW
K I N D R E D
“Mom, can I go out with TJ?”
“At this time of night?” Layla Lawden looked at her son.
Liam, cat green eyed and dusky skinned, stood solemnly waiting on her word, though he wasn’t surprised when she said no.
“And don’t even think about asking your father,” she continued. “But, what you can do is stop running through your uncle’s house.”
“Hey!” Todd said, as Liam nearly bumped into him, running into the kitchen.
“Sorry, Uncle Todd,” Liam straightened up and walked past the tall, grey haired man.
“He’s full of nothing but energy,” Todd commented, coming into the living room.
“Will wants to have another one, and I’m still recovering from our nine year old. Who would have ever thought I’d say that.”
“Who would have ever thought that Fenn would be off visiting his twenty year old son?”
There was a knock on the door, suddenly, but, as Fenn so often said, it was merely symbolic. The door opened and red hair disheveled, long nose quivering, Bennett Anderson entered the house with his brother, Matthew, and his cousin, Riley Lawden.
“What’s going on?” Layla directed this more to her nephew.
Before the caramel skinned boy could answer, Bennett said, “Todd, do you know where your daughter is?”
“What the—?”
“Maia just up and disappeared,” Riley said.
“She disa—“ Layla began and Todd concluded, weak voiced, “disappeared?”
“Actually, they got in a fight and then she walked away,” Matthew said, levelly.
Bennett looked at his brother fiercely but Matthew, who was dark haired and pale, cool tempered like Elias, was unaffected.
“You should call Fenn,” he told Todd.
Todd nodded at the sixteen year old and Layla handed him the phone.
“What’s going on?” Liam came out into the kitchen
Bennett opened his mouth, but Layla said, “Nothing’s going on.”
“I need to call Tara first,” Todd decided.
Solemnly, Matthew shook his head.
“You should not call Tara.”
Layla, thinking of Tara, and thinking of how she herself would react at hearing her child had gone missing, agreed.
“Hello… Fenn… What? Huh. Yeah, put her on.”
Todd cracked a smile.
“She’s in Chicago!” Todd said. Then, “What are you doing in Chicago? You don’t just get up and leave town without telling your parents! If you were right here, I’d turn you over my knee, Lady, and thrash you—”
“Well, she’s found,” Layla said, casually turning away from the rest of Todd’s diatribe while he took the phone into the kitchen.
A few moments later he returned to the living room. Bennett’s brow was furrowed and his eyes beady.
“Did she have anything to say to me?” he demanded.
Todd thunked him on the head not without affectionate.
“No, Bennett Anderson-Stanley, she did not.”
“Where is she?”
“Staying with your brother and Dylan.”
“I should go to her.”
“You should not,” Todd said. “Son-in-law, you and Maia have some serious shit to work out.”
“Did you dig those up from under the sofa?”
Elias was unpeeling caramels and popping them into his mouth.
“Yes,” he replied, his mouth full of candy. “Yes, I did.”
“Well, now it is his sofa,” Maia told Dylan with a shrug.
“Yeah, but we just picked that thing off of campus after some other students left it. Good God, Eli!”
“That is kind of nasty,” Maia commented. But Eli just held out his hand, and offered her a candy.
“It’s wrapped,” he said, mouth still full.
“I’ll pass.”
Dylan got up and went across the room to light a candle in front of the altar and muttered, “You all are impossible.”
“Is that your prayer for the night?” Maia said.
“No, that’s my declaration of faith.”
“Why are you here?” Fenn said, bluntly. “What did Bennett do to you?”
“He’s just driving me crazy.”
“You all shouldn’t be living together.”
“Firstly,” Maia said to Elias. “You and Dylan are living together, and living with Lance at that.”
“We’re more mature,” Elias said, straight faced. Maia could smell the stick of Nag Champa Dylan had just lit.
“You’re something,” Maia said. “But my second point is we are not living together. We just live together.”
“Oh my God, repeat that to yourself,” Dylan said, returning to the couch to sit on the other side of Maia from Elias.
“We have another roommate. We’re just roommates.”
“I think Layla and Will pulled that about a decade ago,” Fenn said.
“Actually, you and Todd pulled it thirty years ago,” Dylan said.
“Well, now there you go,” Fenn said to his son.
“Is everyone going to talk like I’m not here?” Maia looked at them.
They began to laugh, but Elias was first to stop, saying, “Sorry, Sis. Why don’t you go on.”
“I just need some space from him,” she said. “From his doing stupid shit and not thinking. From his temper.”
“Well, there is that,” Elias agreed.
“You’re the calm on. You’re the one who makes sense,” Maia said to Elias. “It’s like Ben just doesn’t think. And sometimes it’s beautiful. Like he gave away three hundred dollars to this charity. Only it was mostly my money, and then I had to ask Dad for the rent.”
“I remember that,” Fenn noted.
“And it’s boneheaded shit like that, that is driving me crazy.”
The phone rang, and though Fenn got up Dylan said, “I got it, Dad.”
A few minutes later, they heard Dylan cry: “Hey! What’s going on?”
He sat down on the counter and began talking, laughing, smiling wide, whispering for about ten minutes.
“Laurel,” Maia and Elias guessed.
“Alright, girl!” Dylan laughed into the phone.
It was endearing and odd to hear a somewhat butch, white boy with a military hair cut call anyone girl. It excited Elias a little bit.
“May, it’s for you,” Dylan said, coming back into the living room.
“All of that talk, and it was for me?” Maia muttered, taking the phone.
“Laurel?”
“I just heard that you left Bennett?”
“Are you serious?” Maia said. “Is my business all over the world?”
“No, just all over Rossford.”
“Where are you?”
“With Moshe. In New York. But Riley called me and told me, so now I’m calling you. What the nut, cuz?”
“I need space from his dumb ass,” was all Maia said.
Laurel thought about this, and then said, “Well, yeah. There’s a point to that.”
“Hold on, there’s a call trying to get through.”
“Alright.”
Maia switched over and said, “Hello?”
“Oh, my God, Maia, what happened?”
“Meredith?”
“Who else?”
“This is ridiculous. Meredith, I’m fine. Meredith, I would love to talk to you accept Laurel’s on the other line.”
“Well, if you ever need to talk…”
“I will remember that. In fact, I will call you when I’m off the phone with Laurel.”
“Alright, Sweetie. Love you. Bubbye.”
“Alright. That was Meredith.”
“How did she know?” Laurel said.
“It’s about five hundred possible ways she knows. Anyway, I’m fine, and don’t have much to say. Except I promised Meredith a call back, and right now all I want to do is go to sleep.”
“Alright,” Laurel said. “Well, I’m getting off the phone. Haven’t really seen Moshe all day. I’ll be back in a few days. Love you.”
“I love you too. Get the hell of the phone.”
Maia hung up, but just then the phone rang again.
“Oh, my God,” Fenn muttered, exasperated.
“Hello,” Maia said, picking the phone up. Then, “Layla!”
“Yes,” Layla said.
“You’re the one hundredth person to call about Bennett, and I’m fine. We’re both fine.”
“That’s good,” Layla said in a strange voice, “and of course you know I care about you and Bennett. But this is about Dylan.”
“I’ll get him—”
“No,” Layla said, soberly. “Could you get Fenn?”
Maia felt suddenly serious.
“Yeah,” she said in a low voice.
“Fenn, it’s Layla. Come to the phone.”
“Do you have any facial expression?” Layla whispered to her uncle, over the phone.
“I’m sure I do.”
“Whatever it is, hold it,” she said. “And then listen.”
Fenn realized he was frozen in a grin, and then said, “Alright.”
“I just got a call from Meredith’s stepson.”
“Uh huh. Meg Callan’s son.”
“Right. He tells me Eileen Wehlan is in a hospital in South Bend. She’s dying, Fenn.”
Fenn said nothing, and Layla said, “Your expression? Right now? How is it?”
“The same,” Fenn said through a grin.
“Will you tell Dylan?”
Fenn lifted a finger because Dylan was signaling him. He said, “I’m taking this outside.”
In the hall that smelled of cooking and carpet and, in some way he couldn’t explain, Chicago, Fenn continued as he went down the steps.
“He doesn’t love her. Or if he does the love is covered in hate from the time she left. He certainly doesn’t know her.”
“I know. But doesn’t he need to know? And how would he feel if he wasn’t told?”
“Especially with so much of his blood family in the city.”
“Right,” Layla said.
“Well… And you want me to tell him?”
“Ned does.”
“I think that’s a mistake. I think Ed should tell him. Ed is his family.”
“He’s actually a little afraid of Dylan.”
Fenn sat down on the little stone bench in the courtyard of the apartment. A way off, he could hear the rattle of the El train. Students were walking down the street.
“Fine,” said Fenn. “Fine. I’ll let him know. I’ll tell him now.”
When he was off the phone with Layla, when he was feeling that it was already a very long night, Fenn made another call.
“Hello,” Dylan said.
“Come down here,” Fenn said.
Above, the curtain opened and Dylan looked down. Fenn waved to him.
“Um, alright,” his son said.
A couple of minutes later, Dylan was there and Fenn touched the seat.
“That was a call from Layla that came from your cousin Ed who called our house.”
“Alright?” Dylan sat up, his senses tingling.
“Your mother is dying, and she wants to see you,” Fenn told him.
MORE TOMORROW
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Another great portion as usual! You are fast becoming one of my favourite writers! 
I didn't want the portion to end at that cliffhanger like that. Maia and Dylan both have big things in their life to deal with. I look forward to reading whatever happens next tomorrow! I hope you are having a nice night!
I didn't want the portion to end at that cliffhanger like that. Maia and Dylan both have big things in their life to deal with. I look forward to reading whatever happens next tomorrow! I hope you are having a nice night!ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
Well, you are one of my favorite readers. As for cliffhangers, I realy hadn't meant it to be one, but the only other option would have been taking on a much longer scene, and that's just no good. So you will have be cliffhung (is that even a word?) a little longer, and see all the fun that awaits.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
DYLAN IS PRESENTED WITH A CHOICE AND MAGGIE AND JONAH HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT MOTHERS
“I don’t even know her,” Dylan said. “She’s been dead to me for years. She was dead to me when she walked out of my life.”
Fenn nodded.
“I don’t know what to do with her. I… You were the only mother I ever had. And then she came along.”
Dylan shook his head.
“And she sure in the hell wasn’t you.”
“Who is?” Fenn tried to make a joke of it.
“And now she really is dying. And now she…”
Dylan bit his lower lip, and his hands turned into light fists.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Fenn told him. “You don’t really owe her anything.”
“How could she do this?” Dylan wondered. “She hasn’t been a part of my life. She gave me away. She left me with Dad, and then walked away for ten years.”
“But she did come back.”
Dylan looked at his father, angrily.
“What the hell are you trying to do, Fenn?”
“Be fair to her,” he said.
“Well, don’t be.”
“I have to be,” Fenn said.
“Tom is your father and that’s all there is to it. He’s your blood, and even if he never met this woman, she and he are your natural parents. Everything in me wants to tell you to forget Eileen Wehlan. I want you to hate her. A little bit. That’s not right.”
They were both very quiet and Dylan said, “There’s no way you could possibly think she means more to me than you.”
“Parents ought to be above such things.”
“Dad,” Dylan looked up at Fenn and repeated, “there’s no way you could possibly think she means more to me than you?”
Fenn paused and then, while Dylan held his hand, he said, “No.”
“Good.”
After a while Dylan said, “What would you do?”
“I can’t imagine,” Fenn told him.
“What—”
“You want me to tell you what you should do.”
“Yes!” Dylan said, urgently.
“You know I rarely do that.”
“I wish you would.”
Dylan stood up. He stood over his father, his hands clasped.
“Tell me. For once just tell me.”
That was all Fenn needed. He nodded.
He told Dylan: “Go see your mother before it’s too late.”
Elias was half asleep in the bed next to Dylan while he talked on the phone in the middle of the night.
“I don’t want you to go see her, Baby,” Lance said.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” said Dylan, “I don’t want to go see her, either.”
“Good, then don’t.”
“Seriously, Lance?” Dylan said. “Could you not see your mother if she was on her death bed?”
“But my mother…” Lance was looking for a better way to put this, “actually was a mother. Is a mother.”
“I’m going, Lance,” Dylan said, finally. “I had the biggest battle, and that was with myself.”
“Well…” Lance was looking for something to say. “If you’re going to go—”
“I am.”
“Then could you at least wait for me to get back? I’ll go with you.”
“Lance, I get the feeling that there isn’t a lot of time to spare. I don’t want to go at all. I’m leaving in the morning. Eli’s coming with me.”
“What about Fenn?”
“No, he’s going back to Rossford. Or maybe he’s staying here and waiting till I get back.” Dylan shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
“Well, if I can’t change your mind…”
“You can’t, Lance.”
“In that case… I love you. Put Elias on the phone.”
“Elias, wake up—” Dylan began.
“I didn’t know he was asleep.”
“Lance?” Elias said into the phone.
“I didn’t mean to wake you, kid.”
“It’s alright. I’m not really asleep.”
“Are you letting him do this?”
“Letting him?” Elias murmured.
“Elias, don’t play.”
“Well, in that case, yes I am. I am allowing it.”
“But, you’re going with him?”
“Of course. Hold on.”
Elias climbed out of bed and took the phone down the hall, down to the bathroom.
“Look,” he whispered, “Dylan has a ton of regrets already, and if his mother dies and he doesn’t go to her, he’s going to regret that forever. So, yes, he’s going. And what’s more, Fenn told him to.”
“He what?”
“Because you know what? Fenn’s no fool, either.”
Lance said nothing, and Elias knew his brow was furrowed and he was playing with his fingers, opening up one then the other then closing them back.
“We’re going there. We’re coming back, and we’ll be at Union Station to pick you up on Sunday. Alright?”
After a long pause Lance said, “Alright.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“We’re going to bed.”
“Alright.”
“By the way,” Elias said.
“Yeah?”
“Maia’s living with us.”
And then Elias closed the phone, shut it off for the night and headed to bed.
“So, the other day, while I was in the middle of sucking Keith’s dick, he bust out with, ‘I think I’d like to go to church again.’”
Keith Redmond gave Jonah Layton a disgusted look while Maggie gave him an amazed one and Jonah said, “That is exactly the look that was on my face. Well, actually, a combination of both of yours.”
“How did you get so foul, and when did you think it was appropriate to bring that up in public?” Keith demanded.
“We’re not in public,” Jonah said. “We’re at home, and Maggie’s not public. She’s Maggie.
“Besides,” he looked at her, “who in the hell has a religious experience in the middle of a blowjob?”
“I’m getting up,” Keith said. “I have to go to work. And by the way, you really do make me mad sometimes, Lije.”
“Are you not going to kiss me goodbye?”
“I’ll think about it,” Keith said, heading toward the bathroom to finish dressing.
“Um, maybe I did step a little too far with that one,” Jonah said.
“Can’t admit it, though. Keith’ll smell the blood and never stop bitching.”
“Did he really?” Maggie got up and came to the couch where her friend sat. “Just like that?”
“Does Ed ever do strange things in the middle of?”
“Truthfully, I did convince him to ruin Dena and Milo’s house by repeatedly fellating him, but no, Ed never had a come to Jesus moment in the middle of a blowjob. That is distinctly weird.”
“Speaking of the coming to Jesus business, what about Ed’s aunt and all of that?”
“He called over to Fenn’s house for Dylan’s number. In the end it was Fenn who told Dylan about his mom.”
“That’s a rough one.”
“Your mother left you too,” Maggie said. She wasn’t trying to be painful, but she didn’t want to soft soap it.
Jonah nodded.
“What would you have done? If she was dying, what would you do?”
“A long time ago me and Keith and Sean went to visit my mother,” Jonah said. “I went to find her, long after she left me and my father. That was my goodbye to her.”
“So you wouldn’t go see her?”
“My experience is different,” Jonah Layton said. “Dylan never said goodbye to his mother. I already have.”
“I am more in love with you than I have ever been,” Keith Redmond had said the other day.
“Well, you never rubbed my feet before, so I believe you,” Jonah told him.
“Don’t stop.”
“I’m not stopping,” Keith said. “I’m pausing.
“Look out there. Look at that sun. This is going to be a good autumn. We should take a walk.”
“You were rubbing my feet.”
“Well, then how about I finish that, and we’ll drive to the park and you can sit on the hood of the car with your newly rubbed feet and watch me walk?”
“Marriage is compromise,” Jonah said with a slightly theatrical sigh.
Keith kissed his big toe and continued rubbing.
“That’s it. That is just it, right there. Ahhh. Right there.” Jonah murmured.
“Jonah,” Keith’s voice changed.
“And now that’s the end of the rub,” Jonah sat up. “I’m not complaining, you know? It couldn’t last forever.”
“Jonah, make love to me,” Keith said.
“You just said—”
“I changed my mind.”
Keith got up and moved to the couch to be next to Jonah.
“Be with me,” he said. “Be with me right now.”
Jonah nodded rapidly, and took him by the hand.
“Alright,” he said. “I can do that.”
They went back to his room.
They undressed quickly. Keith just wanted to be with him. They pressed their bodies together and hardly moved. They kissed gently, and held each other, and then Keith moved up and down Jonah’s body. In the end, quietly, noiseless, they sucked each other at the same time, sixty-nine, Keith heaven and Jonah earth. Jonah’s hands ran up and down Keith’s back, to his hips, to his ass. Keith, his mouth full of Jonah, felt Jonah’s mouth sucking him in, pulling him out to lick the shaft of his cock, lick his balls, felt now Jonah’s fingers in his ass, moving up and down, striking the fire to life by rubbing along his asshole. He moaned, but his mouth was full of Jonah. They weren’t separate. Jonah’s fingers in him sent up shock after shock.
He opened his mouth suddenly and cried out, and then, in his surprise he melted. His body rocked with total acceptance and he ejaculated, his seed spurting over into Jonah’s mouth, his voice high, light like the wind as he came and then lay on his side.
Wearily, Keith turned himself around. He was conscious of how long and tall he was, and he moved to lay face to face with Jonah. Jonah looked like a Black Buddha, face mischievous and impassive all at once.
“What are you thinking?” he asked Jonah.
Instead of answering, Jonah blinked, closed his eyes and, murmuring, asked Keith:
“What are you thinking?”
Half asleep, his voice a sort of purr, Keith said, “I’m thinking I’d like to go back to church.”
MORE TOMORROW
“I don’t even know her,” Dylan said. “She’s been dead to me for years. She was dead to me when she walked out of my life.”
Fenn nodded.
“I don’t know what to do with her. I… You were the only mother I ever had. And then she came along.”
Dylan shook his head.
“And she sure in the hell wasn’t you.”
“Who is?” Fenn tried to make a joke of it.
“And now she really is dying. And now she…”
Dylan bit his lower lip, and his hands turned into light fists.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Fenn told him. “You don’t really owe her anything.”
“How could she do this?” Dylan wondered. “She hasn’t been a part of my life. She gave me away. She left me with Dad, and then walked away for ten years.”
“But she did come back.”
Dylan looked at his father, angrily.
“What the hell are you trying to do, Fenn?”
“Be fair to her,” he said.
“Well, don’t be.”
“I have to be,” Fenn said.
“Tom is your father and that’s all there is to it. He’s your blood, and even if he never met this woman, she and he are your natural parents. Everything in me wants to tell you to forget Eileen Wehlan. I want you to hate her. A little bit. That’s not right.”
They were both very quiet and Dylan said, “There’s no way you could possibly think she means more to me than you.”
“Parents ought to be above such things.”
“Dad,” Dylan looked up at Fenn and repeated, “there’s no way you could possibly think she means more to me than you?”
Fenn paused and then, while Dylan held his hand, he said, “No.”
“Good.”
After a while Dylan said, “What would you do?”
“I can’t imagine,” Fenn told him.
“What—”
“You want me to tell you what you should do.”
“Yes!” Dylan said, urgently.
“You know I rarely do that.”
“I wish you would.”
Dylan stood up. He stood over his father, his hands clasped.
“Tell me. For once just tell me.”
That was all Fenn needed. He nodded.
He told Dylan: “Go see your mother before it’s too late.”
Elias was half asleep in the bed next to Dylan while he talked on the phone in the middle of the night.
“I don’t want you to go see her, Baby,” Lance said.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better,” said Dylan, “I don’t want to go see her, either.”
“Good, then don’t.”
“Seriously, Lance?” Dylan said. “Could you not see your mother if she was on her death bed?”
“But my mother…” Lance was looking for a better way to put this, “actually was a mother. Is a mother.”
“I’m going, Lance,” Dylan said, finally. “I had the biggest battle, and that was with myself.”
“Well…” Lance was looking for something to say. “If you’re going to go—”
“I am.”
“Then could you at least wait for me to get back? I’ll go with you.”
“Lance, I get the feeling that there isn’t a lot of time to spare. I don’t want to go at all. I’m leaving in the morning. Eli’s coming with me.”
“What about Fenn?”
“No, he’s going back to Rossford. Or maybe he’s staying here and waiting till I get back.” Dylan shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
“Well, if I can’t change your mind…”
“You can’t, Lance.”
“In that case… I love you. Put Elias on the phone.”
“Elias, wake up—” Dylan began.
“I didn’t know he was asleep.”
“Lance?” Elias said into the phone.
“I didn’t mean to wake you, kid.”
“It’s alright. I’m not really asleep.”
“Are you letting him do this?”
“Letting him?” Elias murmured.
“Elias, don’t play.”
“Well, in that case, yes I am. I am allowing it.”
“But, you’re going with him?”
“Of course. Hold on.”
Elias climbed out of bed and took the phone down the hall, down to the bathroom.
“Look,” he whispered, “Dylan has a ton of regrets already, and if his mother dies and he doesn’t go to her, he’s going to regret that forever. So, yes, he’s going. And what’s more, Fenn told him to.”
“He what?”
“Because you know what? Fenn’s no fool, either.”
Lance said nothing, and Elias knew his brow was furrowed and he was playing with his fingers, opening up one then the other then closing them back.
“We’re going there. We’re coming back, and we’ll be at Union Station to pick you up on Sunday. Alright?”
After a long pause Lance said, “Alright.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“We’re going to bed.”
“Alright.”
“By the way,” Elias said.
“Yeah?”
“Maia’s living with us.”
And then Elias closed the phone, shut it off for the night and headed to bed.
“So, the other day, while I was in the middle of sucking Keith’s dick, he bust out with, ‘I think I’d like to go to church again.’”
Keith Redmond gave Jonah Layton a disgusted look while Maggie gave him an amazed one and Jonah said, “That is exactly the look that was on my face. Well, actually, a combination of both of yours.”
“How did you get so foul, and when did you think it was appropriate to bring that up in public?” Keith demanded.
“We’re not in public,” Jonah said. “We’re at home, and Maggie’s not public. She’s Maggie.
“Besides,” he looked at her, “who in the hell has a religious experience in the middle of a blowjob?”
“I’m getting up,” Keith said. “I have to go to work. And by the way, you really do make me mad sometimes, Lije.”
“Are you not going to kiss me goodbye?”
“I’ll think about it,” Keith said, heading toward the bathroom to finish dressing.
“Um, maybe I did step a little too far with that one,” Jonah said.
“Can’t admit it, though. Keith’ll smell the blood and never stop bitching.”
“Did he really?” Maggie got up and came to the couch where her friend sat. “Just like that?”
“Does Ed ever do strange things in the middle of?”
“Truthfully, I did convince him to ruin Dena and Milo’s house by repeatedly fellating him, but no, Ed never had a come to Jesus moment in the middle of a blowjob. That is distinctly weird.”
“Speaking of the coming to Jesus business, what about Ed’s aunt and all of that?”
“He called over to Fenn’s house for Dylan’s number. In the end it was Fenn who told Dylan about his mom.”
“That’s a rough one.”
“Your mother left you too,” Maggie said. She wasn’t trying to be painful, but she didn’t want to soft soap it.
Jonah nodded.
“What would you have done? If she was dying, what would you do?”
“A long time ago me and Keith and Sean went to visit my mother,” Jonah said. “I went to find her, long after she left me and my father. That was my goodbye to her.”
“So you wouldn’t go see her?”
“My experience is different,” Jonah Layton said. “Dylan never said goodbye to his mother. I already have.”
“I am more in love with you than I have ever been,” Keith Redmond had said the other day.
“Well, you never rubbed my feet before, so I believe you,” Jonah told him.
“Don’t stop.”
“I’m not stopping,” Keith said. “I’m pausing.
“Look out there. Look at that sun. This is going to be a good autumn. We should take a walk.”
“You were rubbing my feet.”
“Well, then how about I finish that, and we’ll drive to the park and you can sit on the hood of the car with your newly rubbed feet and watch me walk?”
“Marriage is compromise,” Jonah said with a slightly theatrical sigh.
Keith kissed his big toe and continued rubbing.
“That’s it. That is just it, right there. Ahhh. Right there.” Jonah murmured.
“Jonah,” Keith’s voice changed.
“And now that’s the end of the rub,” Jonah sat up. “I’m not complaining, you know? It couldn’t last forever.”
“Jonah, make love to me,” Keith said.
“You just said—”
“I changed my mind.”
Keith got up and moved to the couch to be next to Jonah.
“Be with me,” he said. “Be with me right now.”
Jonah nodded rapidly, and took him by the hand.
“Alright,” he said. “I can do that.”
They went back to his room.
They undressed quickly. Keith just wanted to be with him. They pressed their bodies together and hardly moved. They kissed gently, and held each other, and then Keith moved up and down Jonah’s body. In the end, quietly, noiseless, they sucked each other at the same time, sixty-nine, Keith heaven and Jonah earth. Jonah’s hands ran up and down Keith’s back, to his hips, to his ass. Keith, his mouth full of Jonah, felt Jonah’s mouth sucking him in, pulling him out to lick the shaft of his cock, lick his balls, felt now Jonah’s fingers in his ass, moving up and down, striking the fire to life by rubbing along his asshole. He moaned, but his mouth was full of Jonah. They weren’t separate. Jonah’s fingers in him sent up shock after shock.
He opened his mouth suddenly and cried out, and then, in his surprise he melted. His body rocked with total acceptance and he ejaculated, his seed spurting over into Jonah’s mouth, his voice high, light like the wind as he came and then lay on his side.
Wearily, Keith turned himself around. He was conscious of how long and tall he was, and he moved to lay face to face with Jonah. Jonah looked like a Black Buddha, face mischievous and impassive all at once.
“What are you thinking?” he asked Jonah.
Instead of answering, Jonah blinked, closed his eyes and, murmuring, asked Keith:
“What are you thinking?”
Half asleep, his voice a sort of purr, Keith said, “I’m thinking I’d like to go back to church.”
MORE TOMORROW
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
I am glad Dylan is seeing his mother despite her past actions. I think he would regret it if he didn't. It was nice to see some more of Keith and Jonah. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I am embarassed to say I almost forgot about Keith and Jonah. They and Maggie are late Rossford arrivals, and I even worried if anyone would remember them. I was glad to see them here, and they were originally part of their own story, and a longer one. Maybe they will be again? Dylan is off to meet Eileen Wehlan and... I want to say more, but instead I'll just have to post tomorrow. Have an excellent day until then.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
“Well, maybe not church,” Keith said a little later that evening, while he was washing dishes, sleeves rolled up, and Jonah was drying them.
“In fact, I know I don’t want that. The day I decided I didn’t believe in that was the freest day of my life. The guilt was gone. The guilt about not believing, about not being able to measure up, about being out of touch with this God. So I don’t miss that. I don’t want that back.”
Jonah did not talk. He only stacked. He rarely talked about religion, which is what made his relationship with Keith so successful.
“But there is something. I believe in Something. You know? And I don’t believe in those people who sidle up to you on the bus like salesmen—they really are salesmen, you know—trying to sell you their version God, trying to give you their insecurity. They’ll say: you know there’s something. Would you like me to tell you about it? They don’t know. People who know… they’d never be on the bus trying to tell you they know.”
“So are you saying that you don’t think I’m an idiot anymore?”
“I never called you an idiot,” Keith sounded shocked.
“You kind of did. You kind of imply by being an atheists that the rest of us are deceived morons. There’s nothing. There’s nothing. Look at all those people praying to a God who isn’t there? Oh, if only they knew what I know.”
“You make me sound sort of like an ass.”
“Well, truthfully,” Jonah said, taking the cups and putting them away, “sometimes you are.”
IN THEIR FIRST INCARNATION, Jonah wasn’t sure he actually had loved Keith. He respected him. The passion of his life had been Jason, and that had ended badly. He had left home to get over Jason, and then come back to town to get over the getting over of Jason. That’s how he met Keith. Keith was already a graduate student on his way to becoming a professor when he and Jonah had begun seeing each other. Looking back on it, Jonah wondered if they ought to have simply been friends. Friends who slept together, but friends nonetheless. Their relationship had none of the force of deep romance.
Sean had come along at the same time. What Jonah did not know: Sean was old friends and occasional lovers with Keith. What he also did not know: before he and Keith became serious, Keith was having sex with Jason. Sean was just a handsome man he saw online, but so handsome, so winning that within the hour they met they were making love in the hotel room across the street. He met Keith one day, and thought of him wistfully, but the next day he had fucked Sean and couldn’t get him off of his mind. The entire time Sean had been in town that first time, Jonah snuck him home, opened the window for him, filled his bed with him. Sean put him in a passion to this day. At the time, Jonah had been barely twenty and Sean, lost and confused after his own passionate affairs, was already thirty-five.
A few months into his relationship with Keith, a good relationship, but one that missed something, they had gone to meet Keith’s family in Maryland, and Sean had come with them. Sean always ached, always longed for love, and in the night he’d come to their bedroom, stripped and lain between them. To Jonah’s surprise, Keith—seemingly in his own surprise, eyes on Jonah the whole time, mouth slack with surprise, amazement and desire, had fucked Sean hungrily, and then Sean, in the darkness and to the dim sight of Keith had come into Jonah. What a relief, how wonderful to give in to the man he loved in the presence of the other man he loved. He finished it off by having both of them as the sun came up. Just like that, two were now three.
The alchemy could not last past three years, which is why Jonah was so fascinated by Elias and Dylan and Lance. It was easy to see that Keith had succumbed to a lapse of judgment. A moment of weakness. Keith wasn’t in love with Sean even though his lust had started the whole thing. He had been in lust for his friend, which is why he had fucked him in Jonah’s presence. Now he was stuck with him.
“Before one of us leaves the other,” Jonah said one morning, “I am leaving you both.”
And when he was gone they were gone. It was just that simple. It made him uneasy thinking of it, but Keith and Sean didn’t love each other. They both loved him. Jonah had settled back into living in his father’s house, having something like a celibate existence. Keith came back to teach at the local college, but they did not see each other. Jonah heard tale that Sean had gone off to Indiana.
He thought about Sean. It was as simple as that. He thought of him all the time. When he was off of his guard, sitting in the living room reading a book, his first thoughts went to Sean. When he was cooking the evening meal, his thoughts went to Sean. When he saw couples walking together: Sean. Within a year Keith Redmond was gone anyway. But it was when Jonah began to dream of his old lover that he knew it was time to go off and find Sean.
One cold winter night, three years ago, Jonah had tracked Sean down. He knocked on the door
“Good evening,” he said. “I was told I could find Sean Babcock here?”
“Yes,” Kenny opened the door, “Come in. Are you friends?”
“We are.”
In less than twenty four hours they were in bed together, and in less than a week they were living together.
One morning Sean was cooking breakfast, and Jonah was sitting at the kitchen table, only half awake.
“You don’t mind that I’ve grown old.”
“No, not really.”
“You were supposed to say that I hadn’t grown old.”
“But you have,” Jonah said simply.
By now Sean’s temples were going grey.
“And,” Jonah continued. “I don’t mind it. I love you more.”
“We’re meant to be together.”
“Like two magnets,” Sean rejoined.
“Yes,” Jonah said. “I imagine that’s why we can’t stop fucking each other.”
And then, not long afterward, tall and blond, the very opposite of Sean, Keith Redmond had arrived at their door.
“I miss us so much,” Keith said, earnestly. “I miss what we were.”
Sean looked doubtful. He had Jonah now, and he had to admit he enjoyed that.
“Everything was so forced,” Keith said. “I forced us,” he turned to Sean, “to be something we weren’t.”
Jonah’s face was, as usual, expressionless.
“I just want to live here,” Keith said. “I just want to stay here. I’m glad you’re a couple. You can be a couple and I can be here. How is that?”
“Yes,” Jonah said before Sean could say anything. Then he looked at Sean. He wondered if he had gone too far.
“I miss you too,” Jonah said. “That first time when we were together, I loved you so much. You were right before me like a pillar of light. But Sean was everywhere. Sean was in all the dark spaces.”
“Thanks.”
“You know what I mean,” he touched Sean’s hand. “And now Sean is here. Sean is finally the man in my life. I don’t feel empty. If I ever felt empty that was more me than either one of you. But I feel like you should be here, Keith. And now you are.”
Keith was there for a month, and they were eating one evening when Sean said to him to him, “I don’t know if I’m at that place with my brother where we can work at the same school, but you could probably teach at Loretto. I hear they’re hiring in the philosophy department.”
“I can see about it,” said Keith.
“So you’re staying?” Jonah said.
“Does it make you happy?”
“You know it does.”
At this time they were living an odd life in the house that Brendan Miller and Kenny McGrath had shared. Kenny still lived downstairs with Meredith, and Ruthven was coming and going a lot. By summer Meredith had moved in with Charlie Palmer and marriage was around the corner. Brendan and Sheridan were definitely in Chicago and Ruthven was, if not Kenny’s out right boyfriend, then his roommate. Keith had been employed as an adjunct to teach summer classes, and Loretto had handed him enough work to teach in the autumn semester. Fenn decided to employ Sean at the theatre doing what Bryant had once done—but how did he have time now that he was Chair of the Music department?—and if Bryant had anything to say about it, he kept it to himself.
Fall was approaching, and Keith looked so handsome in his going to work clothes. That was the way Jonah loved both of his men, in a shirt and dress slacks and a tie, and he theorized that this was probably because he himself never wore any of these things. Layla had just arrived and they were working on a new enterprise together. Keith was buttering his toast and he said, “I’ll see you tonight. Sean doesn’t get back till ten, so it’ll just be us.”
“You’re looking at him,” Layla accused, wagging a finger.
“Of course I’m looking at him, but we’re not going to get into that again.”
“I felt the same way about Will once,” Layla said. “I was ready to walk down the aisle. I had the dress. Hell, I was in the dress, at the wedding. But when he said don’t do it, I didn’t do it and well,” she shrugged, “ten years later you see what’s happened.”
“And you don’t even have to leave Sean. You can have your Keith and eat Sean too.”
“Did you just make that up?”
“I did,” Layla said, pleased. “It’s something I never would have thought about. I couldn’t share Will, but it seems like it’s working for Dylan.”
“Is that public news yet?”
“No,” Layla answered. “And I don’t think it ever will be. He didn’t tell me. Elias told me. But he also said that it was you who inspired it.”
“Well, the three of them love each other, and I’m not quite sure if love is three way and mutual in this circle. I don’t know how Sean would take me having feelings for Keith. So, that’s off the table for now.”
MORE TOMORROW
“In fact, I know I don’t want that. The day I decided I didn’t believe in that was the freest day of my life. The guilt was gone. The guilt about not believing, about not being able to measure up, about being out of touch with this God. So I don’t miss that. I don’t want that back.”
Jonah did not talk. He only stacked. He rarely talked about religion, which is what made his relationship with Keith so successful.
“But there is something. I believe in Something. You know? And I don’t believe in those people who sidle up to you on the bus like salesmen—they really are salesmen, you know—trying to sell you their version God, trying to give you their insecurity. They’ll say: you know there’s something. Would you like me to tell you about it? They don’t know. People who know… they’d never be on the bus trying to tell you they know.”
“So are you saying that you don’t think I’m an idiot anymore?”
“I never called you an idiot,” Keith sounded shocked.
“You kind of did. You kind of imply by being an atheists that the rest of us are deceived morons. There’s nothing. There’s nothing. Look at all those people praying to a God who isn’t there? Oh, if only they knew what I know.”
“You make me sound sort of like an ass.”
“Well, truthfully,” Jonah said, taking the cups and putting them away, “sometimes you are.”
IN THEIR FIRST INCARNATION, Jonah wasn’t sure he actually had loved Keith. He respected him. The passion of his life had been Jason, and that had ended badly. He had left home to get over Jason, and then come back to town to get over the getting over of Jason. That’s how he met Keith. Keith was already a graduate student on his way to becoming a professor when he and Jonah had begun seeing each other. Looking back on it, Jonah wondered if they ought to have simply been friends. Friends who slept together, but friends nonetheless. Their relationship had none of the force of deep romance.
Sean had come along at the same time. What Jonah did not know: Sean was old friends and occasional lovers with Keith. What he also did not know: before he and Keith became serious, Keith was having sex with Jason. Sean was just a handsome man he saw online, but so handsome, so winning that within the hour they met they were making love in the hotel room across the street. He met Keith one day, and thought of him wistfully, but the next day he had fucked Sean and couldn’t get him off of his mind. The entire time Sean had been in town that first time, Jonah snuck him home, opened the window for him, filled his bed with him. Sean put him in a passion to this day. At the time, Jonah had been barely twenty and Sean, lost and confused after his own passionate affairs, was already thirty-five.
A few months into his relationship with Keith, a good relationship, but one that missed something, they had gone to meet Keith’s family in Maryland, and Sean had come with them. Sean always ached, always longed for love, and in the night he’d come to their bedroom, stripped and lain between them. To Jonah’s surprise, Keith—seemingly in his own surprise, eyes on Jonah the whole time, mouth slack with surprise, amazement and desire, had fucked Sean hungrily, and then Sean, in the darkness and to the dim sight of Keith had come into Jonah. What a relief, how wonderful to give in to the man he loved in the presence of the other man he loved. He finished it off by having both of them as the sun came up. Just like that, two were now three.
The alchemy could not last past three years, which is why Jonah was so fascinated by Elias and Dylan and Lance. It was easy to see that Keith had succumbed to a lapse of judgment. A moment of weakness. Keith wasn’t in love with Sean even though his lust had started the whole thing. He had been in lust for his friend, which is why he had fucked him in Jonah’s presence. Now he was stuck with him.
“Before one of us leaves the other,” Jonah said one morning, “I am leaving you both.”
And when he was gone they were gone. It was just that simple. It made him uneasy thinking of it, but Keith and Sean didn’t love each other. They both loved him. Jonah had settled back into living in his father’s house, having something like a celibate existence. Keith came back to teach at the local college, but they did not see each other. Jonah heard tale that Sean had gone off to Indiana.
He thought about Sean. It was as simple as that. He thought of him all the time. When he was off of his guard, sitting in the living room reading a book, his first thoughts went to Sean. When he was cooking the evening meal, his thoughts went to Sean. When he saw couples walking together: Sean. Within a year Keith Redmond was gone anyway. But it was when Jonah began to dream of his old lover that he knew it was time to go off and find Sean.
One cold winter night, three years ago, Jonah had tracked Sean down. He knocked on the door
“Good evening,” he said. “I was told I could find Sean Babcock here?”
“Yes,” Kenny opened the door, “Come in. Are you friends?”
“We are.”
In less than twenty four hours they were in bed together, and in less than a week they were living together.
One morning Sean was cooking breakfast, and Jonah was sitting at the kitchen table, only half awake.
“You don’t mind that I’ve grown old.”
“No, not really.”
“You were supposed to say that I hadn’t grown old.”
“But you have,” Jonah said simply.
By now Sean’s temples were going grey.
“And,” Jonah continued. “I don’t mind it. I love you more.”
“We’re meant to be together.”
“Like two magnets,” Sean rejoined.
“Yes,” Jonah said. “I imagine that’s why we can’t stop fucking each other.”
And then, not long afterward, tall and blond, the very opposite of Sean, Keith Redmond had arrived at their door.
“I miss us so much,” Keith said, earnestly. “I miss what we were.”
Sean looked doubtful. He had Jonah now, and he had to admit he enjoyed that.
“Everything was so forced,” Keith said. “I forced us,” he turned to Sean, “to be something we weren’t.”
Jonah’s face was, as usual, expressionless.
“I just want to live here,” Keith said. “I just want to stay here. I’m glad you’re a couple. You can be a couple and I can be here. How is that?”
“Yes,” Jonah said before Sean could say anything. Then he looked at Sean. He wondered if he had gone too far.
“I miss you too,” Jonah said. “That first time when we were together, I loved you so much. You were right before me like a pillar of light. But Sean was everywhere. Sean was in all the dark spaces.”
“Thanks.”
“You know what I mean,” he touched Sean’s hand. “And now Sean is here. Sean is finally the man in my life. I don’t feel empty. If I ever felt empty that was more me than either one of you. But I feel like you should be here, Keith. And now you are.”
Keith was there for a month, and they were eating one evening when Sean said to him to him, “I don’t know if I’m at that place with my brother where we can work at the same school, but you could probably teach at Loretto. I hear they’re hiring in the philosophy department.”
“I can see about it,” said Keith.
“So you’re staying?” Jonah said.
“Does it make you happy?”
“You know it does.”
At this time they were living an odd life in the house that Brendan Miller and Kenny McGrath had shared. Kenny still lived downstairs with Meredith, and Ruthven was coming and going a lot. By summer Meredith had moved in with Charlie Palmer and marriage was around the corner. Brendan and Sheridan were definitely in Chicago and Ruthven was, if not Kenny’s out right boyfriend, then his roommate. Keith had been employed as an adjunct to teach summer classes, and Loretto had handed him enough work to teach in the autumn semester. Fenn decided to employ Sean at the theatre doing what Bryant had once done—but how did he have time now that he was Chair of the Music department?—and if Bryant had anything to say about it, he kept it to himself.
Fall was approaching, and Keith looked so handsome in his going to work clothes. That was the way Jonah loved both of his men, in a shirt and dress slacks and a tie, and he theorized that this was probably because he himself never wore any of these things. Layla had just arrived and they were working on a new enterprise together. Keith was buttering his toast and he said, “I’ll see you tonight. Sean doesn’t get back till ten, so it’ll just be us.”
“You’re looking at him,” Layla accused, wagging a finger.
“Of course I’m looking at him, but we’re not going to get into that again.”
“I felt the same way about Will once,” Layla said. “I was ready to walk down the aisle. I had the dress. Hell, I was in the dress, at the wedding. But when he said don’t do it, I didn’t do it and well,” she shrugged, “ten years later you see what’s happened.”
“And you don’t even have to leave Sean. You can have your Keith and eat Sean too.”
“Did you just make that up?”
“I did,” Layla said, pleased. “It’s something I never would have thought about. I couldn’t share Will, but it seems like it’s working for Dylan.”
“Is that public news yet?”
“No,” Layla answered. “And I don’t think it ever will be. He didn’t tell me. Elias told me. But he also said that it was you who inspired it.”
“Well, the three of them love each other, and I’m not quite sure if love is three way and mutual in this circle. I don’t know how Sean would take me having feelings for Keith. So, that’s off the table for now.”
MORE TOMORROW
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Great to hear from these characters so much! I like Keith, Jonah and Sean. Hopefully there is a lot more of them to come! I am not sure if they can be a thruple again but its nice that they inspired Dylan, Elias and Lance! Excellent writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
Yes, they are the whole reason Dylan, Elias and Lance are together! Theres always the matter of how long a post should be. I wanted more of them tonight, but the next part was so long and I couldn't properly break it up, so we'll be with these friends again tomorrow. They are really could company, no matter what comes of them, and of course, we've got to get back to Dylan's business.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
After Layla, who was more right than wrong, had left, Jonah sat down to finish his term project. A Masters that had the potential of blossoming into a PhD was a respectable masquerade for a disreputable artist, and he spent half the afternoon in the house, lost in his work. When Keith returned he was surprised and half betrayed by his feelings for him.
“Why are you looking at me that way?” Keith said.
“Because I love you,” Jonah said, honestly.
“Well, I love you too.”
“I don’t mean that way.”
“I know what way you mean,” Keith said, taking an apple from the table and sitting down beside Jonah.
“I loved you dutifully but not passionately,” Jonah said.
“And now you love me passionately?”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not.” But Keith was smirking while he bit into the apple.
But after a bite or two, after digesting the apple, Keith said, frankly, “I have always loved you passionately. I wouldn’t be here, sex depraved for the last half year if I didn’t.
“Ah, Jonah,” he put the apple down. “When we first came to each other, we didn’t come correct. I wanted my relationship to you to be so pure. You were off of your life with Jason and, hell, I was fucking Jason. I was confused about religion, about myself, about sex, about love, and you were in love with Sean who was just… plain confused. No wonder it didn’t work in the end. It was botched from the beginning.”
“And now you want me to leave Sean?”
“No,” Keith said. “But I do want you to be with me.
“Look,” Keith continued. “I love Sean. I’m not in love with him. But I do love him. I’m still attracted to him. We make—we made—excellent friends with benefits. Not enough for a relationship with just the two of us. But with the three of us…” Keith shrugged.
“I can’t believe you want me to enter into this again.”
“Why are you pretending you don’t want to?” Keith said.
“It’s not a big deal. Well,” Keith reformulated, “it is a big deal. Mormons do it. They know it’s a big deal. When we were together, Sean always hovered over things. Without him our relationship was empty and without me I think you feel the same way. So what is so wrong if you have him and you have me? If we both belong to you?”
“I will never go to Sean with that.”
“I know,” Keith said seriously. “But I will.”
Jonah furrowed his brow.
“Look,” said Keith, “if we are giving ourselves to you, then it is for us to hammer out, right?”
On hearing that, Jonah did the only thing he could.
He left for Michigan to go see his father.
He did not share his dilemma, or rather his opportunity, with his father. He had never gone on about the details of the relationship. He was glad to be back in Michigan but sensed that he was merely putting off the inevitable.
When he arrived back home, Keith and Sean received him quietly. They made dinner, ate peaceably and then put the dishes away.
“You just rest,” Sean said.
Not that he wasn’t usually taken care of, but this whole evening had been surreal.
When the kitchen was clean both of the older men sat across from him. He felt strangely like someone about to be chided by his parents.
“We have some serious things to discuss,” Sean said.
And then Sean said, “Actually, we only have one thing to discuss.”
He took Jonah’s hand, and then he took Keith’s hand, and he put them together. He stood up and kissed Jonah on the cheek, and then he went to embrace Keith.
“This is the way I want it,” Sean said. “All of my life I’ve been greedy and selfish and needy. This is the way I actually need it. Please,” he said.
Sean got up and walked away, and Keith looked at Jonah earnestly.
“You all may want it this way,” Jonah said. “But last time you gave me no time to think of what I wanted.”
“I know,” Keith said. “Sean is right. We were both stupid and selfish and greedy.”
His hand was still in Jonah’s.
“I’ve been here for almost a year, and I’m not going anywhere. You come to me when you want. Or I’ll come to you. But just… let’s come. Alright?”
Jonah nodded his head and went up to bed alone. He should have felt light hearted, but he didn’t feel that way at all.
The days darkened quickly, and winter was approaching. Play practice was going on till late and after dinner and after sitting up, reading, Jonah said, “It’s time to go to bed. For me at least.”
“Jonah—” Keith began.
In that moment Jonah knew what Keith wanted to say. He didn’t say it, but Jonah knew he wanted to.
“Come,” he told him.
Instead Keith leaned forward and kissed him. Jonah couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt. How good it was to hold Keith’s face, to have Keith pressed to him. It wasn’t like lust. It was like opening. It was like his heart opening and himself melting out of it.
Suddenly, in a rush, Keith stood up, bringing Jonah up with him.
“Sean isn’t at the theatre. I can’t lie. He just said he’d stay away for the night. He thought that would make it easier.”
It did make it easier. That was how it felt to Jonah right now. Easy. His eyes stung a little with tears.
Keith kissed him again.
This time it was Keith who led him down the hall, and Keith who said, “Come.”
They made hardly any noise as they undressed and clung to each other. There was no hurry in the darkness. There were the sounds of the furnace, of Ruthven and Kenny downstairs, and then, eventually, of startled orgasm in the holy darkness. Later they lay side by side, hearing each other’s breathing. His hand was closed tightly in Keith’s and Keith said nothing. Keith turned over on his side so that Jonah did as well, and he pressed his face into Jonah’s back, wrapping his arms tightly around him. Jonah felt so loved, so safe, so much as if things were finally in their proper place.
They slept.
“OKAY, SO SINCE YOU two have been together the longest and, besides that, you’re having a rough patch, I’ve decided you get Lance for the first two nights,” Elias said.
Dylan was driving, but Elias was typing on his laptop.
“So that’s Sunday night when he gets home. You might be too tired to even do anything then. And then on Tuesday I get him, and then from that point on we’ll just have normal rotation. You Wednesday, me Thursday and so forth. Unless there are mitigating circumstances—”
“Eli, do we really have to talk about this now?” Dylan turned to him.
“Well, we’re not really talking so much as I’m doing the chart for the whole time Lance is here. He graduates at the end of this year, and then we’re really going to have to revise the chart.”
“Jeee-ssus!” Dylan muttered and pounded the steering wheel.
“You know what, Dylan?” Elias told him, “The reason you can say Jesus and drive on unbothered is because your’s truly goes through the effort of making the chart, and making the house rules. Rules like, even though Lance stays in your bed for two nights, what you all do is your business, and that doesn’t mean that during the day we can’t be with whomever of us we choose. Or—and this is my favorite: even if you all are having a fight, you must stick to the chart and sleep in your assigned bed. Except in cases of gas or sickness in which the sick person can or ought to sleep alone.”
Dylan only turned up the radio, and planted his hands firmly on the wheel.
“You can’t deny that it works,” Elias said.
“No,” Dylan agreed. “But you just go on and the fuck on about it. You’re such a tyrant about the whole thing.” Dylan jabbed the computer and Elias made a noise.
“My work isn’t saved—”
“It’s just… Why can’t we be more spontaneous?”
“Because there are three of us,” Elias said.
“If you were any good in chemistry you would know the more neutrons, the more unstable an atom. We’re like an isotope or something, and that means we need rules. The only reason one of us hasn’t left, or isn’t crying or feeling suicidal is because we keep these rules.”
“I guess,” Dylan said, bored.
“You know it,” Elias said, passionately.
Elias had lost his virginity to Dylan one Christmas years back, something Dylan had been embarrassed and ashamed over. He’d wanted them to go back to being friends, and Elias had complied, but not before Lance had stumbled into him in a similar way. The two exes, Lance and Dylan, had come back together, neither one of them knowing they’d both had a passionate indiscretion with Elias, and then they had both begun to fall in love with each other again, and with Elias. The truth was Elias had a way of stabilizing anything. Either of them would have been happy with Elias, but he was passionately in love with both of them. Dylan and Lance were perpetually in a passion with each other. Only the addition of Elias would make their relationship something close to sane. Only Elias saw this as the natural conclusion. Since the night they had first come together, with his very logical mind, Elias had set to building the rules by which a three way relationship could survive. When something did not work, he made a mental note of it. Lance and Dylan tended to feel moody, guilty and taciturn after three ways, so that was out. If the two of them had spent the night together, during the day both of them usually approached him for sex, so that was in. Apparently their relationship, before he had joined it, was so out of control neither one of them liked to discuss its details. So that was out too.
The phone rang, and Dylan reached for it, but before he could open it, Elias said, “No talking while driving,” and answered himself.
“Hello?”
“Eli!”
“Bennett?”
“Yeah, Twin. Where are you?”
“I’m in a car with Dylan on my way to South Bend.”
“Oh,” Bennett sounded deflated.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was hoping to see you.”
“We’ll be back soon.”
“I won’t. I’m going to Chicago.”
“What the—?”
“I’m going for Maia.”
“But she doesn’t want to see you.”
“She will, and then we’re gonna take a little trip.”
“It’s Bennett,” Elias mouthed to Dylan.
“She doesn’t even want to talk to you, and you’re talking about taking Maia on a trip, and you sound really nuts and—”
“Well, when I say trip, I mean kidnap,” Bennett explained.
“Bennett—!”
“Love you, brudda. Gotta go.”
And then Bennett hung up while Elias sat there with his mouth open.
“What was all that about?” Dylan said.
Instead of answering, Elias made another phone call.
“Fenn? Yes. Bennett’s on his way to Chicago, and I think he’s lost his mind. Yeah. That’s it. Alright. Good bye.”
As they came off the toll road, Dylan said, “That was the strangest conversation I’ve ever heard.”
He paid the toll and they drove into South Bend, or more correctly, Notre Dame, Indiana. He had been here a few times and he went down the state road. To his left was the university and across Elias was the green of Saint Mary’s College. They sped toward the city proper.
“So this is South Bend?” Elias said.
“Um hum,” Dylan muttered.
Effecting a Bette Davis impersonation, Elias murmured:
“What…a…. dump!”
MORE TOMORROW NIGHT
“Why are you looking at me that way?” Keith said.
“Because I love you,” Jonah said, honestly.
“Well, I love you too.”
“I don’t mean that way.”
“I know what way you mean,” Keith said, taking an apple from the table and sitting down beside Jonah.
“I loved you dutifully but not passionately,” Jonah said.
“And now you love me passionately?”
“Don’t make fun of me.”
“I’m not.” But Keith was smirking while he bit into the apple.
But after a bite or two, after digesting the apple, Keith said, frankly, “I have always loved you passionately. I wouldn’t be here, sex depraved for the last half year if I didn’t.
“Ah, Jonah,” he put the apple down. “When we first came to each other, we didn’t come correct. I wanted my relationship to you to be so pure. You were off of your life with Jason and, hell, I was fucking Jason. I was confused about religion, about myself, about sex, about love, and you were in love with Sean who was just… plain confused. No wonder it didn’t work in the end. It was botched from the beginning.”
“And now you want me to leave Sean?”
“No,” Keith said. “But I do want you to be with me.
“Look,” Keith continued. “I love Sean. I’m not in love with him. But I do love him. I’m still attracted to him. We make—we made—excellent friends with benefits. Not enough for a relationship with just the two of us. But with the three of us…” Keith shrugged.
“I can’t believe you want me to enter into this again.”
“Why are you pretending you don’t want to?” Keith said.
“It’s not a big deal. Well,” Keith reformulated, “it is a big deal. Mormons do it. They know it’s a big deal. When we were together, Sean always hovered over things. Without him our relationship was empty and without me I think you feel the same way. So what is so wrong if you have him and you have me? If we both belong to you?”
“I will never go to Sean with that.”
“I know,” Keith said seriously. “But I will.”
Jonah furrowed his brow.
“Look,” said Keith, “if we are giving ourselves to you, then it is for us to hammer out, right?”
On hearing that, Jonah did the only thing he could.
He left for Michigan to go see his father.
He did not share his dilemma, or rather his opportunity, with his father. He had never gone on about the details of the relationship. He was glad to be back in Michigan but sensed that he was merely putting off the inevitable.
When he arrived back home, Keith and Sean received him quietly. They made dinner, ate peaceably and then put the dishes away.
“You just rest,” Sean said.
Not that he wasn’t usually taken care of, but this whole evening had been surreal.
When the kitchen was clean both of the older men sat across from him. He felt strangely like someone about to be chided by his parents.
“We have some serious things to discuss,” Sean said.
And then Sean said, “Actually, we only have one thing to discuss.”
He took Jonah’s hand, and then he took Keith’s hand, and he put them together. He stood up and kissed Jonah on the cheek, and then he went to embrace Keith.
“This is the way I want it,” Sean said. “All of my life I’ve been greedy and selfish and needy. This is the way I actually need it. Please,” he said.
Sean got up and walked away, and Keith looked at Jonah earnestly.
“You all may want it this way,” Jonah said. “But last time you gave me no time to think of what I wanted.”
“I know,” Keith said. “Sean is right. We were both stupid and selfish and greedy.”
His hand was still in Jonah’s.
“I’ve been here for almost a year, and I’m not going anywhere. You come to me when you want. Or I’ll come to you. But just… let’s come. Alright?”
Jonah nodded his head and went up to bed alone. He should have felt light hearted, but he didn’t feel that way at all.
The days darkened quickly, and winter was approaching. Play practice was going on till late and after dinner and after sitting up, reading, Jonah said, “It’s time to go to bed. For me at least.”
“Jonah—” Keith began.
In that moment Jonah knew what Keith wanted to say. He didn’t say it, but Jonah knew he wanted to.
“Come,” he told him.
Instead Keith leaned forward and kissed him. Jonah couldn’t believe how wonderful it felt. How good it was to hold Keith’s face, to have Keith pressed to him. It wasn’t like lust. It was like opening. It was like his heart opening and himself melting out of it.
Suddenly, in a rush, Keith stood up, bringing Jonah up with him.
“Sean isn’t at the theatre. I can’t lie. He just said he’d stay away for the night. He thought that would make it easier.”
It did make it easier. That was how it felt to Jonah right now. Easy. His eyes stung a little with tears.
Keith kissed him again.
This time it was Keith who led him down the hall, and Keith who said, “Come.”
They made hardly any noise as they undressed and clung to each other. There was no hurry in the darkness. There were the sounds of the furnace, of Ruthven and Kenny downstairs, and then, eventually, of startled orgasm in the holy darkness. Later they lay side by side, hearing each other’s breathing. His hand was closed tightly in Keith’s and Keith said nothing. Keith turned over on his side so that Jonah did as well, and he pressed his face into Jonah’s back, wrapping his arms tightly around him. Jonah felt so loved, so safe, so much as if things were finally in their proper place.
They slept.
“OKAY, SO SINCE YOU two have been together the longest and, besides that, you’re having a rough patch, I’ve decided you get Lance for the first two nights,” Elias said.
Dylan was driving, but Elias was typing on his laptop.
“So that’s Sunday night when he gets home. You might be too tired to even do anything then. And then on Tuesday I get him, and then from that point on we’ll just have normal rotation. You Wednesday, me Thursday and so forth. Unless there are mitigating circumstances—”
“Eli, do we really have to talk about this now?” Dylan turned to him.
“Well, we’re not really talking so much as I’m doing the chart for the whole time Lance is here. He graduates at the end of this year, and then we’re really going to have to revise the chart.”
“Jeee-ssus!” Dylan muttered and pounded the steering wheel.
“You know what, Dylan?” Elias told him, “The reason you can say Jesus and drive on unbothered is because your’s truly goes through the effort of making the chart, and making the house rules. Rules like, even though Lance stays in your bed for two nights, what you all do is your business, and that doesn’t mean that during the day we can’t be with whomever of us we choose. Or—and this is my favorite: even if you all are having a fight, you must stick to the chart and sleep in your assigned bed. Except in cases of gas or sickness in which the sick person can or ought to sleep alone.”
Dylan only turned up the radio, and planted his hands firmly on the wheel.
“You can’t deny that it works,” Elias said.
“No,” Dylan agreed. “But you just go on and the fuck on about it. You’re such a tyrant about the whole thing.” Dylan jabbed the computer and Elias made a noise.
“My work isn’t saved—”
“It’s just… Why can’t we be more spontaneous?”
“Because there are three of us,” Elias said.
“If you were any good in chemistry you would know the more neutrons, the more unstable an atom. We’re like an isotope or something, and that means we need rules. The only reason one of us hasn’t left, or isn’t crying or feeling suicidal is because we keep these rules.”
“I guess,” Dylan said, bored.
“You know it,” Elias said, passionately.
Elias had lost his virginity to Dylan one Christmas years back, something Dylan had been embarrassed and ashamed over. He’d wanted them to go back to being friends, and Elias had complied, but not before Lance had stumbled into him in a similar way. The two exes, Lance and Dylan, had come back together, neither one of them knowing they’d both had a passionate indiscretion with Elias, and then they had both begun to fall in love with each other again, and with Elias. The truth was Elias had a way of stabilizing anything. Either of them would have been happy with Elias, but he was passionately in love with both of them. Dylan and Lance were perpetually in a passion with each other. Only the addition of Elias would make their relationship something close to sane. Only Elias saw this as the natural conclusion. Since the night they had first come together, with his very logical mind, Elias had set to building the rules by which a three way relationship could survive. When something did not work, he made a mental note of it. Lance and Dylan tended to feel moody, guilty and taciturn after three ways, so that was out. If the two of them had spent the night together, during the day both of them usually approached him for sex, so that was in. Apparently their relationship, before he had joined it, was so out of control neither one of them liked to discuss its details. So that was out too.
The phone rang, and Dylan reached for it, but before he could open it, Elias said, “No talking while driving,” and answered himself.
“Hello?”
“Eli!”
“Bennett?”
“Yeah, Twin. Where are you?”
“I’m in a car with Dylan on my way to South Bend.”
“Oh,” Bennett sounded deflated.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was hoping to see you.”
“We’ll be back soon.”
“I won’t. I’m going to Chicago.”
“What the—?”
“I’m going for Maia.”
“But she doesn’t want to see you.”
“She will, and then we’re gonna take a little trip.”
“It’s Bennett,” Elias mouthed to Dylan.
“She doesn’t even want to talk to you, and you’re talking about taking Maia on a trip, and you sound really nuts and—”
“Well, when I say trip, I mean kidnap,” Bennett explained.
“Bennett—!”
“Love you, brudda. Gotta go.”
And then Bennett hung up while Elias sat there with his mouth open.
“What was all that about?” Dylan said.
Instead of answering, Elias made another phone call.
“Fenn? Yes. Bennett’s on his way to Chicago, and I think he’s lost his mind. Yeah. That’s it. Alright. Good bye.”
As they came off the toll road, Dylan said, “That was the strangest conversation I’ve ever heard.”
He paid the toll and they drove into South Bend, or more correctly, Notre Dame, Indiana. He had been here a few times and he went down the state road. To his left was the university and across Elias was the green of Saint Mary’s College. They sped toward the city proper.
“So this is South Bend?” Elias said.
“Um hum,” Dylan muttered.
Effecting a Bette Davis impersonation, Elias murmured:
“What…a…. dump!”
MORE TOMORROW NIGHT
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Another excellent portion! I hope Keith, Jonah and Sean can work something out and I hope the same for Dylan, Lance and Elias. Both are tricky situations though so who knows what will happen. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
You will certainly learn more tomorrow. Which, now that I look at my clock, is today
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
TODAY DYLAN CONFRONTS HIS MOTHER... AND GETS A SURPRISE.
The hospital was large. Being a place he didn’t particularly enjoy, Dylan walked with a laser focus. Had he been Theseus, he could have easily made it out of the labyrinth with no girl and no ball of yarn. Elias’s analytical mind helped as well, and it was not long before they found their way to the room of Eileen Wehlan.
“Are you Dylan?” a boy sitting outside said.
The hall was comfortable, carpeted, a little dim. There was a lounge.
“Yes,” Dylan said.
“Oh, good,” said the boy. “She’s been waiting for you. She’s right there.”
He pointed to the room across the hall where Dylan could hear some voices.
“Thanks,” Dylan nodded.
“Helpful kid,” Elias muttered. “I wonder if he’s a cousin? You all look alike.”
Dylan said, “I got more cousins than I can shake a stick at,” as he entered the room.
“Dylan!”
His aunt—he had gotten used to Meg Callan being Aunt Meg, stood up. His cousin Theresa was with her, feeding ice cubes to a woman Dylan hadn’t seen in a decade.
“Dylan!” her voice was dry.
“Eileen,” he said. He didn’t refrain from calling her Mother to prove a point. He simply didn’t think of her that way.
He came to the bed, amazed. There were no tears in his eyes, but he surveyed the ravishment of the woman who had brought him into this world, curly hair grayed now, face lined, eyes incredibly grateful to see him.
“I didn’t think you’d come.”
Instead of answering this, Dylan said, “This is Elias.”
Elias nodded.
“Hello, Elias,” Eileen said.
She lay back and sighed with a smile on her painful face.
“You’ve turned out so good looking,” she said.
“You know I couldn’t have done it. Fenn and Tom did it. I never could have.”
Dylan said nothing.
“A long time ago a man came to me. He knew I wanted a child. He said he could help. He brought you to me,” Eileen continued. “In a cup. I wasn’t able to be the mother I wanted to be, so I gave him back to you.”
She began coughing. The fit lasted so long they feared she would never stop. Meg held her up, placing her hands on Eileen’s back. The dark haired boy from the hall came into the room, anxious looking, but Dylan said, “Don’t worry about it, Kid. Elias, walk him out.”
Elias nodded and escorted the boy out of the room.
At last, with ice chips in her mouth, Eileen continued, “You may have thought I was in the wrong for giving you up again. And I was, but you were always in the right place. Fenn and Tom are where you came from. That’s where you should have stayed.”
She sighed. It was such a long sigh Dylan nearly passed out in the middle of it.
“And now…” Eileen said, looking suddenly very dignified, more dignified that he had ever seen that crazy woman:
“For why you are here.”
“I’m here to say good bye,” Dylan said, bluntly.
“Well, yes,” Eileen said, “And I appreciate it. But… I would never ask you to come here for that alone. Not after the mother I failed to be.
“I am going into hospice, darling,” she said, “and then I am going to die. And very quickly. But when you go back to Rossford, you have to take something else back with you.”
Now Dylan’s eyebrow came up and he said, “Uh… take what?”
“Oh, God,” Meg murmured.
“That boy.” Eileen said, “out in the hall. His name is Thackeray. Take Thackeray.”
Ignoring the fact that this woman was dying, Dylan Mesda threw back his head and laughed.
“Eileen, what the nut! I’m sorry you’re dying. I’m sorry you were a shitty, shitty mom. But I am not responsible for raising one of my cousins.”
“He’s not your cousin,” Eileen said, sinking back into the bed, wearily.
And then, just like that, her heart monitor stopped pulsing. Her eyes closed and the tension left her face. As the inexorable beeeeeeep proclaimed Eileen Wehlan’s death, Thackeray ran in, face white, followed by Elias.
Theresa let out a shudder and Meg Callan touched her sister’s head.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
“Meg,” Dylan said, his voice far from his empty body.
“I’m so sorry, Dylan,” Meg said.
“Meg,” Dylan continued while the noise went on over Eileen Wehlan’s dead body,
“What did she mean…?” He looked at the little boy, no more than twelve, “by Thackeray’s not my cousin.”
“Oh, Dylan,” Meg said, shaking her head over her sister’s corpse. “Thackeray isn’t your cousin. He’s your brother.
“In fact. He’s your twin.”
MORE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WEEKEND
The hospital was large. Being a place he didn’t particularly enjoy, Dylan walked with a laser focus. Had he been Theseus, he could have easily made it out of the labyrinth with no girl and no ball of yarn. Elias’s analytical mind helped as well, and it was not long before they found their way to the room of Eileen Wehlan.
“Are you Dylan?” a boy sitting outside said.
The hall was comfortable, carpeted, a little dim. There was a lounge.
“Yes,” Dylan said.
“Oh, good,” said the boy. “She’s been waiting for you. She’s right there.”
He pointed to the room across the hall where Dylan could hear some voices.
“Thanks,” Dylan nodded.
“Helpful kid,” Elias muttered. “I wonder if he’s a cousin? You all look alike.”
Dylan said, “I got more cousins than I can shake a stick at,” as he entered the room.
“Dylan!”
His aunt—he had gotten used to Meg Callan being Aunt Meg, stood up. His cousin Theresa was with her, feeding ice cubes to a woman Dylan hadn’t seen in a decade.
“Dylan!” her voice was dry.
“Eileen,” he said. He didn’t refrain from calling her Mother to prove a point. He simply didn’t think of her that way.
He came to the bed, amazed. There were no tears in his eyes, but he surveyed the ravishment of the woman who had brought him into this world, curly hair grayed now, face lined, eyes incredibly grateful to see him.
“I didn’t think you’d come.”
Instead of answering this, Dylan said, “This is Elias.”
Elias nodded.
“Hello, Elias,” Eileen said.
She lay back and sighed with a smile on her painful face.
“You’ve turned out so good looking,” she said.
“You know I couldn’t have done it. Fenn and Tom did it. I never could have.”
Dylan said nothing.
“A long time ago a man came to me. He knew I wanted a child. He said he could help. He brought you to me,” Eileen continued. “In a cup. I wasn’t able to be the mother I wanted to be, so I gave him back to you.”
She began coughing. The fit lasted so long they feared she would never stop. Meg held her up, placing her hands on Eileen’s back. The dark haired boy from the hall came into the room, anxious looking, but Dylan said, “Don’t worry about it, Kid. Elias, walk him out.”
Elias nodded and escorted the boy out of the room.
At last, with ice chips in her mouth, Eileen continued, “You may have thought I was in the wrong for giving you up again. And I was, but you were always in the right place. Fenn and Tom are where you came from. That’s where you should have stayed.”
She sighed. It was such a long sigh Dylan nearly passed out in the middle of it.
“And now…” Eileen said, looking suddenly very dignified, more dignified that he had ever seen that crazy woman:
“For why you are here.”
“I’m here to say good bye,” Dylan said, bluntly.
“Well, yes,” Eileen said, “And I appreciate it. But… I would never ask you to come here for that alone. Not after the mother I failed to be.
“I am going into hospice, darling,” she said, “and then I am going to die. And very quickly. But when you go back to Rossford, you have to take something else back with you.”
Now Dylan’s eyebrow came up and he said, “Uh… take what?”
“Oh, God,” Meg murmured.
“That boy.” Eileen said, “out in the hall. His name is Thackeray. Take Thackeray.”
Ignoring the fact that this woman was dying, Dylan Mesda threw back his head and laughed.
“Eileen, what the nut! I’m sorry you’re dying. I’m sorry you were a shitty, shitty mom. But I am not responsible for raising one of my cousins.”
“He’s not your cousin,” Eileen said, sinking back into the bed, wearily.
And then, just like that, her heart monitor stopped pulsing. Her eyes closed and the tension left her face. As the inexorable beeeeeeep proclaimed Eileen Wehlan’s death, Thackeray ran in, face white, followed by Elias.
Theresa let out a shudder and Meg Callan touched her sister’s head.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
“Meg,” Dylan said, his voice far from his empty body.
“I’m so sorry, Dylan,” Meg said.
“Meg,” Dylan continued while the noise went on over Eileen Wehlan’s dead body,
“What did she mean…?” He looked at the little boy, no more than twelve, “by Thackeray’s not my cousin.”
“Oh, Dylan,” Meg said, shaking her head over her sister’s corpse. “Thackeray isn’t your cousin. He’s your brother.
“In fact. He’s your twin.”
MORE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WEEKEND
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Wow that was a big surprise! Eileen had one last good one for Dylan. I am very interested to see what Thackeray is like. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days! I hope you have a nice weekend.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
Eileen was always good for a surprise, and so she remains, but before we learn more of that surprise, we will meet some more old friends.
