The houses in rossford

[ChrisGibson]

Thank you for reading. I'm glad you enjoy it.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER
NINE

FAMILY CONTINUED


“I saw her in The Crucible,” Tara whispered, pointing on stage to Leona. “She’s much better here.”

Fenn said, “You just want to eat her pussy.”

Tara shrugged. She didn’t deny it.

“Anyone who’s been in The Crucible would be better here,” Todd whispered, while working on his lap top, “would be better here. I hate that play.”

Without warning, all three of them bellowed:


LEAVE ME MY NAME!


Paul and Leona looked down from the stage and Fenn waved it off.

“Sorry, we were being assholes.”

“You sure were,” Leona said, and went back to her lines.

A shaft of light streamed down the seats, and all three of them turned to see Thom, and then Lee come in. Todd waited for them to come close enough before declaring:

“My Lawd, the dead has arisen!”

“You never get tired of that line,” Tara observed.

Todd shook his head. “It’s always good.”

“Look at the two of yawl,” Tara declared, smacking her gum. “All glowin’ n shit.”

Tom hid his face and Lee shrugged while Fenn, rising up and cuffing his cousin on the cheek said, “You do look a little radioactive. Details later?”

“Oh, Fenn!” Tom sounded nauseate.

“Look at him!” Tara said.

Leona stopped and said, “Is anyone paying attention to us.”

“I’m paying attention,” Todd said putting down the laptop. “Please go on.”

Paul shrugged and Leona said, “You’re not even the director, Todd.”

“But I’m fucking the director, and that’s gotta count for something.”

“If that counted for anything,” Tara declared, “Half of this county could watch Leona recite lines.”

“Who’s a bitch?” said Fenn.

Tara said, “I’m a bitch, and don’t you forget it.”

“So,” Fenn turned to his cousin, “Details?”

“Oh, Fenn,” Lee said tenderly, “I don’t think so.”

Thank you,” said Tom, but when he headed up stage, bellowing orders, Lee leaned in and whispered, “Over lunch. I promise.” He hissed, “We did EVERYTHING!”

“Everything?”

“And then some,” Lee said behind his hand, and sat down.

Tom came back down the aisle and said, “Okay, I know we wanted to do the casting call for something high and Shakespearian, but I really like the play I just finished, and I want to see if we can do that. I’ve pretty much got the rights clear.”

“It sounds like a very interesting play,” Lee said sagely.

“Oh it is,” Fenn noticed how Tom grabbed Lee’s hand, and grinned.

“Lee,” Fenn said. “When are you gon quit playing with Tom and just tell him you wrote the damn play?”

“He did tell me,” Tom said. “Last night. But how did you know? Oh,” Tom looked to Lee. “You told him.”

But Lee shrugged.

“That was Lee’s stage name in childhood,” Fenn explained.

“How the hell did you remember that?”

“Cause I have a long ass memory,” said Fenn. “So, let’s do the damn thing. Why’d you have to be so secret about it?”

“I wanted it to stand on its own merits.”

“You’re a damn fool,” Fenn said. “Oh, by the way, that Chris…. Remember the one who had Paul’s role originally, but who walked out cause I told him he was no good? Well, he’s back.”

“What?”

“He called me talking about, ‘Can I get in the show? Please. I wanna come back.’”

“But there’s no part for him.”

“There’s always a part,” Fenn said. “I wanted to say yes, but I thought it would make you look better if I told him he had to call you. So, he’ll do that this afternoon.”

“He might even offer to suck you dick like last—” and then Tara shut up when she looked at Lee.

“I talk too much,” she said while Tom glowered at her.

Fenn shook his head and said, “That’s for damn sure.”


“Brendan, can I talk to you?”

Brendan turned from Will and said, “Ey, Dena. Yeah. What’s going on?”

Dena looked at Will, and Will cleared his throat.

“I’ll go see what Layla’s up to.”

“I’m sure she’d love to hear from you,” Dena told him, as Will walked away.

Brendan jammed his hands in his pockets.

“What’s going on, Denie?”

“Layla’s and my Mom are going out tonight,” Dena said.

“All right.”

“Brendan?”

“Yes?”

“I was saying… If you wanted us… to… make love… Tonight would be the night.”

When Brendan said nothing, Dena said, “You wanted to. I mean, if you don’t want to—”

Brendan took her face in his hands, a little roughly.

“Denie! I want to. All right?”

Dena nodded.

Brendan bent down and kissed her.

“I love you, Denie. You know that?”

Dena nodded and said, “I love you too. I gotta go. Layla and Will are coming, and I don’t want her asking questions.”



“Yeah, Chris,” Tom was saying over the phone. “You just come on in tomorrow, and… yeah. We’ve got something for you. I mean, just for you. Yeah… Yes. Well, who knows? Maybe the lead in the next….” Tom looked up, “play.”

Brian Babcock, looking furious, stood in the doorway. His hair was almost a mess and his nostrils were flared.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, all right? Gotta go… Yes,” Tom said mouthing, “I’ll be with you in a minute,” to Brian, “All right. Goodbye.”

He hung up the phone.

“Brian.”

Brian looked incredulous. In one disgusted word he said, “Don’t-Brian-me.”

“I don’t… What’s going on?”

“What is going on? Why is Fenn’s cousin here? Are you fucking him right now like you were fucking him all night?”

“Close the door, Brian,” Tom said.

Sharply, Brian did.

“I came by last night. You know that? But you were occupied. You were so occupied when I called later on you never picked up the phone. And I see why. You couldn’t have Fenn so you went for the closest thing. Were you thinking about Fenn when you were fucking his cousin? Or letting his cousin fuck you?”

“Brian,” Tom’s voice was mellow. “I was having a really good day—”

“Of course, you were. It was just like old times. It must have been just like Fenn.”

“Look,” Tom’s voice hardened. “I told you. I’m telling you now. I told you way back then. Never bring up Fenn. Never ever ask about what goes on or what went on in my bed with Fenn. Same thing applies to Lee. For the first time this decade I was with someone I loved.”


“You son of a bitch,” Brian hissed.

“What? No, hell no,” Tom stood up, disgusted. He rounded the desk.

“We’re not anything, Brian. We never have been and I never told you we could be. You don’t get to be the grieving cheated on lover. I mean, you really don’t. For… let me count… nine years, me and my best friend had a life together. We were in love. We were happy. Things got a little rough and you, knowing exactly what you were doing, decided that your desire to suck my dick mattered more than my relationship with Fenn. The problem with my stupid, stupid ass was that apparently… this is too stupid! I agreed with you. I fucking agreed.

“And you… you don’t have any goddamned remorse in your heart. You don’t have any… I’m sorry I ruined someone’s… marriage. That’s what it was. There’s not shame. You don’t feel anything in your heart. All you think is, Tom isn’t mine. I can’t have Tom. Almost ten years ago you decided that if you couldn’t have me, no one could, Brian. If I couldn’t be happy with you, I couldn’t be happy at all.

“Fenn was my heart. He was my heart. We were… we were like the same fucking person. We loved each other. You decided to destroy that and I helped you and… and… he’s happy for me. He’s happy, but you’re miserable. You are one miserable son of a bitch. I don’t owe you anything but what I gave you.”

“Your dick,” Brian said tersely. He turned around and was getting ready to open the door when he said, “You know what Tom?”

“What?” Tom said, wearily.

“I used to think that you only gave me your dick because… I don’t know what… Because I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t Fenn. I wasn’t… fuck! Whatever. But you did give me yourself, because that’s all you are is a dick.”

“You don’t have a heart.” Tom said.

Brian walked out, closing the door because he didn’t slam. Then a second later, on the other side of the frosted glass, Tom saw Brian’s shape, the door opened and for one second Tom caught
his high cheekbones, his dark eyes, his curling dark hair and he realized why he had destroyed a relationship. Brian was breathtakingly beautiful. Even now, years later. Imagine when he was fresh out of graduate school. And while Tom was thinking all of this Brian flung open the door and bellowed:

“Fuck you! I do have a heart, and you don’t know what the fuck is in it.”



There was a tap at the door, and Fenn lifted a finger in the middle of talking to Paul before shouting up the steps, “I’ll get it, Todd!”

Brian Babcock was at the door and Fenn, raising an eyebrow, opened it and let him in.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Fenn opened his mouth, shut it, turned around and said, “Paul, can I have a minute?”

Paul nodded and went up the backstairs.

“Brian, you look kind of… bad.”

Brian smiled and said, “Yeah.”

His face was drawn and red. His eyes were red.

“I… was thinking. Okay, I was crying. I don’t do that. Not in a long time, and I had to come here.”

Fenn nodded.

“See, you’ve been really long suffering with me, and… This morning I was angry. I was angry because of Tom and Lee. I’ve been angry for so much I didn’t have a right to be, but… today I cried. I mean, a lot. I went to Saint Barbara’s, just to be quiet, and then I just knew I was going to fall apart, and so I got in my car and did it.

“The funny thing was I thought, at first, that it was selfish me crying about how I couldn’t have Tom, or… But that was never like me. I.. ah… ”

Brian didn’t say anything for a moment. He seemed, almost, to have lost his train of thought.
“I guess I was crying about me. About this person I am, this… thing. Fenn. I.. thought I was sorry. I thought I saw that I was sorry. But… I don’t think I ever was sorry, and ashamed of what I did. To you. Not until now. I was never sick over it, and I’m embarrassed that I’m sick about it now. I’m ashamed of the fact that every day for years when you’ve seen me you’ve seen this… asshole who had no concept of what he had done who…

“And I’m being the asshole again… who takes your time. I just wanted you to know, Fenn… how sorry I am. I… should go now.”

“Brian.”

Brian turned around.

“You don’t look well. Do you want to stay for a while?”

“I’m fine. I’m not going to do anything stupid. Heck, I might start doing something smart. I just need to go home.”

“Brian, I’m not angry with you. Not now. Not anymore. When it happened, I thought… When it happened, I wanted to die. I wanted to kill myself. I made like I wanted to kill you, and Thom. But… I felt…not good enough. I felt ugly, and stupid. That’s the truth.”

Brian wanted to turn away. He wanted to not have to hear this. It hurt to hear it. He’d been crying all that afternoon. He thought he was cried out, but the tears kept coming hot, down his face.

“And then I hated you… For making me feel like that. For a long time. But… it’s in the past. Where it should be.”

“I’m sorry,” Brian’s voice was shaky, “For ever making you feel that way. I’m sorry.”

Fenn nodded.

“I should leave now.”

“You look terrible.”

“I feel terrible,” Brian told him. Then he shrugged and a grin crossed his face. He began to laugh a little.

When Fenn cocked his head and looked to him, Brian explained.

“I feel like shit. But I feel human.”


“It wasn’t like I thought it would be. I mean… It wasn’t bad. It was nice, we kissed and everything. It really wasn’t bad, but…”

“Well, you know, it’s not the movies. I heard the first time is always bad,” Will said.

“God, I wish you weren’t a virgin,” Brendan said.

Will looked at him.

“No,” said Brendan. “What I mean is, then you could tell me… from experience. If I did it right. I mean, I did come. I came. So, it wasn’t terrible.”

Will turned away.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t…” Brendan began.

“It’s not that you shouldn’t. It’s just… it’s weird for me, listening to you talk about… having an orgasm.”

“This whole thing is weird for me. Will, you know what I felt like?”

“Hum?”

“Even… when it got good, I mean.”

“When you came?”

“Yeah…” Brendan was quiet. He sat up and tucked his knees under his chin looking at Will so intensely it was almost a glare.

“I felt,” Brendan told him, “like… I was faking it. Like this whole thing, me, making love to Dena, didn’t feel right. Like I was trying to be someone else. And… I wasn’t me.”


When Brendan was gone, Dena Reardon knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she could not, absolutely not, tell Layla about having sex with Brendan. She couldn’t tell anyone. She wanted to tell her mother. This was impossible. She thought, impossibly, of Adele Lawden. Not her mother, not her best friend, mother of her best friend. For a reason she could not identify, the thought of telling Milo Affren terrified her. She felt, thinking about him, and thinking about Brendan… No. No. She couldn’t describe the feeling. She wanted to hide it from him was the best way she could describe that feeling.

They had began kissing in that old way, the way that eventually lit up a spark in her, but this time they went further, hands on shoulders, on hips, all over their bodies. This was making out with a destination in mind.

Brendan began to undo his belt and Dena said, almost sharply: “Get the light!”

He did, and in the darkness they fumbled with belts and jeans and underwear, shocked at the touch of skin. She fell back at first, frightened a little by the feeling of what she knew was Brendan’s penis, growing, becoming erect. She fought between a fear and a desire to touch it, touch him. She did, she jerked it and he moaned.

Clumsily, kissing, bodies together, they climbed onto the bed in the darkness.

This whole thing. When it happened, it didn’t seem that great, but thinking about it made it better. Did that made any sense? Awkwardly she had opened her legs for him, and then she felt Brendan Miller’s narrow, naked hips between them. She felt the weight of his torso across hers, the smell, like Wonder bread, of his body. Her hands closed around the warm, boniness of his back, went up to caress the shoulder blades, touch his hair, kiss his mouth.

“Am I in?” he whispered.

“Not… quite.”

She guided him. It felt strange, a little uncomfortable at first. But it didn’t hurt. It felt, just a little, like someone sticking something someplace where it had no business. And then he began to slide in and out of her, to push in and out of her and it felt… good.

In that last part, where she looked at his face, and his eyes were closed, and he was somewhere else, shooting toward someplace else, and by the rhythm of his hips, him inside of her, taking her with him, it felt so good. He kept kissing her, his eyes closed. He was hungry like she hadn’t known him before, sucking on her throat. He was now, with a jarring shock, fucking her. And then he rose up out of her, rigid, and she felt his semen shoot across her stomach, hot and slick against her. Dena held onto a body corkscrewing out of control, a long, “Oooooooo,” sounding from his mouth like a horn.

She’d held him to her like that for a while as their bodies stilled. She didn’t have an orgasm as far as she knew, but it had been good to her, making love to Brendan. Dena had been told many things about having sex before marriage and especially about girls having sex before marriage. She had taken a dubious bet that they wouldn’t be true, at least not for her. But when she’d let Brendan into the house, suddenly she was afraid they all would be; a piece of her soul would be lost, and her respect would be gone. To her surprise, however, when Nell shouted up that she was finally home, Dena realized, sitting alone in her room that night, she was not scared, or insecure, and she did not feel violated.

She felt like she wanted it again.

 

[CharmedFan28]

So Brendan did it after all! Sounds like he regrets it a bit. Poor Brian, I hope he is ok. Great writing as usual!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Thanks,we're coming close to the climax of the story so, frankly, I don't think anyone's going to be okay... at least not any time soon.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER
NINE

FAMILY CONCLUSION

“Did you know Brian came by tonight?” Fenn said, climbing onto the bed where Todd was reading.
“Brian Brian?”
“Um hum.”
Todd sighed, “I guess he can’t get enough of you.”
“It was funny. He came to apologize.”
“He should have come… what, seven, eight years ago?”
“I don’t remember,” Fenn waved it off. “But… It was really… I don’t know,” Fenn shook his head.
“It made me realize how fortunate I was to have you.
“I mean, Tom’s a good man, but you are my man, and… if nothing had happened, what would have happened when you came around? No, no, I’m glad everything turned out the way it did, and I never thought I’d say that.”
Todd put down his book.
“I have always wondered… what would happen if I cheated on you?”
“Are you planning to?”
“No. No! But… it’s just that... you and Tom loved each other, and Brian… I know cheating is a big deal, but it seems like you all could have gotten past Brian Babcock.”
Fenn put his head on the pillow.
“I have thought about that, really.”
“And?”
“I was younger then. I was different then. And Tom was Tom. And not you.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means you have a longer leash.”
Todd grinned.
“So if you found me banging away on someone.”
“I better not find you banging away on anyone but me.”
Todd laughed. “I promise, you are the only slut I’ll be fucking.”
“That’s right sir.”
Fenn grew quiet.
“Back then I needed to start again, and I needed not to be the kind of person who put up with what Tom did, and what he did was so painful in so many ways. Now, I’m too old not to forgive. You and I are different, Todd. We could work anything out. I think. I think… I’m sure that some people are just meant to be what they are. We’re meant to be what we are Todd. ”
Todd put his head on the pillow beside Fenn whose eyes were closed.
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
“No,” Fenn told him, and yawned. “But I believe you’re mine.”


“Milo!”
“Ey, Layla.” Milo greeted her as she shut the locker.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Do you know what the hell is going on with Dena?”
Milo frowned. “No… I guess she needs more time with Brendan. Which is cool. I mean they are together. I still miss her, though.”
“Yeah,” Layla said, distractedly. “Well, I know something’s strange, but she won’t tell me and that’s making no sense because she has always told me everything.”
“Kids,” Milo quipped with a hooked grin, “gotta let ‘em grow up.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Layla said. “The worst part is: me worrying about her shit makes me the Black Girl.”
“What?”
“You know. On the soap or on the TV show the white girl has all this interesting shit happening. And then she’s got this best friend, sidekick. The Jew Girl, the Fat Girl or the Black Girl. And she ain’t got shit else to worry about except the pretty white girl.”
Milo snorted and slammed his locker.
“Okay, firstly,” he said, recovering, “Dena’s two thirds Arab. And secondly, your mom’s divorcing your dad who has a secret family, so I think you have lots to worry about.”
“Well, you got me—Shit!”
“What?”
“Milo, can you give me a ride to the playhouse? My mother said Fenn had something to give to me, and she wanted it for dinner tonight. I promised her I’d be there… Right now actually.”
Milo jangled his keys.
“See!” he said merrily, “Black Girl does have problems.”

“Next!” Fenn called out, and as the boy rose from his seat, Fenn said, “And everyone, don’t be afraid to annunciate, to project yourself. To be goooood, for God’s sake. The only thing you have to be afraid of is not getting the part.
“All right, young sir, your name?”
“Julian Lawden. Reading for the part of Richard.”
“All right now!”
“I took something from Raisin in the Sun.”
“Ambitious,” Tom commented.
Julian winked with a Fenn like smile and said, “If you always aim low, you’ll never hit anything.”
Fenn chuckled and climbed down the steps while Julian began, with Tara reading for the part of Beneatha.
In the seats beside Fenn, Lee steepled his fingers and said, “He’s good, Fenn. I’m not telling you how to cast, but I am saying, when I pictured the young Black man I pictured something like that boy up there.”
Fenn nodded, without smiling, which meant he was appraising and he heard Layla’s voice behind him.
“Fenn, Mama sent me.”
“Oh,” Fenn turned to her. “Can you get it yourself, Lay? Or let me get it after he finishes.”
“Who is he?” Milo whispered.
“Never seen him,” Fenn shrugged. “He’s trying out for Lee’s play.”
“And if I had anything to say about it, he would get it,” Lee hissed. “Now shut the hell up and let’s listen.”

When Julian was finished, he turned to them and Fenn shouted up, putting his hands together over and over: “That—was good.”
“That was terrific,” Tom said offstage and, for a brief second, the boy broke into a fierce smile.
“We can let you know by tomorrow,” Fenn told him coming off stage.
“He was pretty good,” Milo said beside Layla.
Layla said nothing.
When Fenn picked up on this, he looked at her and said, “What’s with you? You know him or something?”
“Something.” She said.
Lee turned slowly around and regarded her.
“That boy walking off the stage?” Layla said, pointing to Julian. “That—is my father’s bastard.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

Poor Layla! Seems like the shits about to hit the fan with that situation. Great conclusion to the chapter! I look forward to more!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I have to say, I hadn't read this for a while, so I started reading ahead so I could be more or less at the same place as you, and today I read to the last chapter, so.... there is definitely a lot of stuff to come in this next section.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER
TEN

ON STAGE


In the seat beside her in the dark theatre, the young man whispered to Claire: “He’s really good.”
She nodded her head, thought about it, and then said, “He’s my brother.”
“Get out!”
“Yeah,” Claire whispered eagerly and as the curtain went down. She clapped her hands.
The young man beside her looked at his program: “Paul Anderson. So you’re…”
“Claire Anderson,” she said, turning to him with a smile.
“Wow, from East Carmel.”
“Why’d you say it like that?”
“There is a rumor,” he said, “that Black people aren’t safe in East Carmel after sunset.”
“Well, fifty years ago it was probably true,” Claire told him. “Everyone likes to say it’s not, but it probably was. Hell, even twenty-five years ago. But the truth is, if you come to East Carmel, sir, everyone will stare at you just because they’re dying to see a Black face. Look at me. I’ve been dying sense I got into town. Aren’t you dying, Matty?”
“What?” irritated, her brother, who had been talking to her mother, turned to them.
“Nothing,” Claire decided, judiciously.
“Oh,” the boy said beside her, “I’m Julian. Julian Lawden.”
“Wow, you sound like a soap opera character,” she said.
“You know, us big city Rossford people.”
Claire laughed and said, “Until you’ve come to East Carmel, you don’t know how big city Rossford really is.”
Then, sitting back in her seat as the curtains reopened, she offered her hand and said, “Julian Lawden, pleased to meet you.”

“YOU WERE TERRIFIC! You were all terrific!” Tom said. “Weren’t they terrific?”
Fenn, looking up from his glass of champagne, nodded half amused, and said, “I agree. Everyone was…” he swirled the glass around, “terrific.”
“I am so proud,” Mrs. Anderson declared. “To come all the way up here and see my son!” She reached up and grasped him by the shoulders. “All on stage like a real Broadway person.”
“Well, I’m not quite Broadway, Ma,” Paul blushed.
“Hey,” said Fenn, “the Lighthouse is as good as Broadway.”
“Damn straight,” Todd declared, though Tom only smiled.
Outside the crowd was still milling about, leaving the theatre, and Brian arrived backstage from that door the same time Lee came in from the parking lot declaring:
“It’s really barbaric how you can’t smoke in here!”
Brian looked at Tom, and then at Lee. Fenn wondered if he was the only person who had seen the look, but when he turned to Todd he knew he wasn’t. They both nodded sagely.
Brian walked up to Paul and Leona, straight backed, and held out his hand with a flashing smile. “That was a brilliant job you all did tonight.”
“Hey,” Paul said, looking like East Carmel, all gee willickers, “without your music we couldn’t have done anything.”
Brian nodded manfully, Fenn reminded himself it was not his job to watch Brian, and then Claire touched him on the arm.
“Claire?”
“I met the most … I met someone who reminded me of you tonight?”
“Impossible!”
“I know,” Claire said, only half joking. “But… his name was Julian. And then I remembered meeting Layla, and isn’t her last name, Lawden?”
Fenn frowned and said, “You met Julian Lawden?”
“Yes. I guess you know him? Is he related? Bad?”
“No,” Fenn said slowly. “He is Layla’s half brother. Not related to me at all.”
“Oh,” Claire said. Then she said. “The way you said that… Are you going to tell me why he’s Layla’s half brother?”
“Sure. What the hell.”
Fenn leaned in. “Layla’s father had a mistress, apparently the whole time he was married to my sister. That’s his son, and Layla just found out about him a few months ago.”
“Oh,” Claire said. “Well, crap. That is… crappy.”
Then she said, “But he’s still cute.”

“You going back to E.C. tonight?”
“No,” Mrs. Anderson said. “Adele Lawden is putting us up for the night. I love this town.”
“I love Layla’s shoes,” Claire said.
“God, aren’t there any guys in this town?” Matt said.
Fenn shrugged and said, “You could stay with us.”
Todd looked at him and said, “If Dena’s coming over, then Matt might not want to be in a houseful of girls.”
“There is nothing wrong,” Claire stated, “with a houseful of girls.”
“No,” Matt agreed. “Not if you’re a girl. Great,” he said to Todd, “I’ll take you all up on the offer.”
Paul looked over at Fenn with a frown.
“Eveything’ll be fine,” Fenn told him.
Paul shrugged, kissed his mother, ruffled his sister’s hair, and said “I’m gonna take Mom’s car back to the house, then.”
Paul waved back at them and headed down Dempsey Street. Late at night it was no longer busy, and the crowds had died off. The parking lot was not close, and Paul had been walking a bit when a car pulled up beside him, and the power window went down.
He was shocked, and then he looked in and saw Brian Babcock.
“Would you like to grab a drink?” he said.
Paul looked at Brian, and then he cocked his head and said, “Sure. Yes.”
Brian nodded and leaned over, unlocking his passenger door.
“Get in.”

“I can’t believe you weren’t there,” Claire was saying. “Either of you.”
“Well, I had to spend time with Will,” Layla said. “He made quite a point of it.”
From where Layla sat in the middle of her bed, she said, “Do you think he’s needy?”
“No more needy than any other man,” Claire said. Then added, “Well, that’s what my mother would say at least.”
“I think Mommy might be right this time,” Dena told her.
“And you?” Layla said to her. “You can’t even use the excuse that Brendan hasn’t seen you in awhile. The two of them have been inseparable. It’s really disgusting.”
“It is not disgusting,” Dena said. “It’s sweet and it’s happy, and I love, love, love Brendan.”
“Now, that is disgusting,” Claire said. “But I think that’s just because I’m single and jealous.”
“Claire, are you gonna be around a lot more?” Dena said.
“Yeah,” said Layla. “It’s not enough girls.”
“It’s gotta be plenty of girls here.”
“Well, yes,” Layla agreed. “But they’re all bitches.”
“No doubt,” murmured Dena.
“Well,” Claire said, twirling a long braid out of her red hair, “I had actually been looking at schools around here.”
“Oooh, go to Loretto,” Layla said. “It’s where my mom and my uncle went. They loved it. It’s on the outskirts, so its got a whole campus and it’s just like being far away.”
Dena nodded. “And for you it will be.”
“And we’ve got men up here,” Layla added. “So you can grab yourself one.”
“I heard,” Dena said, “it was something your brother said when he called over here, that you already grabbed yourself a man.”
“What?” Claire said, turning red.
“And not only that, but jungle fever.”
“Oh, my God who says jungle fever?”
“We do,” Layla said. “So who’s the man.”
“Oooh, I think I’ll keep that to myself.”
“Now look here, bitch,” Dena uncrossed her legs. “We’re supposed to be your new best friends, and you can’t tell us who this man is?”
“Seriously,” Claire said. “I think I shouldn’t tell you. Besides… It’s not like we dated or anything.”
“But will you ever see him again?” Layla said.
“From what I’ve heard,” Claire told her, “I’m almost bound to see him again.”
When Layla looked at her, Claire knew it was no use keeping the secret. She just wasn’t sure how much Dena knew, or how much she was supposed to know, so she said, “His name is Julian Lawden.”
Dena and Layla looked at each other, and both of them muttered:
“Oh, shit.”


“Can I ask you guys a question?” Matt said from the backseat of the Land Rover. “And if it’s offensive, then I’m sorry.”
“Is he going to ask us if we’re gay?” Todd said.
“I think so,” Fenn replied, taking a cigarette out of his breast pocket.
“Then you are?” Matt said, with a sigh of relief.
“You sound happy about it.”
“Well, it’s just that… I didn’t want to have to ask… and, you know, Paul didn’t tell me.”
“Well, no,” said Fenn.
“Can I ask you guys another question?”
“You can always ask,” Todd said.
“Is Paul gay too? Is that why he didn’t tell me? I always knew there was something about him. You know? Something he wasn’t telling me.”
“Matt,” Fenn said. “You need to talk to your brother about that.”
Matt was quiet, and then he said, “Yeah. I guess you’re right. I… I just don’t know why he didn’t tell me.”
“Cause he’s a grown man, and you just turned seventeen, and he lived in California, and you were here,” Todd said, summarily.
“Right,” Matt said. After a while he said, “I guess I don’t really know my brother that well.”
“Well, maybe you all will get to know each other better,” said Todd.
“You,” said Matt. “Was it like that… with your families?”
“I think….” Todd said, stopping on Birmingham, and turning right, “that Fenn was sort of… he did whatever the fuck—I mean heck—”
“I’ve heard the word fuck before.”
“Well, he did whatever the fuck he wanted to. And I guess Adele knew about Tom right away. I mean we all did.”
“That was Tom at the show?”
“Right,” Fenn said.
“And he was your first boyfriend?”
“He was the first who lasted long enough to be called a boyfriend.”
“And back then I was younger than you. And then when Fenn and Tom weren’t together, I saw an opening and… jumped right in.”
Fenn chuckled and murmured, “I don’t know if it was exactly like that…”
“Even though… Fenn’s sister is your sister’s best friend?”
“Well Fenn was my sister’s best friend too. They were all older than me, and then I got older and I realized what I was, how I felt, and then Fenn was available so…I snatched him.”
“You did not snatch me. You begged and wheedled.”
“Hell, no. I didn’t.”
Fenn turned back and told Matt, “Begged… and wheedled.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

Sounds like Paul's secret is out to his family! I hope they take it ok. I thought I would read Layla and Julian's first interaction but I guess not yet. This story is getting more complicated! (In a good way.)

 

[ChrisGibson]

Don't worry. There's still plenty of time for Layla and Julian. In fact, there are about to be many interactions, before this story is done.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER
TEN

ON STAGE


“This isn’t like East Carmel at all,” Marilee Anderson said sipping from her coffee mug in the large kitchen where Adele raised her head and muttered at the stomping above her head, “Those girls!”
“It’s not Chicago either,” Nell said, stirring sugar into her cup. “You know, tea never soothes me. I need a cup of coffee.”
“So Fenn and Todd are your brothers?”
Nell and Adele nodded.
“And… a couple? I guess we have that in E.C. but… there’s so much we don’t know about. I mean, we’re so sheltered. I’m so sheltered. I met Fenn, and I felt so bad. Those jokes about Black people and East Carmel… I know they were just jokes. But there’s truth to them. I didn’t live there my whole life. When I married Joe he brought me there, but I came from someplace twice as small as E.C.” Marilee smiled.
“And you know, I was watching the play, and it dawned on me, I thought, ‘Why would my son be living with a gay couple? Why would he know them?’ And that Tom and that Brian, and Lee. And I suddenly realized, no, he’s not just keeping company with a bunch of gay people—no man from East Carmel who wasn’t gay would do that. I realized my son was gay. And… I wonder if this was his subtle way of telling me.”
“Show is more powerful than tell,” Nell said, and snorted with laughter.
Marilee looked at her, surprised, and Nell said, “My ex-husband… the reason he is my ex husband is because I found him… with someone. A male someone.”
Marilee burst out laughing, and then put a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry! I found my husband with a female someone. I guess we’re still married. He left and never came back.”
“Shit,” Adele said, “I found out a few months ago my husband had a secret family, and then a few days ago that his illegitimate son got the lead role in Fenn’s next play. Ah,” Adele pulled out a bottle of brandy and poured some in her coffee, in Nell’s in Marilee’s, “Fuck it. Life!”
“I… Oh,” Marilee wiped her eyes, laughing, “Life!”
They were all quiet a moment, and then Marilee said, “Are they everywhere?”
“Gay men?” said Adele. “Or cheating husbands?”
Marilee kept laughing and shrugged.
“I suppose both.”
“Well, then yes,” said Adele. “And yes.”


Have I ever told you
How good it feels to hold you
It isn't easy to explain

And though I'm really trying I think I may stop crying
My heart can't wait another day When you kiss me I just gotta
Kiss me I just gotta Kiss me I just gotta say

Baby I love you C'mon baby
Baby I love you Ooh-wee-ooh baby
Baby I love I love only you



Matt turned to Tom and Lee.
“Are they always like this?”
“They are always like this when they have a successful show,” Lee said.


Fenn, with the bottle swinging from one hand, while Tara sang into cigarette, pulled Todd off the couch and made him dance, singing into his face:

Baby I love you C'mon baby
Baby I love you Ooh-wee-ooh baby
Baby I love I love only you!

“Actually, Tom said, “they are always like this: period.”

Oh, I'm so glad I found you I want my arms around you
I love to hear you call my name Oh, tell me that you feel
Tell me that you feel Tell me that you feel the same

Baby I love you C'mon baby
Baby I love you Ooh-wee-ooh baby
Baby I love I love only you

Muted, the television was also on, and as the Falcon Crest re-runs were going off, and the panorama of Texas sailed across the screen, Leona clapped her hands at the sight of Larry Hagman and shouted: “Who wants to play Dallas?”
“How do you play Dallas?”
“Oh, it’s easy,” Leona said, reaching for the remote control. “We used to do it in college, but you can do it wherever. Before a Dallas re-run you call a character, and then you have to match the number of drinks they take.”
“Oh, shit, I’m calling Sue Ellen,” Lee said, spinning around and bringing Tom to the televsion. “Actually, I’m calling Sue Ellen and Gary together. I wanna drink!”
“Gary wasn’t even on Dallas,” Tara said.
“Sometimes,” said Lee. “Let’s say he was tonight.”
“Um,” Fenn murmured, “Ted Shackelford.”
“Which one. The Knots Landing Ted Shackelford, or The Young and the Restless one thirty years later?”
“Oooh,” Fenn said, ticking his teeth. “I think I need Gary. No, fuck it. Ted Shackelford is good any year.”
“Ted Shackelford is a grizzly old motherfucker,” Tara declared. “Now what I’d take is some Linda Gray. Or Victoria Principal. Bitch still look good.”
“That’s cause of that Acclaim bullshit she’s selling on infomercials,” Lee said.
“Well, it caint be bullshit, cause that white bitch look good,” Tara told him, and she said, looking at Leona, “Yawl usually don’t age that well.”
“I heard Linda Gray took her clothes off on—shit, gotta drink,” Lee said, taking a swig from the bottle. “I heard she took her clothes off and was buck naked on stage in some play.”
“The Graduate,” Tom said. “I saw it.”
“Was it hot?” Matt said.
Tom looked at him. “Not to me, Matt.”
“Oh, com on,” Fenn said. “Some shit crosses all boundaries.”
“All I know,” Tara said, “is if I saw Sue Ellen’s pussy, it would be hot to me.”
“Oh, God,” Leona groaned.
“Sue Ellen thirty years ago, or Linda Gray now?”
“I told you,” Tara said. “It don’t matter. The bitch is fine. The bitch looks better than she ever did. She just gets better and better.”
“What about Patrick Duffy?”
“Naw, he don’t get better and better.”
“I used to have a crush on Patrick Duffy,” Tom admitted.
“Really?” said Lee.
“It was always Gary for me,” Fenn said. “He had that hound dog face. Looked like a cross between a horse and hound dog. A sexy horse and a hound dog.”
“And that turned you on?” Todd said.
“Well, yes.”
“God, what do I look like to you?”
Fenn frowned, considered it for a second, and when he was opening his mouth Todd slid a hand over it.
“You know. It’s best if I don’t know.”

They were both breathing heavily, sprawled across the large bed, sweaty and amazed.
Paul touched his chest and kept his hands there for a while, looking up at the ceiling.
“I should get dressed. I should have been back at the house… And… my mother’s car is still in the theatre parking lot.”
Brian said, “You don’t have to get dressed.”
He turned over on his side and Paul, still on his back saw the length of Brian’s body from the corner of his eye.
“If you wanted to you could stay the night and we’d get up early and I could take you to the theatre.”
“Really early?”
“Yes,” Brian said, turning on his back and folding his hands together. “I have to play organ at ten o’clock Mass.”
Paul stopped himself from snorting with laughter. Doubtless Brian already saw the inconsistencies between tomorrow morning and this moment. If there were any. Paul wondered.
“Wow,” Brian said. “I… I didn’t plan on this happening.”
“Yes you did,” Paul heard himself saying.
“The moment you pulled up to me outside of the theatre you did, and so did I. So we shouldn’t pretend.”
Brian didn’t say anything for awhile.
“You’re right, I guess,” he said when he did speak.
“Good thing about me staying…” Paul began.
“Yeah?”
“Is we can fuck all night.”
“Yes,” Brian said in his usual cool voice. “That is the good thing about you staying.”

Paul was coming through the kitchen door when Fenn came down the back stair in that large patchwork housecoat, a cup of coffee in his hand.
“I’m sure this will make for an interesting story later during the day, but for now,” Fenn said, navigating around Paul and refilling his cup, “I have to get dressed for Mass.”
“Did Matt ask where I was?”
“No,” Fenn said, spooning in sugar and pulling a cigarette out of the breast pocket of his housecoat. “But he’s got other questions for you, I’m sure.”
“I’m sure,” Paul echoed.
“Well,” Fenn said, “I gotta take a shower.”
“Fenn?”
“Yes?”
“You’re seriously not going to ask me where I was last night?”
“Uh. No. Because I seriously am a grown up, and so are you. Besides, I imagine you’re going to tell me later, anyway.”
When Fenn was halfway up the stairs, Paul shouted, “Only if you want to hear about it.”
Up the stair, Fenn sighed loudly, turned around and trudged down the stairway.
“Of course I want to hear. I want to hear everything because you are my friend and that’s what friends do. But not right now. Now, friends let friends get dressed.”

“Okay. Now you can share.”
“Hum?”
“Don’t hum me, Paul. You come in looking like something the cat dragged in, and talking about “don’t you wanna know where I was last night, and then… Well, I’m here. So tell me.”
“All right,” Paul said, leaning across the kitchen table.
“I slept with Brian last night.”
Fenn sat back, stony faced.
“I said I slept with Brian last night.”
“Wait a minute,” Fenn waved his hand, shaking his head. “Let’s wait a goddamn minute. Not Brian Brian? Brian Babcock?”
“Yes.”
“What the fuck for?”
Paul opened his mouth, stopped, started again.
Fenn took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Let’s start over again.”
“With what the fuck for?”
“Sure,” Fenn said.
“Because he was there, Fenn. Because he wanted it.”
“You were with Brian Babcock the entire night?”
“Yes. After the show he swung by and asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. And… I was just this strange person. He kept trying to talk, you know, the way he does, all academic and blah blah and about how he loves his single malt Scotch and then I just said, ‘If you want to blow me, just do it.’”
“You said that?”
“You know what, Fenn,” Paul’s voice had a heat, but it wasn’t anger. It was discovery.
“I was a pornstar. I am a pornstar. I turned tricks. See, there’s this me that’s been coming up lately, showing up in strange places, doing strange things and… He bothered me. That different me. But he is me. Johnny Mellow. That’s who I am. That’s what Brian wanted last night.”
Fenn said, “I don’t need to hear about everything you all did.”
“Well, no,” Paul said distractedly. “I guess not. But the bottom line is I acted like who I thought I wasn’t anymore.”
Fenn nodded.
“And that’s not all. I’ve been doing it a lot Fenn. The time we went to take the money down to the Gulf? Noah arranged a threesome. I didn’t say no to it. And… Noah wanted to shoot porn, make a few movies. While we were here. I’m sorry, Fenn. We did that. We did a few dirty films in the bedroom before we left. And… sometimes when I go out, this night I went to the Video Watch, the kid said he knew who I was. I messed around with him in the back of the store. I mean, I fucked him. It’s getting to be you know, where I can’t get a good night’s sleep without having sex with someone. Without going out looking for it, without turning into Johnny Mellow, and I thought he was gone. I really did.
“I’m sorry to burden you with all this shit, and right now. But last night was the last straw. I mean the last straw before I keep things to myself.
“Brian is so… he’s good looking and everything. But he’s lonely. Really, really super lonely. When we got finished he told me I could stay the night. I knew he didn’t want to be alone. I mean the whole time there was just this… it’s like there is this hole in him. There’s one in me too. It’s just addicted to screwing people. I mean, I never knew how badly I needed to have sex. I…
“I like sex. I love sex. It’s great right? But I don’t know how to have anything normal. When we were in Florida, and I was in that church and learning about books and the stars and Andromeda I thought I was becoming this new person, someone who… all of the being an escort and doing the pics, all of that was in the past for. But lately I just get… depressed, almost, at the idea of not doing something with someone. Then I rush out to get that fix, to feel like me again.”
“You mean Johnny Mellow.”
“But I am Johnny Mellow. I thought I wasn’t, but… I don’t know anymore.”
“Fuck,” Fenn said, at last.
“I know,” Paul said. “I’m pretty fucked up.”
“That’s not what I meant,” said Fenn. “It’s just, usually I have something intelligent to say. Some sort of solution. This time I’ve got nothing.”
“Whaddo you mean you’ve got nothing?” Layla said, walking into the house and shutting the back door behind her.
“I think I mean… mind your business,” Fenn told his niece.
She pursed her lips and frowned at him, and Matt came down the back stair.
“Hello,” Layla said, stepping forward. “I’m Layla Houghton. Your sister stayed with me last night.”
“If I’d known you were there,” Matt said, taking her hand, “I might have stayed too.”
“That’s not even funny,” Layla said, turning to her uncle.
“Fenn, you should get over to the house.”
“What for, I’ve got my own drama over here.”
Layla looked at Matt and Paul, seeing if that were possible, and then deciding it wasn’t, said, “Well, you have real drama over there.”
Fenn opened his mouth.
“Grandad’s back.”
“Shit.”
“Grandad?” Paul said.
“My father,” said Fenn.
“I never pictured you having one.”
“Even Hitler had a father,” Layla said. “Com’on. Last time I left him Lula, Grandma and Adele were about to tear him to shreds.”
“I could stand to see the son of bitch torn to shreds,” Fenn said, getting up.
“Uh?” Matt said loudly, putting up a hand.
“Well… call on him,” Layla said. “Or something.”
“Yes?” he turned to Matt.
“I should probably go with you. Since my folks are there. And we’re going back this afternoon.”
“I guess I’d better come too,” Paul said.
“Hell,” Layla murmured, “that’s right. Let everyone see some embarrassing shit.”
“Watch your mouth,” Fenn said, negligently, and opened the door for his niece to go out.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Another ending that leaves me eagerly awaiting more! I feel bad for Paul, he doesn't seem to be very happy with how his life is going.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, they do say it's always darkest before the dawn.... I don't know if that's true, but.... that's what they say. All I know is, the story's not over yet. More tomorrow night.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER
TEN

ON STAGE CONTINUED

She squeezed her knees around his naked waist and pulled his neck closer to her as he shuttled in and out of her.
“Oooh. Oh… Yes. That’s. oh—” her voice stopped like she’d been stabbed. She couldn’t talk. When Brendan fucked her it felt so good. He did it so hard and so fast, like he could hardly control himself, not looking at her, his eyes closed, his mouth open, his stricken face a little glossy with sweat, his hands pressed to the mattress, biceps tensed.
“Ahh—” she started.
They moaned together, quietly, in his bedroom. Two days ago it had been in her bathroom.
They oohed and then ahhed and then Brendan fell back and “ahhhed,” and she held him while he came.
The first two times there had been no condom, and Brendan had come out of her. They had figured that since the Church forbade condoms, sex with contraceptive really would be sinful. But then Dena’s good sense and fear of pregnancy had prevailed. She knew Brendan would be too embarrassed for it, so she went to the drugstore. Head held high she bought the Durexes herself. She got a thrill even thinking of the word Durex, or buying a condom. She watched the BBC, where a woman had said the word. Con-dom, both syllables stressed, very chic, very civilized, not like Americans who said both syllables dully and embarrassed. She was a woman of the world, experiencing the pleasures of the world, experiencing the pleasure of Brendan.
“Brendan, I love you so much,” she told him quickly, kissing his mouth and his face, while he pulled off the condom and, kissing her offhandly, turned around to toss it in the waist basket. In a rush of love she wrapped her arms around his waist, pressed her face to the sweaty small of his back.
“I love you too, Dena,” he said.
She was sore with the memory of him inside of her. She could still feel his body pressing against her. His hair against her lips. His sweat was on her.
“Do you really?” she said.
Brendan turned to her. Originally he’d been self conscious about being naked in front of her, off put by her nudity. Now he just stood there.
“Yes,” he said. “Really.”
“It’s just,” she said. “You didn’t sound like it.”
Brendan shrugged and turned around, reaching for his underwear.
“Well, I do, Dena. I think actions speak louder than words. And,” he pulled his cargo shorts on, and bent over the bed, to kiss her, “From the sounds we were both making I’d say our actions were definitely loud enough. Don’t you?”
There was no arguing that. The truth was, Dena always wondered these days if Brendan really loved her. In some ways he was as distant as he had been in those last months. Only now they had sex all the time. And when they were screwing there was no room for doubt.
So when he repeated, “Don’t you?” she nodded, put a smile on her face, and said, “Yes.”

“He says he’s dying,” Adele said.
“Hello, Papa,” Fenn said entering the house behind Layla, followed by Matt and Paul.
“Is that him?” his father said.
“No,” Fenn said. “Todd looks the same way he did last time you saw him.”
“I don’t remember what the fuck he looked like,” Leroy Houghton said. “All I remember was that short fucker you ran off with. Bob, or Steve, or Danny. I thought, Goddamn, if you gon have to swing that way, at least bring home a niggah. But no, you brought that short motherfucker home. Best thing you ever did was toss his ass aloose. What happened to his ass anyway?”
“His ass,” Adele said, “is with Lee.”
“Goddamn! Two in the family, and both of yawl chasing after these short, white motherfuckers. And now you got this skinny white motherfucker. This redheaded motherfucker over here.”
“Paul is just a friend.”
“And Idetta and Kittie and Clordine, and all them bald headed bigtittied bitches yaw mamma saw me with back in the day was just friends. I was a son of a bitch.”
“Yes,” Fenn agreed. “You were.”
“And you still are,” his ex-wife said. “Fenn, he said he was gon drop dead of some cancer and now he wants to live with me.”
“And me,” said Lula. “And that shit just ain’t gon happen.”
“Be quiet you mean ole bitch,” Fenn’s father barked. “Waddn’t nobody talking to your old withered black ass anyway. I bought that house your ragged ass is living in, and now you gon—”
Lula stood up and declared: “See if I don’t whoop your ass, niggah. Just like I should have the day you came into my husband’s house and said you were gon marry my daughter.”
“Bitch, you gon sit the fuck down, just like you did the day I came into your husband’s house and said, I’m gon marry your daughter.”
“Hold up hold up hold up!” Fenn put up his hands.
They all looked at him.
“What’s all this shit about some cancer?”
“Watch your mouth,” his mother said before continuing: “This son of a bitch is broke. He’s got no place to live, but now he wants to tell everyone he has some cancer. We sit up and take care of his black ass. Look at his skinny black ass! Have you ever seen an ass as old, or as black, or as skinny as this man’s skinny black ass?”
“Have you seen an ass as fat, or as badly kept as this bitch’s old black ass?” Fenn’s father asked him, pointing to his mother.
“Oh, motherfucker, you gon take that back—!”
Fenn pulled his mother back down as she prepared to cross the kitchen table.
“Now you’ve seen my family,” Layla said to Paul and Matt. “Why don’t you go upstairs and see yours.”
The brothers nodded to each other, and then took her advice.
“So… Wait,” Fenn said. “Do you really have… something?”
“Cancer!” Leroy Houghton declared. “My daddy had it when he was my age.”
“But do you have it? Have you been to a doctor?”
Fenn’s father looked at him like he was crazy, old brown eyes blazing from behind the thick glasses.
“Are you crazy? You know I don’t believe in no goddamn doctors!”
“So you made this up?”
“I feel like my time is coming.”
“You gone feel the back of my shoe in your—” Lula began, but Adele put a hand up.
Fenn sighed.
“And he wants to sit up in my house,” his mother muttered.


When his break came, Brendan stepped outside and moved under the over hang, where it wasn’t so hot, and he could get away from the sun.
“So,” Kenny McGrath said, “Can I ask you a question?”
He hadn’t noticed Kenny, or he might have stayed inside, or at least hung around out front. Now that Kenny was a cashier too, they didn’t have to work together.
Brendan didn’t say anything.
“I gotta know,” Kenny said, “when you’re fucking Dena—”
“You really need to not say that again.”
“I mean, you are fucking her, right? Well, when you’re fucking her, do you feel straighter? Do you feel like the man you always wanted to be?”
Brendan un-slouched himself from the wall and stood up straight, still looking straight ahead.
“I think I’m going to leave,” Brendan said. “You have a good day, Kenneth.”
Brendan folded his hands in his apron and turned for the back door while Kenny repeated, “You have a good day, Kenneth! Fuck you, Brendan Miller!”

“Okay, so I guess you all want an explanation?”
“No, that’s alright—” Claire began, but Matt and Paul said, “Hell, yeah,” and then looked at each other.
Layla looked at them, Claire shrugged and said, “By the way, Paul, we know you’re gay.”
Paul turned around, red, and Layla said, “Good, now we can all be awkward and embarrassed. So, what do you all want to know?”
“Why haven’t I seen that old man before?” said Paul.
Layla put her hands together.
“That old man is my grandpa. And you ain’t seen Papa, cause Papa was a rollin’ stone. He rolled into town long enough to marry my grandmother and he stayed something like faithful to her until Fenn was about five or six or seven, or hell, I don’t know. Then he just dipped. They were separated for twenty years before they finally went ahead and got the divorce. The other old lady is my great-grandmother. She never liked my grandfather, not even when he was a little boy.”
“Your great-grandmother knew him when he was a little boy?” Claire said.
“Well, yeah. See, she was his stepmother. She had been married to his father.”
“Oh, my God.”
“That’s why everyone’s last name is Houghton.”
“But they’re not niece and nephew… or anything?”
“They aren’t niece and nephew, but I’m pretty sure they are some type of cousin. It’s legal. Don’t make that face.”
“Are you sorry you asked?” Claire turned to her brothers.
Mouth open in an amazed smile, Paul said, “Not really. Where the hell does Lee come from?”
“Lee is Lula’s sister’s grandson,” Layla began.
“Oh, alright—”
“And my grandfather’s nephew.”
“The grandfather downstairs?”
Layla nodded.
Claire’s eyes were up at the ceiling and she was muttering something, counting on her fingers.
“What are you doing?” said Layla.
“Trying to make out your family tree. And I can’t.”

“You need to talk to her.”
“What do you mean, I need to… I can’t.”
“Brendan, this is fucked up!” Will exclaimed. “Look at you. Why are you doing this? And… Pardon me, but if I’m not wrong, then she’s not the only person you need to talk too.”
“I can’t… I… I’m having sex with her. We’re doing it all the time. She likes it. I mean, I like it too—”
“When you close your eyes and pretend she’s someone else—”
“I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“No, you should have, Bren. You really should have because you can’t keep on doing this. It’s not fair to her. Or to you.”
And then Will added, “It’s really not fair to her. I mean, you’re doing this to Dena so you can… Never mind.”
“So I can what?” said Brendan.
“So you can turn yourself into something you’re not. And… it’s not fair.”
“Look,” Brendan said. “I know it’s not fair. That’s why… I’m not going to stop. It makes her happy when we—”
“Fuck?”
“Stop!” Brendan’s voice grew hard. “I’m serious, Will. Don’t ever say that.”
“Well, it’s not making love. I’m sorry, Bren. But we’re supposed to be friends, and friends tell each other shit when they see that they need to.”
“I think Layla’s rubbing off on you.”
“Well…” Will shrugged. “I think she is too. And that’s a good thing.”
“I’m so tired,” Brendan said, suddenly.
“I’m just so tired of pretending. I’m so… tired. I hate… feeling the way I do. Like this fraud, like this… this monster who is hurting everybody.”
“Aw,” Will covered his mouth and shook his head. He sat down on the bed beside his friend and put his arm around him.
“Brendan, you have to tell her the truth. You can’t go on like this. Don’t be afraid. All of your friends are going to support you. The both of you.”
“You’re the only real friend I have.”
“That is not true!”
“Well, it will be… after I talk to her.”
“No,” Will said, stoutly. “It won’t be. But even if it was, you’d still have me. So don’t worry.”
Brendan buried his face in his hands so long Will thought he was crying. When he removed them his face was red, but dry. He cleared his throat, stood up and said, “I gotta go. I gotta go see Dena.”

Monday afternoon, Julian Lawden was leaving the theatre when he saw, from the corner of his eye, Layla Lawden. He thought to keep on walking, and then shrugged and came toward her.
When he stood in front of her she said, “Hello?”
“Do you know who I am?”
Layla’s hello had been the closest thing she could come up with to simultaneously throwing out a challenge while claiming ignorance.
“Yes,” she said, at last. “I do.”
“All right,” said Julian. “Well, what do you want to do about that?”
“Whaddo you mean what do I want to do about it?”
“Look,” Julian’s voice changed. “I’m not the one that broke up your parents’ not so happy marriage, so you can lose that tone of voice right now.”
No man ever talked to her that way. No man who wasn’t in her family. But then, Julian was family.
“How old are you?” Layla said.
“Older than you. By a year.”
When Julian smiled at her, it wasn’t a welcoming one.
“You thought to yourself, ‘I’m the daughter of Hoot Lawden’—and if you want to be proud of that you can be—‘and this is the bastard of the woman he left my mother for.’ And then you learn that it’s the other way around.”
She looked at him.
“See,” Julian put a finger up. “You’re the bastard.
“Hoot was married to my mother before he married yours. It was short. They didn’t get on. He was a cheat. What’s new? He cheated with Adele. I was already about to come into this world when Adele said she was pregnant. With you, Layla.”
Layla’s face dried, and all up and down it, all up and down her body heat pricks stung her.
“My mother said, at the time, she didn’t want him anymore. He could go to Adele. So he did. But apparently neither one of them got over each other as much as they said. Whatever they did, I’m not the bastard you seem to think I am, and no matter how much you think Hoot loved your mother, whenever he left her house, apparently he couldn’t quit fucking mine.”
Layla’s hand went up to slap him, but Julian caught her wrist.
“None of that, okay?”
As he lowered her hand back to her side, Julian told her in a level, almost conversational voice, “I, for one, am tired of seeing your sanctimonious black ass walk around here, turning me the evil eye for no reason, and if it’s all the same, I just thought I’d give you a reason.”
He released her hand, smiled, and turned around to walk away.
Then he turned back around while Layla was rubbing her wrist and said, “When you want to talk civil, come and see me, sis. After all,” he said, saluting her, “we’re family.”

Layla thought about going back to her house, but winded by her conversation with Julian, she caught the Number Thirteen, putting her bike on its rack, and headed toward Dena’s instead.
When she got there, Brendan was by his car and Layla thought, “Shit, I should have called first,” but Brendan called her over.
Layla wheeled the bicycle across the street and rested on its handlebars looking at Brendan.
“You look horrible.”
“I feel horrible. Layla, just go in and be with her.”
“What?” she began. Then, “Brendan, what’s going on?”
“Just,” Brendan shook her head, “Be with her. I have to go. I need to go,” he said, and got into the car.
Layla wheeled the bike up the hill watching Brendan drive away, and then she left it on the brick porch of the Meraden house and went inside, going up the stairs in the narrow hallway and down the hall of the old house, to her best friend’s room.
Layla put her ear to the door.
“Shit,” she murmured, and tapped softly.
“No,” Dena’s voice was thick through the door.
“It’s me, Deen. I’m coming in.”
Layla pushed the door open, and Dena was sitting on the edge of the bed. It was awful to watch, her face buried in her hands, hidden by her dark hair, her body shaking.
She got up and her face was red and streaked. She threw her arms around Layla and dragged her to the bed.
“Oh, God,” she wailed while Layla rocked her, pushing away Hoot and Julian and the news Julian had told her, pushing away how hot and tired she was, how horrible Brendan had looked.
“Oh, my God,” Dena cried, shaking and sobbing.


“I knew.”
“You knew?”
“Yes,” said Will.
“What all did you know?” Layla said. “Because tonight my oldest friend tells me: one, she was sleeping with Brendan, who might be my second oldest friend, and then two—”
“I knew all of it,” Will said.
Layla stared at him.
“Brendan came to me, Layla. Dena didn’t know that. He was so confused. He was scared. He needed someone to talk to, and I’m his only friend.”
“That,” Layla said thickly, “is not true.”
“He couldn’t tell you.”
“Dena couldn’t tell me either. But Brendan, he told you everything?”
“Yeah,” Will said, weakly. “He did.”
Layla turned away from him and stood staring hard out of the window.
“Layla—”
“You know what?” she said. “There’s really enough in my life right now. I really shouldn’t even care that my friends thought that I couldn’t be confided in. I shouldn’t care. Like, did you know I met my brother today? That’s what I wanted to talk about? I met him and it turns out he’s older, and the woman my father cheated on my mother with was his ex wife, and apparently he was sleeping with my mother while he was married to her, and that’s how I was conceived? Did you know that, Will?”
“No, Lay. Sit here, we’ll talk about it.”
“I just talked about it,” she whirled around. “I just stood here, and fucking talked about it. You’re so good, Will, about hearing everyone’s secrets, so good that apparently you know everyone’s business while I’m in the dark. And then it’s okay to tell me when you feel like it, tell me you’ve all been hiding shit from me. It’s okay because it’s all about Dena who couldn’t tell what the fuck we all could tell from a mile away.”
“Dena was just—”
“Fuck Dena,” Layla said. “And fuck Brendan.”
She crossed the room to leave.
“Let me give you a ride home.”
“No, Will,” she said.
And then she added: “ And fuck you, too.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow an eventful section! So much going on but hopefully this has a happy ending. I guess I will have to wait and see.

 

[ChrisGibson]

There's so much more to come. If you had one or two wishes for the folks, what would they be?

 

[CharmedFan28]

That firstly Brendan and Dena end up happily apart and hopefully one day as friends. Secondly, that Paul figures out how to get off the dark path he is going down.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Happiy apart is the best phrase I've heard in a while, and these are actually the two most important things to me too.

 

[ChrisGibson]

EASTER WEEKEND PORTION


CHAPTER
TEN

ON STAGE CONCLUSION

“What the fuck do you want?”
“Can I come in?”
“Fuck no.”
“Well, then can I stand on the stoop and say what I need to say?”
“Brendan Miller you can drop dead and say what you need to say in hell.”
Kenny McGrath turned around and tried to shut the door, but Brendan pushed it back.
“You must want me to kick your ass. Really, Brendan.”
“We need to talk.”
“We tried that already. I tried that already. You said you didn’t need to be around me anymore. You said we weren’t anything. You said—”
“I was afraid.”
“You were afraid? You were an asshole.”
Brendan stood at the door waiting.
“Well, come in,” said Kenny.
Brendan nodded, and walked into the living room.
“No one’s home,” Kenny said. “So you can say your piece.”
“Dena’s gone. I mean, I told her everything.”
“Did you tell her you were sucking my dick? Did you tell her we were fucking each other for three months all that time you were telling her how busy you were, and how left out Will was feeling? Did you tell her that when you stayed over we were screwing in the same bed?”
“You make it sound like that, Ken. But… we were more than that.”
“Were we?” Kenny said. “Because, see, I thought we were in love. I… I was afraid when I thought so, but I was sure of it. I thought everything we did was because we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other, because we were so into each other. I really thought that. I was high as a kite. I thought you were too. I thought we had literally discovered sex, and love and… all of that shit. And one day we’d decide how to tell folks about it.
“And then, one day you were like, it’s over. You weren’t even gentle about it. You were just… you treated me like the plague. Like I was this disgusting thing that was turning you into something gross, and Dena Reardon was going to cure you.”
“I think that was the way I felt,” Brendan said quickly. “No, listen. I… with us I felt so out of control and so, different and so scared, so scared of the way I felt about you. The things that were happening to us when we were together. I knew I was gay, and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be. But it’s who I was. It was so natural and… I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“Well, Brendan, I’ve had a long time to not know, all by myself, while you treated me like shit and screwed Dena. I’ve had a long time to be miserable, to hate myself. To hate you. To… wanna die. You know what that feels like, Bren? To want to fucking die, to curl up in a fucking ball and just die? You know what that’s like?”
“Yes.”
Kenny looked at him dubiously.
“If you knew, why the fuck would you do that to someone else?”
“Ken—”
“I need you to get the fuck out.”
“Kenny—”
“Please,” Kenny said, taking a breath, and taking his hands through his hair, “I need you to go.”
Brendan nodded, and went to the front door.
“I just… wanted to let you know how sorry I was.”
Kenny nodded.
“Go, please.”
Brendan nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
A second later it opened.
“Brendan!” Kenny said, exhausted.
Brendan bit his lip.
“Kenny, I love you. I never stopped being in love with you. I… just wanted you to know that too.”
“All right,” Kenny said. “Now, get out?”
Brendan swallowed, took a breath, and then nodded.

“What?” Tom said, walking into the apartment, “is all this?”
Before Lee could say anything, Tom said, “It smells so good in here. God, I didn’t know you could cook! Lee, what is this?”
“Well, sit down,” Lee said coming out of the kitchen.
“You look ridiculous.”
“You don’t like my apron?”
“Lee,” Tom said as Lee shoved him into a chair, “What—?”
“You know how sometimes people throw going away dinners?”
Tom’s face changed.
“Oh, no, Lee.”
“Well,” Lee continued, raising a finger, “I’m throwing a ‘I’m not going anywhere anytime soon dinner.’ For us. No one else is invited.”
“What?” Tom tilted his head. “What are you saying?”
“You’re kind of slow, Tom. I just said it.”
“You’re not…” Tom began again. “You’re staying?”
“Yes. I can’t really think of a good reason not too.”
“Aw, Lee,” Tom leaped up and hugged him. “This is great. This is… the greatest news.”
“Of course I can move in with Adele until I get my own place.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t really stay here.”
“Why not?”
“It would be like me becoming your instant live-in boyfriend.”
“So?”
Lee separated from him and looked down at himself, murmuring, “This is a ridiculous apron.” Then he said, “Thom, you don’t just move into someone’s place and not leave.”
“Lee,” Tom said, coming behind him and helping him untie the apron. “I have waited a long, a looooong time to share my life with someone. My space. This place basically says ‘Fill me up.’”
“It’s pretty damn empty, all right.”
“And cold. And I’m pretty damn empty, too, and these last few weeks have been… I don’t know. The whole thing about maybe you would leave, the whole thing about me just kind of risking that and taking love right now, in the moment… it’s really been something. And… if we can start a life together… I don’t mean to get heavy. I mean, if we could just try this out, together, we would be real happy.”
“Tom, I wouldn’t be staying if I didn’t agree.”
“So… you’ll stay? I mean… here?”
“Yes.”
“Great.” Tom pressed himself to Lee and murmured into his chest. “It’s hard for me, you know. To give myself to someone. To trust myself to be soft. You make it easy. I don’t mean to sound clingy and everything. But this, right now, is great. I want to just… hold you and never let you go.”
“Well, you’re going to have to let me go sooner or later.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because the sauce is about to bubble over.”

“So,” Julian said, opening the door, “you wanna talk, or you wanna fight?”
Layla nodded and said, “I don’t want to do either. I’ve been all over town.”

She entered the house and Julian said, “They’re not home. Either one of them. It’s getting toward evening, and you’ve been on that bike.”
She shook her head, “I took the bus. I put it on the rack.”
“Still,” Julian said, “I can give you a ride back home.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“I’d say it is,” he disagreed. “You thirsty?”
“Not yet.”
Layla put her hands on the top of her head.
“Today, my oldest friend, who I was coming to tell about you told me that her boyfriend had, firstly, been sleeping with her for weeks. Which she never told me. And then she told me that he was gay, and he had just left her.”
“Shit.”
“Yes,” Layla agreed. “And, that he had been fooling around with another guy. Someone we all knew. Who we thought was just a friend.”
Julian nodded.
“And then,” Layla said, “I find out that my boyfriend knew all of this already, and he had never told me. None of them told me.”
“That’s a mess,” Julian sympathized. “That’s a real mess.”
“And now what you told me…
“I want to know, did my mother know my father was already married when they got together?”
“No.”
“I… I wanted to believe that my mother was… a virgin when she got married.”
“I want to believe my mother’s a virgin now.”
“But… she was pregnant with me already… Before my father proposed to her?”
“You want to grill her for having a sex life?”
“I don’t have a sex life,” Layla railed. “My slut of a best friend does. My—Brendan, who I grew up with, who won the dork of the year award in K-8: apparently he can fuck boys and girls at the same time and keep a job at Martins. So no, my mother’s sex life is a bit much to hear about right now.”
“What else do you want to know?”
Layla opened her mouth, and shook her head.
“I don’t know… I… I need to go.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“Rossford’s not that big.”
“Suit yourself,” Julian said.
She nodded and went to the door.
“Layla?”
She turned around.
“See, I want to feel sorry for you. I want to be sorry for how I treated you today. I want to be your friend. You are my sister.”
She nodded.
“But it’s hard for me, cause you’re kind of a bitch.”
“Goodnight, Julian,” she said, and pulled her bicycle out through the door.

Because it was summer, the sky was golden though it was approaching nine o’clock. She didn’t want to see her mother, or any of her family right now. She didn’t want her friends. She wanted a car. A car with limitless gas that would drive her out of this world. She needed to be someplace else.
The car was approaching her. It looked like Brendan’s. As they both came to the red light it came beside her and stopped.
“Layla, get in.”
“No,” she said. It was Brendan. Goddamn him.
“Layla, it’s late. You’ve been on that damn thing all day. You’re not Greg Lamont.”
“Who?”
“You’re not Lance Armstrong,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
Her thighs hurt. Her ass hurt by now. She was funky and sweaty.
“Get in,” he said in that voice Brendan used every once in awhile that meant he was completely serious.
The light turned green. Brendan didn’t move. Layla took a breath and climbed off of the bike. Brendan got out of the car and opened his trunk. He took the bike. His arms were strong. He seemed so skinny, it was a surprise. He unhooked the wheel expertly, stuck it in the back of his car, closed the trunk lightly, and Layla got in.
They drove. They drove in silence.
The Dairy Queen, the Cadillac Lot, the Mitsubishi place, Movies 10, Wendys, a Catholic bookstore, a Greek restaurant, gold red light settling on them, glowing off their glass fronts in copper waves. Gold red light on the asphalt.
“I don’t blame you if you don’t want to talk to me.”
“Brendan. Eventually, I want you to drop me off at my uncle’s. Okay?”
Brendan nodded.
“But for now, could you just drive. Just… let’s just drive. And not say anything.”
Brendan nodded.
And so they drove.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow I can't believe Brendan and Kenny were an actual thing while he was with Dena too! Great writing and I look forward to reading how this all turns out.