CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
I am glad Adele's date went well! Noah seems lost at the moment, hopefully he finds a purpose in life. Excellent writing and I look forward to the next part!
The Original Gay Porn Community - Free Gay Movies and Photos, Gay Porn Site Reviews and Adult Gay Forums
-
Welcome To Just Us Boys - The World's Largest Gay Message Board Community
In order to comply with recent US Supreme Court rulings regarding adult content, we will be making changes in the future to require that you log into your account to view adult content on the site.
If you do not have an account, please register.
REGISTER HERE - 100% FREE / We Will Never Sell Your InfoTo register, turn off your VPN; you can re-enable the VPN after registration. You must maintain an active email address on your account: disposable email addresses cannot be used to register.
The People in Rossford
- Thread starter ChrisGibson
- Start date
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER
THREE
GOING OUT CONCLUSION
Because he was late and bored and frustrated, Brian slipped into flip flops and put a hoodie on, then grabbing his car keys, headed to the Video Watch on Birmingham. That same kid was there, and all he could remember is he had said too much and not been too kind.
“I remember you,” said the boy.
“Yes,” said Brian. “I remember you, too. Is there anything good here?”
“Do you mean here,” the boy said, gesturing about the empty video store. “Or,” he said conspiratorially, “back there?” and pointed at the curtain with the pornos.
“No,” said Brian, a little sickened by the boy’s a familiar tone. “That doesn’t do anything for me.” Which wasn’t completely true. “I’d much rather have the real thing.”
Brian browsed through the movies and the boy said, “In that bin over there you can buy five videos for five dollars.”
“Does anyone buy videos anymore?”
“You’d be surprised,” said the boy.
Yes, Brian thought, I would.
There was really nothing he wanted to see right now so he said, “How much are the DVDs in the bin?”
“Five a piece.”
Brian shrugged.
“Not bad.”
“Not bad at all,” the boy said.
Brian bought Spartacus, but didn’t let on how happy he was, or what good fortune it was to get Spartacus for the irrational fear that somehow this boy might suddenly raise the price. As he was humming the intermission music to himself and thinking, “I am Spartacus, I am Spartacus,” the boy said to him, “You know that Johnny Mellow?”
“Hum?” Brian came back to himself. “Uh, yes?”
“You said you nailed him, right?”
“I’ll pay in cash,” Brian said, taking out his wallet.
“Did I tell you he nailed me too?”
“I think you did.”
The boy was quiet for a second, as if he was considering a big risk. And then he said, “No one really comes in here. I could shut the place for a couple of minutes.”
“What are you getting at?” Brian said. But in those few seconds, things had shifted and already the blood in Brian’s groin knew what the boy was getting at.
“I mean, if Johnny Mellow had me, and then the guy that had Johnny had me, that would be sort of… cool, right?”
“Are you propositioning me?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
“Back there?” the boy said hopefully. “Behind that curtain?”
Brian Babcock said, “All right.”
“Oh, oh. Oh… aw God. Oh, uhhh!” The boy gave an ugly groan and reached behind him to pull Brian deeper inside. Brian’s hands clamped down on the boys shoulders and he slammed against him harder and harder feeling himself coming.
“Oh…” Brian spun out of him coming in him, then across his back, his body jecking up and down with the release. “Shit! Shit!”
For a black moment in the darkness of the porno section, Brian lay draped over the boy’s back, sighing. And then he moved away and the boy took a Kleenex—where had it come from—and wiped Brian.
“There you go,” he said. He moaned as he pulled his underwear and his pants back up. “That was hot. You were hot.”
Pulling up his shorts, Brian said, awkwardly, “Thank you.”
He left the store quickly, and when he’d got out into the parking lot realized he had not paid for the movie in his hand.
“Too late for that,” he decided and climbed back into the car. As the engine started, Brian saw the boy turn the CLOSED sign back to OPEN.
“It’s not like you’re in a relationship, Bri,” he told himself turning to the street. “It’s not like you hurt someone this time. That was just some innocent shit.
“It’s not like I did anything wrong,” he said out loud.
And then he said why did I do that?
And then he decided: This store gets me in trouble. I’d better get Netflix.
Claire Anderson was dreaming that it was raining. And then she was dreaming that there were rocks on her window, and then she knew she was dreaming, and she knew she was about to float up out of that dream place, and then she was awake, and there was the rattling on her window.
East Carmel was a town where people rattled on your window and crawled on in, so she wasn’t scared. Rapists did not generally knock on the door. At least, she didn’t think they did. She got up out of bed realizing she really had to pee, and crossed the room to open the already half cracked second story window.
“Noah!” she said. Then, “Noah, get on in here!”
She pulled Noah Riley, who was the same size as her through the window and said, “Watch your knees,” as he tumbled onto the floor.
“You never wear shorts when you’re going to crawl into someone’s window.”
Noah chuckled and, rubbing his knee said, “It wasn’t in my plans to crawl into your window, Miss Anderson.”
She clicked on the light and sat on the edge of the bed.
“It just came to you to visit me?”
“I was on my way to Rummelsville.”
“Ick,” Claire made a face. “What the fuck for?”
“Because it’s my home,” Noah said, sitting beside her, “and by the way, we say the same thing about East Carmel.”
As if her bedroom, covered in posters of Pre Raphealite art and posters of classical musicians were the entirety of East Carmel, she looked around critically and said, “And I don’t blame them.
“But it doesn’t make Rummelsville any better. I’ve been going with Fenn Houghton’s nephew a while now, and I’m suddenly suspicious of any place that has more brown cows than brown people.”
She stood up. “Have you eaten?”
“Not really.”
“I’ll got downstairs and get you something. We had pizza tonight. Sausage all right with you?”
“Sausage is perfect.”
“And don’t be upset if I’m not back right away. I have to visit the little girls’ room and take a very feminine piss.”
When Claire finally returned, she said setting the plate down, “Why of all the places in the world did you come here? Be careful. It’s hot.”
Noah burnt his fingers anyway and Claire commented that, “Some people don’t know how to listen.”
“I came because I knew you’d treat me this way.”
Claire looked at him.
“We met like once, weeks ago—,” Noah began.
“In all fairness it was a couple of days ago, and on the first one you had a gun in your mouth.”
“But you act like I’m this old friend you’re really happy to see, and I just knew you would. I just knew we were friends. And to tell the truth, I don’t really have any.”
“Paul.”
“That’s different. Plus, he was busy.”
“Busy?”
“With Kirk.”
“They’re together again?”
“Apparently.”
“Well, good. What about that Brian?”
“Oh, I don’t know what’s going on with him.”
Claire frowned and then, her mood changing, she said, “But we are friends. We’re like… I was about to say soul sisters. But number one, you’re not a girl and number two, I’m not Black.”
“Well… I get what you’re saying,” Noah said. “And I feel the same way,” he said between bites of pizza. “That’s why I wanted to see you. Have some of this. It’s really good.”
“I know,” Claire said taking a slice. “I microwaved it myself.” She made a small bow.
They munched on pizza for a while and Claire, swallowing the cheese said, “I should have got something to drink. I’m going to get some juice. It’s pomegranate, Mom’s on a health kick. You want some?”
“Is it good?”
“It’s sort of… it’s like drinking health. That’s all I can think of. It’s like someone crushed a bitter seed and turned it into juice, the whole time you’re drinking it you’re thinking Damn, I’m healthy.”
“Oh, sure then. I used to drink plenty of weird shit in the name of health.”
When Claire came back this next time she said, handing him a glass of the dark juice:
“I’ve got an idea. How about I come with you to East Carmel?”
“Shit!” Noah said putting the glass down.
“My idea, or the juice?”
“Definitely the juice. You really wanna come with me?”
“Yes. But I need to go back to bed. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“You want me to get a hotel?”
“Don’t be stupid. You’ll sleep on my bed, or on my day bed, or you can even sleep with me.”
“What’s your mom gonna say tomorrow morning when she sees a twenty-three year old guy come out of your bedroom?”
“Nothing. Because you’re gay, and in East Carmel that means you have no sexuality whatsoever.”
“She should see one of my movies.”
Claire shook her head and put the empty, greasy plate on her desk, before climbing back onto the bed.
“Not if my brother’s in it with you.”
THREE
GOING OUT CONCLUSION
Because he was late and bored and frustrated, Brian slipped into flip flops and put a hoodie on, then grabbing his car keys, headed to the Video Watch on Birmingham. That same kid was there, and all he could remember is he had said too much and not been too kind.
“I remember you,” said the boy.
“Yes,” said Brian. “I remember you, too. Is there anything good here?”
“Do you mean here,” the boy said, gesturing about the empty video store. “Or,” he said conspiratorially, “back there?” and pointed at the curtain with the pornos.
“No,” said Brian, a little sickened by the boy’s a familiar tone. “That doesn’t do anything for me.” Which wasn’t completely true. “I’d much rather have the real thing.”
Brian browsed through the movies and the boy said, “In that bin over there you can buy five videos for five dollars.”
“Does anyone buy videos anymore?”
“You’d be surprised,” said the boy.
Yes, Brian thought, I would.
There was really nothing he wanted to see right now so he said, “How much are the DVDs in the bin?”
“Five a piece.”
Brian shrugged.
“Not bad.”
“Not bad at all,” the boy said.
Brian bought Spartacus, but didn’t let on how happy he was, or what good fortune it was to get Spartacus for the irrational fear that somehow this boy might suddenly raise the price. As he was humming the intermission music to himself and thinking, “I am Spartacus, I am Spartacus,” the boy said to him, “You know that Johnny Mellow?”
“Hum?” Brian came back to himself. “Uh, yes?”
“You said you nailed him, right?”
“I’ll pay in cash,” Brian said, taking out his wallet.
“Did I tell you he nailed me too?”
“I think you did.”
The boy was quiet for a second, as if he was considering a big risk. And then he said, “No one really comes in here. I could shut the place for a couple of minutes.”
“What are you getting at?” Brian said. But in those few seconds, things had shifted and already the blood in Brian’s groin knew what the boy was getting at.
“I mean, if Johnny Mellow had me, and then the guy that had Johnny had me, that would be sort of… cool, right?”
“Are you propositioning me?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want me to fuck you?”
“Back there?” the boy said hopefully. “Behind that curtain?”
Brian Babcock said, “All right.”
“Oh, oh. Oh… aw God. Oh, uhhh!” The boy gave an ugly groan and reached behind him to pull Brian deeper inside. Brian’s hands clamped down on the boys shoulders and he slammed against him harder and harder feeling himself coming.
“Oh…” Brian spun out of him coming in him, then across his back, his body jecking up and down with the release. “Shit! Shit!”
For a black moment in the darkness of the porno section, Brian lay draped over the boy’s back, sighing. And then he moved away and the boy took a Kleenex—where had it come from—and wiped Brian.
“There you go,” he said. He moaned as he pulled his underwear and his pants back up. “That was hot. You were hot.”
Pulling up his shorts, Brian said, awkwardly, “Thank you.”
He left the store quickly, and when he’d got out into the parking lot realized he had not paid for the movie in his hand.
“Too late for that,” he decided and climbed back into the car. As the engine started, Brian saw the boy turn the CLOSED sign back to OPEN.
“It’s not like you’re in a relationship, Bri,” he told himself turning to the street. “It’s not like you hurt someone this time. That was just some innocent shit.
“It’s not like I did anything wrong,” he said out loud.
And then he said why did I do that?
And then he decided: This store gets me in trouble. I’d better get Netflix.
Claire Anderson was dreaming that it was raining. And then she was dreaming that there were rocks on her window, and then she knew she was dreaming, and she knew she was about to float up out of that dream place, and then she was awake, and there was the rattling on her window.
East Carmel was a town where people rattled on your window and crawled on in, so she wasn’t scared. Rapists did not generally knock on the door. At least, she didn’t think they did. She got up out of bed realizing she really had to pee, and crossed the room to open the already half cracked second story window.
“Noah!” she said. Then, “Noah, get on in here!”
She pulled Noah Riley, who was the same size as her through the window and said, “Watch your knees,” as he tumbled onto the floor.
“You never wear shorts when you’re going to crawl into someone’s window.”
Noah chuckled and, rubbing his knee said, “It wasn’t in my plans to crawl into your window, Miss Anderson.”
She clicked on the light and sat on the edge of the bed.
“It just came to you to visit me?”
“I was on my way to Rummelsville.”
“Ick,” Claire made a face. “What the fuck for?”
“Because it’s my home,” Noah said, sitting beside her, “and by the way, we say the same thing about East Carmel.”
As if her bedroom, covered in posters of Pre Raphealite art and posters of classical musicians were the entirety of East Carmel, she looked around critically and said, “And I don’t blame them.
“But it doesn’t make Rummelsville any better. I’ve been going with Fenn Houghton’s nephew a while now, and I’m suddenly suspicious of any place that has more brown cows than brown people.”
She stood up. “Have you eaten?”
“Not really.”
“I’ll got downstairs and get you something. We had pizza tonight. Sausage all right with you?”
“Sausage is perfect.”
“And don’t be upset if I’m not back right away. I have to visit the little girls’ room and take a very feminine piss.”
When Claire finally returned, she said setting the plate down, “Why of all the places in the world did you come here? Be careful. It’s hot.”
Noah burnt his fingers anyway and Claire commented that, “Some people don’t know how to listen.”
“I came because I knew you’d treat me this way.”
Claire looked at him.
“We met like once, weeks ago—,” Noah began.
“In all fairness it was a couple of days ago, and on the first one you had a gun in your mouth.”
“But you act like I’m this old friend you’re really happy to see, and I just knew you would. I just knew we were friends. And to tell the truth, I don’t really have any.”
“Paul.”
“That’s different. Plus, he was busy.”
“Busy?”
“With Kirk.”
“They’re together again?”
“Apparently.”
“Well, good. What about that Brian?”
“Oh, I don’t know what’s going on with him.”
Claire frowned and then, her mood changing, she said, “But we are friends. We’re like… I was about to say soul sisters. But number one, you’re not a girl and number two, I’m not Black.”
“Well… I get what you’re saying,” Noah said. “And I feel the same way,” he said between bites of pizza. “That’s why I wanted to see you. Have some of this. It’s really good.”
“I know,” Claire said taking a slice. “I microwaved it myself.” She made a small bow.
They munched on pizza for a while and Claire, swallowing the cheese said, “I should have got something to drink. I’m going to get some juice. It’s pomegranate, Mom’s on a health kick. You want some?”
“Is it good?”
“It’s sort of… it’s like drinking health. That’s all I can think of. It’s like someone crushed a bitter seed and turned it into juice, the whole time you’re drinking it you’re thinking Damn, I’m healthy.”
“Oh, sure then. I used to drink plenty of weird shit in the name of health.”
When Claire came back this next time she said, handing him a glass of the dark juice:
“I’ve got an idea. How about I come with you to East Carmel?”
“Shit!” Noah said putting the glass down.
“My idea, or the juice?”
“Definitely the juice. You really wanna come with me?”
“Yes. But I need to go back to bed. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“You want me to get a hotel?”
“Don’t be stupid. You’ll sleep on my bed, or on my day bed, or you can even sleep with me.”
“What’s your mom gonna say tomorrow morning when she sees a twenty-three year old guy come out of your bedroom?”
“Nothing. Because you’re gay, and in East Carmel that means you have no sexuality whatsoever.”
“She should see one of my movies.”
Claire shook her head and put the empty, greasy plate on her desk, before climbing back onto the bed.
“Not if my brother’s in it with you.”
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
A well done conclusion to the chapter! Seems like Brian might be going back to his old ways. I am glad Noah has a friend.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I am glad you enjoyed it. You know people don't change all at once. I hope you have a great weekend, more Saturday night.
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Thanks, I hope you have a great weekend too!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW
“Claire, Julian’s here for you all,” Naomi said.
“And let me tell you,” she whispered, coming into the room, “He’s a real nice looking one. Like Denzel. Why couldn’t the one running for president look like that? Not that he isn’t a good looking one too. I mean, they do make some nice looking ones.”
“Thank you,” Julian said over her shoulder, and Naomi Riley jumped up in the air.
“I’ll just get Noah,” she said.. “I’ll just go tell him everything’s done.”
Julian Lawden closed the door behind him, and stood with his back to the door, an eyebrow raised, and a grin coming across his face. Then he came to the bed.
“I can’t believe you asked me to drive out here and pick you up.”
“Well, I had to get to school somehow,” said Claire.
“You are an evil, spiteful girl.”
“And Noah’s car broke down.”
“Noah keeps leaving Rossford,” Julian told her. “And it seems like he keeps on being unable to stay away.”
Noah tapped on the door and said, “You kids aren’t being frisky in there, are you?”
“What if we are?” shouted Julian.
Noah opened the door, hopped on the bed between them, and said, “I would have to ask to join in.”
“Wow,” Claire said while Julian shook his head.
“I could probably teach you both a thing or two.”
“You could probably teach us a thing or three, actually,” Julian noted.
“So are we ready to go?”
“I’m ready to go,” Julian said, and he got off the bed, while Noah headed out of the room saying, “I’m going to get my bag.”
“Goodbye, Mom,” Noah reached to hug Naomi.
She received him stiffly and said, “I don’t know why you’re running off again. You always ran off. I don’t know why you just can’t stay.”
“Stay and what? Be like I was in high school? Always angry, always wanting to go away to something’s better? No. I came, I saw. I Rummeled. I better go back to Rossford now.”
“What’s in Rossford?” Naomi wondered, looking at Julian and Claire.
“Well, school for one,” Claire offered.
“But this one isn’t going to school,” Naomi said, gesturing to Noah. “He never could do school.
“You never could do people. Why was that? What happened to you? You never could trust people.”
“I gotta go, Ma,” he said. “They gotta be on campus tonight, and we’ve still gotta stop at Claire’s house.”
“Well, fine,” she said. “It’s just… I love you, Noah. And you’re so ass backwards. You’re what my father would’ve called backasswards, and I don’t know how to straighten you out.”
Noah raised a quizzical eyebrow and said, “There is not straightening me out, Ma.”
“Oh, you don’t have to be nasty like that. Just kiss me and go.”
When they had arrived in Rummelsville a week ago, in the middle of the night, Naomi Riley opened the door and Claire was surprised by her beauty. It was tired beauty, but she couldn’t have been much older than forty, if that. The little house told the story quickly, before Noah ever elaborated. Single young mother who had liked her men, or if she hadn’t like them, had at least depended on them. They hadn’t come from the town. They had come in and out, some of them truckers. Noah was often with his grandparents or cousins. Naomi was a woman who loved her son, but didn’t have much skill as a parent.
“You’re Not-His-Girlfriend,” Naomi said. This was the way Noah had introduced Claire. “You’re real pretty, and Noah’s real pretty too, but I’ve known him my whole life. I remember he used to play with little boys under the bridge and back in high school they used to talk about him, how he nearly got beat up for turning tricks for the basketball team.”
“Shut up, Nay,” he said.
“I’m just saying,” Naomi went on, oblivious to Noah’s embarrassment. “I know how you are. Just like how you know what I am.”
“I know you’re a slut.”
“That’s right,” Naomi said. “I’m a real slut. My being a slut brought you into this world, and you being what you are made all those movies Dena Lawry showed me. She says, this is your Noah, isn’t it? That dirty ole bitch. She tries to make me look bad, but she found ‘em. And where’d she find them? Found you fucking this one boy, on her son’s computer. So, I says, at least he makes money. Your son just wastes yours. Bet your credit card number is all over that site.”
They stayed in the same room, and Noah was strangely quiet. He seemed a little stunned actually, steepling his fingers together again and again, staring off.
“Noah,” Claire said approaching him, putting an arm over his shoulder, “We should get some rest.”
“Now you see what I come from.”
“She… doesn’t seem like a bad person,” Claire said, diplomatically.
“If you’re mom found that movie Brian sent…”
“She’d be devastated. That’s Marilee.”
“Naomi… my Mom. And how could she say that about me? All of that?”
“Is it true?” Claire said. She didn’t know why she said it.
Noah turned his back to her, and beat his pillow, lying down solidly.
“I don’t want to talk about that, Claire.”
Claire took her arm from around him. Noah had suddenly gone stiff, and she wondered if she should have come.
“I’ll go to bed, now,” she told him. “I’ll be right in the next room.”
He nodded, not looking at her.
At the door she finally turned around and said:
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“If we’re really friends, then I need an answer. Is it true? What she said. And if it’s true, why didn’t she do anything? And if it’s true… why did you do it?”
“She took a bar of Dial and stuck it in my mouth for an hour at a time and told me to wash the cock out of it, until I got sick and had to go to the hospital. She made me take off my clothes and then beat me with an electric cord until child services nearly took me away and then she said she’d beat the fag out of me. But she was hardly twenty-five years old. And she’s ignorant. Everyone here is ignorant.
“I don’t know what I was. Curious? But I couldn’t have been the only curious one because it takes two to fool around and there was a lot of fooling around. Folks knew I would do it. It’s like, if they call a little girl a slut because she does stuff, is she worse than the boys that ask her too?”
He said it all once, in a breath.
“I hate this fucking town. I’m really, really, tired Claire.”
Claire nodded and went to bed.
THE NEXT MORNING, Noah shook Claire awake and she sat up.
“Thank you for coming with me. And, I’m sorry for being a jerk last night.”
“You weren’t a jerk.”
“I think I was. I never have to explain anything to anyone. And I was embarrassed the way she just told you everything.”
“You’re never embarrassed,” Claire said, shaking her head and hugging him. “Nothing embarrasses you.”
“Nothing after I left this town embarrasses me. Being a little boy who got used under bridges embarrasses me. Giving blowjobs to basketball players and getting my ass beaten behind the school gym embarrasses me. Just…. Thinking about my life in this town makes me sick.”
“Why did we come back?”
“I don’t exactly know,” Noah shook his head.
“But I’m glad you came with me.”
Clare nodded. She was glad she had come too.
“Milo, the car is dead.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“And it doesn’t matter how many times you start that engine back up,” said Dena, “the car will still be dead.”
Headed tilted in exasperation from behind a dark bang, Milo Affren looked at her.
“What we need is a jump start.”
“How about,” Milo said, sense there was no car on the highway between here and Port Ridge, to jump start them, “I get out and look under the hood, and you… stick your thumb up.”
Dena was about to say, “We could get killed,” when she realized they’d better do something, and from the sound in Milo’s voice, she’d better damn well stop complaining.
They both got out of the car, and Milo opened the hood. Dena knew, as she stood on the side of the road, cars roaring by, that Milo believed in the near magical power of sticking your head under the hood. If you stuck your head under the hood and hemmed and hawed and touched things, then the car would start. The truth was, Dena realized, she believed in this power too. A man, especially one near six feet tall, with his head in the hood of a car, was a reassuring thing.
“Try it now,” Milo said.
Dena skipped away from the side of the road—she was tired of running out there, people were so mean these days they might actually run you over—and she closed the driver’s door before shouting out, “Move away from the car, baby!”
Milo obeyed, and Dena started up the car. Who knew what could have happened if Milo had stayed there, looking into the hood? It could have exploded. The car could have lost its bearing and run him over. Anything could have happened with Milo’s head under the hood while she started up the ignition.
Instead nothing happened. The engine gave a sad, tired growl, and then it rolled over and died was what happened.
“Try it again,” Milo said, and Dena did not argue because she knew it wasn’t worth it. She started it again. Nothing happened. In fact, she did not even wait for Milo to ask, she started it a third time, and when nothing happened a third time he said, wiping his dirty hands on his dirty jeans: “Well, I guess we better keep on working at this.”
Dena got out of the car. Without air conditioning she was starting to feel the heat. It had been chilly the last week and everyone had said, “Falls coming, she’s on her way.” No one ever notices we have the same weather every year. Every year a nice little chill before things heat up again. This was the heating up again.
This time a car did approach as she thumbed up, and she moved out of its decelerating way, and then as the car parked, and Milo said, “Oh, thank God!” Dena said, “Oh… Fuck… ME.”
She knew that car, and as it stopped and the passenger came out, she knew whom the driver would be. The back of the car was loaded up, and the trunk was up, filled with shit, and the passenger, in some old worn jeans and a snug yellow tee shirt, showing of his shoulders, was Kenny McGrath. The driver…
“Dena!”
Was: “Brendan.”
“God, are we guys glad to see you,” Milo said.
“What’s going on?” Brendan approached the car.
What’s going on? A car with the hood up on the side of the road, and you ask what the fuck is going on? How could you? And how could Milo be glad to see them? Well, of course he was, the very fact that Brendan had gone for a five foot eleven boy with curly dark red hair over… well, her, was the reason Milo was with her now. Dena was not glad. If Dena Reardon had fallen into the river Styx and been ass poked by demons when Brendan came riding by on Charon’s raft to offer her safety, she would have chosen the demons. She would have let Cerberus bite off her head.
“…. Yeah your engine’s out,” Kenny was saying.
“You guys got jumper cables?”
“No,” Brendan said, sadly. “We don’t. We could give you a lift back into town, though. We’re on our way to Holy Name.”
“That would be great, wouldn’t it?” Milo looked at Dena.
Dena smiled weakly. If there was ever a time to pretend she wasn’t petty, this was it.
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW
“Claire, Julian’s here for you all,” Naomi said.
“And let me tell you,” she whispered, coming into the room, “He’s a real nice looking one. Like Denzel. Why couldn’t the one running for president look like that? Not that he isn’t a good looking one too. I mean, they do make some nice looking ones.”
“Thank you,” Julian said over her shoulder, and Naomi Riley jumped up in the air.
“I’ll just get Noah,” she said.. “I’ll just go tell him everything’s done.”
Julian Lawden closed the door behind him, and stood with his back to the door, an eyebrow raised, and a grin coming across his face. Then he came to the bed.
“I can’t believe you asked me to drive out here and pick you up.”
“Well, I had to get to school somehow,” said Claire.
“You are an evil, spiteful girl.”
“And Noah’s car broke down.”
“Noah keeps leaving Rossford,” Julian told her. “And it seems like he keeps on being unable to stay away.”
Noah tapped on the door and said, “You kids aren’t being frisky in there, are you?”
“What if we are?” shouted Julian.
Noah opened the door, hopped on the bed between them, and said, “I would have to ask to join in.”
“Wow,” Claire said while Julian shook his head.
“I could probably teach you both a thing or two.”
“You could probably teach us a thing or three, actually,” Julian noted.
“So are we ready to go?”
“I’m ready to go,” Julian said, and he got off the bed, while Noah headed out of the room saying, “I’m going to get my bag.”
“Goodbye, Mom,” Noah reached to hug Naomi.
She received him stiffly and said, “I don’t know why you’re running off again. You always ran off. I don’t know why you just can’t stay.”
“Stay and what? Be like I was in high school? Always angry, always wanting to go away to something’s better? No. I came, I saw. I Rummeled. I better go back to Rossford now.”
“What’s in Rossford?” Naomi wondered, looking at Julian and Claire.
“Well, school for one,” Claire offered.
“But this one isn’t going to school,” Naomi said, gesturing to Noah. “He never could do school.
“You never could do people. Why was that? What happened to you? You never could trust people.”
“I gotta go, Ma,” he said. “They gotta be on campus tonight, and we’ve still gotta stop at Claire’s house.”
“Well, fine,” she said. “It’s just… I love you, Noah. And you’re so ass backwards. You’re what my father would’ve called backasswards, and I don’t know how to straighten you out.”
Noah raised a quizzical eyebrow and said, “There is not straightening me out, Ma.”
“Oh, you don’t have to be nasty like that. Just kiss me and go.”
When they had arrived in Rummelsville a week ago, in the middle of the night, Naomi Riley opened the door and Claire was surprised by her beauty. It was tired beauty, but she couldn’t have been much older than forty, if that. The little house told the story quickly, before Noah ever elaborated. Single young mother who had liked her men, or if she hadn’t like them, had at least depended on them. They hadn’t come from the town. They had come in and out, some of them truckers. Noah was often with his grandparents or cousins. Naomi was a woman who loved her son, but didn’t have much skill as a parent.
“You’re Not-His-Girlfriend,” Naomi said. This was the way Noah had introduced Claire. “You’re real pretty, and Noah’s real pretty too, but I’ve known him my whole life. I remember he used to play with little boys under the bridge and back in high school they used to talk about him, how he nearly got beat up for turning tricks for the basketball team.”
“Shut up, Nay,” he said.
“I’m just saying,” Naomi went on, oblivious to Noah’s embarrassment. “I know how you are. Just like how you know what I am.”
“I know you’re a slut.”
“That’s right,” Naomi said. “I’m a real slut. My being a slut brought you into this world, and you being what you are made all those movies Dena Lawry showed me. She says, this is your Noah, isn’t it? That dirty ole bitch. She tries to make me look bad, but she found ‘em. And where’d she find them? Found you fucking this one boy, on her son’s computer. So, I says, at least he makes money. Your son just wastes yours. Bet your credit card number is all over that site.”
They stayed in the same room, and Noah was strangely quiet. He seemed a little stunned actually, steepling his fingers together again and again, staring off.
“Noah,” Claire said approaching him, putting an arm over his shoulder, “We should get some rest.”
“Now you see what I come from.”
“She… doesn’t seem like a bad person,” Claire said, diplomatically.
“If you’re mom found that movie Brian sent…”
“She’d be devastated. That’s Marilee.”
“Naomi… my Mom. And how could she say that about me? All of that?”
“Is it true?” Claire said. She didn’t know why she said it.
Noah turned his back to her, and beat his pillow, lying down solidly.
“I don’t want to talk about that, Claire.”
Claire took her arm from around him. Noah had suddenly gone stiff, and she wondered if she should have come.
“I’ll go to bed, now,” she told him. “I’ll be right in the next room.”
He nodded, not looking at her.
At the door she finally turned around and said:
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“If we’re really friends, then I need an answer. Is it true? What she said. And if it’s true, why didn’t she do anything? And if it’s true… why did you do it?”
“She took a bar of Dial and stuck it in my mouth for an hour at a time and told me to wash the cock out of it, until I got sick and had to go to the hospital. She made me take off my clothes and then beat me with an electric cord until child services nearly took me away and then she said she’d beat the fag out of me. But she was hardly twenty-five years old. And she’s ignorant. Everyone here is ignorant.
“I don’t know what I was. Curious? But I couldn’t have been the only curious one because it takes two to fool around and there was a lot of fooling around. Folks knew I would do it. It’s like, if they call a little girl a slut because she does stuff, is she worse than the boys that ask her too?”
He said it all once, in a breath.
“I hate this fucking town. I’m really, really, tired Claire.”
Claire nodded and went to bed.
THE NEXT MORNING, Noah shook Claire awake and she sat up.
“Thank you for coming with me. And, I’m sorry for being a jerk last night.”
“You weren’t a jerk.”
“I think I was. I never have to explain anything to anyone. And I was embarrassed the way she just told you everything.”
“You’re never embarrassed,” Claire said, shaking her head and hugging him. “Nothing embarrasses you.”
“Nothing after I left this town embarrasses me. Being a little boy who got used under bridges embarrasses me. Giving blowjobs to basketball players and getting my ass beaten behind the school gym embarrasses me. Just…. Thinking about my life in this town makes me sick.”
“Why did we come back?”
“I don’t exactly know,” Noah shook his head.
“But I’m glad you came with me.”
Clare nodded. She was glad she had come too.
“Milo, the car is dead.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“And it doesn’t matter how many times you start that engine back up,” said Dena, “the car will still be dead.”
Headed tilted in exasperation from behind a dark bang, Milo Affren looked at her.
“What we need is a jump start.”
“How about,” Milo said, sense there was no car on the highway between here and Port Ridge, to jump start them, “I get out and look under the hood, and you… stick your thumb up.”
Dena was about to say, “We could get killed,” when she realized they’d better do something, and from the sound in Milo’s voice, she’d better damn well stop complaining.
They both got out of the car, and Milo opened the hood. Dena knew, as she stood on the side of the road, cars roaring by, that Milo believed in the near magical power of sticking your head under the hood. If you stuck your head under the hood and hemmed and hawed and touched things, then the car would start. The truth was, Dena realized, she believed in this power too. A man, especially one near six feet tall, with his head in the hood of a car, was a reassuring thing.
“Try it now,” Milo said.
Dena skipped away from the side of the road—she was tired of running out there, people were so mean these days they might actually run you over—and she closed the driver’s door before shouting out, “Move away from the car, baby!”
Milo obeyed, and Dena started up the car. Who knew what could have happened if Milo had stayed there, looking into the hood? It could have exploded. The car could have lost its bearing and run him over. Anything could have happened with Milo’s head under the hood while she started up the ignition.
Instead nothing happened. The engine gave a sad, tired growl, and then it rolled over and died was what happened.
“Try it again,” Milo said, and Dena did not argue because she knew it wasn’t worth it. She started it again. Nothing happened. In fact, she did not even wait for Milo to ask, she started it a third time, and when nothing happened a third time he said, wiping his dirty hands on his dirty jeans: “Well, I guess we better keep on working at this.”
Dena got out of the car. Without air conditioning she was starting to feel the heat. It had been chilly the last week and everyone had said, “Falls coming, she’s on her way.” No one ever notices we have the same weather every year. Every year a nice little chill before things heat up again. This was the heating up again.
This time a car did approach as she thumbed up, and she moved out of its decelerating way, and then as the car parked, and Milo said, “Oh, thank God!” Dena said, “Oh… Fuck… ME.”
She knew that car, and as it stopped and the passenger came out, she knew whom the driver would be. The back of the car was loaded up, and the trunk was up, filled with shit, and the passenger, in some old worn jeans and a snug yellow tee shirt, showing of his shoulders, was Kenny McGrath. The driver…
“Dena!”
Was: “Brendan.”
“God, are we guys glad to see you,” Milo said.
“What’s going on?” Brendan approached the car.
What’s going on? A car with the hood up on the side of the road, and you ask what the fuck is going on? How could you? And how could Milo be glad to see them? Well, of course he was, the very fact that Brendan had gone for a five foot eleven boy with curly dark red hair over… well, her, was the reason Milo was with her now. Dena was not glad. If Dena Reardon had fallen into the river Styx and been ass poked by demons when Brendan came riding by on Charon’s raft to offer her safety, she would have chosen the demons. She would have let Cerberus bite off her head.
“…. Yeah your engine’s out,” Kenny was saying.
“You guys got jumper cables?”
“No,” Brendan said, sadly. “We don’t. We could give you a lift back into town, though. We’re on our way to Holy Name.”
“That would be great, wouldn’t it?” Milo looked at Dena.
Dena smiled weakly. If there was ever a time to pretend she wasn’t petty, this was it.
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Interesting and sad to read Noah's backstory. I am glad he has places to go other then his mother's place. I hope Dena can forgive Brendan one day. Great start to a new chapter and I look forward to more! 
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I knew we would have to get to Noah's life eventually. We haven't really learned anything about him, and he's so different from Paul, isn't he? I feel like Paul has plenty of story left, but we haven't gotten to Noah, and this is going to be more his story. As for Dena, she certainly is coming to that place where you have to decide to forgive or be stuck in bitterness.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
MISERABLY, Dena Reardon sat beside Milo, squeezed in the backseat of Brendan Miller’s Ford Taurus.
“Were not gonna make you guys late, are we? Milo said.
“No, we started out early,” Kenny said. “And Holy Name isn’t that far off. We’ll get there in plenty of time.”
“Plus, it’s not like we could have just left you guys on the side of the road,” Brendan said.
“Where were you all going?”
“We were looking for the Butter Burger in Palatine.”
“I saw the commercial last night,” Dena volunteered, “ and thought we should find it.”
“I’ve seen that commercial,” Kenny said. “How is it?’
“We don’t know, Kenny,” Dena said, watching the acid content of her voice. “We never made it.”
“Oh, well, I can take you all back to the Affrens or back to your mom’s house,” Brendan said. “And then I’ll come back later and help you all with your car.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Dena said. “You’ve got to get Kenny moved in and everything. We’ll manage.”
“Are you sure?” said Kenny. “You know what we’re going to do?” He turned to Brendan. “We’re going to get some jumper cables, and then get back on the road and start their car. We’re just gonna do that now. I don’t know if my folks have them, though.”
“My uncle does,” Dena said. “We’ll stop at my uncles.”
The look Fenn gave them when he opened the door made Dena say, “I’ll tell you later.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“We need your jumper cables,” said Dena.
“Is Todd in?
“Upstairs doing work. He was about to go out; it’s a good thing you made it here. The cables are in the back of the Land Rover.”
Milo went out to the car, and Dena said, “Me and Milo were on our way to Palatine when the car broke down and then, Brendan showed up. It was… very lucky for us.”
“Yes,” Fenn said with a merciless smile. “I’m sure it was just what you prayed for.”
Brendan, returning, looked as if he’d missed some joke and knew it, said, awkwardly, “How are you?”
“Fine, Brendan. And this…?” Fenn gestured to Kenny.
“Is my… boyfriend.”
“Um,” Fenn said.
“We got the cables,” Milo said.
“Well, then lets go. Thank you, Fenn,” Dena bowed out. “Tell, Todd—”
“Tell, Todd what?” said Todd who had come down the steps.
“Uncle Todd. Todd…”
“Milo… Brendan...?”
“Kenny,” Kenny supplied his name.
Todd nodded.
“We’re bumming your jumper cables,” Dena said. “We’ll be back.”
And then they were gone.
“I’m missing something.”
“Dena and Milo were on an outing,” Fenn explained, lowering the shade, “when their car broke down and who should rescue them but Brendan and his new man.”
“Oh… Ugh…! Oh. That’s….” Todd began, rubbing his jaw.
“Fucked up?”
Todd decided on an answer.
“Yeah.” He said, at last. “Yeah.”
She sat in the car while they jumpstarted it. She loved Milo. He had done what he had to do, so she shouldn’t have been upset with him. What was more, she should have been grateful to Brendan and Kenneth. But what she thought was: Brendan, tall Brendan of the long legs and squared shoulders who, only a few weeks ago, yes, it was only a few weeks ago, had been putting his arm around her, had been slipping his arm through hers and kissing her, had been in bed with her, had been sleeping with her—
“It’s all done, Dena,” Brendan stuck his head through Dena’s window.
“Yeah, we’re ready to roll,” Milo said, hopping into the driver’s seat. “You guys have a good trip to Saint Anne’s. I hope we didn’t take you too far off your path.”
“We’ve already crossed that bridge,” Kenny said. “We’ll see you guys later. Later, Dena.”
“Um hum,” said Dena.
“I was thinking,” Brendan said, his head still in their window, “since school starts in a couple of days, maybe we can all go out together.”
“Yeah, that’d be cool,” Milo said at the same time Dena said, “I don’t know.”
They both looked at her.
“I do know,” she said then. “No. No, I don’t think so.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Milo whispered.
“I’m right here, you idiot,” she said to him.
“I don’t have to be talked to,” she told Brendan. “We’ve hung out. We spent the whole morning hanging out. Now… let’s not. We’ll see each other all the time anyway. Milo, let’s go.”
Milo shrugged and whispered, “Sorry,” to Brendan, and then Milo pulled away slowly, and headed up the road.
“The important thing,” she said, “is to stay ahead of them long enough that we don’t even meet. And we better turn off at the first exit. We’ve got to. I mean, I can’t stand this shit another moment.”
“Dena, they really helped us out.”
“All, right, firstly, they screwed each other while Brendan was dating me, and then he asked for my virginity after he fucked Kenny, and then three weeks into screwing me, told me he was gay. So jump starting the car is sort of small change.”
“I know,” Milo said. “I just thought, or hoped, that you’d be a little bit past it.”
“I thought I would be,” Dena shrugged. “Guess I’m not.”
“I mean… I think they’re really sorry… And Brendan’s a good g—”
“If you say, ‘Brendan’s a good guy’, I’ll cut your fucking neck.”
Milo decided: “I’ll just drive.”
“Just drive.”
“How long are we going to sit in this car?”
“Until they’ve kinda… gone away,” Brendan said. “I don’t think we’re meant to run into each other.”
“Well, I’m glad we did that,” Kenny said.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“What?”
Brendan turned the ignition.
“Fasten your seatbelt, Ken.”
They pulled back onto the highway.
“The whole time I felt like Dena was putting a curse on me.”
“I thought she was all right.”
“You did?”
“Well… not like she might have been. I mean, she didn’t scratch your eyes out. And you were so… chipper.”
“I was so ready to shit myself.
“You know, I used to think maybe one day we would all be friends again, but… I don’t know. I thought… Great, jump start you car, that’ll make up for… lying, cheating, taking something important from you. And then we can be friends.”
“Well, are you sorry you told her the truth?”
“No, Kenny. I’m sorry for the months I didn’t tell the truth, and what I did to her to keep the truth from me. And I’m sorry because we used to be best friends, and now we never fucking will be again.”
As they drove onto the campus, Kenny said, “Look at it. It’s just like something off of TV.”
“Is that the church?”
“Well, what else would it be?”
“Everything’s so golden,” Brendan marveled. “Well, except the grass.”
“Even the grass at this time of day,” Kenny noted as they emerged from an avenue of trees.
“Okay, which way do we go?”
“We… go… that way,” Kenny pointed to his left. “I remember that from my last time here. I’ll be in Edwin Hall.”
Edwin Hall was easily the size of Saint Barbara’s and built of golden limestone with white bay windows and trim.
“This is like a little dream or something,” Brendan said as their crowded car maneuvered the other crowded cars.
“What floor is your room on?
“The fourth, I think.”
“That,” Brendan said, parking the car, “is not dreamlike at all. It’s more like hell.”
“Maybe they’ve got an elevator.”
Brendan looking at the old hall, doubted it, but said, “Maybe they do.”
As the two of them began unpacking, Kenny said:
“Look at those folks coming up. They brought a U Haul.”
“They are going to have a very rude awakening,” Brendan declared, grunting, as he pulled a bag out of the trunk.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a dorm on the first floor. Life!” Kenny exclaimed.
Coming up the hall, they made way for boys coming down the hall.
“Sorry.”
“That’s all right.”
“Welcome back.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Kenny said, as they departed.
Brendan peered into the open doors of some of the room. TVs were already on, some friends were sitting around talking, reconnecting he guessed.
“People actually go off,” Brendan said. “And live here.”
“It’ll be you next year,” Kenny said, as they pushed open a swinging door and heading up the stairs.
“Yeah,” Brendan said. “That’s right. It’s not really real yet.”
“They say you should have started getting your applications ready this summer.”
“Is that what you did? Get ready a year and a half in advance?”
“No, I think that’s for people going off to Harvard or someplace like that. Some place like this? It’s sort of spur of the moment.”
A lumbering, bear like creature was coming down the stars.
“Hey, guys!” he roared. “What floor are you on?”
“Fourth,” Kenny said.
“Oh, Freshmen!”
“Yeah,” Kenny nodded, putting a positive face on it, but not entirely sure what the bear’s voice meant.
“Actually, I’m just visiting,” Brendan said.
Kenny dropped the heavy bag, to breathe.
“I don’t know why they do it, put the Freshmen on the higher floors. Maybe they think your knees get weaker the older you get.”
He let out a roar of laughter, and Brendan and Kenny felt obligated to laugh, and then he said, “Well, I’m the RA on the fourth floor. Vance. If you need anything. Just ask for Vance.”
Brendan was tempted to ask for an elevator or a dorm with less floors. After six amazing and arm killing trips they made it, and Kenny collapsed on one bed while Brendan, heaving, collapsed on another.
“If I were not so tired, I would get up and close those curtains.”
Kenny, who was tired too, got up and shut them, and returned to bed.
“My God!”
“It was lifting the refrigerator that was the real killer,” said Brendan.
“Imagine those poor fucks with the U Haul.”
Brendan chuckled and groaned. “And the flat bed with the fu-tons and the sofa!”
“God,” Kenny looked around his room. “I feel like I don’t have enough.”
“I don’t really know about college,” Brendan said, “Chiefly because I haven’t been. But I think you’re supposed to accumulate shit as time goes by, not come with half of IKEA in your trunk.”
“Did you know in real IKEA stores there’s no furniture?”
“What? No.”
“Yeah. They just have pictures of the shit. And if you like it, you point to it.”
“Then they send it?”
“Yeah. I mean, I guess. Isn’t that wild?”
“This is a big ass room,” Brendan said.
“The ceilings are high.”
“We’re still waiting for your roommate, right?”
Kenny nodded.
About five minutes later, the door flew open and a tall kid in glasses carrying a large box said, “You must be Kenny! Well, one of you must be Kenny. I’m Laramie.”
“I’m Kenny. This is my friend, Brendan.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Brendan from his bed, offering a hand. It did not occur to him, in his tired state, to get up.
“Oh, cool. Well, I’m only bringing this up right now,” he set the box in the middle of the floor. “My mom went to school here like a thousand years ago, and she said there wasn’t anything in Saint Anne’s, but there’s a lot of stuff, and I want to see, so I’d rather just do that and look around town a while. You guys look exhausted.
“We are,” said Kenny.”
“I see,” Laramie said, his mouth hanging open. “Yeah. You guys brought a lot of stuff up here. Four floors is so high. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help. I hope you won’t mind helping me, Kenny.”
“Not at all. Not if we’re doing it later.”
“Oh, much later. Like tomorrow.”
“Great.”
“I’m going out,” Laramie headed out of the door, then he turned around, closed the door behind him and said:
“It’s totally none of my business, but are you guys gay together? Cause you just look like you would be.”
“What?” Brendan sat up.
“I dunno,” Laramie shrugged. “Well, I was just going to say, I’m not coming back anytime soon, so,” he slipped his key to Kenny, “I’ve got the utmost faith in you, Kenny, and if you all wanna have some private time for goodbye sex, well then that’s totally cool with me. I’m from Chicago.”
Kenny opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Laramie was gone.
“He’s from Chicago,” Brendan mouthed.
Kenny smirked.
“His name is Laramie.”
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
MISERABLY, Dena Reardon sat beside Milo, squeezed in the backseat of Brendan Miller’s Ford Taurus.
“Were not gonna make you guys late, are we? Milo said.
“No, we started out early,” Kenny said. “And Holy Name isn’t that far off. We’ll get there in plenty of time.”
“Plus, it’s not like we could have just left you guys on the side of the road,” Brendan said.
“Where were you all going?”
“We were looking for the Butter Burger in Palatine.”
“I saw the commercial last night,” Dena volunteered, “ and thought we should find it.”
“I’ve seen that commercial,” Kenny said. “How is it?’
“We don’t know, Kenny,” Dena said, watching the acid content of her voice. “We never made it.”
“Oh, well, I can take you all back to the Affrens or back to your mom’s house,” Brendan said. “And then I’ll come back later and help you all with your car.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Dena said. “You’ve got to get Kenny moved in and everything. We’ll manage.”
“Are you sure?” said Kenny. “You know what we’re going to do?” He turned to Brendan. “We’re going to get some jumper cables, and then get back on the road and start their car. We’re just gonna do that now. I don’t know if my folks have them, though.”
“My uncle does,” Dena said. “We’ll stop at my uncles.”
The look Fenn gave them when he opened the door made Dena say, “I’ll tell you later.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“We need your jumper cables,” said Dena.
“Is Todd in?
“Upstairs doing work. He was about to go out; it’s a good thing you made it here. The cables are in the back of the Land Rover.”
Milo went out to the car, and Dena said, “Me and Milo were on our way to Palatine when the car broke down and then, Brendan showed up. It was… very lucky for us.”
“Yes,” Fenn said with a merciless smile. “I’m sure it was just what you prayed for.”
Brendan, returning, looked as if he’d missed some joke and knew it, said, awkwardly, “How are you?”
“Fine, Brendan. And this…?” Fenn gestured to Kenny.
“Is my… boyfriend.”
“Um,” Fenn said.
“We got the cables,” Milo said.
“Well, then lets go. Thank you, Fenn,” Dena bowed out. “Tell, Todd—”
“Tell, Todd what?” said Todd who had come down the steps.
“Uncle Todd. Todd…”
“Milo… Brendan...?”
“Kenny,” Kenny supplied his name.
Todd nodded.
“We’re bumming your jumper cables,” Dena said. “We’ll be back.”
And then they were gone.
“I’m missing something.”
“Dena and Milo were on an outing,” Fenn explained, lowering the shade, “when their car broke down and who should rescue them but Brendan and his new man.”
“Oh… Ugh…! Oh. That’s….” Todd began, rubbing his jaw.
“Fucked up?”
Todd decided on an answer.
“Yeah.” He said, at last. “Yeah.”
She sat in the car while they jumpstarted it. She loved Milo. He had done what he had to do, so she shouldn’t have been upset with him. What was more, she should have been grateful to Brendan and Kenneth. But what she thought was: Brendan, tall Brendan of the long legs and squared shoulders who, only a few weeks ago, yes, it was only a few weeks ago, had been putting his arm around her, had been slipping his arm through hers and kissing her, had been in bed with her, had been sleeping with her—
“It’s all done, Dena,” Brendan stuck his head through Dena’s window.
“Yeah, we’re ready to roll,” Milo said, hopping into the driver’s seat. “You guys have a good trip to Saint Anne’s. I hope we didn’t take you too far off your path.”
“We’ve already crossed that bridge,” Kenny said. “We’ll see you guys later. Later, Dena.”
“Um hum,” said Dena.
“I was thinking,” Brendan said, his head still in their window, “since school starts in a couple of days, maybe we can all go out together.”
“Yeah, that’d be cool,” Milo said at the same time Dena said, “I don’t know.”
They both looked at her.
“I do know,” she said then. “No. No, I don’t think so.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Milo whispered.
“I’m right here, you idiot,” she said to him.
“I don’t have to be talked to,” she told Brendan. “We’ve hung out. We spent the whole morning hanging out. Now… let’s not. We’ll see each other all the time anyway. Milo, let’s go.”
Milo shrugged and whispered, “Sorry,” to Brendan, and then Milo pulled away slowly, and headed up the road.
“The important thing,” she said, “is to stay ahead of them long enough that we don’t even meet. And we better turn off at the first exit. We’ve got to. I mean, I can’t stand this shit another moment.”
“Dena, they really helped us out.”
“All, right, firstly, they screwed each other while Brendan was dating me, and then he asked for my virginity after he fucked Kenny, and then three weeks into screwing me, told me he was gay. So jump starting the car is sort of small change.”
“I know,” Milo said. “I just thought, or hoped, that you’d be a little bit past it.”
“I thought I would be,” Dena shrugged. “Guess I’m not.”
“I mean… I think they’re really sorry… And Brendan’s a good g—”
“If you say, ‘Brendan’s a good guy’, I’ll cut your fucking neck.”
Milo decided: “I’ll just drive.”
“Just drive.”
“How long are we going to sit in this car?”
“Until they’ve kinda… gone away,” Brendan said. “I don’t think we’re meant to run into each other.”
“Well, I’m glad we did that,” Kenny said.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“What?”
Brendan turned the ignition.
“Fasten your seatbelt, Ken.”
They pulled back onto the highway.
“The whole time I felt like Dena was putting a curse on me.”
“I thought she was all right.”
“You did?”
“Well… not like she might have been. I mean, she didn’t scratch your eyes out. And you were so… chipper.”
“I was so ready to shit myself.
“You know, I used to think maybe one day we would all be friends again, but… I don’t know. I thought… Great, jump start you car, that’ll make up for… lying, cheating, taking something important from you. And then we can be friends.”
“Well, are you sorry you told her the truth?”
“No, Kenny. I’m sorry for the months I didn’t tell the truth, and what I did to her to keep the truth from me. And I’m sorry because we used to be best friends, and now we never fucking will be again.”
As they drove onto the campus, Kenny said, “Look at it. It’s just like something off of TV.”
“Is that the church?”
“Well, what else would it be?”
“Everything’s so golden,” Brendan marveled. “Well, except the grass.”
“Even the grass at this time of day,” Kenny noted as they emerged from an avenue of trees.
“Okay, which way do we go?”
“We… go… that way,” Kenny pointed to his left. “I remember that from my last time here. I’ll be in Edwin Hall.”
Edwin Hall was easily the size of Saint Barbara’s and built of golden limestone with white bay windows and trim.
“This is like a little dream or something,” Brendan said as their crowded car maneuvered the other crowded cars.
“What floor is your room on?
“The fourth, I think.”
“That,” Brendan said, parking the car, “is not dreamlike at all. It’s more like hell.”
“Maybe they’ve got an elevator.”
Brendan looking at the old hall, doubted it, but said, “Maybe they do.”
As the two of them began unpacking, Kenny said:
“Look at those folks coming up. They brought a U Haul.”
“They are going to have a very rude awakening,” Brendan declared, grunting, as he pulled a bag out of the trunk.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he got a dorm on the first floor. Life!” Kenny exclaimed.
Coming up the hall, they made way for boys coming down the hall.
“Sorry.”
“That’s all right.”
“Welcome back.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Kenny said, as they departed.
Brendan peered into the open doors of some of the room. TVs were already on, some friends were sitting around talking, reconnecting he guessed.
“People actually go off,” Brendan said. “And live here.”
“It’ll be you next year,” Kenny said, as they pushed open a swinging door and heading up the stairs.
“Yeah,” Brendan said. “That’s right. It’s not really real yet.”
“They say you should have started getting your applications ready this summer.”
“Is that what you did? Get ready a year and a half in advance?”
“No, I think that’s for people going off to Harvard or someplace like that. Some place like this? It’s sort of spur of the moment.”
A lumbering, bear like creature was coming down the stars.
“Hey, guys!” he roared. “What floor are you on?”
“Fourth,” Kenny said.
“Oh, Freshmen!”
“Yeah,” Kenny nodded, putting a positive face on it, but not entirely sure what the bear’s voice meant.
“Actually, I’m just visiting,” Brendan said.
Kenny dropped the heavy bag, to breathe.
“I don’t know why they do it, put the Freshmen on the higher floors. Maybe they think your knees get weaker the older you get.”
He let out a roar of laughter, and Brendan and Kenny felt obligated to laugh, and then he said, “Well, I’m the RA on the fourth floor. Vance. If you need anything. Just ask for Vance.”
Brendan was tempted to ask for an elevator or a dorm with less floors. After six amazing and arm killing trips they made it, and Kenny collapsed on one bed while Brendan, heaving, collapsed on another.
“If I were not so tired, I would get up and close those curtains.”
Kenny, who was tired too, got up and shut them, and returned to bed.
“My God!”
“It was lifting the refrigerator that was the real killer,” said Brendan.
“Imagine those poor fucks with the U Haul.”
Brendan chuckled and groaned. “And the flat bed with the fu-tons and the sofa!”
“God,” Kenny looked around his room. “I feel like I don’t have enough.”
“I don’t really know about college,” Brendan said, “Chiefly because I haven’t been. But I think you’re supposed to accumulate shit as time goes by, not come with half of IKEA in your trunk.”
“Did you know in real IKEA stores there’s no furniture?”
“What? No.”
“Yeah. They just have pictures of the shit. And if you like it, you point to it.”
“Then they send it?”
“Yeah. I mean, I guess. Isn’t that wild?”
“This is a big ass room,” Brendan said.
“The ceilings are high.”
“We’re still waiting for your roommate, right?”
Kenny nodded.
About five minutes later, the door flew open and a tall kid in glasses carrying a large box said, “You must be Kenny! Well, one of you must be Kenny. I’m Laramie.”
“I’m Kenny. This is my friend, Brendan.”
“Pleased to meet you,” said Brendan from his bed, offering a hand. It did not occur to him, in his tired state, to get up.
“Oh, cool. Well, I’m only bringing this up right now,” he set the box in the middle of the floor. “My mom went to school here like a thousand years ago, and she said there wasn’t anything in Saint Anne’s, but there’s a lot of stuff, and I want to see, so I’d rather just do that and look around town a while. You guys look exhausted.
“We are,” said Kenny.”
“I see,” Laramie said, his mouth hanging open. “Yeah. You guys brought a lot of stuff up here. Four floors is so high. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help. I hope you won’t mind helping me, Kenny.”
“Not at all. Not if we’re doing it later.”
“Oh, much later. Like tomorrow.”
“Great.”
“I’m going out,” Laramie headed out of the door, then he turned around, closed the door behind him and said:
“It’s totally none of my business, but are you guys gay together? Cause you just look like you would be.”
“What?” Brendan sat up.
“I dunno,” Laramie shrugged. “Well, I was just going to say, I’m not coming back anytime soon, so,” he slipped his key to Kenny, “I’ve got the utmost faith in you, Kenny, and if you all wanna have some private time for goodbye sex, well then that’s totally cool with me. I’m from Chicago.”
Kenny opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Laramie was gone.
“He’s from Chicago,” Brendan mouthed.
Kenny smirked.
“His name is Laramie.”
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
A well done section! I am glad Kenny forgave Brendan even if Dena can't. Laramie seems like he is going to be an interesting character. I can't wait to read what happens next!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
There will be more tomorrow nighr!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER FOUR
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
BRENDAN HADN’T GOTTEN off the bed, Kenny turned around.
“When you gotta head back?”
“Well, school starts tomorrow. Mom’s going to want me back pretty early.”
“Well, then,” Kenny said, locking the door behind him, and then lifting up his arms and pulling off his tee shirt, “we should do this shit.”
Brendan sat up.
“You’re serious?”
“You heard him,” Kenny said. “If you wanna have some private time for goodbye sex… well?” he shrugged.
“Folks’ll… Won’t they ask questions?”
“These folks don’t know me, and all they see is a closed door,” Kenny approached him. He reached for the tail of Brendan’s tee shirt while Brendan, still looking amazed, lifted his arms for it to be pulled off.
“I want you to nail me before you go,” he told Brendan, kissing him hard on the mouth.
Brendan’s hands were tight in Kenny’s curls, and then he backed off a little.
“You know what, Bren?” Kenny told him, “us not having sex isn’t going to make Dena forgive you or me any quicker, and nothing we do right now changes the fact that she’s got Milo who, by the way, is kind of a looker.”
“I never heard you do that before,” Brendan said, startled.
“What?”
“Admit to looking at another guy.”
“You thought it was just you?” Kenny said, leering at him, He kissed him again and opened Brendan’s jeans, pulling them down, running his hands over him and cupping his ass before he pulled down his briefs and kissed him hard again,
“Oh, it’ll be just you,” Kenny muttered, undressing him. “It is just you. It’s no one else I’m looking at, Miller.
They stood there, neck and neck, mouth and mouth, hands tugging at jeans, caressing asses and thighs, bodies, going down on each other, making one another shock before Brendan brought him to the bed.
“We don’t have anything like… Vaseline or… anything,” Brendan whispered into Kenny’s ear, his arms braced over Kenny’s back.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kenny said in an equally small voice, the bravado gone.
“I don’t want to… hurt you or… anything.”
“You never do. You always feel just right. Just slip in me, Bren.”
And then they fucked, so close and so quiet, hardly making a sound, Kenny could feel him deep inside, in the place where there was a vacancy, where now there was no separation, and hear the slap of Brendan’s body more frantically against his, Brendan’s sweat, dripping on his back. Their hands twisting together, Kenny pushing back, small gasps escaping, Brendan’s mouth coming down on his throat. Kenny made a weak noise and turned over so he could hold his face, and smooth it, and look at the look on Brendan Miller and run his hands on his sides, over the smoothness of his ass, and then their bodies buckled and they came.
“At the same time,” Kenny said when the room had darkened and the sun was setting.
“We never do that.”
Brendan lay on his side and Kenny ran his hand across the plains of his face that was strangely homely and strangely beautiful all at the same time.
“I guess,” Brendan said, “this is going to be your bed from now on.”
Kenny chuckled, and then he lay on his back and was very quiet
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“Huh?”
“When I look troubled,” Brendan said, “my mom always says, penny for your thoughts.”
“Does she give you one?”
“No. And I won’t give you one either, but what’s going on in your head?”
“That you’re here right now, and in about a half hour you won’t be. You’re this close,” Kenny said, placing his hand on Brendan’s hip, and running it down his thigh. “And tonight you’ll be back in Rossford, and I’ll be here, and I hate that.”
“I hate it too,” Brendan said, sitting up, “I wish you’d gone to school in town.”
“Well,” Kenny shrugged. “Well, maybe I do too. But… it’s no use talking about it now.”
“No, not really.”
“Bren?”
“Yeah.”
“Since we’re not going to be together, uh… just, if you find someone else, I’m okay with it.”
“Don’t even say that!”
“I am saying it. And I am serious.”
Brendan was pulling his jeans on now, and had reached for his tee shirt. Kenny came up out of the bed and walked to the middle of the room, beginning to get dressed.
“They say if you love someone let them go, if they come back to you—”
“Kenny,” Brendan put a finger over his lips and grinned.
“That’s bullshit.
“Now walk me to my car.”
Later that night, in Will’s house, Brendan said, “It was really, really hard going back. I mean, it wasn’t real this morning. I really didn’t know how important he was to me.”
“Are we going to school together next year?” Will looked at Layla.
She stabbed her juice box and said, “Before I would have said, don’t be crazy, Will, we can stand to be apart. But looking at Bren…. I don’t know. Bren, you’ve got it bad.”
“We had the whole day together,” Brendan said. “And then we sort of… had a special goodbye.”
Layla was intentionally deaf, but Will said, “You all had sex.”
“Uh!” Layla groaned.
“Do you find gay sex to be so repulsive?” Brendan said to her.
“When you’re having it, yes.
“Dena said you all drove her back into town and jumpstarted her car?” Layla said flopping down on the bed with her juice box.
“Uh, yeah.”
“How’d that go?”
“Well, the car started. Is she supposed to be coming over tonight?”
“I think everyone’s coming tonight.”
“I should probably leave.”
“Look,” Layla said. “The two of you just need to get used to each other and deal with shit.”
“She hates me.”
“And you get diarrhea every time you’re around her. Personally, I think you both fucked up. I mean, I always knew you’d turn out gay.”
Will rolled his eyes.
“What?” she said. “He spent the last damn year talking about sleeping with dudes? Who the fuck was surprised? But Dena!
“Anyway,” said Layla, “if I can be civil in the same room with my new found brother—”
“Julian’s coming?”
Layla gave a heavily weighted, “Yes. And if I can be civil, then the two of you can be too.”
“But—” Brendan opened his mouth.
“But nothing. I don’t want to hear it. And,” Layla added, “no more talking about all the tender goodbyes and the sweet love you and Kenny made when she gets here. That’s just asking to get cut.”
“INCIDENTALLY, I WANT TO GO on record as saying I don’t love being a bitch. I don’t get up and say, ‘How can I be such a bitch today?’”
“You make a funny one, though,” Milo told her.
She smirked at him, and said, “But still. And then the way I feel after I’ve said something. Like, when he leans through the window with that… loyal dog look on his face, that… Old Yeller look, and he’s like, ‘You wanna hang out sometime?’ It just… ”
Dena shook her head, “Todd, it really got to me.”
Fenn had said nothing this whole time. He was just nodding his head.
“And it’s not like I feel that way all the time. It… I can’t explain it.”
“It comes and goes,” Fenn said, “like a wave. Like a wave you have no control over.”
“Right!” she said.
“And you think you’ll never stop being angry again.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how it is.”
Then she took a great chance, and said, “How did you do it? Get over being angry?”
“Well,” said Fenn. “I noticed that you, and me, we’re made up of these different people. Like, there’s the you that you know real well, and you know what it’s like to hold onto things, to be angry, or be afraid or… whatever. But then there is another you, and long after you’ve decided it makes you miserable to still be angry, that you isn’t ready yet to let go. He, or she, is still holding on. There is another part of you that has no intention of letting go of your rage, and to tell you the truth, it has every right to be pissed off. That you is the one that still sends everything raging through you.”
“Well, how do you get to it. How do you turn it off? How do I stop FEELING LIKE THIS?”
Fenn smiled at her and touched her hand.
“I’m not sure. I think you just wait the bastard out.”
The door opened and Todd said, “It’s about time, I thought we’d have to listen to this girl forever!”
While Claire, Julian and Noah came through the door, Milo shook his head and Dena said to her uncle, “You’re the reason I am the way I am, you know that, don’t you.”
Todd pushed his fingertips together, looked reflective and then said, “You’re welcome.”
“What’s been going on around here?” Julian asked.
Milo said, “You don’t even want to know.”
“Which means we do,” Claire looked at Julian. “Right?”
“Noah,” Fenn said, “could I speak with you?”
“Uh?” Noah looked like he’d been called into the principal’s office. “All right?”
He followed Fenn into the living room, while Fenn began turning on lamps.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Claire said: “Is my brother here?”
“You’re brother’s with Kirk,” Todd said.
“My God, don’t they ever let up?” She told Julian, “He’s a lot duller now that he’s living on the up and up. You guys ready to head out to Will’s?”
“I am,” Milo picked up his keys, “but are we going to get to see guyses dorms?”
Julian looked at Claire, and then Claire shrugged and said, “Why not?”
“All right,” Dena circled the table and kissed her uncle on the head.
“Goodbye, Todd. Thanks for the jumper cables and the good advice.”
“The good advice is all Fenn,” Todd said.
“Jumper cables?” said Claire.
Dena, stone faced, said, “I’ll explain it to you on the way out.”
And then to a general chorus of goodbyes, they were out the door.
MORE WEDNESDAY NIGHT
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
BRENDAN HADN’T GOTTEN off the bed, Kenny turned around.
“When you gotta head back?”
“Well, school starts tomorrow. Mom’s going to want me back pretty early.”
“Well, then,” Kenny said, locking the door behind him, and then lifting up his arms and pulling off his tee shirt, “we should do this shit.”
Brendan sat up.
“You’re serious?”
“You heard him,” Kenny said. “If you wanna have some private time for goodbye sex… well?” he shrugged.
“Folks’ll… Won’t they ask questions?”
“These folks don’t know me, and all they see is a closed door,” Kenny approached him. He reached for the tail of Brendan’s tee shirt while Brendan, still looking amazed, lifted his arms for it to be pulled off.
“I want you to nail me before you go,” he told Brendan, kissing him hard on the mouth.
Brendan’s hands were tight in Kenny’s curls, and then he backed off a little.
“You know what, Bren?” Kenny told him, “us not having sex isn’t going to make Dena forgive you or me any quicker, and nothing we do right now changes the fact that she’s got Milo who, by the way, is kind of a looker.”
“I never heard you do that before,” Brendan said, startled.
“What?”
“Admit to looking at another guy.”
“You thought it was just you?” Kenny said, leering at him, He kissed him again and opened Brendan’s jeans, pulling them down, running his hands over him and cupping his ass before he pulled down his briefs and kissed him hard again,
“Oh, it’ll be just you,” Kenny muttered, undressing him. “It is just you. It’s no one else I’m looking at, Miller.
They stood there, neck and neck, mouth and mouth, hands tugging at jeans, caressing asses and thighs, bodies, going down on each other, making one another shock before Brendan brought him to the bed.
“We don’t have anything like… Vaseline or… anything,” Brendan whispered into Kenny’s ear, his arms braced over Kenny’s back.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kenny said in an equally small voice, the bravado gone.
“I don’t want to… hurt you or… anything.”
“You never do. You always feel just right. Just slip in me, Bren.”
And then they fucked, so close and so quiet, hardly making a sound, Kenny could feel him deep inside, in the place where there was a vacancy, where now there was no separation, and hear the slap of Brendan’s body more frantically against his, Brendan’s sweat, dripping on his back. Their hands twisting together, Kenny pushing back, small gasps escaping, Brendan’s mouth coming down on his throat. Kenny made a weak noise and turned over so he could hold his face, and smooth it, and look at the look on Brendan Miller and run his hands on his sides, over the smoothness of his ass, and then their bodies buckled and they came.
“At the same time,” Kenny said when the room had darkened and the sun was setting.
“We never do that.”
Brendan lay on his side and Kenny ran his hand across the plains of his face that was strangely homely and strangely beautiful all at the same time.
“I guess,” Brendan said, “this is going to be your bed from now on.”
Kenny chuckled, and then he lay on his back and was very quiet
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“Huh?”
“When I look troubled,” Brendan said, “my mom always says, penny for your thoughts.”
“Does she give you one?”
“No. And I won’t give you one either, but what’s going on in your head?”
“That you’re here right now, and in about a half hour you won’t be. You’re this close,” Kenny said, placing his hand on Brendan’s hip, and running it down his thigh. “And tonight you’ll be back in Rossford, and I’ll be here, and I hate that.”
“I hate it too,” Brendan said, sitting up, “I wish you’d gone to school in town.”
“Well,” Kenny shrugged. “Well, maybe I do too. But… it’s no use talking about it now.”
“No, not really.”
“Bren?”
“Yeah.”
“Since we’re not going to be together, uh… just, if you find someone else, I’m okay with it.”
“Don’t even say that!”
“I am saying it. And I am serious.”
Brendan was pulling his jeans on now, and had reached for his tee shirt. Kenny came up out of the bed and walked to the middle of the room, beginning to get dressed.
“They say if you love someone let them go, if they come back to you—”
“Kenny,” Brendan put a finger over his lips and grinned.
“That’s bullshit.
“Now walk me to my car.”
Later that night, in Will’s house, Brendan said, “It was really, really hard going back. I mean, it wasn’t real this morning. I really didn’t know how important he was to me.”
“Are we going to school together next year?” Will looked at Layla.
She stabbed her juice box and said, “Before I would have said, don’t be crazy, Will, we can stand to be apart. But looking at Bren…. I don’t know. Bren, you’ve got it bad.”
“We had the whole day together,” Brendan said. “And then we sort of… had a special goodbye.”
Layla was intentionally deaf, but Will said, “You all had sex.”
“Uh!” Layla groaned.
“Do you find gay sex to be so repulsive?” Brendan said to her.
“When you’re having it, yes.
“Dena said you all drove her back into town and jumpstarted her car?” Layla said flopping down on the bed with her juice box.
“Uh, yeah.”
“How’d that go?”
“Well, the car started. Is she supposed to be coming over tonight?”
“I think everyone’s coming tonight.”
“I should probably leave.”
“Look,” Layla said. “The two of you just need to get used to each other and deal with shit.”
“She hates me.”
“And you get diarrhea every time you’re around her. Personally, I think you both fucked up. I mean, I always knew you’d turn out gay.”
Will rolled his eyes.
“What?” she said. “He spent the last damn year talking about sleeping with dudes? Who the fuck was surprised? But Dena!
“Anyway,” said Layla, “if I can be civil in the same room with my new found brother—”
“Julian’s coming?”
Layla gave a heavily weighted, “Yes. And if I can be civil, then the two of you can be too.”
“But—” Brendan opened his mouth.
“But nothing. I don’t want to hear it. And,” Layla added, “no more talking about all the tender goodbyes and the sweet love you and Kenny made when she gets here. That’s just asking to get cut.”
“INCIDENTALLY, I WANT TO GO on record as saying I don’t love being a bitch. I don’t get up and say, ‘How can I be such a bitch today?’”
“You make a funny one, though,” Milo told her.
She smirked at him, and said, “But still. And then the way I feel after I’ve said something. Like, when he leans through the window with that… loyal dog look on his face, that… Old Yeller look, and he’s like, ‘You wanna hang out sometime?’ It just… ”
Dena shook her head, “Todd, it really got to me.”
Fenn had said nothing this whole time. He was just nodding his head.
“And it’s not like I feel that way all the time. It… I can’t explain it.”
“It comes and goes,” Fenn said, “like a wave. Like a wave you have no control over.”
“Right!” she said.
“And you think you’ll never stop being angry again.”
“Yes. That’s exactly how it is.”
Then she took a great chance, and said, “How did you do it? Get over being angry?”
“Well,” said Fenn. “I noticed that you, and me, we’re made up of these different people. Like, there’s the you that you know real well, and you know what it’s like to hold onto things, to be angry, or be afraid or… whatever. But then there is another you, and long after you’ve decided it makes you miserable to still be angry, that you isn’t ready yet to let go. He, or she, is still holding on. There is another part of you that has no intention of letting go of your rage, and to tell you the truth, it has every right to be pissed off. That you is the one that still sends everything raging through you.”
“Well, how do you get to it. How do you turn it off? How do I stop FEELING LIKE THIS?”
Fenn smiled at her and touched her hand.
“I’m not sure. I think you just wait the bastard out.”
The door opened and Todd said, “It’s about time, I thought we’d have to listen to this girl forever!”
While Claire, Julian and Noah came through the door, Milo shook his head and Dena said to her uncle, “You’re the reason I am the way I am, you know that, don’t you.”
Todd pushed his fingertips together, looked reflective and then said, “You’re welcome.”
“What’s been going on around here?” Julian asked.
Milo said, “You don’t even want to know.”
“Which means we do,” Claire looked at Julian. “Right?”
“Noah,” Fenn said, “could I speak with you?”
“Uh?” Noah looked like he’d been called into the principal’s office. “All right?”
He followed Fenn into the living room, while Fenn began turning on lamps.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Claire said: “Is my brother here?”
“You’re brother’s with Kirk,” Todd said.
“My God, don’t they ever let up?” She told Julian, “He’s a lot duller now that he’s living on the up and up. You guys ready to head out to Will’s?”
“I am,” Milo picked up his keys, “but are we going to get to see guyses dorms?”
Julian looked at Claire, and then Claire shrugged and said, “Why not?”
“All right,” Dena circled the table and kissed her uncle on the head.
“Goodbye, Todd. Thanks for the jumper cables and the good advice.”
“The good advice is all Fenn,” Todd said.
“Jumper cables?” said Claire.
Dena, stone faced, said, “I’ll explain it to you on the way out.”
And then to a general chorus of goodbyes, they were out the door.
MORE WEDNESDAY NIGHT
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Great continuation! I love Kenny and Brendan as a couple. I look forward to more in a few days!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
Me too. See you then. Thanks for reading!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
“Noah, you keep on going and then coming back,” Fenn said taking out his can of tobacco and his cigarette roller.
“A perceptive person might think it’s almost like you don’t like us, but you can’t stay away.”
“No!”
“Yes,” Fenn said, putting tobacco into the little rolling machine and licking the paper.
“Well, I was looking for a place,” Noah said. “In fact, I’m going to get a place.”
“Yes,” Fenn said again. A sharp popping noise produced the cigarette and Fenn rummaged through his pockets for a lighter.
“I’m not a conceited person,” he said. “At least I don’t think. So I don’t have to be universally liked. But, usually I am liked, so it always makes me curious when I’m not.”
Noah didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say.
“But,” Fenn continued, “I guess, I guess what I’m trying to say is… Well, hell,” faint cigarette smoke went up around him, “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I’m not going to say that I am owed…. Anything. But at the same time I wonder if I—and Todd—aren’t owed a little. Like, at least, a thank you. Or if not that, a smile, an acknowledgement that you’ve been living in our house rent free. I hate it when people act like you owe them something, I really do, so I hate to sound like you owe me something, but at the same time I think you do. Even if it’s simply a reprieve from… your constant sullen attitude and the general lack of charm that radiates from you in this house. You’re sort of like the teenager I didn’t want, and didn’t do anything to create.”
Fenn shrugged and, looking deeply at the cigarette, inhaled again before saying again: “I don’t know.”
“Firstly, I got a single dorm room because I cannot live with other bitches,” Claire said, “I’m sorry, but I need some fucking private space. I can just tell no one on that floor is going to be my friend and I’m okay with that because I’m prettier anyway.”
“Tell them about the auditorium,” Julian said.
“Yeah,” Claire nodded. “That auditorium is something else. Not like the cafeteria which is nothing like a high school cafeteria. I mean, we had the best burger there tonight…”
Because the bedroom was so full, Dena sat listening on the balcony that overlooked the Klasko’s yard. Milo had gone home a while ago, because his grandfather wasn’t feeling well. She asked if he wanted her there, but he said he didn’t see the point. Since he’d gone, Brendan had that look on his face, like he was going to pad across the room and put his nose on her knee.
And finally he did.
“Oh, God,” she said.
“Hello, Dena,” Brendan said, tiredly.
“Bren, I jusr don’t get you. I just don’t understand why you can’t… stay away. You could stay away before. God, you could stay away. But it’s like the more I just say, leave me alone, the more you keep showing up.”
“I thought we left things on a bad note.”
“Of course we left things on a bad note. All we have is bad notes.”
“Well, you know, you’ve got Milo.”
Dena looked at him.
“Yeah… I do… And?”
“And, it’s just… I mean, Kenny’s gone. I mean, you’ve got Milo and you can see him anytime you want, and I can’t see Kenny.”
Dena looked at him with critically lowered brows. “So…. We’re even… is what you’re saying?”
“I was saying I hoped we could talk. I mean, I’ve felt bad all evening. Tonight, you should have seen me, driving back. It was really… hard.”
“Good.”
Brendan looked at her.
“Did you cry all the way up Route Two? Did you cry till you got to your mom and stepdad’s driveway? I hope you did. I hope you gave him one goodbye fuck, which I’m sure you did because you couldn’t stop fucking him when you were supposed to be with me. I hope you are sick and miserable, and as far as I’m concerned you can just… rot on the dark side of hell—”
And then Brendan threw down the cup in his hand, it broke and all conversation in the next room stopped.
“YOU!” he snapped, red faced. “You…! I’m tired of apologizing to you. I’m tired of feeling sick. How dare you make fun of my feelings! My heart was ripped out. I haven’t been able to stop crying since the moment I got in the car and drove away, and I couldn’t hug him or kiss him in front of anyone, because he has to be there for the next four years and who knows how everyone there would take it. All I do is feel broken… All I do is … apologize to you. And nothing’s good enough. You’ve got Milo, who’s a hell of a lot better looking than me, and who is in town, who you’re with all the time, and I have someone I can’t see, and you’re still bitter. You win, Dena, and you’re still bitter. Well…” Brendan’s face had gone alternate red and white and his whole body was twitching like he might explode.
“Well, FUCK YOU!” he roared. “You BITCH!”
And then Brendan Miller turned on one heel, and making a straight line through his amazed friends, left.
Rage held him together for the drive home. He nearly ran into someone crossing Callahahn. Brendan Miller, not being a wrathful person, felt instantly sorry, and then for the remaining blocks home felt only sorry.
“Hey, Bren,” his father said. “You better wrap it up and go to bed. “It’s gonna be a long day tomorrow, and you’ve had a long day today.”
All Brendan could do was say, “Um hum.” He didn’t trust himself to talk.
He undressed, put his phone on his dresser and then went to the shower between his room and his sister’s, which was now his room because she was off at school. In the private shower, with the water high and hot he could stand, and then eventually sit, let the water pour down on him finally and sob. He stayed in the shower until he thought he was done, and then remembered to actually soap himself. Weakened, tired, he came out now and crashed in his room, stretched out across his bed, wet with the sound of crickets coming in through the window.
The phone rang and Brendan rolled over to get it. He saw he’d already had one message. He answered it.
“Kenny?”
“Yeah. I tried to call you.”
“I was in the shower.”
“What’s wrong with you, babe,” Kenny said in a lower voice. “You sound terrible.”
“I feel terrible,” Brendan said.
“Is it about us? I feel terrible too. I miss you.”
And then Brendan, who up until now was not used to crying. Hit the remote control, turned on his stereo and began to sob into the phone again.
“Bren,” Kenny said.
“It’s everything,” Brendan wept. “I feel so bad, and I got in this fight with Dena!”
“Really?”
“I just couldn’t take it anymore. I felt so bad already, and she just wouldn’t let up and I said all this stuff. I just blew up.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“I’ve blown up at you.”
“Not really,” Kenny said. “You just sort of shut me out for a long time.”
“Well, that’s even worse,” Brendan said. “And now Dena shuts me out, and I couldn’t take it, so I just shouted at her, and called her… all this stuff. You know I called her a bitch?”
“You didn’t!”
Brendan sniffed and moaned, “I did. And all of this stuff, in front of all of my friends.”
“Layla was there?”
“Everyone was there. But you.”
Then Brendan sat up, and wiping his nose he said, “I’m sorry… How was your day?”
“Good because I met some guys on my floor and we went to dinner together. But, I felt like, I don’t even know them, we’re not even friends.”
“Well, you will know them. Real soon. Just like how we didn’t used to know each other.”
“Well, I don’t want to know them the way I know you!”
Brendan chuckled and sniffed. “No. No, I don’t want you to either.”
“That was quite a goodbye.”
“Yeah.”
Brendan said nothing for a while, and Kenny said, “See, I thought that would cheer you up.”
“I just want to sleep. I just want to erase tonight. I wish, I wish! I wasn’t such a rotten person.”
“You are not a rotten person!”
“Look what I did to you?”
“Don’t bring that up again, Bren. It’s hard to be forgiven if you keep telling someone all the bad stuff you did to them. Plus, look how you made up for it. You can’t be a bad person, can you? Because I couldn’t love a bad person.”
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
Poor Brendan. I get that what he did was wrong but Dena could try to be a bit nicer. So Kenny loves Brendan, thats great! Though I hope Brendan doesn't screw it up. It even seemed like they were broken up but I could be wrong. I guess ill have to wait and see. Great writing!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I agree. It is getting to that point where anger is becoming a poison, but that can't stop Brendan from knowing love. There will be more tomorrow night. See what happens. Thank you for reading.
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
CHAPTER
FOUR
SOMETHING NEW CONTINUED
When Brendan woke up, he immediately thought of driving to Dena’s, offering to pick her up, having a real conversation, and then he knew this was not the answer. He put on blue trousers, white shirt, navy tie and navy blazer and slung his leather messenger bag over his shoulder. He almost didn’t comb his hair because when he began to mousse it and mess it up it reminded him of Kenny, and that Kenny would not be there to see him, or smile at him, to think of how good he looked.
It was a fifteen minute drive to the northwest where Saint Barbara’s was, where parents were dropping off children at the K-8 wing and on the other side of the church, as many teenagers over sixteen as possible were coming with each other, or by themselves, some walked if they had to. The parking lot was jammed. Father Malloy had said something about talking to the people who owned the lot across from the school to let students park there, but so far it was bare and this lot was loaded.
He was threading his way through the parking lot, his keys hanging from his crooked finger when he saw his friends on the porch that led to the east wing of the brick school. His first instinct was to turn and skulk away, but after all, these were his friends. And Will must have seen something in the way he moved, because Will, who had seen him before anyone else had, motioned quickly for him to come over.
Brendan felt the same way he had that day in the ice cream parlor when Kenny hated him and Dena hated him and Layla hated everyone and Brendan especially hated himself. But when he reached the porch, everyone suddenly walked away, including Milo, and Dena yelped, saying, “What the…”
“Maybe they knew we needed to talk, Deenie.”
Dena opened her mouth, probably to say something cutting, and then she let out a breath and said, “Maybe.”
“I had no right to snap at you that way,” Brendan said. “I… Basically everything I’ve done to you this year, no one has a right to do. I was in a bad place, but it doesn’t make any excuse. I was just so… tired. Of…”
“Feeling the way you feel?”
“Yes!” Brendan said. “Guilty everyday. Hating myself everyday. Sad everyday. A shame everyday.”
“And I’m angry every day.”
Brendan shook his head and admitted, turning his head away “Shit, Deen, you should be. I know that. We were kids together. We are kids together.”
“But I don’t know how to stop feeling like this,” she said. “I should be so grateful and so happy, and I am. And I ought to be really kind and forgiving. It is tearing me apart not to be, Bren. I hate being this…. Bitch.”
“You’re not a bitch.”
“Yes, I am. I live with her all the time, always whispering to me about everything you and Kenny did about….” Dena shook her head.
“You know what the worst part is?”
Brendan sat down beside her, on the stoop that lined the inside of the brick porch.
“You… yesterday, when you all showed up, all I could think was, you’re sleeping with him. You’re sleeping with him just like you were before you were with me. And I keep thinking about us, what it felt like, what I thought it was. And that’s all the stuff you’re doing with him, with him, with this guy, Bren. And when we were together, when we slept together I loved you, and I thought you loved me and in my memory it was love, but everything that happens means that every memory of us, and every memory of us in bed is a total lie.
“We weren’t feeling anything. You were fucking me, and I was feeling something and you… it wasn’t anything.”
The bell went off for class, but Brendan didn’t dare to get up. He didn’t dare to say anything.
“And then you tell me that you cried all night going back from school, after you dropped off Kenny. But what about me, Bren? A whole lifetime of being friends, the last four years being your girlfriend, the last part of it sleeping with you, for weeks, because you asked me, and not a moment of thought for Dena. Not a tear about Dena. You could just stick it to Dena and then say, oops, well, I’m gay, gotta be true to myself, I’m going to keep screwing Kenny Mc.Grath, who by the way, I was doing while we were still together—”
“Dena,” Brendan cut in. “I gotta interrupt you. I have to,” he shook his head. “If you think what you said is true, you don’t know me.”
“No, I don’t know you, Bren.”
“How could you think that was ever true, that I was playing you? I was lying, but I wasn’t playing you. Maybe I was playing myself. You think the whole time we were…”
“Fucking?”
“God, Dena!”
“That’s what it was.”
“No it wasn’t,” Brendan said sharply. “Trust me, I know the difference. It was never that with us. I spend… I spend half my days, chasing you, trying to call you, trying to start something up again, and then you tell me I don’t care about you.”
“Because you’re guilty!”
“Bullshit! I blew up last night, I trip up all the time. All I do is feel BAD about what happened between us. All I do is try to make it up to you, and you think… that I don’t give a shit. That it was as simple as, well fuck you Dena, I’m gonna run off and be gay! You think that’s it?”
Dena turned away from him. From the corner of her eye she saw Sister Roberts come down the long hall, and she hid deep in a recess of the porch.
“Well, then I don’t get you, Bren. Are you obsessed with me? Or, are you obsessed with being forgiven? Or… what? I don’t know.”
“Goddamn!” Brendan said, exasperated.
“I love you. Why the fuck can’t you see that, Deen? I love you. You think that because… I’m not lying to myself anymore that changes anything?”
“It would for some people.”
“Well, it doesn’t for me. I feel the same way I always felt for you, only I’m not trying to make it what it’s not. I don’t expect you to get it all today. I don’t get it all, either, but I love you, and I think you still love me too.”
“I can’t love you without thinking about everything we did, without thinking about sleeping with you.”
“You don’t think I remember it too?”
“And then you throw up, watch Queer as Folk and call Kenny?”
“No, Dena. I think about us having sex, and then I get hard.”
She looked at him.
Brendan shrugged.
Dena looked at him in shock, mildly pleased, but attempting to hide it.
“That is so crude,” she said. “You were never this crude before.”
“I was never very honest before. But I can start to be.” He held out his hand, “We can start to be. Together?”
Dena turned her face away and Brendan couldn’t see her.
“I miss you so much, Deen,” he started.
“Just shut up,” she sounded a little choked up. In the corner she put a hand across her face and when she turned back her eyes were shining.
“What I hate about you is how you just… know the thing to say.”
She took a deep breath and shifted her bag on her shoulder.
“Come on, Bren. We’re late for class.”
“YOU THINK THE CAFETERIA is always this empty for breakfast?” Claire said.
Before Julian could open his mouth, the dark guy at the other end of the table took off his sunglasses to reveal he was an Indian and said, “Yes. And that’s the best time to be in here.”
Claire nodded, and then she got up, walked down the table and said, “I’m Claire Anderson. I’m a Freshmen. This is my first day.”
“Jesse Hatangady,” he said, offering his hand as Julian came to join him.
“And this is my boyfriend, Julian.”
“You new too?”
“Yeah,” Julian nodded.
“How do you kids love orientation.”
“Fuck orientation,” they said together, and when Jesse looked at them, Julian said, “We just didn’t go.”
“We didn’t have time for that,” Claire said.
“Then I bet you’re not going to have time for a lot at Loretto. Can you imagine people come from all over to go here?”
“I came from East Carmel.”
“Where’s that?”
“You’re from around here?” Julian said.
“No. I’m from California. My dad went here when he first came to America. So, he has it in his head that the whole family’s gotta go here too.”
“Then you have more family here?” said Julian.
“I have a sister. She’s pretty hot, in a slutty kind of way. She’s a Freshmen too, so you’re bound to meet her.”
“I’ve got a brother going here too,” Claire said. “He’ll be a Freshmen.”
“You’ve got a twin.”
With a touch of irony in her voice she said, “No.”
“He’s…” Julian began, “what I think they call non-traditional.”
“It doesn’t get much more non-traditional than Paul does it?” Claire mused.
“Well,” Jesse said, looking at his watch, “if I remember rightly, from listening to Radha all night—”
“That would be the slutty sister.”
“It certainly would be,” said Jesse, “then Freshmen Opening—a waste of five hundred dollars—is in a few minutes.”
Claire turned slowly and looked at the clock over the entrance into the food line.
“Crap,” she said.
More in two nights...
CharmedFan28
JUB Addict
I am glad Brendan and Dena are at least trying to move past what happened. Interesting to read about some of the characters starting college, I look forward to reading more of that. Great work on this section and I can't wait to read more!
ChrisGibson
JUB Addict
I'm glad you enjoyed. There will be more in a few nights.
