Author's note: This series contains (occasional) descriptions of rough and forced sex, some of which crosses the boundaries of consent. If this is not up your alley, please click elsewhere! All sexual contact described occurs between adults aged eighteen years and older.
Author's note, part 2: This is the final installment of Big-dick Bottom and a slightly longer read than usual.
Part 11.
The morning after the events at Reverend Bjornsson's, I was just sitting down to a bowl of Frosted Flakes when my parents came trundling into the house, back from church. My mother was fanning herself in the heat, her face flushed red against the bright yellow fabric of one of her church dresses. My dad was in his usual "church suit", wearing the tight-lipped expression that indicated he'd been listening to my mother talk all morning.
"And that sermon," my mother said, barely acknowledging me as she walked into the kitchen, "pride, avarice, and
lust
?"—she whispered the word—"sometimes it seems like Reverend Bjornsson talks about sin a little to much, don't you think, honey?"
"Hmmph," my dad replied, a response he'd honed over the years to neither agree nor disagree with whatever my mom had just said.
"And then on and on about the sanctity of marriage? I mean, even Evelyn thought it was a bit excessive. She said so, outside the ladies' room, during reception. And if Evelyn thinks to mention it, well, you know it's out of the ordinary."
"Hmmph."
"And have you heard about his house?" my mom continued, "Marcie-Lynn was over there a few weeks ago to help Janet organize some leaflets and she told me that the house—dear, are you listening?—the house, Reverend Bjornsson's house... honey? Well, Marcie-Lynne tells me that it's quite, you know,
gratuitous
." Again she whispered the word, as if to keep out of the Lord's earshot.
I swallowed a soggy mouthful of flakes and kept my head down. It sounded like Reverend Bjornsson had made it out of the garage, after all. I wondered if his wife had come home to find him or if he had finally been able to wiggle himself loose.
I hoped that the "insurance" Stacy had engineered in the form of the Polaroids we'd taken—and that I'd stashed in the shoe box with my tip money—would be enough to keep him at bay. I'd been thinking about those photos. Part of me wanted to send them to the local paper, or whoever Reverend Bjornsson's boss was... but on the other hand, if the photos ever did come out, he would know it was me who leaked them. Reverend Bjornsson's snarling face flashed in my memory and I shuddered. For now, at least, I figured I'd just hold onto the pictures.
My dad unwrapped the Sunday paper and came to sit down across from me at the table. My mom turned to me when she saw that my dad was not going to engage with her attempts at conversation.
"Paul, I'm very sorry you decided not to join us this morning," she said.
This, coming from my mother, was a fairly severe rebuke. Earlier in the morning, she had poked her head into my room to ask if I was coming to church. I'd waved her away, knowing that I'd hear about it later.
"Sorry, late night," I said, into my cereal.
My dad thwacked the paper angrily as he turned the page.
"I was hoping that your conversation with Reverend Bjornsson yesterday would have led you to think a bit more critically about your decisions, sweetie," my mom said.
When I ignored her she walked over to stand behind my chair.
"You know, in terms of maybe not spending so much time out late with your coworkers?" she said, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"OK, mom," I said.
"Goodness, me!" my mom exclaimed loudly, making both my dad and me jump. She walked over to the window. Outside, I saw a uniformed man with a large dog walking around in our neighbors' yard. When I'd gotten home last night, the neighbors' house had been deserted. No police or anything. The neighbors' truck was gone and there were no lights on in the house. Now it looked like there was some more police activity over there. My mom continued to watch out the window.
"It's such a shame," my mom said, "and after they did all that work on the yard, too. I mean, just look at how lovely it is, now. I can't imagine what must have been going on over there to cause such... such a
scene
, you know? That reminds me, I was going to call Bernadette to see if she knew anything more about it. You know, Bernadette's cousin or cousin-in-law, or something like that, I can never remember, she is always going on about this relative or that relative... who could ever keep it all straight? Well, whoever it is supposedly knows that
man
, our neighbor, or at least knew his wife before she died. Oh, it was such a tragic thing, her dying and leaving those boys as young and impressionable as they were. It's no surprise at all that they would have started running with the wrong crowd, what with that
brute
raising them."
As my mom spoke, my dad lowered the paper and gave me a beleaguered look across the kitchen table. For the first time, I saw him as just a man, not as
dad
. A man who had been having the same Sunday morning for, what, thirty years? But then the moment passed and he was dad again. The newspaper went back up.
One thing was true, though, in what my mom had said. The neighbors' yard was almost finished, it seemed. In this last, chaotic stretch of time, I hadn't been home enough, really, to keep tabs on the progress of their landscaping project. And then all of a sudden, the paving was finished, new turf had been laid down around the planting beds, and there were several new trees planted.
After the incident in the shed, I had barely seen the neighbors. A few days ago... or maybe a week ago?... I'd seen the daddy briefly as I sped off to work. He'd had a bandage around his head and he was limping down his driveway to the mailbox. He'd seen me in my truck and stopped in his tracks, his expression flat as he'd watched me drive off.
I'd seen the ginger, too, through the window of the kitchen—the same window my mom was looking out right now—pushing a wheelbarrow around his yard. He had also looked pretty banged up.
And as for son #1... when I thought about him, my stomach twisted and my adrenaline spiked, sending my heart rate into overdrive. I closed my eyes and saw the outline of his tall, muscular body, heaving in the moonlight. I could feel his hands on me and the softness of his lips on mine. I shook my head and come back to reality.
No
. Whatever I'd had with him, whatever there had been between us... it was over. I'd ended all that.
I lifted another sweet, soggy spoonful of cereal to my mouth as my thoughts swirled. Maybe, maybe, maybe... everything would be OK. It was just another week before I left for school. I just had to make it through one more week. I cleared all of the images from my mind by visualizing the the jetway at the airport. In my mind's eye, I walked through the gate and down the jetway, toward the plane that would take me east—away from Minnesota, away from my parents, away from all of this and into the great unknown.
~
I went to work to catch the early shift at eleven. The kitchen was uncharacteristically quiet. I greeted Amanda, who was leaning on the manager's kiosk, but she barely looked at me when she handed me a list of addresses. I took the list and was grabbing bags off the delivery rack when Mario came into the kitchen. He saw me, but he didn't shout out or even nod in my direction. He went straight over to talk with Amanda.
I still had my money belt from the night before that I hadn't checked in. I went and stood, awkwardly, fidgeting with the money belt by the kiosk as Mario and Amanda talked about getting the salad bar set up. When they were done, I held out the belt to Mario.
"Hey, sorry I didn't check this in last night," I said.
Mario took the belt from me and went back out of the kitchen without saying anything. I looked at Amanda, but she just shrugged at me and smacked her gum. I didn't know what to do so I just took the hotbags out to my truck and headed out on my delivery run.
~
The rest of the day passed in the same manner. I crossed paths with Mario a few more times, but he didn't acknowledge my presence in any way. I thought maybe things would pick up when Stacy showed up, but after a cursory, "hi", it became clear that she wasn't really talking to me either. And while Mario usually kept the mood in the restaurant light and fun, today everyone was just quiet and seemed miserable.
At closing, Mario took my money belt, again without a word. We were standing alone near the cash register where Mario was doing some paperwork.