It was after 11:30 when John got to Tom and Beth's. John had hoped that someone would still be up. He was relieved to see that the light in the living room was on. The front door was unlocked so John walked inside. Tom was watching TV.
"Hey John, what are you doing here so late?" Tom asked.
"Sorry to come over so late like this, but I need a place to stay tonight." John said.
"Sure John, no problem. Of course you can stay here, but why aren't you staying at home?" Tom asked.
"That house isn't my home anymore. Not after tonight. Not after..." John said.
John's head sank and he had to fight back the tears.
"Not after what?" Tom asked.
"Kelly...she...she wasn't...she wasn't alone when I got home." John said.
"What? What do you mean she wasn't alone?" Tom asked.
"When I pulled in there was a blue car in the driveway. I didn't recognize it. I thought it was kind of late for one of Kelly's friends to still be over, but the light in the living room was on. I went inside and found the living room empty. I thought about trying to find Kelly to tell her I was back and kiss her goodnight, but I was hot and tired after my trip so I decided to just go take a shower and go straight to bed. I walked upstairs and that's when I heard..." John said.
John stopped to fight off more tears.
"What did you hear John?" Tom asked.
"Noises...coming from the bedroom. Noises that Kelly makes when we're in the bedroom. I was confused. Why would she be making those noises if she had someone over? I walked down the hall and stood in the open doorway of our bedroom. Kelly was there...on the bed...but she wasn't alone. A man...two men...were in the room with her." John said.
"Oh my God. John; are you saying that Kelly was fucking two guys in your own bed?" Tom asked in disbelief.
"I don't know if she'd done things with both of them or not. When I walked in only one of them was on the bed with her. The other one was beside the bed holding a video camera." John said.
"Oh man...a video camera? So what happened?" Tom asked.
"None of them noticed me at first; they were all too caught up in what they were doing to look towards the door. The man on the bed was positioned so that he was blocking Kelly's view of the door, but then he shifted. She saw me standing there. Our eyes met." John said.
"What did she do when she saw you?" Tom asked.
"She screamed out for the man on top of her to stop and she immediately started crying. The two men looked my way and they both began to panic and started scrambling to get dressed. Kelly pulled herself up against the head board. She sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. She pulled the sheet up to cover herself. Even with her eyes filled with tears our eyes didn't part. After ten, maybe twenty seconds of staring into her eyes I dropped my suitcase, turned around, walked down the stairs, out the front door, got in my car, and drove over here." John said.
"Oh man John; that's terrible. What are you going to do?" Tom asked.
"I don't know. I haven't got the slightest idea. I know that I won't get any sleep tonight, and maybe not for a long time to come. The only thing that I'm sure of is that I need to be away from that house. I hope that you don't mind me coming here. It's the first place I thought of." John said.
"Sure man; I understand. You're welcome to sleep out here on the couch, or I think Beth has the guest room set up if you would prefer a bed." Tom said.
"I'll probably just stay here on the couch." John said.
"Do you want me to stay up and talk with you for a while?" Tom asked.
"No, that's not necessary. I don't really feel like talking right now." John said.
"Okay John. Whatever you need. If you aren't in a talking mood then I think I'm going to go to bed." Tom said.
Tom went off to bed. John sat there in the dark all night. He hardly even blinked during the night. John had been exhausted when he'd arrived at his house after a long trip, but he couldn't have slept that night if you'd pumped him full of elephant tranquilizers.
The scene that John had witnessed in his own home, in his own bedroom, on his own bed, with his wife and another man, while a second man recorded it on video no less, just kept replaying in John's head over and over again.
It was a very long night; the longest of John's life. He just sat there on Tom and Beth's couch. Eventually the darkness started to brighten as the early rays of dawn crept through the windows and across the floor.
John heard the shower running down the hall. Then a few minutes later Tom's wife Beth came walking into the room. She had a towel wrapped around her body and another around her hair.
She was quite startled when she saw him. She gasped and jumped backwards violently. The jump caused the towel around her body to come loose and fall to the floor giving me a full frontal view of her naked body. She immediately squatted down to pick up the towel and wrapped it around herself again.
"Jesus John, you scared the hell out of me. What are you doing here so early and how did you get in?" Beth asked.
"I'm sorry to have startled you like that. Tom let me in last night after you'd gone to bed." John said.
"The couch isn't messed up, you haven't even taken your shoes off; did you just sit there all night?" Beth asked.
"Yes." John said.
"Why the hell would you do that?" Beth asked.
"I wouldn't have been able to sleep after what I saw last night, so I didn't bother with trying." John said.
"You must have seen something pretty bad for you to sit there like that all night. What did you see?" Beth asked.
"Kelly. She was in our bed with another man while a second man filmed them together." John said.
"Oh my God." Beth said.
She rushed over beside him, sat down and held him. She pulled John's head down onto her bare shoulder.
"John, I'm so sorry. What did she say when you confronted her?" Beth asked.
"I didn't...I couldn't say a word. There was no need for words. Our eyes met and everything that needed to be said last night was spoken without words. I could see it in her eyes that she was sorry, I could see that she was terrified, and I could see that somehow she still loved me, despite what I had found her doing." John said.
"And what did your eyes say to her John?" Beth asked.
"Heart break, confusion, anguish...pain." John said.
"Anger?" Beth asked.
"No, it all happened much too quickly for anger to set in. That came on my drive over here." John said.
"So what happened when Kelly and the two men noticed that you were there?" Beth asked.
"The two men got really scared and started hurriedly scrambling for their clothes. Kelly covered the body that she had been showing two strange men just moments before so that I would not see her shame. She cried." John said.
"What did you do?" Beth asked.
"I did all I could do at that moment. I dropped the suitcase I had in my hand, turned around, and left." John said.
"You just left? You didn't even chase the two guys out of there? If you left before they did, they might have stayed." Beth said.
"No, they left. I'm certain of it. They were terrified when they saw me standing there, and they knew that weren't going to get anything else from Kelly judging by her reaction to seeing me standing in the doorway." John said.
"So what are you going to do now John?" Beth asked.
"I don't know. I sat here thinking about it all night and I have no idea. I know that I can't go into that house, or see her. Not now...maybe not ever again. But I must know what happened. Who were those men? Did she know them? Was it her first time with them? Why was she letting them video tape what was happening? I must know those things, but I cannot ask her." John said.
"Then by God I'll ask her for you. You're a damn good man John, and up until now Kelly has been my best friend, but after what she did I'm not sure our friendship is going to last." Beth said.
"I'd appreciate your help." John said.
"I just hope she has answers for your questions. You should really try to get some sleep, you look terrible." Beth said.
"I still can't sleep." John said.
"Then you should at least eat something. Come on, I'll make you some breakfast before I go over to talk to Kelly." Beth said.
Beth took John by the hand and pulled him to his feet. After sitting all night John's legs were very stiff and it was difficult. Beth quickly whipped up some scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee.
"John, please eat something. I know you probably don't have much of an appetite right now, but you really should eat something." Beth said.
John just looked at the plate.
"Don't make me feed you like an infant John." Beth said sternly.
He slowly began eating. Beth watched John clean his plate. When she was satisfied that he'd finished his food she cleared the table then spun around. Again the towel slipped off giving John his second full frontal view of her naked body.
Beth is an absolutely beautiful woman. John had often thought about what she looked like naked. Now he'd seen it twice and it had no affect on him. She might as well have been fully clothed.
"Okay John, I'm gonna go get dressed and then I'm gonna go over to your house and try to talk to Kelly. Tom will be up in an hour or so, he likes to sleep in Saturday mornings. Do you need anything before I go?" Beth asked.
"Can you take me back to last night before this happened and give me a flat tire or something on the way home so those men would have been gone before I got there and I wouldn't have seen what I did?" John asked.
Beth came over and gave John a hug. With him sitting and her standing John's head was pressed firmly against her chest.
"I wish I could John. I would do that for you in a heartbeat if I could. Perhaps it's better that you know though. You deserve better than to have that going on behind your back." Beth said.
Beth released the hug and backed away from John. The towel she was wearing fell to the floor again giving him his closest look at her yet.
"This God damn towel. Fuck it, you've already seen it. Please don't tell Tom about this. It will be our little secret okay?" Beth asked.
"Not a word." John said.
Beth picked up the towel and carried it over her arm as she left the kitchen. She headed down the hallway for the bedroom so she could get dressed. She came back fully dressed a few minutes later.
"John, I don't know how long this will take. We can't even be sure that Kelly's still there. She might have left like you did. I'll go over there and see what I can find out." Beth said.
