Chapter 6: She Wet the Bed
Leslie was nuzzled against Stuart on the couch. Both of them had had wolfed down the sandwiches they'd made for lunch and wordlessly decided to take a break from intense sex with some TV. Leslie was still naked, but she'd actually found herself becoming quite comfortable with the feeling. Stuart's ravenous attitude towards her had made her confident in herself, even if it did occur to her that pegging one's own desirability to how much a horny teenage boy wants to have sex with you seemed like cheating. Stuart was topless, which meant Leslie was free to run her fingers over his abs and nipples absent-mindedly.
It had been surprisingly easy to find something to watch they both enjoyed; where Leslie liked crime dramas, Stuart liked action but aside from that, they seemed to have similar tastes. They flicked through some American sitcoms but decided against them mostly because they'd both seen those episodes. Eventually, looking through things the Watkins had recorded onto the planner feature, they found some relatively new episodes of the Big Bang Theory to put on.
An episode went by where they both lay together, overcome by post-sex drowsiness. Stuart put on another episode, whilst Leslie grabbed them both a glass of water to share. She returned to her comfy position next to him, nestled to the left with her right leg swung over him. She looked over to him and they kissed briefly before she spoke, breaking the half hour of comfortable silence, "Why do you hate Lewis so much?"
"Coz he's a massive dickhead."
"Well yes, I know that... I mean, I know you feel that way." She quickly corrected herself because, though she wasn't beating herself up about it, she really did feel she'd crossed a line earlier indulging Stuart by insulting her son. She continued, "But no one is... just a... a..."
"Dickhead? Lewis is..."
"Well, what I mean is, he must've done something to make you feel that way."
"Yeah, he acted like a dickhead."
"Stuart!" snapped Leslie, then quickly tempered the tone of her voice, "Why can't you give me a straight answer."
"Fine..." he sighed, "He's a smug little prick, who thinks he's better than everyone, especially me. I like to put him in his place. Bottom of the pack."
"What do you mean?" asked Leslie. She first felt a little twang of defensiveness for her son; Stuart may not like him but doesn't mean he was literally the lowest of the low; but then she thought about how Lewis acted, with a sense of oblivious superiority. She may love her son, but she was aware he wasn't the most active kid, the most socially aware, or the most talented. He was clever, certainly, but it gave him, as Stuart had said, a smug air that he didn't really deserve to carry. She found herself tentatively sympathising with her boyfriend, able to see why he might want to bring down Lewis a couple of pegs.
"It's not one thing, you can just see him be so proud to correct people or answer questions. Even when you get things right, he has to one up you. Like in biology once, teach asked what evolution was. I said something like its stuff changing to become better at surviving, which was right. Lewis then said 'well isn't it' then some fancy answer about random changes heading towards optimal blah blah."
"Sure, I can see that but that's just annoying. Why do you hate him?"
"Dunno, I mean the other day I gave him that shiner coz I hadn't done my homework and he said it was really easy and I must've been really stupid not to manage it. Teacher didn't care, so don't see why he did."
"Wow, that's pretty out of order, but why did you punch him?" Asked Leslie, involuntarily stroking his chest soothingly.
"I..." Started Stuart.
"Yes?" Prompted Leslie, after a couple of seconds.
"Cameron is my older brother. He enlisted after not doing too well at school. He... He went to Afghanistan," continued Stuart, his voice sombre. He stood up and Leslie's hands trailed down his left arm until they gripped his hand. He pulled away and picked up his t-shirt that lay cast aside in the threshold between the living room and kitchen.
"Baby, we don't have to talk about this, sorry I pushed..."
"No," interjected Stuart, pulling his top over his head, "It's not an unfair question. Just don't like talking about it."
He pulled over the single armchair and sat down in front of her. She sensed the tone was about to become far deeper and her nakedness made her felt truly exposed. However, she sat up straight and held an air of dignity, despite her sex-ruffled hair and the cum stains that spattered her fishnet tights.
"His squad was ambushed. Some were badly fucked up but they all survived. Cam came back physically well but with a bad case of shell-shock. PTSD is the official term the docs used.
"Got the finest treatment on the NHS, but they aren't sure he'll ever recover fully. It was Cam's birthday that weekend so we went to visit him at the home he's at. Hence I didn't do my homework."
"Baby," soothed Leslie. She put a soft hand on Stuart's cheek and leant in to kiss him on the lips. He reciprocated for a second and Leslie backed off immediately, seeing he wanted to continue.
"Also, my parents been on the rocks for a while. They were about to call it quits I think then Cam came back and they had to look after him. Working together staved off their break-up but my mum was always on my case to get better grades."
"Why do your grades matter?"
"Coz she's scared I'll join the army too and she'll lose both her sons."
"Would you?"
"Join? Probs."