"Complications..."
EDITED BY:
Miriam Belle
CREATIVE CONSULTANT:
Simply_Cyn
Author's Note:
"You'll notice that the narrative shifts for a brief moment in the story towards the end when Brett sees Doug and Sheila together at the Freeling Hotel. This is a total violation of every grammatical and literal law of the universe, but as the story is told through Doug's eyes in the first person I had no choice. It was a major plot point and I can only beg your forgiveness, dear reader...
... and the 'Born in sin' riff Doug and his friends share in the school parking lot is a reference to 'Storm of the Century.' To those who caught that, very good eye. Cheers!"
***
Following the return home that Sunday morning, I found my mother and father beyond irate with me. They screamed and screamed about responsibility, about the rules and how even though it was last few months of high school, by God I was still under their roof. Thus, I would follow their rules to the letter or suffer the consequences. To prove their point, I found myself on the receiving end of a week's grounding.
"Man, I am so fucked," I groaned over the phone to my friend Brett, "I go to one fucking party and play caretaker for Elle, and I get screwed."
Of course, I had been screwed in more ways than one...
"Well, what time did you get home?" Brett asked, clearly chewing something crunchy as we talked.
"It was around three in the morning," I said.
"My parents would have put my hot dog in a bun and chowed down," Brett laughed.
"I can't be stuck here, man," I said, "I have things I need to do."
"Like what? All you do is sit around and read comic books and smoke," Brett crunched as I held the phone away from my ear, "You're like a fucking Kevin Smith movie rolled into a tightly packed little toke."
"Hey, you're the one getting his meds from Dr. Wacky T. Backy," I said, praying to God no one was listening. If mom and dad found out Brett was smoking pot, even a little bit, they'd go ape shit and I'd be grounded even longer, just for being there.
"Speaking of which, I think the doctor over-medicated me," he laughed, his voice trailing off a little.
"Brett, stick with me here man," I shook the phone.
"You and Elle got something going on, man?" he asked bluntly, "I mean, all I can figure is you want to see her again for more than just friendship. Did something happen between you two?"
I paused for a minute. Something did happen that night, but not with Elle. "No," I replied.
"It did too," Brett accused me excitedly, "Holy shit, you boinked her. You fuckin boinked Elle."
"I did not," I protested, feeling I had just made my life unintentionally more complicated. As if it weren't already complicated enough. I had not only kissed Elle's mother, Sheila, but had proceeded to have sex with her in the kitchen until the table broke. But we had done something more than just fuck though, and I couldn't lie to myself about it. The passion we had shared was beyond anything I had ever known, and now I couldn't think of anything else but her.
But if Brett put the word out that I had slept with Elle, even though I hadn't, it would piss off Elle and even worse, it might hurt Sheila.
"Brett," I said over the stoner's maniacal laughing and whooping, "How the fuck do you keep top grades while you fog your mind out?"
"Wake and bake, baby," he laughed, "Was she good?"
"It wasn't Elle."
"Then who was it?"
"This girl I met at the party," I lied, pulling a story out from off the top of my head, "Uhm, she was a cousin of somebody there, I forget."
"Wow, way to go man. Was she hot?"
"Fuck yeah," I smiled, remembering how Sheila had looked when she dropped her nightgown straps down and revealed her breasts to me. The way they swayed and moved with her walking, the size of her areolas and the indescribable feeling of sucking on her nipples. "She had huge titties."
"That's my man," Brett laughed and there was a pause. When I first met Brett, I used to wonder why he always paused like that. But within three days of hanging out with him, I realized that when you inhale, you have to take a pause to get the full effect. For Brett, it was a quasi-religious experience, a reverence to each hit. There was a release of air on the other end of the line as Brett flew even higher. He said, "God I love titties."
"Me too man," I said, and looked at the clock. "I gotta go, okay?"
"Cool," Brett mumbled as he dropped the phone and then hung up.
"Shit," I sighed as I lay back on my bed, thinking of Sheila and how much it was going to suck not seeing her. I wanted her to think of me as an older man, a man without any childish rules hanging over his head.
'Groundings for a week at a time don't help convey that image,' I thought dismally. But she had been worth ever minute I was sentenced to be grounded in this room for the next week. I turned the lights off, locked the door and stripped down naked. I laid back down on the bed and thought of her, the way she kissed me, the way her pussy felt around my cock and began masturbating.
***
That following Friday Elle, Brett and I all had lunch together outside in the parking lot of the school. We sat on the tailgate of my 4X4, a large pepperoni pizza opened and nearly completely devoured as we talked and laughed.
"Sorry again about your eye," Elle squinted at me, her face a perfect picture of guilt, "I didn't mean to club you."
"It's all right," I said casually through a mouthful of pizza, my black eye faded to a barely visible green stain. "Your kitchen table avenged me."
Elle rolled her eyes. "I have no memory of breaking the damn table. I mean, the thing was splintered, it was like someone would have had been fucking on it."
"Did someone meet you after I dropped you off?"
"Or did you and Doug do the nasty?" Brett chimed in.
"No," we both said in unison.
"You were really smashed, Elle," I said, "You could've crashed through the front door and never known about it."
"Mom said I was really angry," she said, looking away. "Like that bitch ever notices anything about me."
I sighed. "Don't call her a bitch, okay?"
"Why not," Elle laughed and shrugged, "She is a bitch. She's fucked me and dad over for years now, and we've finally had enough."
Brett looked at her, his eyes red-tinged and relaxed. "Whoa, you never told me your folks weren't on the level with each other. Well, I mean we all know your old man steps out..."
