For Kylie
They were banging on the door so loudly that everyone in the hall probably heard them. Just more of what I needed.
"It's Barr and your mom, Kylie. Can you let us in?"
I opened the door. Barr was holding Mum around the waist. Her eyes were almost closed and she was slumped against him, with that stupid look on her face. "We've been out partying, baby," she said. Or at least that's what it sounded like. When Mum was drunk, who knew?
I moved to the side, and Barr eased Mum past me into the flat. "I don't know what happened, Kylie," he said. "She showed up at the restaurant almost completely wasted, and it just got worse."
He wrangled Mum into her room. He was probably talking softly to her as he maneuvered her on to the bed, taking her shoes off, trying to make her comfortable. It's the same thing he had done the past couple of times they had been out.
"Mum's been having a rough go of it at work," I said. "Her boss is a real asshole."
What I didn't tell Barr was that Mum had been sleeping with her boss, and his wife had found out. So the boss had broken it off with Mum, and she had apparently used the bottle she kept in her office desk as a consolation prize. I also didn't tell Barr that the 22-year-old wanker who lived down the hall, who Mum was also fucking, had texted her yesterday to tell her he was tired of a slag like her - even though Mum was 34 and still looked fabulous. I got my long brown hair and pale complexion from her, and I wasn't worried about aging badly, not with her tight butt. Her tits were bigger than mine, but I knew from the way the men she fucked looked at me that they liked mine, too.
I'm sure Barr didn't think Mum was monogamous, but I'm also sure he didn't think she was that un-monogamous. In fact, Barr was the best thing that had happened to Mum in years, and I could never figure out why she didn't treat him better. He was sweet and kind, and listened to her complain about her job and my dad, and he took her to dinner and shows and clubs and surprised her with little presents. The other men she fucked just did her and went home.
And Barr was sweet to me, too. He'd actually have a convo with me, and not just text me asking for naked pics like the boys I went out with. And he was always buying me something, like lipsticks and little pieces of jewelry. For my 18th birthday, he had taken me to Topshop to get whatever I wanted. Then he had taken Mum and I to a posh dinner, and I wore the outfit we bought - a short tight dress with a halter top and the cutest boots. "Princess," he said, "you look gorgeous. You're a distraction to every man in this restaurant, and I love the way your hair looks on your bare shoulders."
Mum just got drunk. Like I said, more of what I needed.
Plus, Barr was sexy - blue eyes, a generous smile, gray streaks in his brown beard and hair, and a forceful manner that somehow wasn't rude or overbearing, but comfortable and reassuring. And I knew he was a wonderful lover - I could hear the way he made Mum cum, how he took his time and brought her along slowly until she was begging him to finish. And I could hear him cum, a low rumbling that got louder and louder as he exploded into Mum over and over and over.
Listening to them, lying in bed alone, I would shiver. Sometimes, their fucking made me so horny and wet I had to touch myself. I had fucked boys, of course, but none of them had done to me what Barr did to Mum. Usually, it was splitting a pizza and then fighting them off because they thought asking me out entitled them to a blowjob.
•
"Kylie, I just don't know what's going on." Barr had come into the living room, and he looked tired, worn out in a way I had never seen before. He found where Mum kept the Irish, poured himself a large glass (no ice, even though he was from the states), and sat down on the sofa.
"She always liked to drink," he said, and took a long pull of the whiskey. "Hell, I like to drink. We used to have fun drinking. But not like this. This isn't good for her. Kylie, do you have any idea what's going on?"
I shook my head no. How to tell Barr what was going on without scaring him away? Mum needed him.
Barr took another pull, almost finished the glass. "Time for more," and this time he came back to the sofa with the bottle. "Do you want any? I can get another glass." I shook my head no again. I was sitting on the floor at the other end of of the sofa, legs crossed. I think he understood the doubt in my eyes, because he gave me one of those smiles.
"It's OK, Kylie, I know this isn't easy for you. You and I will figure something out."
Then, Mum's voice from the bedroom. "Barr, don't leave me, don't leave me."
He sat up quickly. "Hold on, sweetheart. I'm coming." He was in there a few minutes, and I heard the door close as he came out.