Chapter 1
My parents, especially my father, thought that sending me to stay with my aunt and uncle for the summer would do me good. I dreaded the prospect of being stuck in the back of beyond, far away from my friends for two months. But after my father made a threatening comment about sending me to one of those military-style boot camps for delinquent teenage boys the thought of a couple of months with Uncle Roger and Aunt Amanda didn't seem quite so bad.
What precipitated this move was a serious of incidents that caused my parents to fear that the path I was headed down was leading me towards a life of trouble. In retrospect, maybe they were right.
That past April, a few weeks before my nineteenth birthday, dad had gotten a call from Arnold Miller. I was friends with Arnold's son, Kenny. We had known each-other since fifth grade. One weekend when Kenny's parents had gone out we convinced Kenny's older sister, Faith, to buy us some beer. We drank them up in Kenny's room while we listened to music and ogled Faith, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed wearing a mini skirt, pink panties and tank top. It was my first experience with alcohol and it ended up being an unpleasant one, to say the least. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Miller returned home I was passed out on their bed, but only after leaving a puddle of vomit on their bathroom floor.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Chris? You're too young to drink and you can't even do it without puking your guts up. You've got a lot of growing up to do." Dad was standing over my bed the next morning lecturing me.
My mother had a worried look on her face as she watched from the doorway. "Okay, that's enough, Bruce. He gets the point." she eventually told my father.
I was lying in bed that Saturday morning wishing I would die while my father berated me. I was relieved once he had finished because I thought it meant that he would let me get back to sleep. I felt like shit. Instead, he demanded that I get up and mow the lawn. It was not even nine o'clock.
While I trudged behind the lawn mower that hot morning, feeling the urge to throw up again, I promised myself that I would change my ways. I kept that promise for a little over a month. One night when I got home after hanging out with Kenny at the mall (his father was still not ready to have me back at his house yet) I found my parents waiting for me at the kitchen table. I knew that something was up and it was not good.
"Your mother found something of yours." dad told me.
"What?" I asked, trying to sound less scared than I was.
Dad reached in the breast pocket of his shirt and placed a roach on the table.
"Your mother found this in your jeans this afternoon when she was doing laundry." he announced.
I felt myself go limp. There was no way I could lie my way out of this. I gave my parents a guilty stare while I waited for the fallout.
That was the proverbial last straw for my parents. It was a week or so after that when dad informed me that as soon as school was over for the year they were shipping me off to stay with my aunt and uncle in Shelton. I thought of it as exile.
I was far from happy about being exiled to Shelton for two months. It later occurred to me that Uncle Roger and Aunt Amanda probably weren't exactly overjoyed about hosting their problem child nephew for the summer, although the suggestion had actually been Roger's. I reminded myself that it was only for two months. That fall I would be starting college. Hopefully I could get an apartment somewhere with Kenny or another friend and be out of dad's house for good.
Uncle Roger was dad's brother-in-law. He had been in the military for a few years until he lost two fingers on his left hand during a live-fire exercise. He projected a demeanor of being a no-bullshit sort of guy sometimes, so I knew that I would have to toe the line while I was staying there. Uncle Roger was friendly, but seemed like the type who'd make you dig a latrine if you pissed him off. If you really got on his bad side it might be your grave. Once he returned to civilian life he married my Aunt Amanda, dad's baby sister and the youngest of five siblings, and opened a hardware store in downtown Shelton.
Shelton was a small coastal town about a five hour drive from Waterville, where my parents and I lived. Most people there earned their living as fishermen or farmers. I had only been there once a few years before to attend Roger's and Amanda's wedding. It was the type of town that had more cows than people and the last person to bed turned out the streetlights.
My father's reasoning was that since there was precious little to do in Shelton it would be impossible for me to get into trouble. He hoped that after a summer away from Kenny and whatever other corrupting influences that were in my life I would become the person he wanted me to be. I feared that I would go crazy from boredom. I soon discovered that boredom was probably the least of my worries. Dad informed me that I would be working at Uncle Roger's hardware store for the duration of my stay. He said it would be a way for me to earn my keep. I considered it slave labor.
Chapter 2
My aunt and uncle seemed happy to see me when dad and I arrived at their house. It was the first Saturday in July. They greeted me with warm smiles and hugs. I had half expected to find Uncle Roger wearing a camouflage uniform and shouting at me to do push-ups.
I looked around the spacious yard. I was not accustomed to people having so much land separating their house from their neighbours'. Parked in front of the garage was a blue Ford truck and a white Toyota. I assumed that the truck must be Roger's and the car belonged to Amanda.
"Remember you're a guest here, so you do as Roger and Amanda say. Don't let me find out that you've been getting in trouble here too." dad reminded me in a stern voice before he left.
I swallowed hard and nodded, then I felt a gentle hand rest on my back. It slid up to my right shoulder. It was my Aunt Amanda. She gave my shoulder a slow rub as she pressed her hip to mine.
"Don't worry, Bruce, we'll see that he doesn't get into any more trouble than you did at his age." my aunt told my father.
Dad shot his younger sister an angry glare as his mouth grew taught.
"We've sent him here in hopes that it will give him time to think about where his life is headed and he can get his shit together." dad spat out.
"I think you've forgotten what it's like to be a teenager, big brother," my aunt said "maybe Chris needs to hear some stories about your exploits when you were his age while he's here -- like the time dad's forty year-old Scotch mysteriously vanished, or the flaming bag of dog shit that turned up on Mr. Henderson's porch one Halloween."
My father's jaw was clamped shut as he stormed off towards his car. It started with a roar and he sped out of the driveway in a cloud of dust and flying gravel.
My Aunt Amanda still had her arm draped over my shoulder as we stood on the front porch. She was waving at my father with a smug grin as he drove off. Her breast was rubbing against my side, making my cock rise in my jeans. After dad vanished from sight my aunt shot me a smile.
"Okay, he's gone. Now you can relax and enjoy your summer." Amanda said.
My aunt sounded as relieved as I was as she opened the screen door to invite inside. I joined Roger at the kitchen table while my aunt returned to making apple pies.
"Thanks for sticking up for me with dad earlier, Aunt Amanda."
"My pleasure. I love Bruce, but he sure can be a dick sometimes." she said.
I laughed.
"So, I hear you got into some trouble, Chris." Uncle Roger said.
"Yeah..." I mumbled, avoiding his piercing green eyes and wondering if I should call him 'Sir'.
"I'm going to have to teach you how to hold your liquor before you leave. I don't want you puking on my bathroom floor." He let out a deep laugh and leaned back in his chair.
I stared at my uncle, astonished.
"Roger, stop it," Amanda interjected "Bruce sent him here to avoid that sort of thing. Don't you try to corrupt him!" She had our back to us as she rolled out pastry dough on the counter.
Uncle Roger rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about her, Chris, her bark is worse than her bite."
Aunt Amanda threw a ball of dough towards my uncle. It hit the back of his head and fell to the floor with a soft splat. I let out a loud laugh. Already I could tell that I was going to have a good summer.
"Thanks a lot for letting me stay here this summer, Uncle Roger. You too, Aunt Amanda."
"Roger," he corrected "there's no need for any of that 'aunt' and 'uncle' crap, okay? And you're welcome. We're glad to have you."
I gave my uncle a wide smile and nodded.
That evening after supper I went up to what would be my bedroom for the next eight weeks to unpack. Roger said he was going out to The Eagle for a couple of hours or so. The Eagle was a tavern in town that was founded years ago by a few World War Two veterans. One of their sons ran it now. Uncle Roger liked to go there to socialize more than drink, plus it was the only place in town with pool tables. He also belonged to a darts team that held tournaments there every Wednesday night.
I was stuffing socks and underwear in a bureau drawer when Amanda joined me. I didn't see her at first, but when I turned to get more clothes from my suitcase on the bed I saw her in the doorway to the room. I jumped a bit.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." she said.
"It's okay." I told her, letting out a nervous laugh.
I pulled a few t-shirts from my suitcase and began putting them on hangers in the tiny closet. Amanda walked over to the bed in the corner and sat down, watching me.
"I hope you'll enjoy your stay here, Chris."
"I'm sure I will. I think Roger and I are going to have a lot of fun."
"Just don't have too much fun," she said "your parents are going to be calling to see how you're doing and I'd rather not have to lie to them."
I grinned. "Then I'll just have to make sure you don't find out if I do something I shouldn't."
"You're just like your father." she said, shaking her head.
"How's that?" I asked.
"When we were younger he was always raising hell and making me promise not to tell mom and dad."
"Dad?" I asked, wondering if we were thinking of the same person.
"Yeah... don't forget that Bruce was your age once too. There's probably not much you can think of that he's not tried at least once."
"I have a good imagination though." I joked.
"So does Bruce," she added, then smiled "although it's usually a dirty one."
"Then that's where I get it from." I shot back.
"Oh great, having you around is going to be like being around Bruce when he was your age."
Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head again, but I could she was just being overly dramatic for comic effect.
I smiled as I continued hanging up clothes in the closet. Amanda was sitting on the bed behind me. I didn't want to stare, but I found that she looked so pretty. She had curly brown hair that trailed a foot or so down her back. Her eyes were a shade darker than her hair. They glistened and seemed to change hue and brightness depending on her emotions. What I had noticed most were the contours of my aunt's body. She was wearing a short blue skirt and a white short-sleeved blouse that left some of her midriff bare. Her tanned legs looked shiny and smooth, but I was more interested in how her breasts filled out her blouse. I had noticed the faintest hint of her nipples pushing at the cotton earlier and was quite sure that she was not wearing a bra.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed my aunt get up and look in an open cardboard box beside the bureau to my left. The box contained my ipod, some books and some more clothes.
