The House of Robles

Chapter 18

Thinking Like A Stud

The late model, metallic green Mazda rumbled over the rough contours of the unpaved alley, during a night that was more on the cool side than warm. Behind the sedan, a small cloud of dust and dirt was roused up. Seeing nothing noteworthy, the restless debris quietly descended back to its former place of rest. The vehicle slowed before an equally primitive and sloped driveway.

Once the car had rolled into the driveway, a dejected and twenty-two year old Frankie Robles set the transmission in park. Right after, he cut off the lights and gazed out across from him. A short distant past the passenger side windows lay what his siblings sometimes referred to as The House Of Robles. They'd come up with the label some years ago, and somehow, it had stuck. The young man absorbed the structure. The squat, three-bedroom residence looked nearly forgotten as it sat there in the dark.

Frankie found it unusual that no lights were on at his parents' house. He peered at the dark structure for a moment longer, hoping to see the flickers of a television screen or any sign at all that someone was home. He witnessed no such confirmation.

After releasing a long, pent up and frustrated sigh, Frankie slipped out the door. He stepped around the front of his car, intent on letting himself inside. Promptly, he planned on raiding the fridge for food or booze, when the motion sensor light in the backyard clicked on. In its ferocious glare, he saw his younger brother Junior, wearing a white tank top and a pair of old jeans, and holding an aluminum baseball bat in his grip.

Frankie studied the surreal scene for a moment. "You look like you're about ready to pound the shit out of somebody."

"One of Amanda's friends called a little while ago." The nineteen year-old Junior replied. "The rumor is that Malo's out."

Malo, Frankie knew, was Amanda's ill-tempered and violent boyfriend. "You think he's coming here?"

Junior held out his bat. "If he does, I'm the fucking welcoming committee. Amanda already told him she doesn't want to see his ugly ass anymore, but you know how thick-headed some thugs can be."

"Especially thugs like Malo." Frankie agreed, before he looked back toward the house. "Where is everybody?"

"Dad came in from work, ate, took a shower and left. Vicky left on some date, right after she found a babysitter. Mom's over at Aunt Cessy's as usual, and thanks to Malo, Amanda's spending the night at Melinda's. I'm the only one here."

Frankie frowned, for the person he wanted to see most was his little sister. He'd come over to ask Amanda for advice regarding his oft-cheating wife Carmela.

"What are you doing here?" Junior asked.

"I didn't feel like going back to the apartment, because of everything that's been going on there lately with Carmela. Hey, listen. You want to go get something to eat?"

"If you're treating, hell yeah! I'm not exactly rolling in cash right now, since nobody wants to fucking hire me."

"I've got you covered."

"Sweet! Let me go change and lock up real quick." Junior ran off. "I'll be right back. Don't leave me hanging, bro!"

Frankie snickered. He could just imagine his younger sibling coming back out all dressed up, and him being gone. He'd played such cruel jokes on his brother before. This time, however, Frankie waited. He was sorely lacking in company.

A handful of minutes later, Junior strutted back out. He boasted, "I hardly get the chance to wear any of my good clothes."

By good clothes, Junior meant a long-sleeved Pendleton shirt checkered in black and white, a woven black belt with a polished square for a buckle, and pleated, tan, Dickies slacks.

"All you need now is a hair net." Frankie teased.

"I'm a Chicano and I look like a Chicano." Junior returned. "What do you think you look like?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Take a look at your clothes."

Frankie did. "It's just a shirt and jeans!"

"Where did you get them at?"

"Carmela bought them for me at the Anchor Blue store."

"See? You're losing your identity, bro. Your wife is so worried about trying to impress people over how much money she makes, that she's buying you stuff from the trendiest places at the mall."

"There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing!" Frankie protested.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. All I'm saying is that you didn't used to dress that way before Carmela took over your life. I bet she paid for everything you have in your closet, didn't she? When you look at what I'm wearing, and you tell me that all I'm missing is a hair net, I say hell yeah! I know who I am and I know where I came from. When I look at what you're wearing, I'm thinking that you look like a poster boy for Plaza Bonita shopping mall."

In irritation, Frankie asked, "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"Yeah, Carmela cut off your balls. She cut them off, chewed on them for a while, and then she flushed them down the toilet. How is that for a reality check?"

For a moment, Frankie glared at his younger brother.

"You getting mad, bro?"

"No! Well, yeah. I am getting mad, but not at you. I'm getting mad at myself. I came out here to talk to Amanda about my wife. I'm sure she'd be saying pretty much the same things you are!"

"The truth hurts sometimes." Junior replied. "But if you can't trust your own family to tell you the truth, then who can you trust? Hey, you still want to get something to eat, or are you too butt-hurt now?"

"Let's go. If I stay here and that Malo guy shows up, I'll probably help you beat him up."

The siblings climbed into the car. Shortly after, the car rolled away from the dirt alley and onto much smoother asphalt road.

"Let me borrow your phone." Junior requested.

"Why?"

"See, this is one of those things you're going to have to change. When your own brother asks to borrow your phone, you pull it out of your pocket and hand the fucking thing over. On the other hand, when you find three guys' phone numbers in your wife's purse, that's when you start giving somebody the third degree and flipping out."

"Amanda told you about that?" Frankie grumbled.

"Yeah."

In resignation, Frankie gave up his phone.

Junior quickly punched in a number. A couple of moments later he was gabbing with somebody.

"Lo, lo, lo, wassup, gurrrrl!" He greeted, then listened for a moment, after which he began to chuckle. "Hey, babe, it's me, and don't you dare ask who 'me' is. So, what are you doing, where are you at and what are you wearing right now?"

As Frankie navigated the vehicle, he listened to his brother's casual tone. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd flirted with his wife that way.

"Oh, yeah?" Junior was saying. "So, what, like in two hours? Yeah, okay, just call me back at this number. It's my brother's phone. What do you mean, is he hot? You're a little hooker, you know that? Is Diamond with you? Ask her if my brother is hot."

During the pause, Frankie asked, "Who are you talking to?"

"My girlfriend Sheila, but hold on." Junior went back to the phone. "Hey, you little slut! Who told you to take the phone away from Sheila, huh? Yeah, but Frankie's driving right now. Hold on, I'll ask him." Junior turned to his older brother. "Frankie, yes or no, are you down for it?"

"Down for what?"

"No details. You just say yes or no."

Frankie grumbled again. He hated being put on the spot like that, where he had no idea what he was about to step into. Hesitatingly, he asked, "Will this keep me from having to go home any time soon?"

Junior nodded back. "Hell, fuck, yeah!"

"Fine. I'll say yes."

Junior spoke into the phone. "Did you hear that? Yeah, he's got his own car. He's rich like that." Junior paused to listen. A few seconds later, he started laughing out loud and stamping his feet on the floorboard. "No fucking way! Are you serious? I can't believe you're going to do that!" Another pause. "No, I won't tell him. I swear, he'll be surprised. You want to tell him something? Okay, hold on." To Frankie, he said, "Diamond wants to talk to you."

Frankie's brow furrowed. The only Diamond he knew was his little cousin, Aunt Cessy's daughter.

Junior put the phone up next to Frankie's ear. "Say hello."

Confused, Frankie repeated the greeting.

"Hello, cousin." Diamond's pretty voice came through from the other end, sounding as sweet as spiked punch. "I'm going to finally get my hands on you. Do you know what I'm going to do to you, Frankie?"

"What?"

"I'm going to suck your dick until you blow your wad into my mouth. And then, I'm going to French kiss you so that you'll know what your cum tastes like. I'm going to spit your cum all into your mouth."

Frankie gulped. This was his little cousin talking to him! On the other end, he heard Diamond giggling.

"You always get so shy around me." She went on. "You probably don't even remember that one time when I tried to jack you off, do you?"

Frankie did remember that. It was years ago, at some birthday party his parents had taken him to. He'd gone into the kitchen to look for paper plates, or plastic utensils, or some such thing. Like a sneak, Diamond had come in right behind him. She said she had some kind of itch on her hand, and she was looking for something to scratch it with. Well, that something turned out to be Frankie's crotch. He'd been so embarrassed by what she'd done that he'd run out of the kitchen without bringing back whatever he'd been sent there to get. All those years later, and he still thought that had been some kind of weird, random accident.

"Frankie, do you know what you're going to be hearing me say to you later?" Diamond kept flirting with him. "This!"

She began mewling and moaning into the phone. After only a few seconds of this blissful torture, Frankie could feel his cock straining against his pants. He couldn't help groaning.

"You made me wet." Diamond sounded as if she were pouting. "You need to come over here and lick me off!"

Junior pulled the phone away. Into it, he said, "All right, that's enough. You're going to make him crash into something. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Put Sheila back on."

As Frankie made the final turn into a taco shop's parking lot, he wondered if his little cousin was as much of a sex freak as his Aunt Cessy was.

"Pic for pic?" Junior was saying. "All right, you're asking for it. Hey, I've got to go, we're pulling in to get something to grub on right now. Yeah, so just call me at this number. No, Sheila, it is not okay to flirt with my brother. See you later. Bye."

Frankie pulled into an empty stall and shut off the engine. "Did you just set me up with our cousin Diamond?"

"I can't answer that. All I can say is that was Diamond on the phone."

Grumbling at the secrecy, Frankie exited his car. His younger sibling hurried to catch up with him.

"Bro, I have to tell you something important." Junior announced. "I have to get this off my chest. If you have to hit me, then just go ahead and do it."

"What did you do?"

Junior looked fidgety for a second, before he blurted out, "I slept with your wife."

Frankie started chuckling at first, before he looked up at the dark sky and sighed. "Why am I not surprised?" He started toward the taco shop again. "So, what do you want to eat, anyway?"

Junior took up a pace next to him. "You're not mad?"

"No, not really. To tell you the truth, I think I'd be happier knowing that Carmela was cheating with you, instead of with every other random asshole she runs into on the street."

"Bros before hos." Junior said, just as they reached the taco joint's front door. "There's another thing. Amanda is one hundred percent sure that dad slept with her, too."

Frankie mulled this new revelation over for a few moments. Right after, a look of great relief spread across his face. He sighed and said, "Thank goodness."

Perplexed, Junior followed him into the taco shop. Frankie asked for a carne asada burrito, while Junior got an order of rolled tacos. The brothers waited a few minutes, chatting about nothing in particular to pass the time. When their order was ready, they carried their food and drinks outside. They took seats on a circular bench facing the street, which was still fairly busy with traffic considering how late it was.

"You don't look too worked up." Junior commented, as he munched down on his tacos. "Knowing that dad might have humped your wife."

"That's because I humped his." Frankie mumbled, as he bit into his burrito.

"Say again?"

"I slept with mom." Frankie reaffirmed.

"You fucked mom?" Junior jumped to his feet. "How could you fuck mom? How can you fuck your own mother?"

The siblings turned toward the taco shop's front door, where a random customer was standing there with a repulsed face. Still enraged, Junior socked his brother high on the shoulder. In retaliation, Frankie got up and shoved him back.

"Fucker, why'd you hit me?" Frankie scowled.

"Because you fucked mom! Why'd you think I hit you? Because my fucking tacos didn't have enough guacamole? What the fuck, Frankie? How could you do that?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! Mom jumped all over me! She took her clothes off in front of me and everything!"

"I don't want to hear that shit!" Junior covered his ears.

Frankie's phone went off, resulting in both brothers staring down at his front pocket.

"That's got to be Sheila." Junior realized.

"So, do you want me to answer or do you want to throw down first?"

Junior looked torn for a moment. "The next time we hang out, we're going to come clean with each other, and I mean about everything!"

"Sure." Frankie shrugged. "I've got a couple of other things I have to get off my chest."

"What, did you fuck dad too?"

Frankie started laughing.

"You'd better not have." Junior threatened. "I swear, I'll choke you. Man, just go ahead and answer your phone before this gets any worse!"

By the time Frankie checked his phone it had stopped ringing. "It's a text message. It says Where's my pic?"

Junior had gone back to eating another rolled taco, mostly because they were getting ignored and cold. "Sheila wanted me to send her a picture of you. Show me how to take one on your phone and I'll take it."

"You want to send a picture of me to your girlfriend? Are you sure she's your girlfriend?"

"Yeah, we're cool like that." Junior nodded.

"You mean like swingers?"

"I wouldn't go that far. It's more like when Sheila and me get to messing around, Diamond always ends up in the middle of it. Hey, look. I feel shitty because I slept with Carmela, so if Sheila makes a move on you, don't hold back on account of me. She's my girl and all, but like I said, bros before hos."

The words slowly sunk into Frankie's head. He didn't really believe them.

"Show me how to use your phone." Junior repeated "And when you pose, don't give me no sappy family time pose. Go all out."

"What do you mean?"

"Sheila's been playing this game with me." His brother explained. "Every time we send each other pictures, we try and outdo each other. If you show some skin, Sheila's going to be obligated into showing even more skin when she sends her picture back. It's kind of like a dare."

Frankie looked bewildered. "How much skin should I show?"

"Bro, didn't I tell you to loosen up earlier? Pretend that you're single, and that you still have a real set of balls between your legs. Pretend that you're trying to impress a couple of hot high school girls and..."

"Wait a minute! Those really are a couple of high school girls!"

"They're both eighteen, and you're only four years older than they are. Bro, you're turning into an old man, you know that? Every time you start to think or say something stupid, I want you to stop and ask yourself; what would a stud do? Now, give me your phone and strike a pose."

Irritated at being called an old man, Frankie thought back to a calendar his wife had purchased a few months before. It featured nearly nude firemen in various poses and settings. Brazenly, Carmela had hung it up on Frankie's side of the closet. It was supposed to be a reminder for him to work out more. After only a few days, he'd gotten infuriated enough to yank the calendar from its hook and tear it to shreds. Recalling one of the male models and his sexy pose, Frankie pulled his shirt over his head and leaned back on the bench with a strapping look.

"There you go." Junior took the shot. "Matter of fact, why don't you go stand over by the window and I'll take a second picture."

Frankie found himself smirking, imagining what he looked like to the people driving by, or to the workers inside the taco shop. He was handsome enough to score Carmela, wasn't he? That was the closest thing to a supermodel ever to come out of the crummy neighborhood he'd grown up in.

Frankie stood by one of the large windows of the taco shop, with the bright lights shining behind him. He hooked his thumbs into his waistband and angled his head back like another one of the models from that stupid calendar.

"All right, I don't know how to do this, so send both of these pictures to Sheila."

The pictures were on their way a moment later.

The two brothers were just finishing up their grub when they got a reply.

"Diamond says I look hot." Frankie checked his phone.

"When's the last time Carmela said you look hot?" Junior wondered.

"Dude, she's always saying I'm fat and out of shape. It gets annoying!"

"You're not even fat! I mean, you're no bodybuilder or nothing like that, but you don't look like a slob, either. You look like a regular, good-looking guy!"

The real reason Carmela wanted him to work out, Frankie knew, was because she wanted to show him off like she did with everything else she owned. Frankie's face tightened, as the young man comprehended that he was considered nothing more than a trophy husband. He was about to voice something to that effect, when the ringing of his phone interrupted him. He took one quick look at the picture he'd just been sent. Then he gawked at it a second time, before he passed the phone over to his brother.

"Holy shit!" Junior laughed out.

The picture showed Diamond and Sheila, standing before the bathroom mirror at Aunt Cessy's house. They were nude except for their panties, embracing each other as they smiled at their pretty reflections. Sheila held her phone out and slightly elevated as she took the shot. The blonde's extra large breasts smothered Diamond's much smaller B cups. Both young ladies were making duck faces.

Junior passed the phone back, giving Frankie the chance to ogle the two beauties once again.

"So, that's Sheila?" Frankie asked.

"Yup. Think you can handle them double Ds?"

"Do you really want me to?" Frankie asked. "I don't want to have you hating on me later."

"You won't. Besides, Diamond tries to get Sheila to do some things that are a lot crazier than that. And I still owe you one, since I went and screwed Carmela that one day. I should have turned her down, bro, but damn, she's hard to pass up when she's wearing her bright red bra and panties."

"The color is called blazing red cat, and they came from Victoria's Secret." Frankie grumbled. "I'm pretty sure one of Carmela's undercover lovers bought those for her."

"So get back at her." Junior conspired. "Go out and get laid, and take pictures. Send those pictures back to Carmela and piss her off. And if you find a mistress, go and buy her some nice lingerie from Victoria's Secret. Take pictures of your new girl wearing that too. Show Carmela that you've still got plenty of game left, even if you have been acting like an old man recently."

Frankie had just started to mull this over when his phone rang again. Hardly had he taken it out of his pocket, when it rang a second time. He saw that two new messages had been delivered. They were further pictures from the two high school girls.