Michelle giggled to herself. She knew of course. They'd known for months, that's why they always brought it on their lovemaking adventures. He grabbed a nugget and made for her opened mouth. Carefully, she bit down on it and held it between her teeth. Mike leaned in, their lips touched and they chewed in unison, the chocolate melting and swirling between their tongues. She grabbed at him with passion. The chocolate done, he smiled and nodded, reaching for another piece. This time he placed it on chest, just above her breasts, then quickly proceeded to lap it up, kissing her tenderly in the process.
"Yum!" she moaned in ecstasy
"It's delicious." he mumbled, his mouth filled with caramel. He reached back in to kiss her. She pushed him back gently.
"Arms up!" she commanded. Like a child waiting to get dressed, Mike shot his arms into the air. Michelle yanked off his sweater and tossed it aside, pushing his shirtless chest down onto the couch. He looked up at her with expecting puppy-dog brown eyes. Slowly, she reached for her own piece of chocolate, then dropped it on his salivating tongue. This time he held it between his teeth, and they repeated their earlier kiss. Brown was smeared over both of their mouths and chests.
Michelle turned their kiss into a downward motion and started heading toward Mike's crotch. Mike's face twitched and contorted with pleasure, eventually twisting into a huge, shit-eating grin. In fact, to an on looker it might have looked as though he was literally eating shit. But no, not today. He closed his eyes and let Michelle work her magic.
***
They had only just finished when an abrupt noise came from the door. It was Lisa and her mother, Claudette. The two had lost track of time in their chocolate fueled erotic escapade, and hadn't realized it was time for them to return home. Mike raced to pull on his sweater, and in his confusion put it on backwards, the tag facing out. The couple stood at attention.
Claudette jumped back, shocked. "Hello?" she called out, then turned to Lisa, "What are these characters doing here?"
Lisa giggled, but quickly caught on to the situation. "They like to come here to do their...homework." she said, a wink in her smile.
Good, Michelle thought, she remembered the cover story.
"What homework?" Claudette clearly wasn't buying it. Lisa put a reassuring hand on her mother. "Mom, this is Michelle's boyfriend, Mike." Mike put out his hand, but Claudette simply rolled her eyes and didn't budge. "Mike," Lisa groaned, "this is my...mother."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Mike offered.
Claudette sighed and shook her head. Mike took the opportunity to head for the door.
"Uh-huh." Michelle agreed, then followed after her boyfriend. And with that, Michelle and Mike were gone.
Claudette rolled her eyes again. She didn't understand the way her daughter lived her life, never would. She considered bringing up but thought best of it. She was too tired. Instead she simply went for the couch. When she sat she let out a sigh of relief.
"All that shopping wore me out!"
No sooner were the words out of her mouth then a boy she hadn't remember seeing strolled in through the front door. He had shaggy brown hair and looked like a lanky creep.
"Hi Lisa!" he said.
"Hey, Denny." Lisa greeted back. She turned to her mother and gestured. "Denny, this is my Mom! Mom, this is Denny." Denny smiled at her.
"How many people come in and out of this apartment every day!" she asked. It seemed to her that the room was a revolving door of useless, disconnected encounters with a random assortment of characters that were only loosely related to her daughter and her troubles. "This is worse than Grand Central Station!"
Denny simply shrugged, then shook his head, confused, at Lisa. "I just need to borrow some sugar."
"Help yourself, Denny." she offered.
"I also need a cup of flour and a half-a-stick of butter." Denny was making meth brownies with the drugs he had just bought, and the recipe on the internet listed those ingredients.
"Doesn't your home have a kitchen!" Claudette asked, as much out of confusion as out of annoyance at the young boy.
Denny held up his arms in defeat. "I'll...come back later." he turned at went straight out the door, which hadn't closed since he'd entered. And with that, Denny was gone.
Lisa walked towards her mother, shooting her a harsh look. Claudette replied with her customary roll of the eyes. Lisa sat on the couch beside her.
"Tell me," Claudette asked, "what does Denny do?"
Lisa had been waiting for someone to ask this very question for what seemed like an eternity. Any trace of her earlier resentment was erased as she geared up to tell the story. She launched straight into it.
"Johnny wanted to adopt Denny. It's really a tragedy how many kids out there don't have parents. When Denny turned eighteen, Johnny found him a little apartment here in this building and he's paying for it until he graduates from school." she paused, momentarily overwhelmed by the sincerity of Johnny's generosity. "Johnny really loves Denny, even though he doesn't say it much. He's like...a father figure to him. I told you Mom. Johnny is very caring about the people in his life. And he gave Denny his own set of keys to our place."
Claudette frowned. She couldn't put together how Lisa, even though she clearly thought Johnny to be a good man, was plotting against him.
"Please, don't hurt Johnny." she said firmly.
Lisa's beaming features darkened. She knew that her mother was right from a logical perspective.
"Now, if you don't love him, so be it. But you should tell him."
Mike came bursting into the room. Running and out of breath, he went straight for the couch.
"I uh...forgot my book." he grabbed the decoy book that Michelle had brought. But it was only that, a decoy. The thing he had really came back for was currently in Claudette's hands.
"What is this?" she said, spreading out his black underwear. Lisa giggled to herself.
"Oh, that's...that's nothing!" MIke said, quickly grabbing the undergarment and bolting out as fast as he had come in, shutting the door behind him.
The two women couldn't help but laugh to themselves.
"Homework?!" Claudette exclaimed sarcastically.
"Don't worry about." Lisa said through laughs.
Claudette put her hand on Lisa's wrist. "If I were a burglar, you would be my best friend."
"Look, I don't wanna talk about it." Lisa said with a dismissive smile.
"You know I worry about you!"
Claudette looked her daughter in the eyes. She didn't seem to get it.
"Oh, I have to go home."
"OK, Mom."
Claudette made a kiss and tapped Lisa on her nose, their little goodbye since Lisa was a little girl.
"Bye-bye."
And with that, Claudette was gone.
Lisa fell onto the couch, exasperated.
"Oh my god." she sighed to herself.
This whole thing was getting increasingly repetitive and difficult to continue through, she thought.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The roof air flowed through Denny's hair as he dribbled his basketball in solitude. The rippled leather of the ball felt good to his fingers. He liked to come up here to think sometimes, especially when he was high. It felt right to be high up, literally, on the roof of the building, when his spirit was high off of drugs.
Speaking of drugs...
The door to the roof suddenly swung open, and just as quickly banged shut. A man in black tank top, black Addias pants and a black cap stood menacingly at the entrance. Denny knew him instantly. It was Chris R., the drug dealer he'd been buying from. And he knew why he was here too. Denny was late on a payment
Chris R. strode towards him. Denny grabbed the basketball and stared him straight in the eye. For a long time neither of them said anything. After a few moments, Chris. R spoke up first.
"Hi, Denny." he grumbled.
"Chris R. I've been looking for you!" Denny said, a smile stretched nervously across his face.
"Yeah,
sure you have." Chris R. took a step forward and grabbed the basketball, snatching it from Denny's sweating hands. "You have my money right?"
"Yeah...it's coming. It'll be here in a few minutes." Denny fumbled. Of course, there was no money and even if there was, he wasn't sure how it would arrive within a few minutes. But Chris R. didn't know that. Or at least, Denny hoped he didn't.
Chris R. dropped the basketball and it dribbled away, each bounce a harbinger of Denny's oncoming doom. "What do you mean its coming Denny?" he leaned forward, his face inches from Denny's. "Where's. My. Money. Denny?"
"OK...just, just give me five minutes." Maybe if he could find Johnny and ask to borrow some money again... "Just give me five!"
Chris R. leaned back and pretended to consider it. But he'd waited long enough.
"Five minutes? You want five fucking minutes, Denny? You know what? I've got FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!" he ripped a gun from his pants, grabbed Denny by his neck and shoved him to the floor. He pushed the cold, hard steel of the pistol into Denny's shaggy hair. "I'm going to ask you again Denny. Where's my money?"
He tightened his grip on the boy's neck. Tears welled up and dripped from Denny's eyes. "I don't have anything!" he choked out.
"Where's my money Denny?" Chris are repeated, "WHERE'S MY FUCKING MONEY DENNY?"
Denny could only cry. Like a bitch.
"What did you do with my FUCKING MONEY DENNY?" Chris R. shouted.
"I swear to God its coming!" Denny pleaded. Chris R. jammed the gun into Denny's temple. "WHERE'S MY FUCKING MONEY DENNY?" he screamed again, over and over.
The door to the roof swung open and Johnny and Mark came flooding out, shock hitting them hard. They ran towards the confrontation, traversing the length of the roof within seconds. They grabbed at Chris R., pulling him off and away. Denny crawled back. Mark grabbed Chris R.'s gun and pointed it at the drug dealer, holding back his left arm while Johnny held his right. The man struggled, yelling, screaming at Denny. "You're fucking dead Denny!" he spat.
"Shut up!" Mark retorted.
"What's going on? Oh, somebody help!" It was Lisa screaming, her and her mother having randomly appeared at the door as well.
Mark and Johnny dragged the drug dealer towards the door while the women ran out to Denny.
"Lets get him to the police!" Johnny offered, and he and Mark disappeared back into the building. "You're fucking dead!" Chris R. yelled out as he sunk into the darkness.
Denny was leaning off the building, tears streaming down his boyish face when Lisa and Claudette reached him. Lisa took him by the shoulders and faced him towards her, shaking the creep frantically in her arms.
"Denny are you OK? What did that man want from you!?"
She pulled him away from the wall.
"Nothing!" he said.
"Oh,that was not nothing!" Claudette chimed in.
"Tell me everything!" Lisa was crying now. This boy was like a son to her.
"You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in here do you!" Claudette lectured.
"I owe him some money." Denny admitted.
Claudette started to say something but then stopped herself.
"What kind of money?"
"I owe him some money." Denny admitted.
"What kind of money?"
"Everything is OK! He's gone!"
"Everything is not OK! Denny, that is a dangerous man!" Claudette had seen too many people murdered by drug dealers in her life time to let her family (and that's what Denny was now, whether she liked it or not) be involved with them.
"Calm down! He's going to jail!"
"Denny! What kind of money! Just tell me!" Lisa was incredibly concerned as to the exact amount.
"What do you need money for?" Claudette began, but Lisa interrupted.
"Mom please! Denny is with me and Johnny!" she screeched.
"A man like that! With a gun! My God!"
If Denny wasn't crying from Chris R.'s attack, he was certainly crying from this barrage.
"Denny, look into my eyes and tell the truth. We're your friends." Lisa pleaded.
Denny took a deep breath.
"I bought some drugs off of him. Things got mixed up. I didn't mean for this to happen!
Claudette rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Lisa broke down into a solid stream of tears.
"Denny..." she choked out.
"I don't have them anymore!"
"What kind of drugs, Denny!" Lisa sobbed.
"It doesn't matter, I don't have them anymore!"
"It doesn't matter?" Claudette said, "How in the hell did you get involved with drugs!"
"Mom..." Lisa tried to interrupt, but Claudette continued.
"What? Were you giving them to him, selling them to him? Where did you meet that man?"
"WHAT KIND OF DRUGS DO YOU TAKE?" Lisa screamed at him.
"It's nothing like that!" Denny tried to explain but--
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Lisa shook Denny violently in her frenzy.
"I just needed some money to pay off some stuff!" he lied quickly.
"How much do you have to give him?" Lisa pleaded.
"This is not the way you make money!" Claudette piped in.
"HOW MUCH!?"
Denny broke out into tears again. "Stop ganging up on me!"
"Well it is time somebody ganged up on you! A man like that! Where in the hell did you meet a man like that!"
"It doesn't matter!" Denny repeated for what felt like the one-hundreth time. This was an infuriatingly useless and repetitive conversation, and Denny was quickly wishing that Chris R. had just shot him in the head so that he wouldn't have had to endure it.
"It matters a great deal! A man holds a gun on you! You almost got killed and you expect me to forget that happened?"
Denny couldn't take this from her anymore.
"You're not my fucking mother!" he shot back.
"You listen to me boy!" she grabbed his sweater and yanked at him. Lisa hugged him, bringing his head to her chest and sobbing for her mother to stop, but Claudette couldn't be contained.
"Somebody better do something around here!" Claudette threw his hand down violently and stepped back. Lisa cradled Denny's head, stroking his oily hair as they wept together. "It's OK..." she whispered.
The door swung open again and Johnny and Mark returned. Chris R. wasn't with them so Denny could only assume they had managed to successfully get him to the police, explain what had happened and gotten him sent straight to jail in few minutes they had been talking.
"Are you okay, Denny?" Johnny asked urgently, holding Denny around the shoulders.
"I'm okay." he said.
"Are you okay?" Johnny repeated.
"I'm okay!"
"What's OK? He's taking drugs!" Claudette hissed.
Johnny held Denny's head to his chest, while Mark held Claudette back.
"Come on stop!" he commanded, "It was a mistake!"
"A mistake! That he takes drugs." Claudette threw up her hands and shook her head. No one was taking this seriously.
"Come on, let's go home." Johnny said.
Mark agreed. "Yeah, come on, it's clear!"
"What's clear?" Claudette wasn't even sure what that sentence meant in this context, "I am going to call the police!"
"Mom stop! It was Denny's mistake! Just stop!"
"Uh!" Claudette turned her head in disgust. Mark pushed her towards the exit.
"Let's go."
Johnny lifted his hand off of Denny's shoulder. "Why did you do this? You know better, right? Why?!"
"I'm sorry!" Denny whined.
"You know better Denny! You almost got killed!"
"I'm sorry." It was more genuine this time. Johnny could tell he meant it. "It won't happen again, I promise."
Johnny frowned, and pulled Denny's head once more to his chest.
"Denny, you know that Johnny is like your father. And we're your friends, we're going to help you." Lisa said, sounding very much a like mothe
r herlsef.
Johnny pulled at Denny's hair and looked as though he was having an orgasm. And, in a way, he was. An orgasm of relief. Despite his parental objections, he was glad Denny was OK. And now that this was done, he would never bring it up in any way ever again. Johnny was going to make sure that this incident didn't affect anything in their lives and was totally forgotten by everyone involved.
"Lets go home." Johnny said.
He extended his arm over Lisa too, and the three of them went for the door.
And with that, the plot about Denny having drug problems, was gone.
CHAPTER NINE
"I miss you." Lisa's voice came through Mark's receiver. After the affair with Denny had wrapped itself up, Mark had returned to his apartment and lit a few candles to calm down. No sooner had he laid his head upon his pillow did a ringing come from his portable phone.
"I just saw you! What are you talking about?" Mark's voice stung with annoyance.
"I just wanted to hear your sexy voice. I keep thinking about your strong hands around my body. It excites me so much. I love you."
Mark couldn't deny that he liked the sound of her sexy voice. And his hands around her body...well, it excited him too and he couldn't help it. But before he could get too excited, his mind snapped back to his best friend.
"Is Johnny there?" he asked.
"He's...in the shower."
He fought back another wave of attraction.
"God! I don't understand you! Why do you do things like this!" his hands clamped hard onto the phone.
"Because I love you. You just don't care do you?"
"I do care!" Mark assured, "But we agreed, it's over between us."
"I understand, it's our secret. But I still have feelings for you. You just don't care!"
Mark sighed audibly. "God! I do care!"
"I have to go now." Lisa said, "I'll see you later darling."
"Don't call me that."
"OK." she said, not believing it for a second, "Bye."
Mark slammed down the phone before she had chance to hang-up herself.
This was never going to end, was it?
***
The next day Mark went up to the roof to clear his head. He was relaxing on one of the chairs they kept up there, football in hand, when Johnny came in through the door, muttering to himself and holding a water bottle.
The Room Novelization Page 3
