Riley's Pond (New Adult Romance)

by Harley Brooks

  The whispered report confirmed Dad’s “minute” turned into an entire newspaper section of reading. Meanwhile, Jaxson helped himself to the patrol car. Pete and Charlie speculated, based on some evidence, Jaxson played chauffer to a couple having a “romantic interlude” in the backseat, while he probably received some personal attention from his girlfriend. The end result—Jaxson lost control of the car and crashed into the city’s new stone marquee.

  Chips of granite smashed the cruiser’s windshield and those of two parked cars across the street, setting off a melody of alarms and waking the fine citizens of Wellsville. The backseat lovers apparently bailed, leaving intimate apparel strewn across the floor. Jaxson’s partner wandered off until she passed out under a tree a few feet away. The paramedics found Jaxson unconscious and gouged by some twisted metal off the steering wheel.

  I worried about my stupid brother, whose insides were being rearranged by doctors at the moment. However, this was by far the dumbest stunt Jaxson had pulled. If what Pete and Charlie said proved true, Jax could find himself spending a long time inside a jail cell.

  **

  Cold water pounded my back before I gathered the wherewithal to shut the shower off. School. I dragged my naked, dripping body across the hall and face planted into the center of my mattress.

  “Your butt’s whiter than an Albino’s,” Dirk said.

  My head felt too heavy to lift, but I saw Dirk’s face, twisted with disgust, reflecting off the glass covering Kaylee’s photo on the night table.

  “You checking me out little bro?” I teased.

  “Ewwe! Gross! No way!” he grimaced.

  “Close the door and go get ready for school. I’ll be down in a minute and fix breakfast.” No matter what crisis evolved, Mom insisted our lives remained normal as possible, and ditching school was never an option.

  Inching my body upright, I blinked against what felt like tiny razor slices along my lashes. I stretched a T-shirt over my head, wondering if the naked silhouette covering my chest would earn me an excuse to come home and crash. Pulling jeans up my legs drained my last energy reserves. The socks on the floor passed the smell test to be worn another day before being tossed in the dirty clothes hamper. I yawned the same time I pushed my foot into my shoes and stumbled into my desk.

  “Damn,” I hissed, shaking the numbness out of my hand. I shoved the math book lying on my dresser into my backpack, snatched my iPod from its docking station, and the sweatshirt off the hook behind my door. I’d need to hide beneath the hood with earphones pushed in my ears to catch some serious ZZZ’s in English. Good thing Bruiser sat in front of me. He was big enough to shield me from Mrs. Bornstein’s iPod thieving eyes.

  I tossed a slice of toast onto a plate and slid it down the counter to Dirk, engrossed in some handheld video game. “Put that away.”

  “My toast is burned,” he complained.

  “So? Shut up and eat. You’ve got ten minutes until your bus comes.” I held my own piece of toast between my teeth, refusing to bite. Beyond burned.

  Dirk started whining and the sound grated inside my skull. “Where’s Mom? I don’t want to take the bus. Give me a ride, Riley.”

  Mom didn’t give me any instructions past feeding Dirk. Explaining why I fed him was another story. I spit my toast into the garbage and grabbed my backpack. “Hey, what’s with the list of demands? Mom had to go into the shop early.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “You’re a loser. Now get your crap. The bus will be here any minute.”

  “Why can’t you give me a ride?” I glared at Dirk over my shoulder when I locked the back door. He gave me a toothy grin. “Ooooh, lover boy’s got to pick up his girlfriend. Maybe get in some action before school?”

  I smacked the backpack hanging off his shoulders. “Geesh, you’re ten. What do you know about anything, and her name is Kaylee. And yes . . .” I smiled, not finishing my X-rated thought. The bus horn blared out front and I gave Dirk a slight shove. “Go.”

  “Why do you have to be such a butt wipe?”

  I burst into laughter. Dirk wouldn’t swear if his life depended on it. Maybe because Jaxson and I cursed enough to cover him.

  “I’m telling Mom, ‘potty mouth’.”

  Dirk stood in the doorway, face puckered. “Paleease give me a ride.”

  “Fine,” I surrendered. “Besides, there’s something I should probably tell you.”

  I waved off the driver and a cloud of blue smoke rolled up the front lawn when the bus pulled away. Dirk caught the keys I tossed, smiling triumphantly at his little victory.

  “I forgot my cleats for soccer practice. Wait for me in the truck, but don’t mess with anything or I’ll purposely run over your skateboard…then your bike. And, I will torture you in your sleep.”

  **

  Taking Dirk to school cut big time into my morning make-out session with Kaylee. By the time we arrived at school, we barely got in five minutes of tongue tagging before we’d be late for first period. Didn’t even steam up the windows, but worked me up enough I held my Chemistry book low and close. Girls had it easy. Kaylee ran her fingers through her hair and applied more strawberry flavored lip-gloss. My situation worsened, watching. A serious headache would start within the hour, pissing me off. Damn Jaxson. Even from his hospital bed, he messed with my life.

  I helped Kaylee out of the truck and eased my arm around her waist, trying to sneak a feel from one of my favorite places on earth.

  “Ouch!” She flinched, moving away from me.

  “What? Did I hurt you?”

  Her gaze fell. “No, I…um, tripped on the stairs this morning and fell.” She flipped her head of chestnut colored curls back. “I’m so clumsy, sometimes.”

  That’s when I saw it, in the bright sunlight, out of the shadow of my truck with my mind clear and eyes wide open—the bruise spreading over a lump above her left brow.

  “Kaylee?” When I reached out to touch it, she grabbed my hand.

  “I told you, it’s nothing.” Her brown eyes peered from beneath her long lashes, her tongue easing out of her pink glossy lips and licking my palm, slowly . . . seductively. I forgot my name and no longer gave a damn about the mark.

  Pressing my Chemistry book tighter, I wrapped my free hand behind her neck and pulled her fruity glazed mouth onto mine. The outside bell rang and we jumped, raking teeth. I hissed, licking “Strawberry Delight” off my lips. Carefully, I tucked the loose curls covering her cheek behind her ear.

  “Baby, I’m sorry. It looks sore.” I pressed a gentle kiss to the shiner as if that would erase it and the pain. “Be careful. I love you.”

  She pulled the curls back over her face. “I will, I promise.” She didn’t say I love you back and my brows folded.

  “Kaylee, is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, silly, but we’re going to be late, so get your horny ass in class before we’re both in Detention.” She backed away, blowing me a kiss before crossing the parking lot to catch up with her girlfriend, Shar, waiting by the doors to the main building. I turned on my heel and headed in the opposite direction towards the gym. A dull headache already thumped in my brain.

  **

  A call from my mother summoned me out of second period to the principal’s office.

  “Riley, did you get Dirk to school on time?”

  “Yes, Mom. Seriously, is that why you called?” She sighed hard and guilt kicked my gut. Being our mother and the wife of the Sheriff brought her nothing but grief and many sleepless nights. “Sorry, I’m tired.” I blew a long breath. “How’s Jaxson?”

  “Surgery went well. His nose is straight again, and he only needed a few stitches for the cut on his stomach. The spleen is the main concern. It will be another twenty-four hours before he’s is out of the woods. The doctor said he’s in remarkable shape, considering.”

  “Great. A perfectly shaped nose. Just what he needs,” I sneered.

  Jaxson looked like one of those guys sculptors used to
pose for bronze figures of Greek gods. He inherited the best genes, leaving me and Dirk with leftovers.

  “Riley!” Mom snapped. “Your brother is lucky to be alive and all you can think of is how jealous you are of his nose? Shame on you. And for your information, young man, you are every bit as handsome as your brother.”

  “Geesh, enough already. So when will you be home?”

  “Well, that’s why I called.”

  Damn. Here it came…responsibility. “I know. Pick up Dirk. Order a pizza. Do my homework. Make sure Dirk does his. No TV after nine. Anything else?” The secretary sitting at the desk across from the counter glowered.

  “You make me sound like a prison warden, Riley. However, yes. All of the above, plus one you forgot. No friends, which specifically means ‘no Kaylee’.”

  I pulled my head back to my shoulder blades, squinting against the fluorescent lights. “Yes, Master,” I answered in a tight voice.

  Mom laughed, lightening the conversation. “Thanks, son. Hopefully, I’ll be home before you go to bed. Be good to each other, please. I love you.”

  “Love ya, too. Bye.” I held the phone out to the disgruntled government employee still glaring with dagger eyes. “What? You want the phone or not?”

  She rose from her desk and snatched it from my hand, trading it for a tardy excuse.

  “Back to class Mr. Martin.” My hand barely touched the doorknob when she vocalized her next threat, “And turn off that iPod, or I’ll have it confiscated.”

  The door slammed loud enough to rattle the glass insert when I walked out.

  **

  Dirk was my parents’ dream child. Jaxson and I were switched in the hospital, according to Dad. Someone else had their real children. If I didn’t look so much like my mom and Jax the spitting image of my father in his teens, I might have believed him.

  After unloading the dishwasher, Dirk’s one and only chore, he settled at the kitchen table with his spelling book, copying his word list—the one I’d have to quiz him on later. He’d wait however, until I became engrossed in my favorite TV program, or worse, when I’d be attempting to convince Kaylee phone sex would have to work tonight because I had to babysit.

  Pizza arrived promptly at 7:03, two minutes before it would be a “freebie” according to the stupid advertisement. I decided both of Dirk’s legs were hollow when I lost the fight for the last piece of pizza. He managed to inhale almost all twelve inches of cheese and pepperoni.

  “Dirk, you’re such a pig.”

  “You’re a bigger pig. A humongous, gigantor pig dork,” he laughed, spitting Oreo cookie crumbs across the table.”

  “Yell, well this pig dork is Master and you are my slave. Get your butt in the shower while I clean up the gross mess you made.”

  “I took a shower last night,” Dirk argued, snatching another cookie before I could grab the bag.

  “Really?” I turned my nose up, sniffing dramatically. “Then why do you stink?”

  “I don’t stink.”

  “Sure you do. You smell like a wet dog. A dead wet dog. One covered in maggots…disgusting, rotting flesh smell—”

  “Stop before I puke!” he screeched, holding his hands over his ears.

  I scooped him under my arm in a football hold. “You hurl, you lick it up.” Fighting to keep his squirming body in my grip, I carried him up the stairs and dropped him in front of the bathroom door.

  “I hate you, Riley.”

  “Yeah, well the way you smell, I hate being around you. Ass in the shower.”

  He slammed the bathroom door and I swear I heard him call me a name worthy of a week’s grounding, but I didn’t push it. I had a more urgent agenda. Once I heard the water turn on, I barreled down the stairs to take advantage of ten minutes of privacy alone with my cell phone. It would have to be speed phone sex.

  Kaylee sounded sleepy when she answered and my heart sank, as well as other body parts with the realization my fantasy might not come true.

  “Hey baby. How’s your head?”

  “Sore,” she answered through a long yawn. “How’s Jaxson?”

  Her question threw me and I couldn’t hide the irritation in my voice. “Jaxson? What about Jaxson?”

  “Oh…uh,” she stammered, making me suspicious, “I heard he got in an accident. Practically everyone in town knows. You know how fast gossip travels.”

  True, except the details of the accident, especially those involved, hadn’t been released. No one at school said anything either, but the neighbors may have spread rumors based on Jaxson’s previous antics and the crumpled car hanging off the wrecker.

  As much as I wanted to tell Kaylee about what happened this morning, I couldn’t. What I overheard remained confidential and Dad probably already drowned in hot water, not to mention embarrassed that the whole department knew the sordid details. He didn’t need me spouting my mouth off and making things worse.

  “Actually, no I don’t. What did you hear?”

  She cleared her throat a dozen times. Her voice came out too high to be believable. “That he wrecked your dad’s cop car and broke the stone marker on the edge of town. My brother said he didn’t see Jaxson at work last night, either.” Her brother worked on the loading docks at the train yard, too, but not on Jaxson’s crew so my own lie worked.

  “I know nothing about the accident, and Jax had last night off.”

  Kaylee yawned again and I decided to let it go. I didn’t want to ruin the mood by arguing, although the mood faded fast. I made a desperate move to salvage the last five minutes of our call.

  “So…you want to uh, talk about something like….you know…?” I asked in the deepest voice I could contrive.

  “Not tonight, Riley. I’m too tired.”

  “Can’t you give me anything to dream about? Come on, I’m alone with the ‘baby archangel’. I need some devilish thought to keep me from swaying to the other side.”

  Kaylee laughed. “You’re crazy, you know that? Tell you what, pick me up ten minutes early tomorrow and I’ll make sure you never see the ‘pearly gates’.”

  “You’re evil girl.” Upstairs, the shower shut off. “Gotta go. Love you, babe.”

  “I know. See you tomorrow.”

  She hung up the phone without repeating “I love you” back to me for the second time today. The prickle of hair standing on end warned me something bad was about to go down.

  **

  Mom called just before nine to check in. She took over the daunting task of drilling Dirk on his spelling words while I finished cleaning up dinner. Paper plates and cups inside the empty pizza box, and then into the trash. Dishes done. I carried a scoop of dogfood out to the patio to feed Lucky while Dirk repeated the words he missed. When I walked back inside, Dirk rolled his eyes, verbally repeating his bedtime routine to Mom.

  “Night, Mom. Love you.” He handed the phone to me, “Your turn, loser.” He took off running for the stairs when I lurched forward, pretending to attack. His scream however, brought my mother’s voice shrilling through the phone.

  “Stop teasing Dirk,” she scolded.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “You’re going to make him have nightmares.”

  “Not until I creep under his bed and shake the mattress.”

  “Riley.”

  The only person more fun to torment than Dirk, was Mom. “Chill. I’m joking,” I laughed, realizing after a couple of seconds Mom remained silent. “So how’s my fine example of an older brother?” A sudden thought entered my mind. “Mom, what about Ally? Did she get hurt?”

  Fused at the hip, as well as a few other significant places, Jaxson and Ally had dated constantly for almost two years. Naturally, I assumed she’d been his partner-in-crime.

  A heavy sigh traveled through the receiver. “I’m not sure about Ally. Your father didn’t say anything and you know he would have, given his, well, mild dislike for the poor girl.”

  “Mild dislike? Dad hates Ally. He blames her for half of Jaxson’s proble
ms.”

  Mom breathed a long hmm. “Riley, your father wants to ask you about some of Jaxson’s friends. I guess there were others in the car, but the paramedics found Jaxson alone. He’s worried they might be hurt, but got scared and ran off.”

  I played stupid. “Why does Dad think that?”

  “Clothes were found on the floor in the front and backseats. Jaxson was dressed, thank God.” Mom did that nervous clicking in the back of her throat. “Underwear, Riley.” I could actually hear her blush and needed to stop her before she started explaining her ideas on what happened. Some things I did not want to hear told by my mother.

  “Okay, enough details.”

  Mom wasn’t naïve, in particular to Jaxson’s behavior. He told me how she came home sick from work one day, finding him and Ally going at it like rabbits on the family room floor in the basement. Apparently they’d skipped school, thinking they had all day alone.

  According to Jax, Mom heard noises in the basement and flipped on the lights. Jaxson and Ally sat up surprised, but not as much as Mom. There’s still a hole in the wall of the stairwell where the baseball bat she held, went through the sheetrock.

  Thanks to his two week grounding, dinner conversations every night during Jaxson’s “house arrest” centered on topics related to sex: the consequences of unprotected sex; psychological babble about sexual relationships at a young age; the emotional needs of girls versus boys. And my personal favorite…abstinence. Dirk spent so much time across the street at the Hendersons during those talks, I wondered if they considered adopting him.

  Mom never spoke of Jaxson’s “indiscretion,” but ever since, if he or I remained downstairs alone with a girl for longer than thirty minutes, Dirk would be commissioned to come downstairs for some useless errand in order to “spy.” The back of the couch could be viewed from the fifth step, but the second stair had a built in alarm. The loose boards squeaked loudly when touched, giving you time to sit upright. As long as the TV blared and we appeared to be engrossed in whatever streamed across the screen, nobody ventured further. Grandma’s afghan folded over the back of the couch came in handy. She died years ago, but Jax and I had mentally thanked her numerous times.