by Shey Stahl
Clenching my jaw, I pulled to the right and around crossed over the creek and then down our road. Thick layers of smoke remained, curling as we drove through. “It looks like the aftermath of some kind of war.”
“Yeah well there’s about to be world war three up in the place when I find our kids.” I seethed.
Entering our driveway, I pulled into the garage and shut the car off taking deep breaths and trying like hell not to explode. I remember all too well the shit me, and my brother, did growing up and understood that parties get out of control. The thing was, I told Casten no parties and he didn’t listen.
Spencer was in the middle of our front lawn, passed out.
“Get up asshole.” I kicked Spencer in the ribs before dumping my water bottle on him.
With a laugh, Sway walked back into the house to find Casten. We knew instantly he was behind this since Axel was racing in Chico.
“That kid parties harder than we ever did.” Spencer groaned holding his head with both hands. “I think he slipped me something.”
“I’m about to slip you something. Get off my lawn.” Turning on my heel, I left him moaning in the grass and I found Sway, upstairs, sitting outside Casten’s room watching him talk to a girl. He was barely clothed and she was sitting on his windowsill. Apparently, either coming or going.
The girl was young, probably fifteen and pretty. Casten went for the blondes; he had a thing about them. I never did so I couldn’t see that attraction, but she was pretty.
“Oh my god, my son is a flirt!” Sway whispered shouted in my ear with a giggle forgetting that we intended to come up here because he was in trouble. “Go in there.” She shoved me forward.
“No.” I pushed against her and scrambled to stand behind her. “You can’t make me go in there. I won’t.”
“You’re a horrible parent.”
“I am not.”
“Adding breaking and entering to your dossier?” Casten asked the girl sitting on the windowsill.
“What do you know about my dossier, Casten?” The girl whispered sultry.
Wow, isn’t she a little young? I thought to myself.
Sway must have thought the same thing because she put her hands on her hips and scowled at the girl from her place beside me. “Go in there,” she pushed me forward again and gave me the what-the-fuck look, “he’s too young to have girls in his room. Do something.”
I shook my head and whispered no frantically. I was not about to go in there while he was half-naked with a girl in his room. I was fourteen once. That would have been the worse idea ever.
Casten laughed and winked with his signature Riley smirk at the girl. “Ah, well, I know plenty, honey.”
I laughed quietly only to have Sway shove me again.
“He learned from the best,” I whispered with arrogance and jerked back when Sway punched my stomach.
We went back downstairs. I did not intend to see him, or the girl, naked after that ordeal with Emma and Aiden. I shivered at the sight and forced myself to focus on something else.
“We need to punish him,” Sway said once downstairs. She sat at the bar in the kitchen, her hands cupped around her cheeks in a defeated gesture. “He needs to be punished.”
“We should ground him.”
“Yeah because that always works for him,”
Looking around, we needed more than just the average punishment. The house had been completely destroyed by water, red and yellow plastic cups, food and some substance we had no idea what it was. It kind of resembled that crap that comes from a fire extinguisher. You name it and it was on the ground and outside in the haze of smoke.
I think we were both in shock that the kids had done all this in four days.
“How the fuck did they manage this?” I asked scratching my head.
“Maybe we can take his iPad away and his phone and then ground him to your parent’s house? He can spend some time with your dad.”
“Nah,” I laughed lightly thinking of how well that would go over with my dad. It wouldn’t. “Dad would kill him in a day. Maybe Aiden and Emma could take him. That’s punishment.”
Sway sighed, the defeated look returned. “No. Casten would kill Noah in about two minutes. Then we’d have to bury a body. Clearly, we can’t do that anymore. Look at our yard. It’s destroyed.”
“Good point.”
We decided we would ground him again but would decide on a proper punishment later. I knew one thing he was cleaning this up. Walking to the fridge for water, I found what looked to be actual puke in our fridge. Sway wasn’t impressed and neither was I. We weren’t surprised though. The fire was a surprise but I always expected Casten to throw a party. All of our kids had at some point so it was only a matter of time. Axel threw one when he was sixteen. Arie threw one when she was fifteen and now Casten.
“I may kill my own son today.” She mused climbing up on the counter that had the only clean spot and folding her legs up as if she didn’t want to touch anything. “How many people do you think were in here?”
“Probably the entire state of North Carolina,”
Aiden showed up holding his phone in the air. “Phillip is on his way in case we need him.”
“Need him, why would we need him?”
“Well,” Aiden shifted from one foot to the other and I had to look away from him. I wondered how long it would be before I could talk to him and actually look at him again. “They set a large part of the property on fire and there uh…” he was stalling.
“Spit it out,” I snapped shoving his shoulder. “What else happened?”
“I found a large amount of weed on Charlie this morning when he stumbled home.”
“Weed,” Sway perked up. “Why did he have weed on him? Our kids don’t do drugs.”
“Apparently there was some drug use last night.”
I still couldn’t understand the need for Phillip. “So what, all kids do drugs at some point. Why does Phillip need to come?”
“Relax, I asked him to come because of the fire, Jameson.” Aiden said getting frustrated. “You can’t tell me the police aren’t going to be asking questions.”
“Was Casten smoking pot?” Sway grabbed Aiden by his shirt forcing him to look at her.
“How would I know? I was with you and Tour Ted, remember?”
“Oh right,” she let go of him and then looked at me. “Oh man, he has a heroin addiction. I know it. This is horrible.”
I looked over at Sway as she ranted. Removing herself from the counter, she grabbed onto me as if she needed me to comfort her. “How did him smoking pot suddenly become a heroin addiction?”
“It’s a gateway drug, Jameson.” Sway wailed into my shoulder.
“For heroin?” she nodded and I scratched my head squinting at her. “Am I missing something? We smoked pot when we were kids a time or two and we never moved onto heroin?”
“What are you doing?” Casten asked chipper, his rusty hair standing on end in disarray. When he finally came downstairs I was now standing in the living room.
“I’m wondering if your uncle is ever going to get off my lawn,” I told him glaring out the window. Spencer was still flat on his back not appearing to have moved at all.
“At least his clothes are on.” Sway added standing next to me with a cup of coffee in hand.
I shot her a glare.
“I wonder if Lane is still alive.” Casten mused peeking out the back French doors to the pool where Lane was only is his underwear floating on a pink inflatable dolphin.
All of us looked out there to see not only Lane in the pool but Charlie and Noah were curled up in a lawn chair together while Cole was sprawled out in the grass.
“What the fuck happened last night?” I finally asked when I noticed a hole in the wall right below the clock behind Sway.
Casten shrugged shoving a leftover piece of pizza in his mouth. “What? We had a few people over.”
“We?”
“Yeah, me and...Arie,” as soon as
he said Aries’ name his expression changed to panic but he wasn’t letting on. “Willie and Tommy are here too.”
“We, as in your mother and I, specifically told you no parties.”
“I told you I was going to have a party.”
“And I told you no,” I said sternly. This “hardline” parent shit was hard for me, but I was trying. “...and you agreed.”
“That’s bullshit.” Casten laughed, “I never said anything like that.”
“Regardless. I told you no parties.”
“Hmmm,” he looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t recall hearing that part of the conversation.”
Spencer, soaked, stumbled inside after that and then fell on the floor in front of us. He curled up on the carpet in the family room and went back to sleep mumbling something about the sprinkler system.
“Let’s talk about the drugs that went on here.” I said when Sway kept nudging me in the ribs.
“What drugs?” He tried to look innocent, I’ll give him that much.
“No way, you’re not back-dooring me on this shit. I know you did drugs last night.”
He laughed, “You’re always so mature about things dad.”
“You’re right,” I looked at Sway, “we should have beaten him.”
Casten’s phone rang and he quickly turned it off as if it wasn’t the person he wanted to talk to.
“Do you think it’s his drug dealer?” Sway whispered in my ear.
“What? No. I don’t.” I looked around the room. “Where’s Arie?”
“Don’t be mad?” Casten’s eyes grew wider.
“Why?”
“I said don’t be mad.” Casten’s eyes did that pleading look he was so good at.
I stepped toward him, his hands rose and the confession spilled. “I accidently left her at the gas station last night. I’m sure she’ll be home soon.”
“How did you leave her at the gas station? You don’t have a license.”
“About that...”
“Casten,” I looked at Sway and then back to our son. By my hard expression and flushed appearance, he knew damn well I meant business. “You better not have touched my Mustang!”
He backed away. “Your Mustang is locked up and you have the only key. Now your GTO, it seems to have been misplaced.”
“Misplaced?”
“Don’t worry, dad. Van will find it.”
Sway interrupted. “How did the street catch on fire?”
“That is a long story and I assure you it wasn’t entirely my fault.”
Van walked into the house and stopped when he saw us standing in the family room staring at Casten.
Van gave a nod in the direction of the backyard. “How often do you guys swim in that pool?”
We looked in the backyard at the same time to see that my now found GTO.
Casten smiled and patted my back. “Ah yes, right where I left it last night. Phew.” He swiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “I was worried I misplaced it.”
Believe me when I say that my rage was boiling by that point.
“How did it get in the pool?”
“Ran out of gas when I tried to jump it over the pool?” He asked this as if it was a fucking question and then when my eyes widened, he tried to run away.
I caught him by the hood of his sweatshirt before he could escape. “How did the street catch on fire?”
“It was a big misunderstanding.” He gestured outside so we followed him to the back yard where the motocross track was. “See,” he flicked his wrist to a smoking pile under the double jump, “it didn’t go as planned.”
“I think it was more than a misunderstanding, Casten.” With my hands on my hips, I hung my head in shame that my kid had caused this much damage. Our entire backyard was black and smoking along with the field behind the house and much of the forest.
“It’s not that bad.”
Sway had to hold him back behind her when he said that. Spencer laughed and then ran off in the other direction. My eyes focused on Van. “Where were you in all this?”
His eyes widened in shock. “Me?”
“Yes, you...bodyguard,”
“I was out of town. It was Clint’s turn to watch them but he...well...” Van’s eyes scanned the yard. “I’m not sure where he is.”
“He’s probably with Arie, I think. Listen dad,” Casten peeked around Sway’s shoulder, “it wasn’t planned. We had some people over and it got a little out of control.”
“I gather that.” I snapped throwing my arms up. “You better tell me what the fuck happened here!”
Casten started coming clean but surprisingly maintained his composed demeanor. “What’s the big deal? Lane wanted to jump through fire. It was a cool idea. We tried to build a fire jump. Which we succeeded in doing and it was awesome. It was a cool idea but we didn’t take into account the fact that the bike could catch on fire...Around the fifth or sixth jump; Willie’s bike caught a flame or something. I think his carb was leaking gas.” Casten pointed to the field. “He went off into the field and it caught the field on fire. I personally blame our hot summer. If we had some rain sometime we wouldn’t have had this problem.”
“You’re not really helping yourself.” Van patted his back. Even though Van was our bodyguard, over the years he had developed a huge soft spot for our kids and Lane. Cole, Noah and Charlie were assholes. No one had soft spots for them.
Sway and I both looked at him and then noticed Lane and Noah standing beside Spencer. Both of them resembled zombies.
“Jesus Casten, look at this!” Sway raised her voice. Sway hardly ever lost it with the kids. I can actually count the number or occasions that she has gotten angry and yelled at them in a tone that I liked to refer to as the Mama Wizard Wrath.
Taking a deep breath, Sway shot him a glare. “It wasn’t this bad on the news.”
“Shit,” he looked surprised. “...it made the local news?”
“How did you think we found out?”
“I thought you found out this morning when you got home. Now I know it was a planned execution.” He looked at Spencer. “How’d it get on the news?”
“Noah.” Lane mumbled leaning against Van’s burly shoulders as support. Van side-eyed him and then laughed.
Casten looked at Lane and then Noah.
“Goddamn you Noah!” Casten shoved him. “I told you not to put that on YouTube.”
Noah chuckled as he gained his footing, “My bad.”
“I still don’t understand how all this caught on fire from that field.” I voiced to them. It didn’t seem possible that two separate pieces of land could be on fire at the same time.
“Let’s get this clear,” Casten, said becoming serious all of a sudden, “I set this on fire.” He motioned with his hands to the wood pile and jump. “That...” he gestured behind him to the field on the other side of our house, “was not me. I don’t know…well, I know how that got on fire but that wasn’t me.”
“Well who did that then?” Sway asked.
“You need to discuss that with the Gomez boys but you may want to find that trophy truck of yours first.”
I was ready to kill someone when I heard that. They set the street on fire. Drove my GTO into the pool, trashed my house, broke the gate and stole my trophy truck. I very nearly lost it right then. If it weren’t for Sway, I probably would have.
“Where’s my trophy truck?”
Casten pointed to the field to the West of us. “It’s out there somewhere in the smoke. Turns out open headers start fires too. Again,” Casten shook his head. “I have to say that I blame the dry weather.”
My glare found Sway. “Is it time to overreact yet?”
Sway looked at the boys standing there staring at me. “Let’s give him some time to think,” she said shooing everyone away.
“It was a simple fire jump.” Casten shook his head dejected as he walked back to the house. “That’s all.”
I think I stared at that jump for close to
an hour. Killing my kids wasn’t a good idea so I stayed away for their safety. When I became less angry, I went back inside to see that Sway had ordered pizza. Food seemed like a good idea so I ate and by the time I was done, Casten had felt the need to explain more details.
I had heard enough. “Where the fuck is your sister?”
“I’m sure she’ll turn up. The car did.” He shoved more pizza in his mouth and then with that pizza still in his mouth, took a drink of Pepsi. He must have snorted or something because he ended up coughing out the last of his sentence. “Not...” he waved his hands around trying to clear his throat, “to worry.”
“Worry?” Laughing, I shook my head. “Good luck when she gets home.”
“I think I’ll stay with Cole tonight,” he said jetting out the door. I grabbed him by the collar. “Nope, you’re grounded.”
I didn’t have time to stay and punish him but once Arie got home after having to walk five miles, I’m sure she would punish him. Sway seemed satisfied with this option as well. It wasn’t the first time our kids threw a party and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last they were teenagers. It was to be expected. Setting our street on fire was a first.
I had a meeting that morning with Melissa to discuss the Monster Million coming up and the fan appreciation lunch that Simplex was having for me next week. It went well and then I returned home to help with the mess.
“Remember when Spencer drew that dick on the wall?” Sway asked scrubbing the counter with her rubber gloves on. Her eyebrows scrunched as she dug at what looked to be dried chocolate syrup.
My eyes shot around the house and then back to hers. “Yeah, why, what else did those shit heads do? Please tell me I don’t have a dick on the wall in here.”
“Apparently,” she gestured to the only lawn that hadn’t been destroyed by the fire. “…Cole has his drawing ability.”
“What a fucking disaster.” I mumbled in shock staring at the patch of grass that had been branded with a welder. There, scorched in my beautiful lawn was another dick with harry balls.
Looking slightly ashamed of himself, Casten appeared in the kitchen holding a spray bottle of bleach and a bucket. “I’ve come to serve my sentence.”
