Under the Orange Moon

by Adrienne Frances

  Ben stepped in through the back door of his mother’s home. He wasn’t alarmed when he found Ruth sitting on the couch, staring at a wall with an empty glass in one hand and her divorce papers in the other.

  Ben thought about running back the way he came, but he knew this was his only time to be alone with Dylan. He couldn’t abandon a chance to hold her and make love to her all day.

  He made contact with Ruth’s glazed-over eyes. She looked sad and maybe even a bit irate this time. Vodka made her angry. She would never have that look without her beloved drink of choice to back it up. She was usually just depressed and not so much in the rage she looked to be in now.

  “You’re home again,” she said with a fixated glare on Ben.

  “I’m expecting company.” Ben began to clean the kitchen despite the fact he only intended to keep Dylan in his bedroom. He needed something to do other than his inevitable conversation with his doped up mother.

  “You never rush home to me,” Ruth slurred. She picked up a bottle of vodka and poured more into her glass. “Typical.”

  “Typical?” Ben wasn’t in the mood to fight with her, but, then again, was he ever? “Look what you want me to rush home to, Mom.”

  Ruth drank from her glass. Her hands shook almost violently. Ben remembered only vaguely a time when those hands were comforting to him. He was only a small child and had fallen down on his knees. He wanted those hands then. It killed him to despise them now, but this wasn’t even the same woman who comforted him. She was gone with her hands and now this depressed, rotten woman had taken her place.

  “You shouldn’t drink with those pills,” Ben warned. He knew it did no good, but he felt obligated to remind her anyway.

  “You shouldn’t try to be like your father so much.” A tear dropped from her eye and rolled down her cheek. “He’s not a hero.”

  “I don’t need any heroes,” Ben reminded.

  “That’s right,” she closed her eyes and sighed. “You’re your own hero.”

  “I had terrible parents. One must improvise in certain situations. Go upstairs please. You’re embarrassing.” Ben drummed his fingers on the counter. “Please, Mom.”

  Ruth stood up and moved slowly to the stairs. She walked past him without even glancing his way, which only relieved Ben more. This meant she would go pass out in her bed, buying him enough time to be with Dylan until morning.

  When her door finally closed, Ben could hear the sound of glass shattering against her wall. The muffled sobs coming from his mother’s mouth echoed down to his ears. He rolled his eyes and hoped that she would pass out before Dylan arrived.

  Dylan climbed the steps to Ben’s room and was instantly greeted with a kiss when she opened his door. Together, they leaned against the wall and wasted no time as they chatted away and undressed each other. Over the past week of their new physical relationship, they learned how to multitask brilliantly.

  Ben was not very good at hiding his need to have his hands on Dylan when she was in front of him. His drinking had become very rare, only because he knew he would not be able to hold back from kissing or touching her in front of his friends if he was drunk. He could not believe how openly obsessed he had become over her. He wondered if she knew how badly he needed her. He had not dared to tell, but did he really need to at that point? She had probably always known, he suspected.

  “What took you so long?” Ben asked between kisses. “I thought I was going to die waiting.”

  Dylan laughed at his dramatic impatience. They had only made love the night before and even that morning. “I had to help Meredith pick out her veil.”

  “I really don’t like her,” Ben teased in his hot, husky voice. He lifted Dylan’s skirt and removed her underwear quickly.

  Dylan’s shirt opened easily. Her planning no longer revolved around what matched or smelled clean. It now weighed heavily on what was easiest for Ben to remove.

  He was very adamant about having her naked. He wouldn’t admit this to her yet, but he even considered once suggesting they join a nudist colony just so she would never have to get dressed again. The only down side to that would be the other men that would see her. His jealous side would not endure that well.

  Ben felt around to her back in search of the clasp to her bra.

  “No, no,” she whispered. “It’s in the front today.”

  Ben smiled. “You clever, brilliant girl,” he commended, and moved his hand to her front.

  He unhooked her bra and opened it wide. He moved his mouth to her breasts and entered her at the same time. They groaned together, she pulling his hair and he genuinely overwhelmed with pleasure.

  Ben made sure that they were in sync at all times, even making sure that he came when she came. He wanted to be connected to Dylan as much as possible, feeling what she felt and even keeping their noises of gratification in harmony as well. The more synchronized they were, the more alive he felt.

  After, they lay in his bed naked and intertwined. Ben could feel her heart beat against his side as Dylan’s head rested on his chest. They made no attempt to cover up and, if Ben had his way, they would lay like that forever.

  “I heard Hugh ask Jonah where you’ve been,” Dylan said.

  Ben sighed. “I probably should spend more time with those guys,” he admitted. “I’m sure they know I’ve been spending time with someone. They just don’t know who.”

  “We can’t tell them,” Dylan warned. “Not yet.”

  Ben ran his fingers through her hair and smelled the curled locks at the ends. He wondered if this was something the Mathews men could handle or, more importantly, trust. It was highly likely that their first reaction would be to accuse him of only wanting one thing out of Dylan. With him being the pig that they all knew he could be, they would have every right to be worried.

  “I’m always up for a little sneaking around, but I’m ready for this to be out now,” he admitted. “You have no idea how close I came to telling Jonah today.”

  “They would be mad, Ben.” Dylan’s face turned to a scowl as she jolted her head up from his chest. “We don’t even know what this is, so we don’t have much to tell them anyway.”

  Ben laughed, and joked, “I can tell them all the dirty things I do to you.” He rolled to his side and brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “They’d never believe the truth.”

  “Which is?”

  Ben couldn’t say he worshiped her, which was clearly the case. He smiled and moved his face closer. He rubbed his nose against hers and said nothing with his words, but his actions were so loud that he didn’t need to speak.

  “Are you almost finished?” Ben asked with a dramatic sigh. His impatience was amusing and Dylan found this to be oh-so gratifying. She loved to tease him. The idea of him finding it unbearable not to be able to touch her only made her want to toy with him more.

  “You can’t rush art,” Dylan answered with a smirk.

  “What will you call this one?”

  Dylan lifted one eyebrow as she glared across from her. She was fully aware that the look she gave him would only drive him closer to the edge of madness. He seemed so very much turned on by her snippy personality.

  “How about Impatient Man?” she teased.

  “I like Desperate Man,” Ben corrected adorably. “You can’t sit on my bed naked and expect me to look at you like this.”

  “Why not?” She only acted confused.

  “Because it’s just not right, that’s why.”

  “And all those times we lay in my bed while I was denied any sort of physical interaction, you can’t sit here for an hour so I can sketch you?” Dylan shook her head in pretend disgust. “I love your double edged sword of life.”

  “Is this your revenge then?”

  “Yes,” she answered quickly.

  Dylan took her time with each line. She enjoyed painting more than anything, next to her newest hobby with Ben, of course, but sketching was definitely her next love. It was easy to sketch him, only bec
ause she did it so often.

  Ben loved the way she bit her lip as she sketched. Her eyes were somehow lighter as the glow from the bright white paper bounced from the shine in them. How could someone as perfect and lovely as Dylan be described as an ordinary human being? She had to be something else.

  Ben grinned. “I’ll let you have your vengeance for today.”

  “Only today? You have twenty years of payback, at least,” Dylan warned.

  “As long as I get to enjoy you after the retribution, I suppose I can handle this part,” Ben said. He raised his eyebrows and grinned mischievously. “I never claimed to be anything more than a childish pervert.”

  Dylan looked at him and stared with a brazen smile. She ripped the top page from her sketch pad and sat up on her knees to crawl over to Ben, who welcomed her into his arms and kissed her mouth tenderly.

  “Does this mean I’m forgiven for playing hard to get for the last two decades?” he asked quietly.

  Dylan shook her head and smiled. “No. It just means I’m finished with my drawing.”

  Ben took it from her hands and looked at the perfect drawing of his face. He noticed the genuine smile that she had sketched of his mouth. He looked as happy as he felt in that picture and it was all because of her. This was how she saw him, because this was how she made him.

  “Perfect,” he whispered. He looked down at her as she lay against his chest, smiling back at him. “You’re perfect.”

  Dylan took the picture from his hands and placed it on his nightstand beside them. “I’m only perfect when you look at me,” she whispered. She reached up and kissed his mouth, sighing into his lips and rubbing his cheek.

  “Will you kiss me at the turn of midnight tomorrow?” he asked, grazing her lips with his. “I feel it very necessary to do other things to you, but I’ll hold back until your brothers aren’t watching.”

  Dylan smiled and closed her eyes. She allowed the feeling of his lips to take over, swirling around all the way down to her toes. She settled into his safe arms and melted to his chest.

  Ben didn’t take his mouth from hers as he used only one hand to turn off his light and cover them both with a blanket. They wouldn’t go to sleep just yet, but the feeling of their own little world consumed them most when they were in the dark, locked into each other as if the universe revolved around only them.

  Ben hurried to get ready. His nap was a bad decision, and he realized this now in his race to look good. Being with Dylan brought no sleep into his life with the constant love making at night, something he could never consider a problem.

  He was unusually dressed up for being away from school and work, but considering the fact that it was New Year’s Eve, he figured a tie would be a nice addition to the evening. After checking the mirror once more, he rushed down the steps and attempted to make a quick dash to the back door.

  “Benjamin,” Ruth called in a more sober voice. “Wait a minute please.”

  Foiled, he thought. He stepped into the family room and leaned against the wall. He was always alarmed by the sight of her. Not because he didn’t expect her appearance, but because she eerily reminded him of someone that was terminally ill.

  “What is it?” he asked impatiently.

  “I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said with a shaky voice. “I let this divorce get the best of me and that wasn’t something I wanted to do in front of you.”

  Ben wasn’t sure if he was more irritated by the fact that she was attempting a heart to heart while he knew Jonah waited outside or if it was simply because she was pretending as if she had never behaved that way before. What “best” part of herself was she referring to?

  “It’s fine,” he answered shortly. “Goodnight.”

  “Benjamin, wait.” She patted the seat next to her and smiled. “Please?”

  Ben sighed heavily, but sat down beside her anyway. “Can you make this fast?”

  “I figured out who your visitor has been this past week.” Ruth shook her head and smiled. “Dylan Mathews is a very pretty, very nice girl.”

  Ben thought nothing of his mother’s findings only because he never made it a point to hide it from her. He figured there wasn’t anyone she could really tell anyway. She wasn’t very fond of Linda, purely out of jealousy for being a better mother to Ben.

  “She’s very innocent, no?” Ruth’s eyes narrowed on Ben.

  He laughed to himself, knowing if Dylan had any innocence in her before, it was long gone now. “I suppose she can be. Why?”

  “Do you love her?”

  “It’s a bit early for that, Mom.” Ben sat back against his seat. “It’s only been a week.”

  Ruth smiled a tired grin. “Benjamin, it’s been your whole life.”

  “Okay, what’s your point?” he snapped, miffed by her correct observations of his life that she seemed to take only from afar.

  “You should leave her alone.” She crossed her arms and looked away as a tear rolled over her pale skin. “You’re only going to hurt that girl.”

  Ben stood to his feet. “I’m not my father.”

  Ruth looked up into his eyes. “Oh, yes, you are.”

  “Is that all you wanted?” Ben asked, trying not to choke on his mother’s hurtful words. “May I leave now?”

  Ruth nodded and smiled through her streaming tears. “You can’t help it. I love you just the same.”

  “Have a good night,” Ben said. He headed for the door and, before he could open it, Ruth called once more.

  “If you love her, you’ll take my advice. Let someone else love her so that she never has to feel the way I feel now.”

  Ben spun around to face her. “You feel this way because you never tried to heal. Your victim rights expired a long time ago, Ruth.”

  She smiled sweetly. “I love you, Benjamin. However, I feel nothing but pity for the girl that you love.”

  Ben rushed out of the house, unable to hear another part of his mother’s torturous words. He knew that she was ill, but never imagined she was capable of such undeserved hatred towards him.

  He jumped into Jonah’s car and slammed the door.

  Jonah jumped. “Whoa, take it easy on the car.”

  “Shut up,” Ben snapped. “Just drive.”

  Jonah knew Ben and this was the side he didn’t feel the need to agitate. “Right,” he said under his breath. He obliged quietly and drove off into the night.

  “She’s so goddamn sick in the head,” Ben growled. “When is she going to stop it with this shit?”

  “Is Ruth giving you grief again?” Jonah knew without needing to ask. “C’mon, man. You can’t let her get to you like that. Actually, you usually don’t,” he said with a puzzled look. “What did she say this time?”

  Ben knew he couldn’t really divulge Ruth’s comments without revealing his secret. He slowly calmed as Dylan’s face flashed into his mind. His pounding chest slowed when he remembered he was on his way to see her, his Dylan.

  “Ben?” Jonah’s voice awakened him.

  “It’s not important,” Ben sighed. “Sorry about your door.”

  “You’re so damn psycho,” Jonah said in a chuckle. “Talk about a flip.”

  Ben laughed. “It was the door slamming. It must’ve helped.”

  “I guess so.” Jonah shook his head and continued to drive.

  Dylan stepped into Oilies and sighed dramatically at the thought of her approaching night. New Year’s Eve was always a reunion of sorts for everyone that grew up in Phoenix. The year before, Dylan made over four-hundred dollars. She was even able to sneak out at one, quite wasted herself due to Michael’s lack of rules on that particular evening.

  This year, she wanted nothing more than to be alone with Ben despite the amount of money she knew she was capable of making. She thought of nothing but pressing her lips to his as the New Year was welcomed.

  In honor of the holiday, she decided to ditch her regular jeans and T-shirt to go with a more flattering, shorter and sparkly outfit instead. Sh
e was pretty sure her tips would be positively affected by this and she was absolutely convinced Ben would go mad watching her all night, making the end of her evening even more interesting when she was finally alone with him.

  She unintentionally smiled to herself as she began to set up her bar and prepare for the celebrating patrons to arrive. She had become giddier, which only made her slightly ill at the thought.

  “Where’s your hat?” Michael asked from behind her.

  “I’m not wearing that thing again.”

  Michael laughed. “You have no idea how adorable you looked last year.” He looked her up and down with widened eyes. “This is nice too, though.”

  I didn’t wear it for you! She held back on yelling her thoughts. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she would say anything to put an end to his flattering comments once and for all. Sometimes she felt violated by the way he looked at her. Michael was no creepy stalker, though. This was something she only wished for to ease her incredible guilt.

  “Are your brothers coming in tonight?” Michael asked, ignoring the roll in Dylan’s eyes.

  “Yep,” Dylan answered without looking at him. “They should be here soon.”

  “Ben, too?”

  Dylan turned and glared at Michael with one hand on her hip. “Yes.”

  Michael’s hands came up defensively. “I was just wondering.”

  Dylan groaned angrily. “Michael, let’s make a deal. You stop saying Ben’s name in my presence, and we’ll stay friends, okay?”

  Michael’s head snapped back in astonishment. He looked more surprised than hurt by her deal. He stepped closer to Dylan and narrowed his eyes while he chewed on his lower lip.

  Dylan retreated only partly. “I like working for you, but your backhanded questions about Ben need to stop.”

  Michael’s shoulders sank. “You’re right. Truce?”

  Dylan poured two shots and handed one to Michael. “Thank you,” she said, clicking his glass with hers and saying cheers to the New Year. It was a peace offering that she knew she couldn’t regret this time. The date was hopefully behind them, including the dreadful kiss involving his tongue.