The City of Rossford

“Russ,” Mark said, tenderly, “we’re bringing you home. Alright? You can’t leave town or anything like that, but they can’t keep you. And… we’re gonna get you a good lawyer. I already talked to Mom and Dad about that. Is this cause of those guys you hang out with? I mean, do you know who did it? Did they do it?”

Russ didn’t say anything. He brooded, his lips sticking out, his face clouded over as he looked at the tabletop.

“Russ, I’m not the judge. I’m your brother. You gotta fucking tell me if you had anything to do with this. What you know.”

“Wednesday night,” he said. “It happened Wednesday night. But there was a bunch of us. She was Bill Buechner’s girlfriend. She… he’s a fucking loser anyway. Wally was there. You know what Wally’s like. Why would you bring your girlfriend around Wally? And she usually hangs out with Mathan and Meredith and all of them. Not with us. Bill had just been saying how he had this hot new sexy girlfriend so Wally and a few of the others were like, you’re lying. You’re a faggot anyway. Bring her. Prove it. Then he did. She wasn’t hot or anything, but she was kind of a dumb slut.”

“Whaddo you mean?” Mark said, waving away his objections to his brother’s choice of words.

“I mean she sucked Bill’s dick right there in front of us. Wally was like ‘suck his dick,’ and any girl with some fucking sense… well… Well first she wouldn’t have fucking been there, right? But anyway, this chick was, and what kind of slut blows her guy in front of ten other dudes. And then, well, Wally made her suck his too.”

“And?”

“It turned me on. It turned all of us on. Especially when we knew she was going to do it to all of us.”

“Did she do it to you?” Mark said.

“She did it to all of us.”

Mark’s face changed.

“What?” Russell said.

“Don’t say another word,” his brother told him.

“I want you to tell me everything, but I want you to tell me at home.”

He looked around the grey painted room.

“Not here. Not here.”

“This if fucking amazing,” Sheridan exclaimed.

“What?”

“Your friend Casey… He’s got his own website.”

“I know. I maintain it,” Chay said, getting off the bed and coming to the computer.

“What all do you do for him?”

Chay shrugged. “Everything that’s not quote-unquote, ‘nasty’. The webpage.”

“This is pretty nasty.”

“It’s hot as opposted to nasty.”

The current webpage displayed a smiling Casey Williams naked but for a Santa hat and a white teddy bear over his nether regions.

“And he’s got a blog too,” Sheridan murmured.

“I proof it. I keep the page looking nice. Run errands for the call boys.”

“Call boys?”

“He runs an escort service,” Chay explained. “Casey’s motto is you can look, and for the right price you can even touch.”

Sheridan snorted and shook his head. “Listen to this… ‘The story of how I fucked…’ uh, he must be another porn star. I don’t know who this guy is. I’m just breezing through this story right now so… From what I get the guy was a drug head and Casey really wanted to fuck him cause he was hot, and he’s talking all about how bad that crap turned out. Say, Chay? Is he the real deal?”

“Whaddo you mean?”

“Okay,” Sheridan turned around. “See, what I mean is, what people tell you is that porn is bad, so you’ve got two ideas, the porn star is this depressed, crazy person, or the porn star is having this great life you wish you could have. But… with Casey it’s a little bit of both. He’s like, he was having all sorts of mad sex with this guy, and he’s always screwing all these people right? And he talks about what a slut he is and how much he loves to fuck. But then he also talks about being lonely, or not having friends. Or like, he talks about what an asshole this one guy he was with is, and then he talks about how sorry he feels and please someone out there help him? Is he putting us on?”

Chay shrugged. “That’s pretty much how he is. I’m pretty sure Casey never puts anyone on.”

“He’s got a really ordinary face, but a great body,” Sheridan said. “Now I understand why he threw me off today, the first time I saw him.”

“I like his face,” Chay said. “Not that it matters.”

“Good, it shouldn’t. He’s old enough to be your dad.”

“No he isn’t,” Chay said. “He’s just nearly old as my dad. And James and Noah really aren’t old enough to be my parents.”

“You think Casey would talk to me about the business?”

“You gonna be a gay porn star, Sher?”

“Don’t be an ass. I just think it’s interesting. I wish I could talk to like… your Dad.”

Chay shook his head. “I don’t see that happening. Noah’s kind of a turn around and don’t look back guy. The only reason he told me was because he didn’t want someone else telling me first. He never talks about it.”

“It’s gotta be…” Sheridan thought. “I mean… all of those people. Look at this! I met this guy today. He was so… cool and ordinary and it’s like… I’ve found, count it, so far, four videos of him blowing some buff dude, six of him being blown by some big dude, a couple of him fucking folks in the ass, and the look on his face when he’s getting fucked. And that’s his job! And Mr. Riley used to do the same—”

“Please!”

“Alright, well Mr. Anderson then. It’s like… I would love to pick those guys’ brains.”

“And I,” Chay said, “would love for you to close that window and go to another web page.”

THERE WAS A CONSISTENT, repetitive thumping on the back door and Will remembered he was the only one home. He rolled off of the sofa and turned down the television, heading for the front door.

The thumping continued.

“I’m coming, Sheridan! Next time remember your key! I’m tired of having to—”

But when he opened the door it was Layla Lawden, and she was standing there in her wedding dress.

“Layla,” Will spoke her name, and it came out like a breath.

The first thing she did was say: “Will.”

The second thing she did was to slap the shit out of him.