The Families in Rossford

“Are you staying here tonight?” Bennett asked her.

“I thought I’d go home and see Mom, actually,” Maia told him. “I just have to let Dad know.”

“I’ll drive you,” Bennett said.

“Alright then.”

“In fact,” Bennett decided. “I’ll let Elias stay here and hang out with Dylan so we can have some time.”

“Great,” Maia decided, “and they can have some time together too.”

“I guess,” Bennett shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

“You never thought that Elias was just what Dylan needed?”

Bennett looked nonplussed at this, and then said, “I’d prefer to talk about us.”

“Alright,” Maia said, going upstairs to say goodbye to her father.

A few minutes later, Maia came down the steps where Bennett was waiting for her and said, “I was about to make a joke about what you said.”

“About what?”

“How you said we should talk about us. I was going to be coy and say, there’s an us?”

“Well, there’s always been an us,” Bennett said.

“Agreed,” Maia told him. “But just to be sure, what are you talking about?”

“What’s going on?” Elias said.

“I’m taking Maia home,” Bennett said.

“Well, are you taking me home, too? Because I was talking to Dylan.”

“I was going to come back for you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dylan said. “I’ll drive him, I was going to stay with Dad tonight.”

“Dad?” Maia said.

“Tom, I mean,” Dylan clarified.

“Well, then it’s settled,” Bennett said, pulling Maia by the hand. “Com’ on m’lady.”

“You know what?” Maia said, when they had closed the door and were walking down the path to Bennett’s old station wagon in the cold January night, “You are very strange.”

He opened the door for her, she shrugged and climbed in, and a moment later, he hopped in beside her and put the key in the ignition.

“And now for some heat,” he rubbed his hands together as the station wagon hummed to life.

“I’ve been thinking,” Bennett said.

“Well, don’t hurt yourself.”

“Ha ha.”

“Thinking’s never been your strong suit.”

“I’m more a man of impulse,” Bennett agreed. “But since you’ve been gone, I’ve thought about you and me. And since you left, people have been pointing it out.”

“I don’t mean to…be difficult. But—”

“How we should be together.”

“Now…” Maia waved her hand, “wait just a minute?”

“Okay?”

“Are you trying to tell me you want to date me—?”

“Yes.”

“No, no, that’s not what I was saying. What I was saying is: are you trying to tell me you want to date because people think it should happen? Or is it because you want it to happen?”

“It’s because over this vacation, some things have happened to me, and now I know what I want, because I always wanted it. But I wasn’t sure. I would like to give us a chance. If you would?”

Bennett looked out the window and saw Elias and Dylan looking out at him.

“You should probably drive,” Maia suggested.

They went down Versailles Street and Maia said:

“I’m not into the whole having a boyfriend thing. I don’t feel the need for something like that.”

“Are you rejecting me?”

“I’m not—Bennett, I love you. You know that. But… is there something less than going steady? Like an in training thing?”

Bennett stopped the car at the end of the cul de sac, leaned over and kissed her quickly, taking her face in both hands.

He parted from Maia, and she looked at Bennett, blinking at him in the darkness, tasting the spearmint of his breath in her mouth. He looked at her eagerly, and she had never been kissed. It always looked silly and wet to Maia. Bennett’s hands were still on either side of her head, the fingertips gentle on her hair.

“Sure,” Maia said, a little winded, “I’ll be your girlfriend.”

“So,” Dylan said.

“So,” said Elias.

“Just you and me.”

“I think that was done on purpose.”

“Well,” Dylan said. “It has been a long time since we’ve just gotten to hang out. You and me.”

“I think,” Elias said, “somewhere in Maia’s head I’m supposed to be with you.”

“Be with me?”

“Be your new boyfriend.”

Dylan barked a laugh and Elias said, “Is it that funny?”

“It’s not funny,” Dylan said. “I mean, it’s funny that Maia would be that nosy. Besides, I didn’t even think you were out.”

“Uh, not officially, I don’t guess. But… Bennett already knows. I mean, he’s my twin. And I guess Maia just assumed. I guess everyone knows. I think they thought if Bennett was straight I couldn’t be. Something like that. We live in a pretty gay world.”

Dylan chuckled then said, “How much does Bennett know?”

“I think a lot more than he says. We don’t talk about it. But he knows I’m not just ‘gay in my heart’. We got into the discussion the other day. It’s sort of a long story, but he knows.”

Dylan thought about this for a while. He looked like he was about to speak, but Elias said:

“Just because Maia has taken it upon herself to make us a couple doesn’t mean I agree with her. But we don’t hang out like we used to.”

“I agree,” Dylan said. “And Lance is gone. I got so used to having that level of crazy in my life—not that Lance is crazy, just that… I’ve been crazy. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a nice relationship with a close friend who is another guy. It doesn’t have to be drama and all that. And you’re also the only little brother figure I ever had.”

“What, that’s a real thing?”

“They got father’s and big brother figures, so… I guess.”

“We could hang out tomorrow,” Elias said. “If you want.”

“I have to come right home and study for a chemistry exam. I got out of math for senior year, but I still have science.”

“I’m in advanced chemistry,” Elias said, “so if you don’t mind someone a year and half younger than you teaching you—”

“Oh, I don’t! I just want to pass.”

“Maths and sciences were always your Achilles’ heel,” Elias said.

“It really ought to be Achilles’ tendon,” Dylan reflected. “And you know what, they shouldn’t even use that because the heel was what killed Achilles. It wasn’t his weakness. It was his death. I mean, really his weakness was pride and—”

“That reminds me,” Elias said, “I need your help.”

“Okay?”

“You’re good at English and history.”

“Sort of.”

“You just started a dissertation on The Odyssey.”

“I was actually talking about The Iliad.”

“See,” Elias said, “that’s what I’m talking about. And right now we’re reading Wuthering Heights—”

“That’s an awesome book!”

“Of course you’ve read it,” Elias said dismally. “It is an awesome book. I get that. I like to read and all, but… you can make sense of it. I do crappy on the papers.”

“You just need someone to help you out with the points. You just need to be able to talk about it with someone.”

“Yeah, well kids in my class don’t do that.”

“So we’ll do it tomorrow.”

“You remember the book?”

“I do remember it,” Dylan said cautiously, “but just in case I better go read it again tonight.”

Elias looked at him in disbelief.

“You’re going to go read all of Wuthering Heights before you go to bed tonight?”

“Well, I’m going to drop you off first and then read some of it, sleep, read some more, sleep and then read the rest during school. But yeah, pretty much.”

“You don’t have to read the whole thing just—”

“I do,” Dylan said. “I haven’t read it in years. Not since when I did that whole read all of Sophocles’ plays and Paradise Lost in a summer thing.”

“And this was… last year?”

Dylan chuckled.

“No, I had to help Dad and Dad at the theatre last year. I did that when I was thirteen.”

Dylan suddenly realized what that sounded like, and while the two of them looked at each other, awkwardly, Elias said, “It’s a good thing you suck at math and chemistry.”

“Why, cause it gives me a weakness? I got plenty of’em.”

“No,” Elias said, “because you’d probably be a mad scientist.”

“I DON’T WANT TO TALK about the baby,” Meredith said that night.

She and Sheridan were sitting in the library of the Meradan house and she said, “Dena’s been here all day with the kids, and Nell swoops in to check on me. I should be grateful, and I am, but I don’t want to think about being the grieving mother.”

“What about Max?”

“What about Max?” Meredith said. “That son of a bitch left, and he was a son of a bitch. I never loved him,” Meredith realized. “I know that now.”

“And—”

“Do not bring Mathan up,” Meredith said. “I can’t deal with that either.”

“Well, then what would you like to talk about?”

“You and Brendan,” Meredith decided. “That’s something that makes me happy.”

“Well, it makes me happy too,” Sheridan said, warming up to his subject.

“I feel like he’s the first grown up relationship I ever had.”

“What about Chay?”

“With Logan, it was Logan who wasn’t quite grown up. But… I failed Chay. I wasn’t for him. That’s the worst thing in the world. I loved him so much and I failed him so terribly.”

Meredith wanted to say something comforting, but from where she sat this was a pretty accurate reading of that relationship.

“Being with Brendan is so…”

“So what you wanted for years.”

“Yeah,” Sheridan agreed. “But I didn’t know he would want it. Or that it would work. And then there’s the whole, I don’t know who to talk to about it with. Or how my brother’s going to take it.”

“That’s right,” Meredith said.

“Bren is Will’s best friend.”

“Well, Will doesn’t seem like the type of guy who would punch someone for being with his brother.”

“And Will’s never been that protective of me,” Sheridan shrugged. “But it still might be weird.”

“I think it will definitely be weird. You should ask Fenn how it was when he got with Todd. I mean, that’s sort of the same situation.”

Sheridan nodded and said, “God, I love him so much!”

Meredith nodded.

“And then there’s the sex.”

Meredith’s face went rigid, but she tried to smile.

“You probably don’t want to really hear about that?”

“Not especially. You and Brendan twisted up in bed together is…”

“Well, it’s a lot more than being twisted up in bed together,” Sheridan said.

“Shit, Sher,” Meredith shook her head and pulled the blanket higher around her.

“I mean, without being graphic, it’s like we keep on going further and further with each other, trusting each other more and more. Brendan was always above me, you know. And now we’re on this equal footing, going into this thing together and it’s so… Does that make any sense, without being too graphic?”

“It makes lots of sense,” Meredith nodded in agreement. “But if I know Brendan Miller, his ears are burning like fire at this very moment.”

While the two women laughed, Pam looked at her watch and said, “Oh, my God, Layla. I have to work.”

“It’s nine o’clock,” Layla told her. “I have to know what you do.”

Pam looked at her friend as if she were trying out an idea.

“Are you open minded?”

“Are you a type of a call girl?”

Pam laughed suddenly and then put her hand over mouth.

“See!” Layla said, standing up. “That’s why I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want to be insulting or stupid or—”

Pam put a finger to her lips, laughing, and pressed Layla’s hand.

“Layla! Layla! Layla! Dear, Lay. That is precisely what I am.”

“Oh, my,” Layla said. “Then I really need to let you get ready.”

“You Americans are supposed to be so shockable,” Pam said.

“And a lot of us are,” Layla said, shaking her head and beginning to chuckle to, herself. “But… you would just have to come to my hometown to understand why it’s harder to shock me than a lot of people.”

“What will I do when you leave?” Pam wondered.

“It isn’t for another day,” Layla reminded her. “Let’s not spoil this one with sadness.”