The Families in Rossford

S I X 

THE MESS UNFOLDS

In the morning, Fenn Houghton woke up blinking into grey light, his throat dry as he looked up at the ceiling. Todd’s arm, heavy, was thrown over his middle, and the other man snored lightly, mouth wide open, his other arm thrown off the bed.

Fenn turned to look at the clock. It was eight in the morning on New Year’s Day, and they were in Indianapolis. He had to pee so badly, but sleeping seemed more important. The more he thought, though, Dylan was not more important than sleeping, so he stretched his legs and rolled out of bed, hobbling to the phone and cursing the old age that made the balls of his feet hurt.

He dialed quickly, overcoming a yawn and vowing to return straight to bed.

“Hello?” Lee said.

“Lee,” Fenn told him. “Let Dylan know we won’t be home when he gets there.”

“Where the hell are you?”

“In Indianapolis.”

“How did you—? Wait. You didn’t invite me?”

“Lee, it really was a spur of the moment thing, and I had to deal with Mama all night.”

“You took Anne to Indianapolis, but not me.”

“Shit, she’s eighty. I may never get to take her to Indianapolis again. Look, the point is—”

“The point is,” Lee said, “I can’t tell Dylan anything because Dylan isn’t here.”

“Where the hell is he?”

“Last night he got a call from one of Paul’s kids, and he and Lance went out to get him. I think they ended up at Lance’s or at Paul’s.”

“Okay, well thanks for not knowing where the hell my child is, Lee.”

“He is grown—”

“Not grown enough,” Fenn hung up the receiver, lifted it again and dialed Dylan’s cell phone.

“Hello!” a stoned voiced answered.

“Dylan? Are you fucked up?”

“No, Dad, I’m woke up.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s—Oh, cram! It’s eight in the morning, Pop!”

“Yes, I know that, and you can go right back to sleep. I just wanted to say we won’t be home when you get there.”

“Why not?”

“We’re in Indianapolis.”

“So…” Dylan seemed to wake a little more. “You’re not at home right now, is what you’re saying.”

“That’s right.”

“Why the heck are you in Indianapolis?”

“Long story, but… We’ll be back this evening.”

“Can you give me a time?”

“Are you thinking about how long you have to go back to the house and have sex with Lance?”

“God, Dad!”

“I would be too. And he’s really good looking. I mean you both are.”

“Dad, you’re really making me uncomfortable right now.”

“Realistically we’ll probably be back by three o’clock.”

“I’m getting off the phone now, Dad.”

“Alright son.”

As he was about to hang up, Fenn said, “Five! We can give you till five.”

“Give me till five to do what?” Dylan said.

“Oh, stop!” Fenn said. “Give you till five to—”

“Dad, I’m hanging up now. Your… tolerance… is embarrassing me.”

In the large bedroom across the street from Layla and Will’s empty house, Lance half sat up in the semi darkness and said, “Your dad?”

Dylan climbed back into bed. Beside them Elias, in his pajamas, was sound asleep and Dylan, nodding, said, “Yes. He wanted me to know he was out of town and I could have the house until five.”

“That’s nice,” Lance settled back into bed. “And a surprise. He just left?”

“Yes,” Dylan said.

“Is that why you’re upset.”

“Who’s upset?” Elias opened his eyes.

“No one’s upset,” Dylan told him, poking the boy in the head. “Go back to bed.”

“Technically, I am in bed.”

Lance raised an eyebrow at him, and Elias closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

“I am not upset. I am just… flabbergasted,” Dylan settled back in the covers.

“Dad sort of implied that if we wanted to sneak back and be together it was cool.”

“What?” Elias said.

Ignoring Elias, Dylan said, “I asked Dad how long he would be gone and he assumed I was asking to know if we had time to be together.”

“By that you mean have sex?”

“Elias!” Lance and Dylan both said.

“Well, did you?” Lance said.

“Yes,” Dylan admitted. “But… we’re not supposed to talk about it. Not the way he did. Not all… He was like, I understand if you all need the day, and I won’t be back until five. I’ll give you an extra two hours.”

“How progressive,” Elias said.

“How weird!” Dylan said. “Your dad’s not supposed to green light your sex life! It’s like I’m going to picture him watching me every time.”

“Actually,” Lance said, leaning on his side. “Your dad hasn’t greenlit your sex life, just your sex life with me.”

Lance grinned.

“I have to pee,” he discovered.

He climbed out of bed in his boxers and grabbed a tee shirt, pulling it on before discovering, “This is not mine. This hardly covers my chest.”

They had brought Elias home and Paul had told them to just stay the night. They stayed in the guest room, Elias in his pajamas between Dylan, who had stripped to his briefs, and Lance to his boxers. It was, for the boy who had only known two fathers, like childhood again.

“Great,” Dylan said, after Lance had left the room. “Now I have to pee, too.”

“We make a cute family,” Elias said. “Don’t we?”

Dylan looked at his younger friend and then said, “You know what? Aftr I get out of that bathroom, I really am going back to sleep.”

Dylan and Lance were getting dressed. Elias came down the hall and down the stairs to the kitchen that smelled of coffee, where his fathers were sitting and Kirk turned and said, “Well, you’re finally up. Go wake your brother and I’ll fry some eggs or something. There’s Danish if you’re hungry.”

“Or what’s left of it,” Paul said, turning to Matthew.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the youngest son protested, mouth full.

Paul ruffled Matthew’s hair and stage whispered, “It means the boy is a Hoover.”

“I like to eat.”

“Yes, you do,” Kirk acknowledged. “And since it doesn’t seem to be getting to your middle…” Kirk shrugged.

“Go up and wake your brother, will you?” Paul said.

“When did he get back?” Elias asked.  He turned to go back up the steps.

“That girl Maggie brought him back at about one.”

“Oh.”

“Do you know anything about her?” Paul said.

“I know I don’t like her,” Elias replied, and headed back upstairs.

He reflected that in a normal house, say Dena’s, a mother might wonder about a fast girl bringing her son back at one in the morning. He knew that if a boy had brought Bennett back, their hackles would have been up even though Bennett was straight. They kept on mistaking him for them.

“Alright, we’re headed out buddy,” Lance said, tucking his shirt in as he pulled his coat on.

“If you need us,” Dylan said, “give us a call. But…” he raised an eyebrow at Lance, “try not to need us.”

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Elias offered.

“Shut the fuck up,” Lance said, cuffing him in the arm. “We can let ourselves out, and grab a donut or something from the kitchen.”

Then the boys were headed down the stairs and Elias watched after them for a second before going to his brother’s room.

“Bennett,” he said, turning the door and coming inside. “Bennett, it’s time to get up.”

“I’m up already,” Bennett said from under the covers. He sat up, head sticking up, for all the world looking like a younger version of their father Paul.

“What happened with you and that Maris girl?”

“None of your business,” Bennett said, frankly.

“We’re twins,” Elias said. “We tell each other everything.”

“That’s a crock of shit and you know it,” Bennett slipped his feet into his house shoes. “Where’s my housecoat.”

“In my room. I washed it with mine and forgot to bring it over.”

Elias was gone a moment and then returned and said, “I just get worried about you.”

“Elias, that is so hypocritical.”

His brother looked at him.

“Everyone thinks you’re so quiet and you’re just sitting around reading the Bible and shit.”

“I don’t think I ever told anyone I was reading the Bible.”

“Shut the door.”

Elias obeyed.

“I lost my virginity last night. Don’t look at me like that.” Bennett said.

“It’s just… Ben, that’s a big deal.”

“You don’t have to tell me it’s a big deal. I know it’s a big deal.”

“To that Maris girl? Cause she’s–”

“Hey, watch it.”

“What about Maia?”

“What about her?”

“You all… You know.”

“No, I don’t know.”

“You all had an understanding.”

“An understanding?” Bennett said. “An understanding? That one day, someday, somehow we might go on a date? What kind of understanding is that?”

Elias folded his arms over his chest while Bennett fastened his housecoat and said, “And besides, who are you to lecture me about my first time, and how I had it when you haven’t been a virgin for… what? At least a year?”

Elias’s jaw dropped and his face went pale. His blue eyes paled too.

“That’s right, Twin, so drop the I’m so proper act. Who are you to tell me about who I should sleep with and who I shouldn’t?”

Elias turned and went out of his brother’s bedroom, and then, suddenly, he turned around, faced Bennett and said, “Who am I? Someone who’s been there a long time before you. That’s who I am. And… you don’t even know what it was like. You don’t know anything about it.”

“I know you didn’t tell me. I know you kept it to yourself.”

Elias said, “Well…”

He turned around and headed out of the room saying, “The Dads wants us.”

But Bennett was still angry and he couldn’t help adding, “And by the way, I know who it was too. And if the Dads knew, you think they would have let you and Lance and Dylan have your little slumber party?”

“Bennett?” Elias said, his voice suddenly very calm, though he didn’t turn around to face his brother.

“Do you remember, when we were about seven? Pat Guilford was calling you Fag Boy because he knew about our dads. You were flapping your mouth off, but he started fighting you, and you really couldn’t fight back. Cause it’s not your thing. Then I came out, and I was a school monitor because I am, as you say, the quiet one. And I saw it. I told him, knock that off. But he wouldn’t. He said, I’ll kick your ass, too, Fag Boy. And then do you remember what I did next?

Now Elias turned around.

“I took him, by his collar, and I knocked his head into the asphalt. I kicked him in the side until he cried and begged me to stop. He was bleeding from the nose, and when I was finished you looked at me… your eyes were so big. You were so scared of me. Everyone was. Cause Elias Stanley Anderson, who was so good, had just done all that without breaking a sweat. Because now you all knew what was inside me.”

Bennett said nothing, but Elias said:

“It’s still inside me, Twin.”

And then Elias turned around and left his brother alone.