by Shey Stahl
Casten and I stared at each other blankly, each of us waiting for the other to say something. I think he was waiting for me to blow up on him, which I considered but tried the calm approach.
“Here’s the deal,” I said breaking the silence between us, “you’re thirteen—”
“I’m fourteen.” Casten reminded me with an eye roll and a heavy sigh.
“I know that.” I took a deep breath and said what I needed to say. “Drugs are off limits.”
“Why?”
“They just are.” I fumbled through my words trying to get back on track. I wasn’t good at these conversations but my spawn needed to know my ground rules at some point. I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t want them to either.
“Fine,” Casten agreed. “No drugs.”
He left to clean the bathroom off the foyer. Sway looked at me and smiled pulling her hair into a bun. “Good job. I take back my previous statement. You’re not a horrible parent.”
“Thank you.” I kissed her nose. “Do we have any pain pills? My leg is killing me.”
“About that...” her nose scrunched, her eyes dropped from mine. “You need to get that looked at. I think it’s infected.”
“I think you’re right, fucking no good turtle.”
“I need to go to the store so I will pick up something for you.”
Limping into the family room, I added, “Don’t forget more beer.”
I sat down on the couch with a 6-pack intending to finish it off myself when Tommy, with no shirt, emerged from the guest bedroom zipping his pants.
“Can I go outside now?” Casten asked when he finished with the backyard. The house was still a mess but it was considerably less of a mess. Instead of a tornado, it just resembled a small riot.
“Your mom’s not here do what you want.” I thought for a moment and then added, “Don’t steal any cars and don’t set anything on fire.”
“Word,” Tommy said sitting beside me. “You’re not good at parenting, are you?”
“No shit. Don’t tell Sway.”
“I thought he was grounded?” Tommy looked at me with confusion. Looking at him now, I could tell that he was still drunk.
“You should be grounded too. I can’t believe you let all this happen.” I reached for my beer. “Are you questioning my parenting skills?”
“No,” Tommy said, “not at all.”
Casten picked up his iPad on the ottoman by my foot and laughed. “What’s that from?” he pointed to my turtle bite. “It looks like a hickey.”
“I thought you were going outside?”
He laughed the entire way out the door. Little jerk.
“Jesus,” Willie groaned as he made his way inside. “...this place is trashed!” Flopping down next to Tommy, we sat there drinking the rest of the beer.
Rosa emerged from the same guest room Tommy had come from, smiling. Glaring at me, she gave Tommy a wink and shuffled into the kitchen where I heard the espresso machine going and her god-awful singing. Tommy laughed. Tommy’s laugh was more of a giggle too. It definitely wasn’t a laugh you expected from a guy but it always made you smile.
“Did you...no...” I looked back at Rosa in the kitchen. She was stretching out her calves. “Did you sleep with my maid?”
Willie broke out into laughter and curled into himself on the couch. Apparently laughter wasn’t helping his hangover.
Tommy grinned mischievously. “All girls need love maids too.”
“You’re something else man.” I laughed slapping his shoulder. Reaching for the remote, I turned on the television and avoided all the news channels. I didn’t want to see my yard on the news anymore. Physically, it was bad enough to look at it.
Arie finally came home around six. The boy and I were still on the couch. Spencer had joined us now.
It was the first time we had seen her since we got home. “Where the hell have you been?” I asked looking at her appearance. She looked horrible. Her usually wavy rusty curls were matted and pulled under a gray beanie. Ripped jeans, a torn t-shirt and flip-flops completed her style for today.
“Nice to see you too, dad,” She looked around ripping the beanie from her head and slamming it into Clint’s chest who walked in behind her. “Where the fuck is Casten at?”
“Oh Casten,” I called out amused, “You’re sister is home!”
Arie glared and then shot up the stairs. The scream Casten let out was, well, similar to the sound a cat would make if it was being gang banged.
Lexie walked in behind Clint, looking just as bad as Arie, talking on her phone. “She had big boobs, smelled good, talked like a trucker and told my brother to fuck off, of course we felt connected to her—” her sentence halted when she saw her dad. “I’m going to go now.”
“Probably a good idea,” I advised her and then looked at Spencer who was scowling at his daughter.
“Where were you last night?” Spencer asked her harshly. I had a feeling I didn’t know half the shit that went down last night but it was comforting to know that my kids weren’t the only out of control hooligans.
Cole bounced in behind Lexi and stopped when he saw Spencer too.
“I was with Harper,” Lexi told Spencer hiding behind Cole. They both looked like they were ready to run at any moment.
“You mean that little shit that you’ve been seeing that was in prison?” Spencer asked standing up to tower over his kids.
“It’s not like he just got out of prison, dad.” Lexi rolled her eyes. “It was like a month ago.”
“Well,” Spencer gave me a look and then focused on his kids, “that makes me feel so much better.”
“It should.” Lexi seemed completely satisfied with her response and smiled. She looked exactly like Alley when she smiled. Aside from the black hair, she was a spitting image of her mother.
Spencer walked to the door with his kids when Cole took off running from him. “Get back here Cole! You’re not off the hook either!”
Clint held up his hands coming to sit next to me on the couch, a contemplative warning held his features. “I left them with Spencer in charge. When I heard Arie was missing, I found her walking to Brian’s house. I might add that Spencer’s kids are little jerks.”
“I know that. It makes me feel a lot better about my own.”
“Why is Arie so mad at Casten?”
“Uh, maybe because he left her at the gas station,”
“So she wasn’t here for this?” I motioned around to the madness.
“Nope, this was all Casten and the hood of hoodlums.”
“Hood of hoodlums,” I laughed and Clint cracked a smile.
“That’s Aries’ nickname for the boys.”
Rosa walked in, smiling again, and mouthed something to Tommy who giggled again. Tommy disappeared after that to find food. Apparently, his hangover was making him sick and he thought he needed food.
“How was your vacation?” Clint tried to make conversation.
“Horrible. I got bit by a fucking turtle and I think my leg is infected.”
“Ewww Jay!” Rosa looked down at my swollen ankle. “That’s disgusting.”
“Rosa, shouldn’t you be cleaning? And do not call me Jay. I don’t like being called that.”
“Yeah, probably,” She grabbed the remote from Willie making herself comfortable beside me.
“Well then, do it. This place looks like shit and I don’t pay you to sit around.”
“I know.” She reached for the chips Willie had. “If you did, Willie would get a raise.”
“Hey, what did I do to you?” Willie stood and then fell back against the couch, “I stood up too soon.”
Rosa had an excuse for why she couldn’t clean every day. Some days she would say that her back hurt. Other days she would say that she just wasn’t feeling it and my personal favorite, she couldn’t clean because it was her country’s national “no clean” day. Rosa said she was Mexican but she was Caucasian. She had pale skin and brown hair with blue eyes. She was
not Mexican.
“Hey dad,” Casten stuck his head inside the door, his voice carrying throughout the foyer and into the family room. Apparently, he’d gotten away from Arie. “Can I go to Shane’s party tonight?”
“Get your ass in here!” I hollered back. I hated having a conversation when he was half hanging out the door. Mostly because he always said things that I couldn’t hear very well and before we knew it, streets were set on fire and my wife was convinced our son was a pothead.
“So about Shane’s...can I go?” He asked standing at the edge of the couch, his phone in hand.
“What? No. Jesus. Look around this place. Do you honestly think I should let you go to a party?”
He looked around and smiled. “I’m legendary. That was pretty much the best night of my life.” Casten chuckled as he stared out the window reminiscing.
“Do you pay attention to anything I tell you?”
He shrugged, “Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Well, there were times this morning, and in the past, that I’ve lost interest when you’re talking. It’s only natural.”
“You need to act more responsible if you ever want to be left alone again. This will never happen again.”
“I know what I’m doing, dad. Last night was just a little out of control. I’m certain, at future parties, I can do better crowd control.”
“I’m certain you don’t have the faintest goddamn clue what you’re doing,” I said to him. I stood now towering over his five foot two frame, “now go clean the pool, make sense?”
“No.”
“Too fucking bad, do it.”
Tommy returned, when he finished cooking dinner for me and the boys, about the time Casten had the rubber gloves on again and I was half way through my second six-pack of beer.
“Be ready at four if you’re coming with me tomorrow,” he said to Casten.
“Four am?” Casten asked in horror dropping the mop. Tommy nodded. “I don’t think so. This isn’t a dairy farm. I never get up that early, ever.”
I laughed. My family made me crazy. Arie and I ended up talking later that night. Apparently, she had been left at the gas station before the fire had been set. Either way, they were both grounded. Naturally, she blew up at me for grounding her. What teenage daughter wouldn’t?
I wasn’t pleased about all the damage to the house and our property. I made sure all the kids, including the cousins, worked around the property to repair everything that was broken including the gate. They weren’t getting away that easy. They all tried to act like it was no big deal and they didn’t trash it that bad but if you saw it, our house look like a bunch of crazy monkeys got loose.
A few things we couldn’t figure out how they had been destroyed so we went back to look over our surveillance cameras in the house and property. We watched that shit for hours and on reply sometimes. I’d never seen a party like that before and honestly, I was proud of my kids in some strange sense. If I was there age, that would have been one kick ass party. I was not impressed with them destroying my GTO or my trophy truck and they would be repaying me for that. I already had Noah and Charlie working at the shop after school and you get bet their asses would be there for years to come now. Those fucking trophy trucks a hundred grand a piece and my GTO. That was a collector’s car! I was beyond pissed and they knew it.
Sway didn’t feel the need to talk to Casten about the girl in his room and neither did I. He was fourteen and I had a feeling he was already sexually active but I didn’t know for sure. He seemed much too young to be having sex in my opinion so we talked to him about being responsible, locking doors and what not, the house rules so to speak and taking precautions to prevent pregnancy and diseases. It’s not as though we condoned our kids having sex in our house but we weren’t stupid either. I understood my feelings at that age and if my parents had told me not to sex, I would have done it anyway regardless.
My theory on Casten being sexually active, and I never told Sway about this, was confirmed when he came with me to Fontana a few weeks after the street fire shenanigan.
That Saturday morning, we were sitting outside my hauler waiting for qualifying to begin when a girl walked up. She looked young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, with bleach blonde hair and very tan. She was your typical California girl you saw at these races. Nevertheless, she wasn’t very bright, her first mistake.
Keep in mind, Casten hadn’t improved on his humor. He still took advantage of the weak and made it his own game. Now was no different.
She asked for my autograph, which I gave her and then moved on to the next fan waiting in a line of about twenty people. As always in the paddock, they seemed to accumulate out of nowhere.
Out walked Casten with just a pair of khaki shorts and flip-flops on. This was usually what he preferred to wear so we never commented. I don’t know why he felt the need to half dress himself but he did. At least he had pants on. It was an improvement from when he was two.
There he was sitting in a folding chair beside me looking down at his phone when he caught a glimpse of the blonde girl that stuck around after I signed her tank top. The girl was looking at Casten, as he looked up at her.
What did Casten do?
The little shit raised his hips, moved to a slouching position and let his sunglasses slide down his nose. Looking up at her, he said, “You looking for a ride or something, sugar?”
He said this just loud enough for her, a few bystanders, and me, to hear.
The girl blushed, hell, I think I blushed. Casten must have felt he scored and sparked conversation with her. Kyle overheard as well and shook his head after telling me it was time for qualifying. “He’s definitely a Riley.”
I left after that paying no mind to my flirting son and walked toward the grid to qualify. After securing the pole position for Sunday’s race, I signed a few autographs and then stopped by the bathrooms in the infield. I heard the moans of a woman before I even made it two feet inside the door. Did I walk out? No, I just stood there. I wasn’t sure what to do. It wasn’t the first time I had heard people having sex in the infield. I’d even witnessed it a time or two.
“You like that, don’t you?” I heard in a low raspy voice I recognized as my son, Casten. That little shit was fucking that girl in the bathroom.
Walking out, I shook my head as Tate came around the corner. We ran right into each other.
“Oh,” he righted himself and grabbed my shoulders to keep me from falling too, “Sorry ‘bout that Jameson,”
Shit. Now Casten would know it was me. I failed to realize Casten could care less if he got caught having sex in the bathroom with a girl that was more than likely ten years older than him.
Turns out, he didn’t.
The girl however, she cared. “Your dad’s in here!” she squealed in horror, “Oh my God!”
Not wanting to hear anymore, I jetted from the door as did Tate.
“I can’t say I’m surprised.” Tate laughed beside me as I tried to focus on something else, anything else, but I couldn’t.
Casten was all smiles that night when we went out to dinner with Tate and his son Jacob.
The conversation started when Tate asked him, “So Casten, you enjoying Cali?”
“Oh yeah,” Casten nodded dipping his French fry’s in ketchup. “It’s been great.”
My only bit of parenting to him, “You’re using protection, right?”
He nodded and then smiled. “I’m not stupid.”
Later that same night, he looked at me with a smile. “I wasn’t having sex with that girl, dad.”
“Oh,” was I said to him. It made me feel better but it also made me nervous that soon he would be active in that way.
I wasn’t comfortable with Casten being fourteen and sexually active but what else was I going to do, stop him? I could I guess, make him stay locked up, but he’d do it anyway. My theory, most didn’t agree with, was that I would educate him on the consequences if he was to get someone pregnan
t and the diseases. I did that. He knew very well what would happen and he was cautious, so he said.
I knew my sons weren’t stupid but it also felt wrong to watch them follow in my footsteps, with women. Luckily, Axel pulled his head out of his ass and stayed with Lily. Casten, he was enjoying himself just as any fourteen-year-old kid would want. Other than working at the shop during the week for Axels’ team, he had a pretty-easy life, but that was Casten. He was easy and always had been, aside from potty training. That was a nightmare. You didn’t have to understand Casten he was just him. Smiling, energetic and here to have a good time, my house was proof of that.
7. Head Sock – Jameson
Head sock – A fire resistant head mask worn under a drivers helmet to protect them should a fire arise inside the cockpit.
When I got back home after that weekend in Fontana with Casten, Sway had arrived home from Eldora where she’d been watching Axel race in the Four Crown Nationals.
I didn’t feel the need to tell her about Casten with the girl in the bathroom when she told me Arie had moved in with her shitfuck of a boyfriend over the weekend and Axel got a fine of $25,000 for punching Brian Tyler, the shitfuck Arie was dating.
I might add he was the same shitfuck that got her arrested earlier in the year.
Our little spaz children were no longer children but becoming adults that were giving me gray hairs and setting streets on fire. It was around that time in my life where I began to feel bad for my parents.
Sway and I sat there in the kitchen discussing Aries’ latest rebellious move when she said to me, “we will just have to wait to see if she comes to her senses.”
“What made her move out? Did you get in an argument or something?”
Sway shot me a look of horror. “No! She packed her shit when I was in Eldora and then left me a fucking text message.” Pushing the phone at me, I looked at the text message, “Real classic huh?”
“She’s sixteen—”
“She’s seventeen, Jameson.”
“Regardless, she’s seventeen and I won’t allow that.”