Under the Orange Moon

by Adrienne Frances

  The night carried on as any holiday would in a bar. Dylan was quite pleased with herself for wearing the outfit she chose. Unlike the year before, she felt equally matched in looks with a lot of the other females that stood in front of her. She felt feminine and pretty, feelings she was sure only Ben was guilty of pulling from her.

  “Oh, bartender?” Ben called with a slight taunt to his tone. “More shots please.”

  Dylan floated over to him. “What would you like?” she asked flirtatiously.

  Ben leaned forward and looked around. His eyes met hers as he smiled mischievously. “You,” he said in a whisper.

  “You have me,” Dylan sighed.

  “I don’t have you now,” he said with a slight hint of disappointment. “I definitely don’t have you in that tiny sparkly thing you call a dress.”

  Dylan laughed. She thought long and hard about pulling him over the bar by his tie. Would anyone really even notice? She looked around and realized that not a single person was watching them to see what they would do. No one suspected their secret world. No one knew what they did when they were alone.

  Dylan stared at Ben seductively. “It’s almost midnight,” she warned.

  Ben’s lips curved. “I know.” He raised his eyebrows and leaned forward. “They’re not going to even notice.”

  Dylan scanned the room and watched as each oblivious brother concentrated on everything in the room but her and Ben. She finished setting out all of the champagne flutes and shots along the wooden bar and walked around to stand beside Ben.

  Michael stood on the bar and called out to everyone as they gathered up closely. “Let the countdown begin!” he yelled. “Grab a drink!”

  Dylan passed out the champagne and took her place beside Ben with a shot glass of her own. They stood in front of each other, pressed against the bar, smiling as if no one else was around.

  Dylan’s stomach twirled inside her. She shook from excitement. Ben’s smile was so genuine and warm. His eyes seemed to see only her in that moment. She didn’t care who was around and she knew they wouldn’t even notice as they all kissed each other one by one.

  The countdown began with ten. The group smiled and yelled out numbers as the clock gradually made its way to midnight. Dylan thought it was slower this year, only because she was mad with impatience.

  Ben’s lips were on hers before the crowd could even make it to two. Dylan’s arms wrapped around his neck while she stood up on her toes and moved into him. His tongue slid into her mouth secretly but beautifully and, in that moment, it was just the two of them there in that room. There was no sound or movement around them. They were alone in their world and wanted so badly to stay.

  They were forced apart too suddenly for their liking; it was almost painful to walk away. They had to keep going around the group for the traditional New Years greeting; however, they didn’t break apart unsatisfied. They snuck in their midnight kiss and they were very aware that there was more to come when they would finally be alone later on in the night.

  As Meredith hugged her, she whispered into Dylan’s ear. “No one else noticed that, but I certainly did.”

  Dylan smiled, knowing she was caught. “I don’t know what you mean,” she lied unconvincingly.

  “By the way he looks at you, I would never imagine him to be what I’ve been told,” Meredith whispered again. “He doesn’t look like a womanizer.”

  Dylan looked at Ben and smiled. “That’s because he’s not.”

  Ben climbed the stairs to Dylan’s room in the dark. He had made this trip so often in his life he didn’t even need the wall or railing to guide him. If his shadow left a permanent cast along the wall, it would always lead to that same room. It would grow a size every year, charting his progression to manhood by the path to Dylan’s bed.

  He slowly opened her door and gently closed it behind him. He was sure she was asleep because it took Jonah forever to pass out. He impatiently thought about punching him, knocking him out cold, if he had gone to sleep any later. He made a promise to himself after to make sure he never allowed Jonah to drink an energy drink mixed with his vodka again.

  The moon glowed through her window and seemed to light up only Dylan as if she was being presented to him in a fairytale of some sort. She was so naturally flawless. Even when they were children, Ben was secretly affected by her beauty. It was hard for him to even glance at her sometimes.

  He removed his shirt and pants before crawling into her bed. He moved closer to her warm body and felt the thrill of just holding her against him. He brushed her long hair from her moonlit face and kissed her forehead.

  Dylan stirred and opened her tired eyes. She smiled. “What took you so long?”

  “Your brother wouldn’t shut up.”

  “I missed you,” she whispered.

  Ben’s heart slammed inside his chest. He felt the falling of his feelings as he spiraled out of control, knowing that she truly was the only one for him. He felt proud that she belonged to him and he couldn’t wait to tell it to anyone that would listen.

  “I missed you, too,” he replied, nearly choking with surprise. He couldn’t remember a single time in his life that he had ever even uttered those words. Ben only said things to please people if he wanted them to leave him alone. This was genuine.

  Dylan snuggled to his chest and kissed his collarbone. Her warmth enveloped him as she wrapped her leg around his waist. She was his and he was hers. There were no barriers with Dylan. She knocked them all down the minute he pressed his lips to hers.

  He wanted to whisper that he loved her, but he couldn’t find the words without crying them out. He thought it would be foolish of him to say something like that through a sob of tears. That would surely make her run with fear.

  Come with me, he thought. Don’t make me be without you.

  She could live with him in Cambridge. Her job clearly allowed that. It was easier for her to come to him. He couldn’t leave school, even though he would if she asked him to. She never would, though. Did that make him so selfish?

  Ben imagined a life with Dylan. They could have a small, one bedroom apartment. She could paint masterpieces on the walls and he would watch every stroke. They could brush their teeth together, sleep together every night, make food together—naked, of course. They would never wear clothes unless they had company.

  He rubbed his nose to hers. He kissed her lips, her neck and her forehead. He nearly cried when she put her hands to his cheeks and looked at him like he was her everything. Her expression mirrored his and he could tell that she knew what he was feeling then.

  “Ben,” she whispered, “I never want to be without you again.”

  His heart burst with feelings, a release from himself and all the walls he spent years building. He had always known it; he only belonged to Dylan.

  Chapter Nine

  Dylan smiled when the sunlight from the window touched her face. She moved and nuzzled into Ben’s perfect arms. She buried her cheek into his bare chest and sighed as his hands moved into her hair.

  She looked up at his face and saw that his eyes were still closed. “You’re smiling,” she said pointedly.

  Ben grinned, keeping his eyes shut. “No, I’m not.”

  “You’re dimples are showing,” she teased.

  “I don’t have dimples,” he said, squeezing his lips together to keep his absurd expression in check.

  “You’re a liar.”

  “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

  “Whatever,” Dylan replied with a giggle.

  Ben stretched his arms out over their heads and turned into her hold. He pulled her closer and kissed her gently.

  “Do you think they’ll notice if we stay in here all day?” Dylan whispered. “Maybe everyone will forget we exist.”

  “Possibly,” Ben answered before kissing her neck.

  Dylan pulled back and stared into his eyes. “What will happen when you leave next week?”

  It was a fair question
, Ben knew. He sighed. “I wanted to talk to you about that, but not now.” He sat up and rubbed his hands over his face.

  “When, then?”

  Ben groaned and looked down at Dylan’s suspicious glare. “I’m not flaking. Stop looking at me like that.”

  Dylan said nothing as she stared back at him, contemplating an explosion in her room that may launch him over the houses and through his roof, landing in his own bedroom and out of her life.

  Oh God, he’s flaking.

  “This isn’t a control thing, Dylan,” he said as if he were inside her brain. “It’s a timing thing, and I want it to be right.”

  “You’ve planned this discussion, then?” Dylan asked, crossing her arms.

  “I haven’t planned one moment of this, actually.” He laughed and pulled her to his lap. “I’m all messed up. This was the last thing I expected.”

  Dylan pouted with his arms around her. She tried not to laugh at his open hearted comments, but they were too adorable for her to take. Through her giggle, she asked, “So when does this discussion take place?”

  Ben pursed his lips and smiled bashfully. “Tonight. Over dinner.”

  “Dinner?” Dylan’s heart accelerated. “Out in front of people?”

  “Well, maybe somewhere that won’t involve people we know.”

  They leaned into a kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, a wordless, but obvious, sign she accepted his dinner invitation.

  Ben stood up and got dressed quickly. “I gotta get out of here, like now. We’re getting a bit careless. I want people to know, but not when we’re naked in your bed. Brandon would murder me before I could even explain.”

  “Thanks for that vivid picture of Brandon finding us naked. Yuck,” Dylan said, and walked across the room, tiptoeing on the carpet beneath her feet. She peaked out through the tiny opening she made with the door, and scanned the shadowy hallway outside. “Their doors are all closed.”

  Ben stretched out his arms and yawned. “They’re all hung over, I imagine.”

  “I’m sure we won’t be seeing any of them for some time today.”

  Ben wrapped his arms around Dylan’s waist and pulled her back to him. She loved the feeling of her skin against his. “Still, I should get going,” he said to her regret.

  “I know, I know. This is the last way they should find out about us.”

  “What will you do while I’m gone?” Ben asked with a hint of sadness. He swiped a stray hair from her face, trailing her cheek with his fingertip as he did.

  Dylan slid from his lap and curled up into the fetal position on her bed. “Sleep,” she said with a relaxed smile. “Goodnight.”

  Ben leaned down and kissed her forehead, her cheek and then her lips. “Sleep,” he whispered sweetly. “I’ll see you later.”

  She watched in silent agony as Ben once again slipped from her morning, leaving her alone in her bed. She closed her eyes and felt peace about their relationship.

  She had never been to Massachusetts before. She’s seen snow, but never lived in it, nor did she expect to want to one day. She knew he wanted her to go back with him and she knew what her answer would be.

  She would happily follow Ben around the world.

  Ben had a new stride in his step. He practically skipped through the yards as he walked back to Ruth’s house in the early morning hours.

  He waved his hand to Mr. Raymond, flashing a genuine smile and ignoring the angry neighbor’s yells for being on his lawn. Normally, he would have flipped him off with that grin, but not today. It was different today.

  He wanted so badly to tell Ruth what he had found in Dylan. He wished that she could know that it wasn’t too late for her to have that, too.

  It would be a tragedy if there wasn’t someone out there for everyone. Dylan was clearly made for him, created for him, and put here for him to love and need. Why couldn’t everyone have that? What would be the point if they didn’t?

  Ben strut through his mother’s back door and ignored the usual dark demeanor of his childhood home. The windows were all drawn; the black drapes were a constant obstacle to the sun for as long as he could remember. Today, that meant nothing.

  “Mom?” he called from the bottom of the steps.

  With no answer to follow, Ben made his careful way up each step until he reached the landing and turned his head up to her room. Her door was closed with no light shining through from the other side.

  “Mom?” he called again. His feet slowly took the last few steps as he kept his eyes focused on her door.

  He pressed his ear to the wood that separated them. He listened. There was nothing, no usual weeping or movement of any kind.

  He wanted to talk to her, to finally welcome a conversation. He hadn’t felt her friendship or that motherly connection in so long—too long. He was ready to feel that with her. He was ready to allow her in for once and share what he discovered.

  Ben slowly turned the brass knob to her door and stuck his head through the opening. “Ruth?” he whispered.

  He stepped in through the door and stopped when he saw her in bed. Her back was to him and she still wore the same white pajamas from the night before. Her hair was down and a few strands covered her face. A bit of sun managed to escape through the slats of the blinds. The stream of light shot across the room and grazed the rim of the empty glass in her hand, creating a tiny sparkle just above her fingers.

  “Didn’t I tell you to stop drinking with those pills?” he asked loudly.

  Ben froze when he noticed her blue skin. He drew in a quick breath and held it there when he saw the empty prescription bottles spread out over her floral comforter. He couldn’t make his feet move as he watched for her still back to give some sort of indication of breath in her lungs.

  Knowing there would not be an answer, he called out to her again through a crack in his throat. “Mom,” he said simply.

  His chin quivered, but it was his anger he was trying to suppress. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and stared at his mother’s lifeless body. He couldn’t be surprised and he couldn’t find it in him to be sad. He just stood.

  You stupid woman.

  “Very weak, Ruth,” he whispered, and left the room.

  Dylan sighed and threw the covers from her body. It had been almost two weeks since she had been able to sleep peacefully and now, just when she was able to successfully drift off, loud siren bearing vehicles tore through the back of her subdivision as if every square inch of it was on fire.

  “Ugh!” Dylan groaned as she kicked the sheets from her legs. She pulled her pillow from her head and sat up quickly. “You have got to be kidding me!”

  Without warning, her door flung open and Jonah’s face appeared through the opening. “Is Ben in here?” he asked urgently.

  Dylan pulled the sheets to her body, and screeched, “No! Get out Jonah!”

  “Those ambulances are at his house!” he yelled, and slammed the door.

  Dylan jumped to her feet and grabbed whatever article of clothing she could find. She was scared, but not so scared that she would run outside in her underwear and T-shirt. She hurried as she dressed frantically, attempting to block out the horrible assumptions that flashed in her brain: Ben tripped or fell down the stairs; or maybe he got hit by a car, an aneurism, a fatal heart condition…did Mr. Raymond finally shoot him?

  Doors opened and closed in the hallway just outside her room. The panicked sounds of her brothers stampeding through the house, mixed with Linda’s fearful voice, echoed up to Dylan’s room as she raced to get ready.

  By the time Dylan made it to the sliding glass door, her family was already through the first yard and on their way to Ruth’s. Dylan sprinted after them with tears in her eyes.

  She caught up and ran just on the heels of Charlie’s feet. She ran with speed and she ran without thought. If she let her mind go, it would only lead her to the worst of conclusions. Even the slightest glimpse of the idea that Ben may be hurt was too mu
ch for her to stomach.

  As they crossed the final yard, a lot filled with only gravel and a short palm tree, Ben’s slouched body came into view. He sat on his porch with his arms resting on his bent knees. He seemed to stare into space as the firefighters and paramedics moved all around him.

  A police officer stood over him and quickly scrawled over a notepad in his hand while he nodded his head slowly, almost mechanically.

  “Ben,” Jonah called.

  He leapt over the soil that was once covered in beautiful flowers years before. Now it lied overgrown with weeds, abandoned from any tending and grooming whatsoever.

  Ben’s exhausted eyes focused on Jonah as he slowly lifted his head. There were no signs of tears, though. Ben seemed to cry in other, less obvious ways Dylan had learned simply by observing him their entire lives.

  “What happened, Ben?” Linda carefully asked, as she wrapped her arm around his back. “Is it your mother?”

  “She’s dead,” he whispered without feeling.

  Linda gasped. “How?”

  Ben opened his eyes and stared at Dylan, who was wordless in the corner. She stood speechless with guilt, relief, sadness and shock. It was every emotion manageable, she thought. She wondered if the relief she felt that it was Ruth and not Ben made her as horrible as she suspected.

  Linda stood to her feet and approached the police officer that had been diligently taking notes off to the side. She turned and spoke in a low voice to keep her discussion discreet.

  Dylan and Ben stared at each other. Dylan wanted nothing more than to comfort him. Just as she did the night he got into a fight, she wanted to clean his wounds and hold him. This was not so easily healed, though. This was something she couldn’t make better with a wet cloth and kiss.

  “She’s not a victim,” he announced, shaking his head.

  “You can still be upset,” Charlie said, placing his hand on Ben’s shoulder.

  Ben shrugged it off and placed his hands on top of his head. He turned his back on everyone and faced the front door. His broad shoulders moved up and down as he tried to gain control over his raging emotions.