by Kylie Parker
I just shrug my shoulders and say, “Notso drunkthatI can’t f—figure outwhat your w-wife wantssss to do.” My words slur together, but I can tell Lillian knew what I said.
She crosses her arms and looks directly at me, ignoring Daisy who is biting her bottom lip with excitement. Lillian lets loose a long sigh, “And what is it you want to do, James?”
“Fuck it,” I say, “I’mmmm drunk as hell, b-but I’m fuckin game.”
44
Daisy helps me over to the bed, and I practically fall into Lillian. Lillian grabs me under the chin with her sharply manicured nails, “You’re not going to fire me tomorrow for this, are you, playboy?” I do one of those awkward drunk laughs and then lean in for a kiss. She holds me back for a second, “Damn it, Daisy, whose toothbrush did you use to brush his teeth?”
“Relax,” I hear Daisy say from behind me, “I just gave him some mouthwash.” I hear Daisy’s clothes dropping around her, but I’m still focused on Lillian. When did I gargle mouthwash? I lick my teeth, and I can taste the minty freshness. Well, at least I don’t have to worry about my alcohol and vomit breath if we’re going to do this.
“Fine,” Lillian says and then gives in. She lets me kiss her. I’m having to hold onto her to keep myself upright, and I can tell she is annoyed by that. I make a grab at her robe, and I cause it to droop down off her shoulders. She and her wife are both very attractive women. I can tell right off the bat that Lillian is not even remotely excited about this and is just doing this because Daisy wants to. My hope is that I can change her attitude. I pull on her robe until it falls down to reveal her breasts. I lean forward and put my mouth on one of her tits.
“Lilly, that’s so hot.” I hear Daisy say as she grabs my towel and yanks it off of me.
Lillian mumbles something under her breath and suddenly hops up. “I need more wine if we’re going to do this.” She grabs the glass by her bedside and downs the rest of it.
While she is doing that, Daisy pulls me down onto my back in the center of bed. I get an eyeful. She has completely stripped down –and holy hell. I forget all about Lillian as Daisy crawls around on me, kissing me and teasing me with her lips and breasts. I wish I was just a little soberer than I am, but then again if I was I wonder if Daisy could have talked Lillian into doing this at all. She is probably hoping that I am going to black out and forget all of this come morning. There is a good chance of that happening.
“I can’t believe this shit is turning you on,” I hear Lillian say as she pours herself another glass.
“Stop ruining it.” Daisy snaps, “Come on, this is supposed to be fun.”
I’m not going to get in the middle of their marital dispute, so I just pretend I don’t hear it and reach my hands up to touch Daisy’s breasts. I hear a jealous grunt erupt from Lillian, and she decides to crawl into bed with us after swigging straight from the bottle.
This is like one of those fantasies you have in college but you drop it after realizing it’s never going to happen, yet here I am. Lillian lazily curls up next to me and starts to nibble at my ear and wrap her arms around my neck while Daisy acts a lot more venturous, licking me and stroking just about every part of my body. Suddenly I hear Lillian let loose a loud cackle, “He’s too drunk to get it up!”
Fuck no!
There is no way I am not letting this happen. “Give me a minute; I’m really drunk,” I snap at her.
“Quit being so mean, Lilly!” Daisy snaps, “He’s had a hard time lately.”
“Not being hard is the problem,” Lillian jokes.
Fuck her. As soon as I am ready to go, I’m plowing her brains out. “Hold on,” Daisy says and disappears beneath the blankets. She plops my less than ready dick in her mouth, and I go hard as soon as she strokes me with that tongue of hers.
I groan loudly. I go to reach down to touch Daisy, but Lillian suddenly stops me. She grabs my hands and puts them to her breasts. “I’m here too, remember?” Lillian says, clearly the alcohol is finally getting to her. She kisses my face and lets me touch her breasts while Daisy stays below the belt. I reach around Lillian’s waist and feel for her pussy, surprised to find that she is actually wet.
Daisy releases me and suddenly pops her head up. I am distracted with Lillian now, so I roll over on top of her and pen her to her back before pressing my now incredibly hard cock into her. Suddenly it becomes about Lillian as Daisy rolls beside us to give her kisses and play with her breasts. “Oh God….” I hear Lillian say, her voice slightly muffled by Daisy’s hard kisses. I lock eyes with Lillian while Daisy is down licking her wife’s breasts, and she does this awkward nod towards Daisy, silently telling me she wants me on Daisy. It’s pretty obvious this is supposed to be about Daisy.
I pull out of Lillian and bounce on Daisy, and the younger woman squeals excitedly. Somehow we wound up scooting down several feet, so there is a bit of room at the headboard, which is where Lillian makes her way to. She grabs Daisy by her wrists and pens her arms above her head, and the slight restraint makes Daisy all the more excited as Lillian kisses her and I go in and out of her as fast and as hard I am able. I put one hand on one of Daisy’s breasts to keep myself balanced, and then Lillian reaches down and helps to spread Daisy’s legs apart; Lillian even takes time to kiss on me some while her head is down towards me.
Between the two of us, we really get Daisy going. She starts screaming, and my drunk self can’t hold out much longer.
I blackout at some point, and I wake up the next morning with the worst hangover I have ever had with Daisy hanging all over me and Lillian wearing a look that is as full of as much disgust and shame as mine.
45
Lillian and I wind up seated on her couch, both of us with ice packs on our heads as Daisy quietly makes us breakfast and some coffee. We try not to look at each other. After a few minutes alone on the couch, Lillian says, “I will literally pay to never repeat what happened last night to anyone.”
I groan painfully, squinting and wishing that their apartment was just a little bit dimmer, “I will pay you if you can tell me exactly what happened. I can only remember bits and pieces.”
“I can’t believe I chugged half a bottle of wine.” Lillian grumbles, “I can’t believe I had sex with you.”
Daisy is walking on air. She prances out of the kitchen on her tiptoes, trying to be as quiet as possible for us, and places a plate of homemade pancakes in front of us. “Thanks,” I grumble.
“Maybe next time you two will try it sober,” Daisy giggles and Lillian and I simultaneously flick her off with the hands not holding onto ice packs.
“There is so not going to be a next time.” Lillian says, “I’m through with your stupid fantasy games.”
Daisy just giggles; she is clearly walking on a sexual satisfaction high right now. Suddenly I hear a phone going off, and both Lillian and I moan loudly. “Find it.” I say sternly, “Dear God, shut it off!”
Daisy scrambles to find a cell phone. I’m wearing a fucking pink robe because they failed to put my clothes in the dryer last night, so I’m waiting around for my pants. “It’s James’s. We put a pile of his stuff over on the counter in the kitchen,” Lillian says weakly.
Daisy answers my phone for me. “Hello? I’m sorry, no, this is not Eddie… this is his brother’s phone…. You don’t have his brother’s number? Are you sure, because-”
Shit. I wave Daisy over, “I forgot I had Eddie’s phone with me. Bring it here.”
Daisy hurries over. She has a concerned look on her face, “He sounds messed up.” She hands me the phone.
“Hello?” I question.
“I’mma at the, uh, the summer house…” it sounds like a young man, and he sounds high or stoned or something. “I c-can’t go back to jail, man.”
I sit upright, “Who the hell is this?”
“Eddie, it’s me. It’s Nick. Please, Eddie, I need you.” The guy sounds like he is on a bad trip or something.
“Listen,” I say firmly, “This is
Eddie’s brother James. Who are you? Are you okay?”
There is a long pause. “I’mma at the, uh, the summer house…”
Shit. This is the drug addict. Eddie has actually told me a little about this one. He is homeless, so he stays in Eddie’s summer house all the time. I know what Eddie would want me to do. I’m so hungover that I might still be drunk, but I can’t just pretend I didn’t get this phone call. “Listen to me.” I say firmly, “Do you need me to call an ambulance?”
“No!” the guy practically screams, “I need Eddie!”
I am definitely not telling him that Eddie is hurt; he’s obviously not in a condition to hear about him, and the summer house is a good distance away. “Okay, okay,” I say, “Listen, I’m on my way. Do me a favor and go sit on the couch in the den, okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can get there, okay?”
“Thank you, Eddie, thank you.” He says and hangs up the phone.
He is so messed up. “I got to go.” I tell the two women, and Lillian just groans a response.
“You shouldn’t drive.” Daisy says.
“I’m going to call my driver,” I say as I go fetch my partially dried clothes out of the dryer, “But I have to go.”
I’m sure I’m going to regret going to see what this guy is freaking out about, but I go anyways. He’s probably having a bad trip or something. I have my driver pick me up, and we head out of state lines. It’s a long drive to Eddie’s summer house. It takes hours, and I can tell my driver is annoyed. Lucky for him, though, I did manage to get paychecks sent out to my employees finally.
By the time we finally arrive at the summer home it’s almost three in the afternoon, and thankfully my borderline demonic hangover is finally letting up. I tell the driver to circle around; a part of me doubt the guy is even still here. The front door is unlocked, so I don’t have to search for the little fake rock in the cobblestone next to the porch that Eddie keeps a key hidden in. A terrible idea, really. Even though this place floods all the time, it’s still full of valuables that Eddie practically just leaves out in the open for people to steal. And having a crack head for a brother stay there all the time just adds to the chances of something getting stolen.
I enter inside, and I immediately spot someone lying on the couch. As I come closer, my stomach drops in horror. It’s a kid.
I should have called an ambulance. I dart over next to him and try to wake him up, but he’s not moving. “Nick, hey! Nick, can you hear me?” I shake him, but he is unresponsive. I take a second to dart out into the yard and wave down my driver; I tell him to call 911 to tell them that there is a kid who’s overdosed at the cabin. While Leo is on the phone, I dart back inside to where the kid is still lying passed out on the couch. From the heavy bags under his eyes and the bright red streaks on his arms, I can tell he is a heavy user.
My heart is racing. I wind up pulling the kid down onto the floor after realizing he does not have a pulse. Eddie made me take a CPR class in preparation for our gym opening as a sort of PR stunt, so I’m thanking him now. By what could only be divine intervention, I somehow manage to get a pulse out of the kid. He’s still unconscious, and he’s just barely breathing by the time paramedics arrive. I can’t believe I didn’t call an ambulance the moment I talked to this kid on the phone. It takes some convincing, but the paramedics let me ride with Nick to the hospital. Seeing as how every single guy in that ambulance knows this kids name, I am guessing he’s lived through something like this before. I’m hoping he can do it again.
46
I am pacing in the hallway of this borderline boondock hospital out in the middle of nowhere, and it’s not really helping to calm my nerves. Eddie never told me any of his siblings were just kids; I never really showed an interest in knowing anything about them, though. I had not expected to see this young teen passed out in the summer house. After a few hours, a doctor comes out into the waiting room and approaches me. “So you are Nicks…what exactly?” the doctor asks me.
I’m honest with the guy. He apparently knows Eddie, so the situation is easy to explain. I tell him what’s going on with Eddie, and the man shakes his head. “Eddie is Nick’s legal guardian,” he begins, and my head starts swimming. Eddie never told me. It’s apparently a fairly new arrangement. Nick was supposed to be moving to LA this summer to stay with Eddie, but he was currently still staying with some foster family who in recent days, according to what Nick told the doctor, had had enough of him.
At first the doctor does not want to let me back to see him. I’m not kin in any way, but seeing as how Nick does not seem to have anyone else and I had been the one to save him from overdosing in an empty cabin, they allow it. I enter into the tiny hospital room where I see that Nick is thankfully sitting up in bed hooked up to an IV. He looks at me with this confused face. “Who the hell are you?” he asks, but there is not exactly anger or annoyance in his tone so much as curiosity.
“My name is James.” I begin, “I’m Eddie’s brother.”
“You’re not a Smith,” he says, “so you must be the legitimate brother, right?”
“I guess that’s me.” I say. I come and sit down in a chair near his hospital bed. “How old are you?” I ask.
“Fifteen.” He says, and it makes me sick to my stomach. He frowns, “So where is Eddie? Why did he send you?”
“I had Eddie’s phone when you called.” I say.
“So you didn’t tell Eddie what’s going on?” he asks.
The kid doesn’t know. I debate with myself whether or not to tell him what is going on, but ultimately I decide he deserves to know. I tell him about what happened to Eddie, and he has this horrified look on his face. He expresses worry about Eddie first, but then I can also tell that he is worried about himself. If he was supposed to be living with Eddie come this summer, what is going to happen to him now?
I think I know what Eddie would want me to do. I wind up staying at the hospital all day, calling and talking to local child services and hanging out with Nick in the hospital room until I finally get his case worker on the phone. She winds up coming to the hospital, and she gives Nick a berating about getting back on drugs. He looks embarrassed, and she makes a grab at his arms to see the red streaks. “What are you doing now?” she snaps, “First it was cocaine, now what is this?” she points at the streaks again, and he yanks his arms away from her and hides them against his chest.
The woman’s name is Donna, and she is actually not too snarky despite her tirade on Nick. I tell her what is going on with Eddie, and I can see stress lines appearing on her face. She probably thought everything with Nick was about to work out all perfect with a happily ever after bow on top. The two of us wind up out in the hall away from Nick to talk. “All of his remaining family members with the exception of Eddie have been deemed unfit to parent,” she says, referring to the circus show of random siblings I’ve met over the past week.
“Then let me take the kid home with me.” I say, “I might as well be family.”
“That’s not how all of this works.” She says, “And besides, you just met him today.”
“But I want to help. I can foster him at least, right?” I say, “I can do that. I could be a foster dad, right?”
“Becoming a foster parent requires a lot of background checks and-”
I cut her off, “Then do it. Do what you have to. This kid doesn’t need to go back into some random foster home. What he needs is therapy. He needs to be in an institution to help him get clean.”
She raises a brow suddenly, “You know,” she says coyly, “There is this really nice institution not far from here. It’s a private rehabilitation center… for the… wealthy. Nick would never be able to get in there, but if someone were to-”
I jump in quickly, “I’ll pay for it. Whatever he needs.”
Donna smiles, “That might just be enough for me to motion for Nick to be placed under your care. He would be able to get help while we are diving into getting you approved for temporary guardianship.”
She smiles and then puts on a serious face, “Is there anything I should know about before I even bother working on all of this?”
I tell her outright about me getting arrested once in a bar, and I also tell her about the current lawsuit. She nods as though she is making mental notes of all of my delinquent behaviors that could pose a problem in this new arrangement. “Do you think Nick would even want to stay with me?” I ask after we have been talking for some time.
“What he wants and what he needs are two very different things.” Dana says, “Although, it would definitely help the case if he actually wanted to live with you. I recommend trying to get to know him over the next couple of days while I try to get going on this new arrangement.”
I nod, and Dana tells me to wait out in the hall while she goes to speak with Nick privately. Now I’m really nervous. Did I just try to adopt some kid I don’t even know? Yeah. That just happened.
After about an hour, Dana reemerges with a smile on her face. “I think this is going to be a good thing,” she says, “for some reason, Nick seems to already have taken a liking to you. Probably because you’re Eddie’s brother. Could you give me the name of the hospital Eddie is staying at?”
“Yes, of course.” I write it down for her. She takes a lot more information from me, including having the hospital photocopy my ID for her.
As she is getting ready to leave, I ask, “I know that Eddies and Nick’s father is not around, but what happened to Nick’s mother? Why is he in foster care anyways?”
Dana frown, “She shot herself after doing heroine when Nick was ten. She was a heavy user, and it just got worse with time. Nick was already in foster care at that time, though, after she got arrested for prostitution when he was six; she took him with her on jobs, so she obviously lost custody, but she always stayed in touch with him while he was in foster care. It’s weird to say, but deep down I think she could have been a good mom. She cared, and in the line of work I am in that is a rarity. At least she cared enough to stay in touch with him after he was taken away.” I guess by the look on my face, she can tell the brief story made me sick. She offers me a smile, “He’s a tough kid. Don’t worry too much. Let’s just be glad that when I told him about the institution he was somewhat willing.”