by Matt Tims
“Oh my, is it serious?” she asked.
He looked down at his phone and answered, “I guess so. I mean, he’s not gonna die or anything, but they want to keep him there for a few days.”
“Well, that’s good at least,” she added.
“Yeah, Jessica is going to see him now, and asked if I wanted to go with her,” he said.
“You should,” Jen told him. She knew how important supporting your partner was. It was something her husband didn’t show, and something her son had yet to experience.
“You think I should?” he asked. “I mean, the guys are coming over in a bit, and I don’t want to leave you hanging.”
Brett, Kyle, Tom, and Doug had a tradition several years in the making. Every fall they would chip in to buy a special TV package where they had access to every college football game being played. So, from September through late November, from noon until late into the night, they spent their Saturdays down in the basement.
She quickly dismissed her son’s concern. “Please, it’s not a problem.”
“You sure?” he inquired again. “I can tell them we have to cancel if you want.”
Part of her wanted to say yes. It’d probably be best not to see any of his buddies for the foreseeable future. Especially since her husband—who wasn’t even into sports—would be spending his Saturday just like he spent every Saturday: over at his coworker’s house pretending to like football. It burned her up how he would do just about anything to avoid being around her.
“You know that your friends are always welcome here,” she smiled, trying not to give off any hints of what went on in the wee hours of the morning.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said as he stood up and slid his chair back under the table. “By the way, I saw your bathrobe lying across one of the pool chairs when I was outside.”
“Yeah…” she stalled for time. “I uh… I spilled water on it last night.”
He glanced back out at the robe with a particularly skeptical look. “How much? I mean, it still looks wet.”
“A lot,” she told him. “I was making lemonade when the jug tipped and the entire thing spilled on me.”
“The entire thing?”
“I’m a klutz,” she smiled before walking over to him, eager to change the subject. “You better get going. You don’t want to keep Jessica waiting.”
“Okay, Mom,” he agreed. He leaned in to accept a kiss on the cheek before heading upstairs to change.
Jen made her way into the upstairs bathroom after finishing her morning tea. She slipped into a clean thong and a pair of old black sweatpants. She ditched her usual tight fitting shirts and tank tops for an oversized white t-shirt. Her blonde hair was placed into a bun, and she decided against applying any makeup. A step back to observe herself in the mirror revealed someone who certainly didn’t look like a MILF. She resembled that of a worn out housewife, and that was exactly how she wanted to appear when her son’s friends showed up in an hour.
Brett knocked on the door and announced, “I’m leaving, Mom! See ya tonight!”
“Drive safely, honey!” she shouted back from inside the bathroom.
Time was ticking on the minutes until Tom, Kyle, and Doug were all inside her house. The trio never missed a Saturday; and of course with her luck, they decided to be in attendance during the one time Brett wouldn’t be home either. She needed a game plan. She had to devise a strategy to control herself. It was time to stop flirting and teasing boys twenty-four years her junior, and act like the forty-two-year-old married woman she was. She took a deep breath and looked at her reflection in the mirror. This wouldn’t be easy.
Chapter 9 – Game Time
She opened the ringing front door at three minutes to noon, just as she’d expected.
“Hey, Mrs. K,” Tom cheerfully greeted her.
Jen responded with a courtesy smile before glancing to her left to see Kyle standing next to his buddy. “No Doug?”
“Not today,” Tom answered as the two teens followed her into the house. “I guess he’s spending the day with that chick he met last night. Someone’s in love…”
She resumed her walk toward the kitchen. She didn’t want to be rude; but at the same time, she felt like laughing at his joke might send flirtatious vibes which she was trying to avoid. Perhaps it would be best to be a little cold with these two.
She led them into the kitchen where she took a seat at the table to read a magazine, avoiding eye contact with either of them. “Brett’s not going to be home until later tonight.”
“He told us,” Kyle noted, watching his buddy dig through the pantry for some snacks to take down into the basement. “You wanna watch the game with us?”
“No thanks,” she replied, her eyes still locked on her magazine.
An uncomfortable silence filled the room while Tom went about his search for his favorite snacks: Kyle unsure of what to say, and Jen just hoping the two would leave the kitchen as soon as possible. Things were getting awkward.
“Come on, just pick something,” Kyle told his friend impatiently.
Tom re-emerged from the pantry with a large bag of chips and a small container of pretzels. “Good to go,” he smiled, waiting for Mrs. K to chime in with her usual playful comment. She merely continued to gaze down at her magazine. “Okay, we’ll see you later then, Mrs. K.”
She didn’t respond.
Kyle and Tom headed down into the basement and took their seats on the sofa.
“What the fuck was that?” Tom asked as Kyle flipped through the channels until he reached the station where their favorite team was about to play. The pregame show was still on.
Kyle turned and looked at Tom. “I think she’s playing with us.”
“What?” Tom laughed in disbelief. “Dude, that was crazy uncomfortable.”
“I think she’s embarrassed about last night,” Kyle went on.
“Or she hates our guts now,” proposed Tom. “I mean, she wouldn’t even look at us.
Kyle wasn’t buying that. “She doesn’t hate us.”
“Playing with us?” Tom laughed again. “You’re out of your mind. I think it’s way more likely that she thinks we took advantage of her last night or something. Fuck, dude, I don’t wanna go back up there.”
“I think you’re misreading this,” Kyle countered.
Tom immediately shook his head. “Alright, Dr. Love, explain to me what I’m not seeing here.”
Kyle stood up and began to slowly pace in front of the TV. He found that he often thought more clearly when he was moving versus sitting still. “Okay, remember last summer when I went up to the Adirondacks with my family?”
Tom nodded. He would never tell his best friend this, but not having him around for those two weeks sucked pretty bad. Kyle had turned into a bother to him over the past few years.
“Well, I met this one girl while I was up there,” Kyle continued.
Tom’s ears perked up. “Why didn’t I ever hear about this?”
“I’ll get to that,” Kyle waved his hand at him as he went about his pacing. “Her name was Courtney and she was seventeen too. She lived in New York City, and was upstate with her family for vacation.”
Tom was quick to fire off his usual questions. “What did she look like?”
“Cute as shit. Little blonde chick—barely five feet tall. Perky, bubbly, with a great set of tits and a knockout ass.”
“Sounds like my kind of girl,” Tom said with a smile. “What happened with her?”
“I met her while hiking up one of the peaks with my Dad. She was already on the summit when we got up there, and I started talking to her while my old man was catching his breath. We ended up spending the entire two weeks together.”
“And nothing happened?” Tom inquired.
“I tried,” Kyle told him while taking a quick peek at the TV. Kickoff was mere seconds away. “We started making out and shit after a few days”
Tom nodded with approval. “Alright…”
“Yeah, but every time I tried to go a little further, she would push me away.”
“Push you away how?” asked Tom.
“You know, like I would try to cop a feel or something, and she would slap my hand away. She was always giggling and laughing while doing it,” Kyle said, continuing to pace before looking off toward the basement steps.
Tom shouted, “Oh, you gotta be shitting me!”
Kyle turned back, wondering what he said that could’ve caused that type of reaction.
“These fuckin’ assholes can’t even cover a kick!” Tom bitched while watching their team’s opponent return the opening kickoff for a touchdown. “Can you say ten years without a bowl game?”
Mediocrity with their college football team had become the norm; but today, Kyle couldn’t care less. Today, his mind was on other things.
“Do you want to hear my story or not?” he asked, annoyed by his friend’s noticeable lack of focus.
Tom turned his attention back to his buddy. “Yeah, yeah, go ahead. So, this chick was cock teasing you.”
Kyle resumed his tale. “This shit goes on for the rest of our time up there. I can never get further than making out, even though we spent the entire two weeks together.”
Tom was patiently waiting for his buddy to get to whatever point he was trying to make.
“We eventually leave, and I figured I would never see this girl again,” Kyle said, walking around the room at a brisker pace. “Fast forward to October.”
“October?” asked Tom.
“Yeah, October,” Kyle confirmed. “I’m sitting on the couch and it’s like two in the morning. I still remember the exact moment because I was watching a Giants playoff game and it was in the thirteenth inning.”
Tom rolled his eyes at that little detail. He definitely didn’t share his friend’s love of baseball. In fact, it was just about the most boring sport in the world to him.
“I’m sitting there by myself; when suddenly, my phone rings. I look down and it says ‘Courtney,’” Kyle told him, raising his eyebrows to emphasize that she was calling.
“She called you?” Tom asked, surprised.
“Yeah, at two in the morning,” Kyle went on. “I can tell right away that she’s been partying. She’s slurring her words and going on and on about how much she hates her math teacher and shit. You know, typical drunk chick stuff.”
Tom let out a light chuckle. He’d been there before.
“I’m sitting there listening to her drone on and on, and the entire time it’s eating me up inside the way she treated me back in the summer,” Kyle said. “Like, why is she calling to talk to me, when three months ago she didn’t even want me touching her?”
“I hope you fuckin’ laid into her,” Tom voiced his thoughts on the subject.
“I was planning on it, but before she finishes babbling about whatever, she says that she misses me,” Kyle said.
Tom shot him a disgusted look. “Misses you?”
“Misses me,” Kyle reiterated.
“These fuckin’ chicks…” Tom groaned. “It’s always something.”
“My mindset completely changes, you know?” Kyle went on. “I was seconds away from telling this girl to go fuck herself, and now she’s saying that she misses me.”
Tom questioned, “What did you say?”
“I straight up asked her why she behaved the way she did. Why she acted like my hand was poisonous every time I tried to touch her?”
Tom’s attention was solely focused on Kyle’s story instead of the TV. This girl’s actions had him confused as well. “What did she say?”
Kyle smiled to himself as he stopped pacing. He slowly shook his head and peered at the sofa Tom was sitting on. “She told me that I was a little boy.”
Tom opened his mouth, but then closed it before he said a word. He just couldn’t make any sense of what he’d heard. A little boy? Even at seventeen, his buddy didn’t look like a boy. They had bigger biceps than most guys twice their age!
But…she…wait, I thought you two were the same age,” Tom finally said.
Kyle sat down on the sofa and verified, “We were.”
Tom turned his confused face to his buddy who was now sitting at the other end of the couch. “So…so…so…what?”
“She told me that a real man takes what he wants,” revealed Kyle. “That only little boys wait for it to be given to them. The last thing she said to me before she hung up was, ‘You should have taken it, little boy.’”
Tom’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “She said that!?”
“Yeah, and it was fuckin’ humiliating,” Kyle answered, looking at the TV so he wouldn’t have to face his friend. “You can see why I never told anyone about this.”
“So, when she slapped your hand away all playfully and shit, she actually wanted you to keep going?” Tom asked.
“Yup…” Kyle groaned.
“Jesus…” Tom remarked faintly.
The two teens both stared ahead at the television screen: Kyle remembering that awful phone call, and Tom trying to think back to any girls who may have done the same thing to him in the past.
Tom finally broke the ice after a few moments of silence. “What does all of this mean?”
Kyle stood up and resumed his pacing. “Okay, so as I’m lying on the couch upstairs this morning thinking about last night, I start to put the pieces together.”
Tom was ready to hear this. “Go on…”
“One,” Kyle said, raising his thumb in the air to count off his points. “During Mrs. K’s Halloween party blowjob story, she said how she pulled the security guards into the bathroom, but she didn’t say that she jumped them, or made a move, or anything like that. She said the older guy pushed her down to the ground, and that the other guy just stepped in front of her and didn’t ask for permission. He just pulled out his dick and stuck it in her mouth.”
“So, she kinda got assaulted in a bathroom,” Tom said.
“No, dude!” Kyle firmly told him. “She knew what she wanted when she went into that bathroom, but it was up to those guys to make the move!”
Tom didn’t say anything. He just continued to stare at his friend with a look of disagreement on his face.
“Two, and this should be all I need to say,” Kyle proceeded, now raising his index finger. “Do you remember what she said to you right before you guys made out?”
“I gotta be honest, bro, my mind kinda went blank the second she sat on my knee,” Tom chuckled.
Kyle couldn’t blame him for that. “Well, let me refresh your memory. After you called her out for just lightly kissing you, she said, ‘How about you man up and kiss me then?’”
“Shit…” Tom said quietly as he thought back to that moment. “She did say that, didn’t she?”
“She most certainly did,” Kyle answered. “But I’m not done.” He raised another finger in the air. “Three. She admitted that she likes to be manhandled during her rough sex question.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t really apply to this,” Tom shook his head to dismiss his friend’s point.
“What?” Kyle disagreed. “Yes, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t,” argued Tom. “That could mean a bunch of different things. It might mean she’s into having her hair pulled or something. Not that she wants her son’s friends to jump her.”
“Jesus, dude, I didn’t say anything about jumping her,” Kyle said.
Tom still wasn’t convinced. “I think you’re looking too far into this. She wouldn’t even look at us earlier. She’s probably the nicest person I’ve ever met, and she wouldn’t make eye contact with either of us. Isn’t that enough of a sign?”
Kyle’s eyes hit the floor while he considered this new perspective.
“And when have you ever seen her dress like that? Loose clothes, no makeup, hair in a bun: that isn’t Mrs. K,” Tom went on.
He may have had a point there. Kyle had never seen her in anything other than tight pants or shorts that showed off her am
azing legs. He wasn’t aware that she even owned a pair of baggy sweatpants like the ones she was wearing upstairs.
“But what about that lap dance?” Kyle asked. “You said it yourself that she was grinding on me for how long after the song ended?”
“Four minutes,” Tom answered.
“Four fucking minutes!” Kyle emphatically repeated. “How do you explain that?”
“I think she got caught up in the moment.”
Kyle shook his head, showing his opposition to that idea. “Caught up in the moment?”
“Yeah, caught up in the moment,” Tom said once again. “Look, I think she’s a lonely woman who likes attention. She clearly doesn’t get any of it from her husband, so when her son’s friends take an interest in her, she feeds off it. That doesn’t mean she actually wants to do anything. She’s probably just trying to live out some fantasy that she read in a book or something.”
Kyle gazed at him, baffled by his change of tone. “Are you kidding me, dude?”
“What?” Tom asked.
“You were ready to go last night,” Kyle reminded him. “I had to talk you out of it, and get you to see that she was drunk.”
“I did some thinking this morning as well,” Tom spoke up. “I think she just likes the attention.”
“I don’t understand how you can’t see the correlation between Mrs. K and the Courtney story I just told you,” Kyle huffed. “Dude, it’s the same thing!”
“No, it’s not,” Tom disagreed. “That chick is in high school; Mrs. K is in her forties. This isn’t porn, dude. Listen, last night was crazy, but if we actually would’ve done some shit with her, I guarantee it wouldn’t have turned out well for either of us.”
Kyle couldn’t disagree more. He’d gone over this a thousand times in his head, but the one thing he truly wanted was his friend’s approval of his plan. He couldn’t believe that Tom wasn’t seeing things his way.
“You know that I always have your back right?” Tom asked.
“Yeah,” Kyle responded.
“Sorry, but you’re on your own with this one,” Tom said. “Think about all the shit that can go wrong. What about Brett?”