The Rock Season (22 page)

“HEY ASSHOLE! You guys want any popcorn?” Patrick pounded on the door and Aaron dropped his head against my shoulder.

“I bet he’s enjoying this.”

“We’d love some, Patrick. Thank you! We’ll be right out.” I smiled up at Aaron and said, “You can have me all to yourself later, baby. But first you’re going to have to settle for keeping me safe during a scary movie. I promise I’ll grab onto you every time I get scared and you can be my big protector.”

He rolled his eyes and adjusted himself. “Alright,” he said. “You talked me into it. Let me grab you some clothes.”

He kissed me one last time before stepping out into the hall. I ran my clothes under some cold water to keep the tea stains from setting. Aaron stuck his arm in a few minutes later with a pair of sweats and a hoodie. I took them from him and shut the door before he could get in and deter me from my good intentions.

My conversation with Patrick earlier this evening had me concerned about our affectionate displays. Patrick told me he had been angry with me for staying away.

“I don’t want you playing around with my brother,” he’d said. “He was really a mess after you left. I don’t know why he even bothers with women. You all treat him like shit.”

From his perspective, it probably seemed like it.

He did say, “I know you’ve been through a lot, but I don’t want to see my brother get hurt. So if you aren’t gonna stick around, then maybe you should just leave.”

“Patrick,” I’d said, “I am absolutely in love with your brother and I don’t want to hurt him. That’s why I left before.” I explained to him a little bit more about what happened with Ben and Nancy and he seemed really sorry he’d brought any of this up.

“I’m sorry, Stevie. I didn’t know. You seem like a really nice person. I just don’t want my brother to get hurt again. It seems like all relationships end up with someone getting hurt. That’s why I have no interest in getting all hung up on some girl who’s only going to treat me like shit.”

Patrick was a real observer. He’d paid close attention to all of Aaron’s trials and tribulations with women since he’d figured out what boys and girls do when they get together. I remembered what Aaron had told me about how Patrick was with girls. I think I understood now. He didn’t want to get hurt. While Peter might seem like the more sensitive one, it was actually Patrick.

“Patrick, I don’t want to do anything to make you feel uncomfortable,” I’d said. “I love your brother and I want to be with him. He knows I have stuff I have to work through and he’s being really patient with me. I hope you can be, too.”

He’d agreed and seemed a little less troubled when we’d gone in to eat dinner. I only hoped he could accept my words as true and give me a chance. As close as Aaron was to them, it would be terrible if he stayed angry with me.

I rejoined the party just as the movie was getting more tense. Aaron had left a spot open next to him at one end of the couch, Peter and Gretchen had made a comfy spot on the floor with pillows and blankets, and Patrick was sitting in his dad’s recliner. He glanced at me as I sat down and then went back to watching the movie. Aaron pulled me in close to him and I snuggled up to his side. The popcorn was great, the movie was indeed scary, and I was having a wonderful time. Aaron even jumped a few times and Gretchen and I did our share of screaming. It was a perfect night.

McShane

Something was different about Stevie tonight and with all that was going on with the twins, I was glad to have the distraction of the movie. Stevie grabbed a quilt off the back of the couch and covered us up with it. She had it scrunched up against her face, hiding from the screen.

“Ah, Stevie? Can you even see?”  

She shushed me and scooted closer. “Shut up! It’s scary!”  

I looked down to see Gretchen doing the same thing. Peter looked conflicted. He was enjoying his girlfriend snuggled up to him under a blanket, but he looked scared shitless, too.

Then Stevie slid her hand up under my shirt and I joined the conflicted. Her nails lightly scored my chest and stomach before sliding down to the waistband of my jeans. She rested her hand with her fingertips just underneath the edge. I had to fight the urge to squirm. By this time I was barely paying attention to the movie. I was just inhaling Stevie’s scent and dreaming of holding her.

When she screamed, I jumped up and knocked the popcorn bowl over, spilling it all over us. Stevie cracked up and Patrick gave me shit for falling asleep. I cleaned up as best as I could and took the bowl into the kitchen to toss it. I took a moment there to just breathe and think. If this case was truly going to trial, life was about to get really complicated. My poor boys. I sighed and headed back into the living room.

“I’m going to bed,” Patrick said. “I’ve had enough scary movie shit tonight.”

Gretchen asked if we wanted to watch the second one and Stevie said, “I think one was enough for me tonight. Aaron?”  

I shook my head. “You guys can. I’m ready for some sleep. Peter, you’ll drive Gretchen home by her curfew?”  

It was 10:00 and I knew she had to be home by midnight. He nodded and I prayed he had paid attention to our little chat. Stevie and I said our goodnights and climbed the steps to my parent’s room at the top of the stairs. The boys’ room was down at the other end of the house. I could hear Patrick’s stereo playing and I was pleased to hear it was a Stone Temple Pilots album I’d turned him on to.

“Hey, they’re coming to the Greek next weekend, did you want to try to get tickets? We could take the twins and Gretchen with us,” Stevie was saying, and while it was a great idea, I was beyond the capacity to answer her. I shut the door behind us and backed her up to my parents’ huge Cal-King. She moaned as I ravaged her neck like I’d wanted to downstairs in the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, Stevie. My brain kind of checked out during the movie when you put your hand in my shirt. You’ll probably have to wait until morning for a coherent conversation with me.”

She started giggling and pulled the hoodie off. As soon as I saw her breasts and knew this time they were mine to enjoy, I stopped trying to pretend I wasn’t an animal.

Thankfully, Stevie was right there with me and she was just as incredible as I remembered. This time I made sure to really please her. I wanted to make her come again and again because I loved the way she cried out my name. I held back as long as I could just so I could keep this connection with her. She apparently missed me just as much as I had missed her. She couldn’t seem to get enough of me, either, and kept trying to pull me closer to her. She started to protest when I turned her over, but when I yanked her hips back to me, she let out the sexiest fucking moan I’ve ever heard. It drove me insane and I took her hard. She buried her face in the pillows to keep down the decibel of the scream she let out when she came again. That was it for me. When I released, it came from somewhere down near my toes and I was completely swept away. I collapsed on my side, keeping us connected, and pulled her against me to spoon. We were both panting hard and covered with sweat.

“God, you are amazing,” she moaned, bringing my hand up to her lips and kissing my knuckles. “I love you, Aaron,” she said quietly.

“I love you so much, Stevie,” I said, my heart bursting with joy. This was perfect. I ignored the nagging feeling that I should stay awake until I knew Peter was back and crashed still inside of Stevie, who was already breathing steadily next to me.

“AARON! AARON!”

I woke to shouts and shot up out of bed. I was disoriented, still not used to sleeping in my parent’s room. Stevie jumped up next to me and pulled on my t-shirt. I found my jeans, slid into them and flew down the stairs behind her. When we got to the back door, I heard Peter screaming and saw several shapes around him. Stevie flipped on the porch light and the shapes scattered, leaving a horrific scene.

Peter had blood all down the front of his chest and was standing next to what once was Stevie’s pristine Bug. I grabbed a bat from inside the back hall and took off after the shapes while Stevie, right behind me, got Peter into the kitchen. Two shapes were climbing over the back fence and one was running around the front of the house. I went for the runner and heard shouts behind me. Extreme pain in my left leg dropped me as the shapes passed me and disappeared around the front hedges. I managed to make out a silver Ford Escape pulling away and got a partial license plate number.

“Aaron! Where are you,” Stevie shouted. “The police are coming.”

I tried to stand up and cursed when my leg wouldn’t hold me. My hands were cut up from the cement and I’d smacked my chin, which was going to leave a lovely mark.

“Aaron! I can’t see you!”

“I’m on the driveway. Get Patrick.”

I heard her calling for him and was able to get to a sitting position. The back door slammed and I heard the two of them coming around the side of the house.

“Shit! Aaron, what the fuck happened?” Patrick helped me stand and he and Stevie both got an arm around me as the police pulled up.

“Patrick, direct them back here, I’ve got him,” Stevie said, taking my full weight.

I tried to put weight on my leg again, but the pain was excruciating. I almost brought us both to the ground. “Stevie, just help me sit here. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Patrick and the officer came running up and they helped me to sit back down.

Peter came outside and started explaining what happened. “I was coming back from taking my girlfriend home. I parked on the street and when I came around back, I saw a bunch of guys smashing up Stevie’s car. I yelled and a couple of them turned on me. Then Aaron and Stevie came running out and the guys took off. I didn’t see what happened after she took me inside.”

My little brother had gotten the shit kicked out of him was what I could see. His eye was almost swollen shut, his nose looked like it might have been broken and he had his arm wrapped around his midsection like his ribs were hurting. I cursed and saw that Stevie was coaxing him to get ice back on his face.

“Mr. McShane, can you tell us what happened?”  

I told them that when I got outside, the three I saw were running off, but I must not have seen the fourth. That one clocked me in the knee with something hard and my left leg was now completely out of commission.  

“Stevie, love, I’m so sorry about your car.”

She blew a red curl out of her face and shook her head. “It looked worse when I bought it. It can be fixed. I’m just worried about you.” She was standing with Peter, but I could see her wanting to be by my side.

One of the cops was over talking to Patrick by Stevie’s car and I caught a whiff of spray paint just as the second cop asked me, “Can you think of a reason they sprayed, ‘snitches get stitches’ on her car?”

The three of us looked at each other and Peter’s one good eye went wide. “Brittany! Shit! She must have left here and said something about the trial.”   

That seemed to be the likeliest scenario. I motioned him over to me and he knelt at my side.

“It’s going to be ok, alright? We’ll deal with this. Are you ok? I want you to go to the hospital and have them look at your nose, little man.” He nodded and gestured to my leg.

“Then you’ll be coming, too.”

“I’ll take you guys,’ Stevie said, assuring the officers that she could manage it. She went inside to finish dressing and grab her purse. The officer gave me his card.

“I’m going to have the crime scene techs come and see if they can get anything else. You all are lucky someone wasn’t hurt worse. You should install some more lights and maybe some cameras. It’s really dark back here.”

I thanked him and he said he’d be back tomorrow when his shift started to see if he could get any more information from me.

“Right now you both need to get to the hospital.”

“Thank you,” I said and he went back to his partner to confer.

“Patrick, grab my phone, would you? I want you to go to Schroeder’s-”

“No way. I’m coming with you. There’s no way Stevie’s going to be able to carry your fat ass into the ER.” His words were joking, but his eyes darted back and forth between Peter and me. He was visibly shaken.

Stevie came out and she and Patrick loaded me into the backseat of the Camry with Peter. Patrick gave her directions to Kaiser and we took off, leaving the police to figure out what the hell just happened.

Stevie

My heart was racing as I drove down 92 to Hesperian. Patrick showed me where the Kaiser ER entrance was. Both of my boys in the backseat were quiet except for grunts every time we hit a bump. I pulled up in front and had Patrick run in for a wheelchair despite Aaron’s insistence he could hobble in. The attendants got him settled and then I helped Peter out. He was having trouble breathing and said his ribs hurt. They were taken back immediately. Aaron asked me to stay with Peter and he kept Patrick with him. Both of them needed x-rays and it turned out Peter did have a broken nose. I held his hand while they set it. He was so brave, he tried really hard not to cry, but the tears were streaming endlessly down his face. The doctor said he wouldn’t need surgery and that he shouldn’t have too much of a bump.

Peter tried to laugh and said, “Maybe this way people will finally be able to tell me and Patrick apart.”

I hugged him gently and reassured him that he’d look tough and Gretchen would think it was sexy. He rolled his good eye at me, but he puffed up a little, perhaps seeing some benefit to this awful situation. The doctors also taped his ribs. None were broken, just bruised pretty badly. It appeared that whatever had been used to take out Aaron’s knee was probably used on Peter’s ribs. The doctor said he was really lucky. He told me to watch for swelling or difficulty breathing. I assured him I’d be staying to help care for both of them.

When Peter was finished, I had Patrick sit out in the waiting room with his brother while I went to Aaron. He was waiting on the results of his x-ray and fighting with the nurse.

“Ma’am, he’s refusing to take any pain medication. This will be a lot more difficult if he doesn’t take something.”