This scene took a turn, lol, and it wasn’t the plan. But I like it. I just thought I’d be able to write 4 more scenes. Written in 62 minutes.

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Sunday, September 14, 2024

Webber House: Kitchen

When Jason heard the footstep on the stairs, he thought it was probably Cameron or Jake. H He switched on the coffee pot, then turned to find Aiden in the threshold. Elizabeth’s youngest son stood hesitantly at the threshold, his hair still tangled, dressed in the same white t-shirt, gray basketball pants, and white socks he’d gone to bed with.

Jason looked at the clock over the oven — just after seven in the morning — then looked at Aiden again. “Didn’t expect you up for a few more hours.”

“I, uh, set my alarm. I wanted to—” Aiden swallowed hard, and came forward a step or two. “I figured you might be awake before Mom. You…you were always the first person down here last week. Can, um, can we talk?”

“Maybe we should wait until your mom gets up,” Jason said. No matter what Elizabeth had said the night before, he knew he’d overstepped. Aiden wasn’t his son to discipline, and considering the state of Danny, Jason didn’t have much success in that area anyway.

“I’m gonna talk to her because I have to, but I—I really wanted—” Aiden pressed his lips together. “But it’s okay if you don’t want to talk to me. I messed up—”

“That’s not—” Jason came around the island, held out a hand as the teen started to turn away. “That’s not why. Come on. Take a seat, and we’ll—you can say what you wanted to say.”

“Oh. Okay.” Aiden slid onto a stool, then stared at his hands for a long moment. “It wasn’t supposed to be like that. They dropped their phones here, and that was gonna be the end of it.” He forced himself to lift his eyes, to meet Jason’s. “They’ve done it before. A few times. And sometimes I’d leave mine at the penthouse. It’s never…that’s never happened before.”

Jason leaned against the fridge, folding his arms. “But they came to the house last night.”

“I still don’t even know why. I was trying to get them to leave,” Aiden explained. “But they—” He exhaled in a huff. “I know it doesn’t change anything. I still messed up. They were going to be drinking and getting high, and me being involved at all comes back on Mom. I didn’t think about it like that. Will—” He swallowed hard. “Is she going back to jail?”

“No.” Jason shook his head. “Dante made sure the whole incident was off the books. And most of the heat would come down on me — Danny’s my kid. I’m the one who’s supposed to know what he’s up to. I don’t know what the FBI would do with what happened last night. Or what we’ll say to them if they look at the GPS records.” He tipped his head. “You said you’d done this before. How many times?”

Aiden jerked one shoulder, looking at his hands again. “I don’t know. I didn’t really count.”

“So more than a few.” Jason saw Elizabeth out of the corner of his eye, and opened his mouth, but she pressed one finger to her lips, shook her head. She leaned against the door frame, not making her presence known. “You said something about last Thanksgiving. What happened? How did it start?”

“I—” Aiden stopped, then looked up, looked at him. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess I do. Like the facts. We went to party. Me, Dante, Rocco, my—my friend Tobias. And, um, Georgie, too, but she doesn’t do any of this,” he added hastily. “Someone gave Rocco a beer, and we split it. I figured — it was just what you did, right? A-and—” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t really want anyone to say something if I didn’t.”

The coffee machine beeped, and Jason went to the cabinet, took down two cups. He filled only his, and leaned against the counter. “What do you think they’d say?” Jason asked.

“I dunno. Like, maybe something about me…and Tobias.” Aiden looked at him. “You, um, know, right? About me.”

“That Tobias is your boyfriend, yeah.” Jason sipped his coffee. “Is that why you drank that beer? And kept doing it?”

“Sort of. I think. I don’t know. I—I’ve been lucky I guess. Mom pretty much always knew, and I never really worried about telling her. Not with her bringing Felix around all the time when I was younger, and sometimes Uncle Lucas. They’re both—I mean, not together—anyway—” Aiden made a face. “It’s mostly okay at school, but sometimes you get—I mean, there’s always a couple of jerks who think it’s funny to call someone a fag.” His voice wobbled just a little on the final word, and he dropped his eyes to the counter again.

Jason tensed, met Elizabeth’s eyes over Aiden’s bowed head. She’d tensed, her hand fisted against the wall. “So you drank the beer so no one would call you names.”

“Yeah. I guess. It sounds stupid when you say it like that. Me and Rocco — we weren’t really that close, you know? Not until we got to middle school. Then we were in the same math class, and when his dad got together with Sam, we started hanging with Danny more. No one calls me anything when I’m with them. Danny’s got a temper, and one time, someone said something and he shoved them into a locker.” Aiden shifted on the stool. “Anyway. We drank at that party. We finished the beer, someone gave us another. And then we got our own. And we got—well, we thought we got drunk. We didn’t really know what that meant.”

“But you do now,” Jason said.

“Yeah. Um, Thanksgiving last year. We went to the Quartermaines, I think, the day after? Or sometime during the break. And Danny stole a bottle of whiskey from the mini bar. We went to the boathouse, and we drank the whole thing. I don’t think I like it much,” he muttered.

“Danny and Rocco were  high last night, and there was weed in the vape pens. When did that start?”

“Around Christmas, I guess. I don’t remember where Rocco got the first one, but it’s the same guy, I think, that we get the beer from. We started going every weekend to the boathouse. Sometimes we said we were at my house, and then sometimes at Rocco’s, and then sometimes at the Quartermaines because Rocco and Danny’s grandmoms live there, I mean, you know that.” Aiden made a face. “And sometimes there were parties.”

“Every weekend,” Jason repeated, with a sinking feeling. “That’s…a lot.”

“I guess. I didn’t always go. Sometimes I really was at someone else’s house. I didn’t like getting high like—” Aiden flushed, stopped.

“Like Rocco and Danny.”

“Yeah—they—they started doing it in the middle of the week. Danny thought he was screwed when Jake saw him, but he promised Jake it was the first time, I guess, and he was a little more careful. We didn’t go to the boathouse as much. I didn’t want to do it all the time. It was like..it was all they wanted to do. But I didn’t want them to get mad or stop being my friends. So I started covering for them when I didn’t wanna go.”

“Which brings us to last night. You didn’t want to go,” Jason said.

“Right. I don’t really know why.  I mean, the last two weeks, yeah, because of Mom. But I don’t—I think the last time I went was in July or something.” Aiden paused. “Can you…I mean, can you be here when I talk to my mom? I wanna apologize to her—I mean, I wanted to apologize to you, because you were really clear about staying out of trouble, and Jake and Cam are going to kill me—”

“I’ll be here,” Jason said, but he nodded to Elizabeth who had crept slowly into the kitchen. “But your mom already knows you’re sorry.”

“She does—” Aiden looked up, caught Jason looking past him, then turned on the stool. “M-Mom—”

“Hey.” Elizabeth gently combed through Aiden’s disheveled locks. “You’re still in trouble, kiddo. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’m really sorry.”

“I know you are.” Elizabeth kissed the top of his head. “I’m sorry, honey, that things were hard at school. I wish you’d told me.”

“It’s mostly fine. It’s only sometimes.”

“Sometimes is still too much. And we’ll talk more about what exactly your punishment looks like once we talk to Danny. I appreciate that you were honest with Jason,” Elizabeth said. “But you’ve been lying to me for almost a year. I can’t let that go.”

“I know.”

“Why don’t you go back upstairs? Get some more sleep.” She rubbed her shoulder. “Cam and Jake are going to wake you up a little later, and you’re going to the movies today.”

“I am?” Aiden frowned. “Are you picking the movie? Is that the punishment?”

“Ha. No. You guys need some time together on your own before Cam leaves tonight. Your punishment starts tomorrow.”

“Fair enough.” Aiden slid off the stool, then hugged his mother. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“I know.” She rubbed his back, and watched him leave the kitchen. When his footsteps thudded up the stairs, she turned to Jason, then swept her hands through her hair. “He was drinking so he wouldn’t get called filthy names.” She squeezed her eyes closed.

Jason came to her, and she went into his arms, needing just a minute to gather herself. “I’m sorry. I know that was hard to hear.”

“And he was loyal to Rocco and Danny because they stuck up for him? Protected him? How do I get angry with him? And how do I stay angry at them when Danny’s apparently shoving bullies into the locker?”  She pulled away from him, went to make herself a cup of coffee. “Everything about this situation feels unreal.”

“I’d like think last night scared Danny and Rocco straight, but—” Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess we won’t know until Danny gets up and he’s sober. I’m sorry. For how he spoke to you last night. I should have done something—said something. I just—” He leaned against the fridge again. “I didn’t know how to handle any of it. The closest I ever came to any of this was Michael, after the coma. And he wasn’t my son.”

“You and Danny are welcome to stay here as long as you need to.” She tipped her head. “Any idea on how long that might be?”

Jason shook his head, reached around her for his coffee. “No. I’ll go talk to Sam. I don’t know—” He hesitated. “You were able to talk to him last night. Get him to listen when I couldn’t. He’s angry with his mother, angry with me. I don’t know whether we should bulldoze through that and just ignore how resistant he was, or—”

“Why don’t you go talk to Sam?” Elizabeth suggested. “Part of the reason I’m sending the boys to the movies was to give you and Danny some space. But you can go talk to Sam at that point, and I’ll see where I can get with Danny. I mean, maybe it’ll help that I’m not one of his parents. Look at how much Aiden told you. I’m not sure he was ever going to tell me there were issues at school.”

“Your boys—” Jason paused. “They’re very protective of you. I don’t think Aiden wanted you to worry about him.”

“It’s my job to worry—” Elizabeth grimaced. “What is it with men and treating me like I’m going to break at any minute? Jake, at least, I could say, it’s genetic, because you’ve done that since the day we met—”

“That’s not—”

“But Cam and Aiden have no excuse. They know what I can handle. Why does everyone seem to think I’m weak?” she demanded.

“I don’t think that—” When she just snorted, Jason shook his head. “You know, you never did try to see it from my side of things—”

“Excuse me?” Elizabeth scowled, folded her arms. “What does that mean?”

“I just—” Jason took a moment, considered his words carefully. “Wanting to protect you isn’t about you being weak or not being able to handle things. I know what you can handle. I’ve been watching you do it for more than twenty years. Aiden didn’t tell you about what happened to him at school because you can’t stop it. You can’t fix it. And it would just hurt you to know it’s happening. He doesn’t want to see you hurt when he can do something to stop it.”

“He’s my son. It’s my job to hurt for him—no, not a job—it’s literally—” Elizabeth shook her head. “I’m here to share the hurt. To take some of it off his shoulders—”

“He’s reached an age where you can’t do that,” Jason said gently, and she pressed her lips together in mutinous line. “You can hug him, you can feel sorry for him, you can even go to the school, and make a scene. You could take him out of the school so he doesn’t see these kids again. But he’s always going to be part of a world that treats who he loves as something that’s wrong. You and I can’t fix that. Even if I want to do what Danny did and punch someone.”

Her eyes watered. “I know that. And I hate that. I hate that I can’t control the world, that I can’t stop it from hurting him. I don’t understand why anyone would give a damn who he loves, and I thought we’d come so much further than this. I thought—I thought when he and Tobias were out and open at school, that it meant he was safe there—but he’s not.” She swiped at her eyes. “I know you’re right. I know that he’s not telling me so I don’t have to have this reaction.”

“He can’t control his world, only how he reacts to it. And he’s trying to do it in a way that protects the people he loves most,” Jason told her. With the pad of his thumb, he brushed away another tear. “I understand what he’s trying to do.”

“Oh, right. Because this is the same thing as a bomb in my studio,” she muttered.

“You think Aiden wanting to protect you is about you not being able to handle things. You think me walking away that day, and all the other days, was you not being able to handle my life.” He tipped her chin up. “I knew you could handle it. I was the problem. I couldn’t handle the possibility of you being hurt. Aiden—and Jake and Cam—you’re the center of their world. And they’re going to do whatever they have to do to protect you.”

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