Chapter Ninety
Jim looked at his son’s swelling black eye and split lip. “Want to explain?” he asked sternly.
Byron crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the wall.
Jim looked to the principal, and said, “I’m really sorry about this.”
“Mr. Frayne, you know we have a zero-tolerance policy for fighting. This is the second time Byron has hit another student, counting last spring.”
“I know,” Jim said. “I really am sorry. We’ve had a rough time lately.”
“I understand,” Ms. Hendrix said. “We know what Byron’s been through, but we just can’t accept this kind of behavior.”
“I know,” he said unhappily. He looked at the sullen teenager. “Give us a minute, Buddy.”
Byron got up and left the room. Jim turned to Ms. Hendrix.
“I don’t know what to do with him,” he confessed. “He’s spiraled since his mother died and counseling isn’t helping.”
“Have you thought about another school?” she asked gently. “Maybe having him closer to home would be beneficial.”
“You want to expel him?” Jim asked incredulously.
“No, but Mr. Frayne, he will be suspended for a few days. If he has another fight, he will be expelled, per our policy. But I think he might benefit from a smaller school, with more attention, particularly your attention. Enrolling him at your school might help. This is only the first week of the school year, and it’s a bad way to start.”
Jim sat back in his chair, deflated. “Do you really think it will get worse?”
“It’s hard to say, Mr. Frayne. I know Byron has counseling, but it doesn’t seem to be very effective, and from what the other students said, Byron started the altercation. The other boy made a remark about you and his mother, and Byron not only punched him, but pushed him against the locker and hit him several times. The other boy fought back, as you could see. By all rights, he should be expelled right now. Given what Byron has been through this year…I’m making an exception.”
Jim rubbed his face tiredly. “We’ve talked about resolving issues with words, not fists. My children weren’t raised to start fights.”
“I understand that, Mr. Frayne,” she said gently. “But Byron has had an exceptionally rough year with the divorce, and now his mother’s death.”
“He said he was ready to come back. I was hoping schoolwork would give him something to focus on.”
“It’s not unusual to lose oneself in work, you know that,” she said. “But Byron is a powder keg right now, and I think he needs more attention and maybe a different counselor.”
Jim nodded. “You’re probably right. I’ll talk to him and figure out the best path forward. How long is he suspended?”
“A week.”
Jim sighed.
*
“You want to talk about it?” Jim asked, as they drove home.
“No.”
“Well, you don’t have a choice, Byron. This can’t go on. One more fight and you’re expelled.”
“Good.”
“I guess you’ll be enrolled at my school, then.”
“What?” Byron turned and looked at Jim.
“That’s your alternative. Come to school with me.”
“With those…losers you take in?”
Jim pulled over, put the SUV in park, and stared at his son. “What did you call them?”
“Losers. Losers that are always taking your attention away from us. Mom was right about that.”
“No, she wasn’t.” Jim said through clenched teeth. “You know why I do this, why I bring these boys here, and try to help them.”
“Yeah, yeah, your stepfather was a jerk, smacked you around, you lived in the woods, were going to join a cattle boat. I’ve heard it, Dad. Doesn’t mean those jerks aren’t losers.”
Jim clenched the steering wheel. “I’m trying to give them a better life, Byron, so they can go out into the world and do something good with their lives. You’ve never known what it’s like to be hungry, Byron, or live in fear that everything mistake you made would result in a horse whipping. You don’t know what it’s like to have nothing and not know where your next meal is coming from.”
Byron stared out the window. “I don’t want to go to your school.”
“Maybe you need to. Including board there with the others.”
“What? No way!” he protested.
“Then help me out here, Buddy, and talk to me. Tell me how to help you.”
Byron went silent again.
“You’ve got a week to think about it. No internet, no TV, no phone.”
“What? Dad, you can’t!”
“Yes, I can, and I will. You need to get your act together. I could always send you to military school.”
“What!”
“It worked for your cousin, Tim.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“Well, Byron, I’m throwing options out here, but you’ve got to meet me halfway.”
Byron muttered something.
“Speak up, son.”
“I just want to be left alone.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
Jim had started driving again.
“I don’t want to see that counselor anymore.”
“Fine. Then you’ll see a different one.”
“Dad,” he whined.
“You need an outlet, Byron. You can either talk to me or talk to a professional.”
Byron sighed loudly.
“I mean it, Byron. You’ve got this week to decide what you want to do.”
***
Jim rubbed his chin as he reviewed the credit card charges. While he knew the household bills and such were on auto pay, he needed to find out what sort of subscriptions Hallie had had and cancel them. He knew there were monthly beauty boxes and a couple of magazines, that she had been allowed to have sent to her at rehab. Her rehab had been more like an exclusive spa, and he had the bills to prove it.
He Googled the various things he came across, making notes of which needed to be canceled. Jim paused at one company in particular. “Entertainment Co.” What the Hell was that? After several internet searches, he stared at the website it was associated with. Why was Hallie visiting a porn site? Particularly when she had been having an affair? Harrison had access to a credit card for emergency situations involving the children but this was on one of Hallie’s and Jim’s account.
He had had her possessions brought to the house, so he could go through them. Riker still had some of her clothes, but Jim didn’t care about those. But Hallie hadn’t been allowed her laptop in rehab. Instead, he went to the site he had found associated with the billing company. His eyes widened at the teaser pictures. This was a site that clearly catered to men. Why was Hallie…with a sigh, he went back through the credit card statements. The charges were monthly, for over a year. Long before Harrison had come along.
After checking her spreadsheet of account usernames and passwords, there was nothing to match this site.
Then it struck him.
*
Byron was laying on his bed, flipping through a graphic novel wen there was a knock at the door.
“Byron? It’s Dad. Can I come in?”
The teenager rolled his eyes. Like he had a choice. “Sure,” he responded.
Jim came in and closed the door behind him. Regan would be asleep already in the next room.
“What are you reading?” Jim asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Byron held up the graphic novel.
“Locke and Key. Any good?”
“Sure.”
Jim sighed. That seemed to be the only word in Byron’s vocabulary since he had been grounded two days before.
“What’s your phone password?” Jim finally asked.
That got his son’s attention. And the panicked look on his face confirmed Jim’s thoughts. “Why?”
“Because I need to see something.”
“That’s my private stuff!”
Jim raised his eyebrow. “Who pays for it?”
“You can’t violate my privacy!” he said hotly. “Mom never did!”
“Mom’s not here,” Jim said quietly. “And I’ll be changing a few rules around here.”
“Dad, come on! I’m fourteen! I don’t need you checking up on me like a baby!”
“And until you’re eighteen, you live under my roof and my rules.”
“That’s not fair!”
Jim made a mental note to ask his sister and friends how they had dealt with this argument with their kids. No doubt Dan had gone through it with Tim.
“Welcome to life, son. What’s the password?”
“You can’t make me tell you!”
“Fine.” Jim stood. “Then you don’t get it back at all and it will be disconnected.”
“Dad!”
“Regardless, the porn subscription stops now, and will be taken out of your allowance for the last year we paid for.”
Byron shot up, stunned. “What?! That’s not—it’s not mine!”
Jim just looked at his son. “I suppose Regan used your mother’s credit card and is watching porn? Or your sister?”
Byron’s face flushed red.
“Byron, there’s no shame in it. Exploring the human body, especially the female human body, is completely natural at your age.”
Byron’s face turned redder. “God, Dad, I don’t want a lecture! I know how babies are made!”
“You do,” Jim said matter-of-factly. “And you know about puberty and everything happening to your body right now from a scientific standpoint. But the curiosity of the female body and wanting to explore it is normal. I’d rather you were a little older, as stealing the credit card to get an account on an eighteen and older site is illegal. Not to mention, it exposes you to things you don’t really need to know about at your age. So, it stops now.”
Byron wished his bed would swallow him whole. He did not want to discuss porn with his father!
“And if you want to talk about girls, I’ll always listen,” Jim said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Oh my God, Dad, just leave!”
Jim realized this was a losing battle. “All right. See you in the morning.”
Kids today had it easy, he realized. When he was a teenager, he and the guys had to carefully smuggle the occasional Playboy into the house to ogle whoever was that month’s centerfold. He would have been mortified had Celia found them while changing his sheets. Brian had been too scared of Moms finding the magazines but Mart had smuggled a couple into the boys’ bedroom hidden in the pages of his comic books, until a close call with Moms organizing them put a stop to it.
It didn’t occur to him until he was halfway down the stairs that he should have told Byron porn wasn’t realistic in the slightest. He turned to go back and then thought better of it. Byron wasn’t going to listen to a damn thing he said at this point.
*
Byron stared at the door after his father left.
As if things couldn’t get any worse after being suspended, and robbed of his entertainment other than books wasn’t bad enough, he didn’t even have his favorite site to visit now. Which he usually did on his phone, figuring his dad couldn’t find it there.
He hadn’t really intended to visit the site so much but…last year, he had helped Hallie set up autopay for things, and he knew she never looked at charges. She just spent money when she felt like it. And it was nothing to take her card one night after he had put her to bed, passed out drunk.
He had only needed the card because of his Google searches. While scrolling through her phone, and then her emails on her laptop, reading the details of her affair with his Uncle Ben, he hadn’t understood everything his mother said to her lover. A few searches on the internet clarified things quickly, and Byron was both grossed out and intrigued by what he found. There were hundreds, if not thousands of sites offering memberships for all sort of lascivious activities. A few teaser videos piqued his interest, and he signed up for a subscription, using a dummy email account and his mother’s credit card. It had occurred to him too late that his father might look at the credit card statements, but after a month had passed and Jim never mentioned it, Byron figured he was in the clear. After that, he visited the site regularly on his phone, usually at night.
The teenager had also started doing his own laundry, including his sheets, to hide the evidence. His mom wouldn’t have noticed if it he did it right in front of her, but he knew she’d be pissed about the porn. And forget his Dad. They were both cheaters: they had no moral ground to lecture him on porn.
And now Dad wanted him to chat about girls with him? Was he crazy? Like Byron would open up to him about anything. There wasn’t even a girl he liked. The girls at school in his year looked nothing like the women in the videos, and he couldn’t imagine doing any of that stuff with them. His classmates still wore braces and while a few had developed boobs, they were nothing impressive. The senior girls were more interesting, but would never look at a freshman like him, even if he was tall for his age.
As fascinating as the porn was, the revulsion came from thinking about his Mom and Uncle Ben doing those things, or his Dad and some bimbo he picked up. It was just too gross.
Byron didn’t talk to his counselor, and he wasn’t about to talk to his father, especially not about girls. Though admittedly, Jim hadn’t lectured him porn being bad. But Byron still wasn’t going to talk to him about it.
He knew his cousin Tim had game with the ladies. Byron had overheard the twins and Miles talking about him more than once. The three idolized their older cousin, and while Byron didn’t know Tim well, he knew enough to know Tim was considered extremely good looking and very popular with women.
The twins. Byron thought about his cousins for a minute. They were cool. They never talked down to him and Leif always ruffled Byron’s hair affectionately. Byron pretended to be annoyed when he did it, but was secretly pleased. Leif was his favorite; he genuinely seemed interested in Byron and made an effort to include him. While Byron was about the same age as Sean, the autistic cousin almost never spoke and kept to himself. The Belden-Dukes lived in White Plains, almost an hour away, and went to school there but…Byron would bet the girls there were prettier. And he wouldn’t have known them all through school. Mabon was super popular, she probably had pretty friends. Maybe he’d have better luck somewhere new. He still remembered Susie Thurlun pooping herself in first grade and Kristy Carlisle eating boogers in third. He’d never ask either out in a million years, even if they did somehow end up pretty when they got older, which he doubted.
His mother would have had a fit if spent more time with his cousins. God forbid he be anywhere near his cousins. He had never understood her intense hatred of the rest of the family until he started reading her texts and emails. She had been bad about passwords; it was so easy to get into her accounts.
Byron liked his Aunt Trixie. She always had a hug for him, and she looked a lot like Moms. He liked being around all of them. They were such a happy bunch, always teasing and having fun. Hallie had hated that. She begrudged Trixie her happiness because she was so miserable. Her emails were mostly drunken rants, insulting Trixie and everyone else in the family. Byron brushed those off. What was harder to read was the stuff about his dad. How she suspected he was cheating, the disappearance of that secretary so abrupt confirmed it…when his dad cheated with Patrick’s mom, and how Patrick’s mom had turned the other mothers against her. Then once the affair started with Ben, the dirty talk, the sex acts Hallie wanted to do with Ben, the naked pics she had sent him – that had grossed Byron out the most, seeing those…his mother was no better than his father. At least his father didn’t smack him around when drunk, because Jim didn’t drink. Byron couldn’t ever remember his father having alcohol, and Jim had never raised a hand to him.
Jim didn’t know about that at all. Byron was taking that secret to the grave. Hallie had been a mean drunk, and took it out on him. Better him than his siblings. He took the brunt of her rage to protect them. Hallie used words to tear down Val, and when Byron threw insults back, Hallie would slap him in the head. Never leaving a bruise that Jim could see, and the next morning she had no memory of it. She never remembered Byron putting her to bed so she wouldn’t fall down the stairs drunk and break her neck. She never knew that the son she smacked around was the one taking care of her when she couldn’t. It wasn’t unusual for him to make breakfast for his siblings—even if it meant a bowl of cereal or toast and jam, then get them ready for school. Jim had never noticed, always rushing out the door to go up the hill to his precious school.
There was that one night he’d never forget, when their voices were so loud it woke Val. Byron had been sitting at the top of the steps listening to the exchanged insults and accusations when his sister’s door opened. Val tiptoed out to sit next to him, her face sad. She had leaned her head against his shoulder as they sat and listened. The light had come on under Regan’s door, then shut off. The youngest Frayne didn’t want to hear it.
Byron had secretly wished more than once that Trixie was his mother. Then Moms and Grandpa Peter would really be his grandparents. He loved Grandpa Matt and Grandmother Maddie—and he was the only one allowed to call her that—but they traveled so much he didn’t see a lot of them. They usually were at his birthday parties but it was Moms and Grandpa Peter who always there, without fail. They showed up to every class play he was forced into or awards ceremony. It was Moms who whipped up thirty-six cupcakes at eleven o’clock at night for a class party, when Hallie had forgotten or passed out drunk, Moms who often came to pick up one of them if they were sick at school, when Hallie was “ill”.
Crabapple Farm was his refuge from Hallie. Moms was always happy to see him. She would stuff him full of good food and milk, and listen to him about school, or his favorite graphic novel. Sometimes they just watched TV together while Grandpa Peter read his paper. If Byron fell asleep on the sofa, she would call his house to let Hallie know he was spending the night, and he’d wake up in one of the twin beds upstairs. Then he’d get a big, delicious breakfast before walking home. Sometimes he pretended to fall asleep just so he could bask in her attention longer. If Moms knew, she never let on. Moms never made him feel like a burden. No wonder his uncle Mart and his siblings were such happy people.
Being around his cousins always made him feel better, even if he was the youngest, and never said much. They were always having fun. Tim had taught him to tackle properly, so he could join their impromptu yard football games. Bo and Luke taught him how to string a fishing rod and skin the fish properly, when Jim couldn’t make it on a fishing trip but let Byron go. Logan showed him where Moms kept her seemingly never-ending supply of cookies, in case the cookie jar ran empty while everyone was over, and she didn’t notice right away to refill it.
Byron wondered what it would take to get transferred to the twins’ school. Maybe getting away from the classmates he had known his whole life and a fresh start would help.
Meet the cast in full & see the family tree!
Author’s Notes
- a giant yee-haa! To Ronda, my lovely editor. All mistakes are mine!
- Word Count, 3,314
|