house
inquiring about his music. He wouldn’t even listen to what the people had to
say. His father felt he had the right to interfere with his dream. And shit, it
was his dream, his life. His mom, or Cole, would never interfere. He couldn’t
wait until she came home. He’d had it with staying with his dad. He glanced
around at his friends and took another hit off his beer, nearly falling back in
the process. Shit, he was sooooo past wasted.
***
John McKenzie
sat in his study, trying to think about what to do with Cameron. Everything had
been fine until Jackson came into their lives.
“John, the door’s
locked.”
John raked his
hands through his thinning hair and went to let his wife in.
She shut and
locked the door behind her, eyeing him hungrily, and then she melted into his
arms and whispered into his ear. “Matt’s napping, the twins went shopping with
my mother and Cameron’s out with friends. I thought...” She ran her hand down
the front of his shirt, and then even lower causing him to take a breath, and
she whispered into his ear once more. “We’re never alone, not even in our bed
at night.”
John took her
hand, led her to his chair and pulled her onto his lap before he proceeded to
explore his wife’s wonderfully pregnant body. For some reason, whenever Cheryl was
pregnant, she became frisky as hell. And John, always a gentleman, would not
disappoint his beautiful wife.
They’d just
finished putting their clothes on when the doorbell rang. John hurried down the
hall toward the front door. After glancing through the sidelight and seeing a
uniformed police officer and his son Cameron, John closed his eyes and breathed
deeply. This couldn’t be good.
He swung open
the door. “Carl.”
“John, we were
called to the woods near the high school because neighbors complained of noise.
We found a group of teenagers drinking and getting high. Your son here was a
little too out of it, I thought I’d bring him to you and let you deal with
him.”
“Thanks Carl, I
owe you one.”John stared at his son, who looked a little green around the gills
and he thought, here we go, the teenage drinking years are upon us. Shit. He
was so not ready for this.
Once Carl was gone,
John grabbed Cameron’s arm. “Come on, son.” He dragged his swaying, limp body
up the stairs into the bathroom and flipped the toilet lid just in time for the
poison to come up and out of Cameron’s body. John gagged. Christ, how much did
he drink? John proceeded to strip his son naked, put him in the shower and then
to bed. It wouldn’t do any good to talk to him now. He was too far gone. But
shit, John wanted nothing more than to throttle him for his stupidity. Instead
he tucked him into bed, his heart heavy with the burden of guilt every parent
felt whenever their children screwed-up.
He raked his
hands through his hair and swore at himself for it. He would definitely be bald
within the year. He’d been really tough on Cameron lately, ever since the BlackJack
concert. Hell, maybe he hadn’t been thinking clearly. He owed his son an
apology, which he would give him, and then he would get the talk about drinking
and smoking dope and then the grounding.
As a cop he
knew more than most what teenagers truly did these days, and it frightened him
to the core. And he wasn’t that old that he didn’t remember all the things he
did at Cameron’s age. But times were different now. Drugs were stronger, purer,
dangerous and more addicting. And never mind the consequences for kids these
days. One screw-up could change the whole trajectory of their lives. Gone were
the times when, if you were caught smoking pot on school grounds, you received
a week’s suspension. Now you were expelled from the school completely. Years
ago if an under aged teenager was caught with alcohol, the police would
confiscate it and see him home safely. Cameron was lucky the cop brought him
home instead of the police station. It was a scary time they lived in,
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
John O'Riley
Brenda Sinclair
Christopher George
Stephen Lloyd Jones
Karl Iagnemma
Celya Bowers
Jill Gregory
Aria Cunningham