And so the dinner continues! I considered doing a big confrontation for this scene but I'm afraid there's more to come before someone puts Porter in his place. As I've said though - there will be karma. Stick with me on that one! (And forgive me for the title of this chapter - I couldn't resist after yesterday's Polo reference...and considering what a focker Porter is...)
"Ketchup, Jesus? Really?" Lena scolded noticing the bottle as they reached the table.
"What? I figured Mr Porter might be the kind who likes the grittier things in life."
"Out of curiosity where did you get your suit, Mr Porter?" Now Kasey earned her first kick.
"I'm not ashamed of longevity. I've had this for longer than you've been alive, Miss Foster. Maybe not for quite as long as your boyfriend here has been though." She didn't have time to respond before Brandon intervened.
"This looks really nice Moms. Thank you for making it." Brandon smiled as various spoonfuls were dished out.
Lena winced as Jesus smothered his dinner in the ketchup deliberately shaking the bottle violently. As he finished he carefully readjusted the lid, loosening it.
"I will have a splash of that actually when you're done Foster." Porter said looking vaguely distrusting of Lena's fancy creation.
"Sure!" Jesus smiled as he passed it down. Stef caught the smirk on Kasey's face but the slots fell into place just too slowly as the science teacher ferociously shook the bottle, exploding over the side of his plate and partly onto his table and shirt. "Oh sorry, I meant to say to watch the lid." He said through a smirk as Kasey tried to lose herself in her food. They both flinched as Stef kicked each of them in turn.
"I am so sorry, Mr Porter!" Brandon said throwing a look at his brother. "Let me get you another napkin."
"It's OK, son. If childish pranks ever phased me I wouldn't have survived teaching. I'm used to delinquent behaviour."
Lena scolded Jesus with another look as Stef kicked Kasey again for still giggling.
"Enough." She whispered harshly to them both. "One more stunt like that and you'll be eating nothing but bread and water for a month. Without ketchup. Come on guys, you were doing so well." She added still hidden under the fiasco of Brandon trying to help clean up his girlfriend's Dad. He tried his best to mop him up before realising how close to his crotch the sauce had spilled and Porter batted him away as Brandon panicked unsure how to proceed. He could do with some wine too.
"So Evan..." Michelle began sensing an opportunity to get some revenge of her own. "Tell us, were are you from? You're way too pretty for this town." She said in a husky tone. It dampened Kasey's humour much faster than any threat from her Mom. Brandon was returning to his seat still too flustered from trying to help Porter to pick up on the flirting.
"Uhm, just down the road actually. I didn't go to Anchor Beach though. When time for college came I decided to stay in San Diego. I had my job here and stuff."
"What is it that you do?" Porter raised an eyebrow.
"Well...I...well I used to deliver pizza. But I left that job. I've had a few since."
"Hang on..." Porter scrutinised Evan's face. "I thought I recognised you!" Evan sat back slightly nervous. He didn't have the cleanest past.
"You're Mason's boy aren't you? I know your parents quite well." Evan's heart sank a little and Kasey brushed his leg with her foot.
"Oh right." He said quietly. Lena and Stef exchanged a look. Evan never spoke about his parents and they knew very little about them themselves.
"From what I hear you were quite a handful." Porter laughed. "Left the job huh? I heard you got fired for sprinkling a little weed to a friend's pizza order." Evan looked down nervously at his plate.
"I was young and stupid, sir. I took a stupid dare and I paid the price for it." He mumbled.
"Well, we all have trouble as teens. I'm sure you had your brushes with the law, Porter." Lena said winking at Evan in solidarity.
"Absolutely." Stef agreed. "Well except you of course, Lena." She teased trying to lighten the mood.
Porter was clearly ignoring their attempts to change the subject.
"I used to play poker with your Father. Still see them every now and again. Your Mom's in the church choir, no?" He asked taking another sip of wine and casually throwing his arm over the back of his chair.
"My step-mom. Yes." Evan corrected swilling his wine around his glass.
"Never see you at church." Porter commented, his words dripping with agenda.
"I'm not really religious." He replied barely audibly into his glass.
"You do surprise me." Porter squinted his eyes. "I've never met anyone more religious than your Mom." He added before looking between Stef and Lena for their reaction.
Evan put his glass down with a quiver. "My step-mom." He corrected again firmly. Kasey put her arm on his leg and Stef threw him a compassionate look. She had never seen Evan so vulnerable.
A momentary silence followed with no-one able to think of any diversion to ease the awkwardness.
"Sorry, I guess you just forget with time. How long have they been together now?" Porter asked. It was hard to tell whether it was to further jibe or to try and ease the tension himself in his own awkward way. Evan spun his glass around at the base before looking Porter dead in the eye.
"Is your question how long have they been together since my Mom died or how long was he screwing her before?" Evan said cuttingly making the silence even more piercing with his flippant tone. He knocked even Porter speechless.
Lena and Stef looked at each other, both desperate to try and help the new addition to their family but completely lost for words.
Surprisingly, it was Michelle that was the saviour.
"I guess that must have sucked, huh? Not easy to lose a parent." Evan looked over to her as did her Father, Porter's look more fierce. Kasey suddenly felt guilty that it had been Michelle who had spoken up before her.
"Well this has taken a turn." Lena said. "Some more wine, Porter?"
"I'll go get another bottle." Evan said throwing his napkin down on the table and moving through to the kitchen. Kasey was close behind.
She didn't need to say anything to him, she knew it wouldn't help. Nothing Evan had said had shocked her, unlike the rest. It was more the empathy for his embarrassment that had rendered her speechless at the revelation.
"I'm sorry." He said through a sigh.
"Hey, don't you dare." She kissed him and pulled him into a hug. "Wanna go make up some fake authors?" She smiled echoing their earlier conversation from the night before. "Maybe we could make them sciencey just to show him up even more." He rubbed her arm affectionately and poured himself a chug of wine. "Just give me a minute." He said kissing her head once again as she moved to return.
He downed the rest of the glass as Stef came in with some of the empty dishes.
"You OK, bud?" She said placing them down and patting his back.
"I'm good." He said. "I'm sorry for that...causing that tension."
"Oh honey." She replied. "You could walk in that room naked, it wouldn't make this dinner any more awkward." She teased in return for a smile.
"Just don't drink all my wine, OK? Or I'll show you the meaning of the word tension!" She joked trying to make him feel better.
He took the bottle off the side and followed her out but she stopped just short of the door.
"Don't let him grate you down Evan, you're ten times the man he is."
He smiled at her, his eyes twinged with gratitude. She knew how much that level of acceptance would mean to him, even if the comparison was as much of a weasel as Porter. He composed himself and smiled broadly, eager to move away from too much sentiment. "There'd be no doubt of that if I did take my clothes off." He teased sticking his tongue out slightly. Stef bit her lip to suppress and inappropriate laugh before smacking him hard on the arm.
"Get your mind out the gutter, young man!" She chastised as he stepped forwards to head back in.
The night continued much the same way. Digs sent to and fro, Stef attempting to maintain civility though giving up slightly as the wine was absorbed and her patience with Porter's attacks wearing thin. Eventually Brandon was silencing her with a glance or two. Nobody could tell if the glass that Lena knocked onto Porter's lap was an accident or not.
"Goodnight guys, thanks for coming!" Lena shouted out as the party disappeared into the night, Michelle shouting back her gratitude.
"No problem - goodnight; you obnoxious son of a bitch." Stef echoed Jesus in Lena's ear as the door clicked closed.
"Oh what happened to Miss 'Be nice for Brandon'?" Lena said swatting her slightly.
"Yeah well it's over now so I don't have to keep up moral." She smiled as Lena nuzzled her. "And jeez! If I'd have known he was that bad I wouldn't have made Jesus come! Seriously - it's like he took a wrong turn out of a 1970s Gentlemen's Club and couldn't find his way back home. He actually makes me respect Michelle a little more. And you can talk Miss "I am so sorry, I get so clumsy when I've had a glass or two'" Stef mocked as Lena raised her eyebrow suggestively.
"Well he needed to put something on it to get the ketchup out..." She responded as Stef rolled her eyes.
Kasey and Evan appeared from the other room, Kasey with the rest of her Mom's wine in hand.
"That...was fun." Evan said with a slight slur. "Well apart from the parts that were absolutely shit." He added as Kasey laughed, taking a swig of the glass in her hand.
"Uhm, language young man!" Stef reprimanded, taking her glass back off Kasey for the umpteenth time. "And I think you've both had a little too much of our wine!" She commented.
"Well, if there's no more wine, I'm off!" He said grabbing his keys from his pocket and dangling them up. "Night all!"
Stef and Lena looked at each other before Stef snatched them off him.
"Uhm, are you trying to never be allowed alone with our daughter again?" Lena chastised.
"Nah, they're not even my motorbike keys...I just wanted you to suggest I stay so I can sleep with your daughter." He said blankly prompting a slap on the arm from Kasey.
Stef squared up to him with a smile. "Wow, you really are drunk if you can say that and not be scared of us!" She teased clapping him lightly on the cheek.
"I'll go call you a cab." Lena said patting his chest.
"I'm only kidding." He said pulling Kasey into a hug. "But you're right...my drunken judgement isn't the best. Especially when romance is concerned." He began to rub his nose against Kasey's as Stef rolled her eyes.
"OK, break it up. The kissing I can stand but lines like that?" She pulled him off.
"Oh you know you love me Mrs F!" He said with further drunken flair. "Lesbians love me. I reckon I could tu..."
"Oh – hold it right there young man! Unless you want a lecture on homosexuality that'll see you into sobriety I would bite your tongue." She warned with a finger pointed in his face. "In fact why waste it on a drunken evening? Me, you and two chairs tomorrow. You'll regret even thinking of making that joke." She said folding her arms.
"Ignore him Mom, he's only trying to wind you up." Kasey pulled him away. "Come on, dummy. Let's sit you down before you get into any more trouble."
"Cab will be here in 10 – I'm heading up. Goodnight guys! And Kasey, thank you for trying hard tonight, for the most part! I know it must be difficult for you." Lena said cupping her daughter's cheeks and pulling her into a hug before heading up the stairs. "Night Evan - and you better get that cab!" She smiled with a warning as he gave his token salute.
"Yes...thank you for not physically attacking anyone." Stef continued "It was close but you just about avoided any Sunday morning wrath." Stef said pulling her into a hug. "But next time let's try for completely avoided, OK?" Kasey nodded silently.
"Right, I'm gonna go check your brother's OK. Next time I may just let him eat under the sink - I now see his reasoning."
Stef turned one more time before heading up the stairs.
"Get him home in that cab, OK?" She warned. "And home alone, otherwise it'll be Sunday morning wrath like no other. And no more wine!" She warned before retreating up the stairs.
"I've had like one glass! And there's like another three bottles..." Kasey responded.
"And I know how much is in them!" Stef shouted back finally out of sight.
Kasey let out a small laugh shaking her head and cuddled up to Evan.
"Thank you for being here tonight." She said rubbing his arm. "I'm sorry he attacked you too."
He kissed her head softly.
"Don't worry about it." He smiled. "I have put up with bigger jackasses than him in my time."
He paused for a moment closing his eyes and resting back his head.
"And you did really well. I know how hard it must be to see Brandon with one of your mortal enemies." Kasey rubbed his chest. "Plus, look on the bright side. A few hours ago nobody would have known about the marvelous talents of Rees Van Wimplestein, inventor of the electronic party popper." They laughed at their dinner time diversion using Evan's trick.
"I'm expecting Porter is Googling him right now!" Kasey laughed in return.
It actually hurts me to write Evan sad. OK - Unless I hear objection I will probably post 2 chapters tomorrow! I still would love to know how people feel the story is going so far - helps me know I'm pacing it OK! There are parts I may remove (mainly character interactions) if people thinks it's moving too slowly - so your reviews/PMs are always helpful! And thanks, as always, for the ones so far!
Chapter 7 Preview: Mariana tries to help improve Jude's confidence and Jesus skates into a spot of bother.
"I...well I was thinking about it. I mean Lesley said I should consider it. She said it may help my confidence a little. But I dunno, you're right. It's stupid." he looked down to his feet.
"Jude are you crazy? I think it's a brilliant idea! You're great at drama! Those lines you read with me for my mid-term were awesome. You should totally audition! There's another day of them."