They were sitting naked at the kitchen table, Boone had a piece of ice wrapped in a clean dish towel pressed to his lip, Shannon a similarly wrapped piece pressed to the lobe of her right ear.
'You shouldn't have bitten me so hard,' she scolded.
'You head butted me first!' he protested in response. He'd already cleaned all the blood off her shoulder blade; his split lip had bled profusely.
He'd been pressed against her back; they'd been kneeling on the grass at the foot of one of the lawn chairs. Her forearms were rested on the webbing, her hands grasped the steel tubes of the sides; he was buried deep within her, one of his hands between her legs, the other at her breast. He must have squeezed too hard, because her head snapped back catching him full in the mouth. He then had craned his neck so that he could bite at her ear, his orgasm catching him unaware, his teeth had clamped down far harder than he'd intended; Shannon had climaxed with him, their pain mixing with the pleasure.
They each nursed their respective wounds, eventually Shannon started laughing at the absurdity of the situation, Boone quickly joining in. 'Maybe we shouldn't do it rough?'
'Well, perhaps just not this rough!' He suggested, laughing too hard to actually try and choke the words out. A scratch on his shoulder started to seep blood again as he shook.
How Shannon perceived it over the sounds of their combined mirth, she wasn't sure, maybe it was because she was sitting closer to the stairs than he was, but she very clearly heard Andrew's bedroom door open, the stamp of his feet telegraphing his annoyance. She bolted for the bathroom, not having any other alternative to having him see her sitting there naked. It wasn't that she cared so much about the naked part, he'd seen her unclothed before, it was that if she looked as bad as Boone, and she was fairly sure she did, she didn't want him to think they'd been in some cat fight with each other, though the alternative was equally as strange.
Boone watched her ass as she fled across the room, no idea why she was running, until he heard the thud of footfalls descending the stairs. He had no choice but to sit there, appearing ridiculous, the ice still pressed to his very swollen lip.
"Do you guys mind! It's three a.m.!" Andrew started giving them shit through clenched teeth before he cleared the landing, stopping at the sight of a bloodied and shirtless Boone sitting alone, looking like he'd been in a bar brawl. Knowing that he'd heard his mom too, and seeing the abandoned piece of fabric covered ice on the table in front of the pushed out chair, he leaned down to confirm his suspicion, his dad was pantless too. "Could you guys be any weirder?"
When the extremely sheepish Boone looked like he was going to answer the rhetorical question, Andrew held up his hands to stop him, "I don't want to know! Just keep it down, please?" He turned and started back up the stairs, muttering just loudly enough for Boone to hear. "Why I'm not psychologically damaged by your strange sex practices, I surely don't know." Boone heard the bedroom door slam.
Andrew's actual formal sexed in school had been an interesting, though extremely short lived, experience. He already knew everything the teacher, a young and perpetually embarrassed young woman, explained. Boone, ever the patient and willing tutor, had sat him down and gone over everything in exacting detail, shortly after Shannon had returned. Knowing that they'd rapidly fall back into their former highly active sex pattern, he thought it best if Andrew had all the proper facts.
A few weeks into the course, the woman had raised the subject of their parents having sex. Most of the classes had either tittered nervously or made gagging sounds; Andrew had just exploded with laughter.
She'd asked him about his unique reaction, "Is it that difficult to imagine them having sex?"
"No, it's difficult to imagine them not having sex!" He'd replied, the suspicions cast by his answer of course prompting a call to his house.
Luckily for the teacher, she'd gotten Boone on the phone, at least at first. She hesitantly explained the reason for her call.
"No, of course we don't let him watch us! Jesus! What kind of people do you think we are?" Boone had protested, indignantly. The fact that Andrew had caught them on occasion was inevitable, given the frequency of their encounters and their penchant for al fresco sex, but it had always been by accident, and the boy had always stopped immediately, mostly out of respect for their privacy, he was as naturally curious as any child.
"Well, obviously Mr. Carlyle, I don't know. That's why I had to call. I could have reported it to the authorities, but I wanted to save you, and Andrew, the embarrassment."
"Look, my wife and I have what we consider normal sexual relations, sometimes in our bedroom, with the door closed, or sometimes somewhere…" Boone started.
Unfortunately for the teacher, that was when Shannon had come in and overheard what he was saying. She snatched the phone out of his hand. "What the fuck? Who the hell are you talking to?" She pressed the receiver to her ear. "Who the hell is this?" she demanded loudly. "Why the fuck is my idiot husband talking about our sex lives?"
Andrew, sitting in a chair by the teachers' side, knew exactly when his mom had gotten on the phone. Not only did the young woman blanche, she also pulled the receiver away from her ear rather rapidly. Andrew smiled secretly and unabashedly listened in on both sides of the ensuing trademark Shannon Rutherford rant, which ramped up into full gear once the teacher had re-explained the nature of the call.
Highly chastised, the situation clearly and graphically explained, (Yeah, my husband and I have sex, have you seen the guy? Maybe we're too loud sometimes, should I get the kid some earplugs?) the woman slowly and carefully replaced the receiver on the cradle several minutes later. The last thing Andrew overheard was his mom shouting for her to mind her own damned business. She turned to him with a sickly and forced look on her face, her mouth opening and closing a few times as she struggled for something to say.
He took a deep breath and launched into the speech he'd prepared. "So you talked to my mom, huh?" She just nodded. "And everything's okay now?" She nodded again. "So I was thinking Ms. Addison, that maybe you agree I don't really need to take your class anymore, do I? I mean I've already read the whole textbook, cover to cover, and my dad's explained everything to me too. And, you know, maybe I'm too young for the curriculum." Andrew was several years younger than anyone else in his class, his rapid advancement though school had continued unabated.
Having observed the boy for the past month, and just now speaking to his parents, in particular dreading ever having to talk to his mother again, she'd already come to somewhat the same conclusion about his enrolment in her class. "No, Andrew, if anything, I think maybe you're too old." She'd replied, finally finding her voice again.
He'd been transferred to grade seven English the next day.
It was just after lunch, Boone was sprawled at Shannon's side, his head in her lap; they were on a blanket that he'd spread out on the back lawn, having wanted to have a picnic. His right leg was thrown over her shins, his hand on her far hip; she was playing with his hair as he slept. He'd gotten up at 8:15 the same time as they had, but unlike them, he'd only had four hours of sleep. During the meal, Andrew had regarded their easy familiarity with a smile as they joked with each other, and recalled again that his mom and dad had spent almost their entire lives together, with separations of a few years sprinkled here and there.
After lunch, he'd gone inside to use the phone, helping Boone carry some of the lunch dishes into the kitchen.
'Mom?' Andrew asked, returning to the back yard after finishing his call, startled at the unfamiliar form of address he'd inadvertently used. He'd just gotten off the phone with one of his friends, who had referred to his own mother repeatedly, naturally calling her mom.
"Huh?" So surprised, she actually grunted out loud, he'd really caught her off guard.
'Sorry Shan,' he apologized.
'Mom, huh?' She smiled at him. 'I could get used to Mom.'
'You really aren't much of a Mom though, I didn't mean to say it.' He shrugged uncomfortably.
She looked disappointed. 'Oh'
He knelt beside her on the grass. 'And anyway, anyone can be a Mom. You're the only Shannon I'm ever going to have.'
'You sure as hell are Boone's son aren't you?' She reached out and cupped his cheek. 'What a charmer! The girls better be on double alert around you.'
He dipped his head, embarrassed, and shrugged, 'I don't much like girls yet.' After his experimental kiss with Amy back in March, he'd seemed to lose interest again. It was difficult for him though, seeing as most of the kids he went to school with, like Paul, were older and were starting to develop a healthy interest in the opposite sex.
'You will, baby, you will, and they'll like you even more.' She warned.
'Maybe,' he shrugged again. "I'm going to Kevin's, kay?' he said pushing himself to his feet. It had been Kevin whom he'd been speaking to on the phone.
'Be back before seven, Boone said he wanted to talk to us before dinner, and I think he's making your favourite for supper,Pasta Puttanesca.'
'Mmmmm, could you ask him for extra…' His mouth was already watering at the thought.
'Capers…" she finished. 'Got it covered for you, besides I think he knows how you like it,' she said with a laugh.
He kissed her quickly, and left the yard.
It was actually school that Boone convened the family meeting about. His lip was still swollen and painful, and Shannon was wearing her hair hanging straight down, instead of tucked behind her ears as usual. Andrew had been thinking all day that they were a bit overdressed for the warm Southern California July weather with long sleeves and jeans, but he figured what the heck, at least he was cool and comfy in a tank and board shorts.
His parents were both rueing the fact that they'd gotten so carried away the night before, actually the early morning of that day, letting a simple request on Shannon's part turn into a sexual game of one up man-ship as they vied to out do each other, their natural sibling rivalry suddenly making an unexpected reappearance. The marks reminding them of their over zealousness would remain for several days.
They sipped at their iced tea in the shade of one of the trees out back, Boone more carefully that the other two, occasionally dripping a bit of his beverage down his front as he negotiated his fat lip with the glass, rather spoiling the air of authority he'd really wanted to convey.
'I've been thinking about Andrews' schooling,' he started, thankful that he didn't have to actually speak. 'Now, this is just a suggestion, it'd require quite a sacrifice on your part, bud, and you don't have to agree to it, but what if you took summer school? You've already got a couple of grade seven classes done, if you took a few more this summer, you could finish seven and eight next year and get to high school a whole year early.'
"Yes!" the other two blurted immediately.
'Uhm, I was kind of expecting a bit of a discussion.' Boone frowned at them.
'We've already discussed it.' They admitted, sharing a glance.
'I told him you wouldn't let them advance him again because of his age.' Shannon said.
'But we were going to approach you again after my tenth birthday.' Andrew added.
'You guys are conspiring behind my back?' Boone actually found it very heartening that they had bonded so thoroughly that they were discussing things like that on their own.
'Well we…Hey wait!' She looked at him suspiciously. 'You were dead set against it, why the change of heart?'
Boone cleared his throat, though he wasn't actually talking, it was a natural reaction as a time buying tool. 'The school called last week,' he confessed, after a few awkward moments. Andrew's special case had necessitated that he have several conversations with Mr. Thompson, the principal, each year. Even though Shannon had returned, the man was accustomed to dealing with Boone, and always phoned the boys' father when he felt that adjustments had to be made to Andrews' course load. 'It was actually their suggestion.'
'And you didn't tell me about it why exactly?' Shannon asked with an edge to her tone, they chose to include Andrew in their decisions, but it was her right as one of his parents to have been privy to the call. 'Now who's conspiring?'
'I'm sorry Shan. I needed to think about it first. I needed to decide if I was okay with it. I just…I needed to mull it over myself. I'm so scared about him growing up too fast.' Boone looked particularly miserable, his brows knitted together as he bit at the undamaged part of his lip.
"You're doing it again Boone; you're making decisions that affect all three of us without involving Andrew and me." She warned, changing the discussion to a verbal one.
"No, I'm not! I'm telling you all about it. Even if I'd decided 'no' I was still going to tell you!" He protested, wincing slightly and brushing his fingers over his injury.
"Still, you should have said something right away, hon." He was so contrite; she couldn't keep the edge on her anger.
"You know how I need to work through things. I just needed time with the idea by myself first. Sorry, Shan, you know that's just the way I am." He apologized again with the added proviso.
"Yeah, that's true. You're so damn predictable." She allowed.
"What about our motorcycle trip?" Andrew asked, figuring their minor tiff was over. "I still want to go to Napa."
"We'll work around it." Boone assured him, still all bound up by the idea that if Andrew started high school a year early, he'd also finish a year early too. How could he send a fifteen year old away to university? How could he ever send Andrew away at all, no matter what his age?
"You were only sixteen Boone," Shannon reminded him, picking up on his concern, choosing to just address the age issue. She knew it was going to be hell on all three of them when the time finally came for Andrew to leave home, their bond so much more than that of the usual family. She knew what hell it had been when she'd left, the bare and resonating echoing emptiness in her head, the crushing downward spiral that had gripped Boone almost taking him from her forever She shrugged it off, refocusing on the current conversation, leaving the past in the past, though she could only imagine with a barely suppressed shudder how hard Boone was going to crash when his only child walked out the front door to start his own life.
"But I went to USC my first year, and still lived at home. There are no universities around here!" He pointed out needlessly. Even Sabrina had been concerned about sending a relatively sheltered and naive Boone across the country to live in New York by himself at such a young age.
"Boone, that's still five years away, why don't we worry about it then?" Andrew asked.
"Because I'm a planner, I think long term. Jeeze, what are you guys, new, that I have to remind you what I'm like? That's twice now." He rolled his eyes.
They finished the discussion in the kitchen, while Boone made supper, coming to the unanimous decision that Andrew would start summer school the next day.