A Reluctant Corruption Ch. 02

Reece holds out a drink for me. He's chatting up some girls I've seen around, but never hung out with.

"Jake, right?" Asks a shorter chick. She's cute, with bright eyes, a narrow pretty face, and hair slightly lighter than my mother's rich brunette. My dick expands eagerly.

'Don't compare her to your mom.'

"Yeah. You were all on the dance team, right?" I guess based off the short shorts one of them is wearing with the embroidered school dance team logo.

"And you know Heidi of course," Reece adds, pointing at the redhead.

I choke on my drink. Heidi is one of Rachel's best friends, and not fond of me.

'Awkward.'

She avoids eye contact, crossing both arms over her 36D bust, and sequestering the extremely well-developed eye candy in a reclusive manner. I'd be lying if I said I never thought about her when I dated Rachel. Heidi regularly violated our school's dress code by striding around campus in these thin, cut off shirts that would be a size too small for most incoming freshmen. Most all the teachers that complained were women hilariously enough. They called it, "a distraction". To be fair, they were right. I spent half my Spanish final gawking at her from across the room. She had worn this white shirt and tied it up at the front, so her boobs spilled out and jiggled while she scribbled her answers. When the bell rang, I had to tear my eyes away from her crossed ivory legs and exposed midriff to randomly fill in the remaining bubbles.

"How's Jenny?" Reece continues, never knowing when to shut up.

"What?" I ask clearing my throat.

"I heard a rumor that you and Tekker are a thing now, and she's why you've been MIA." He winks at the shorter girl as if this is hot gossip.

"Dude, no," I catch myself. "You know me, I don't want a girlfriend going into college." Heidi scoffs and briskly brushes past me. Reece shrugs, taking a swig of his own drink.

The night really kicks off when people start packing into Cady's house. Reece leads a rowdy stream of kids through the inside entryway and toward the blaring music. Coordinating within the mesh of teenagers, I toss my cup into a bin and check the time.

'Fuck, it's only been a half hour.'

I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey stranger."

I turn to see Cady. She's wearing a yellow bikini swimsuit. Her long blonde hair is slicked back behind her ears, still wet. She laughs, hugs me, and then pushes me toward a less populated corner.

"Nice outfit," I remark.

She points to her ears. "What?"

'We're too close to one of the speakers.'

"Someone's bzzr..." her words get lost in the synthesized beat. I lean closer.

"Someone's been looking for you," she hollers and points toward the kitchen.

I nod, but waver. If it's who I suspect, this party just got a lot less exciting.

'I really should have called her back.'

Cady shuffles back into the crowd. It takes me a minute to build the courage to search for my ex. It's not like I'm nervous to see her. I broke up with her after all. It's just, if anyone is going to notice something drastic has changed in my life, it will be her.

'I hope she's not too pissed.'

I find myself weaving slowly through the crowd, reciprocating gestures of acknowledgment with past classmates and teammates. I decide to step outside before checking out the kitchen, but fate has other plans.

Rachel, Heidi, and a few other girls huddle around the pool area. On cue, Rachel sees me. Her body language doesn't change. She says something to the other girls before excusing herself and heading my direction. Heidi sneers at me from the distance.

'Bitch.'

Despite getting dumped on graduation, Rachel appears no worse for the wear. She looks sexy as hell in her two-piece black swimsuit. Judging by the prominent cleavage on the thing, and knowing how rigid her father is, I bet she left the house wearing something over it.

"Asshole," she chastises. My eyes snap to her face.

"What's wrong with you? Why didn't you call me back?" She demands.

"I was busy," I respond, "and my phone broke."

Her brows cross like she doesn't believe me.

"Besides. I thought you wanted space," I reason out loud.

She scoffs, and for a moment I wonder if she's going to walk away. Her upper lip twitches, but she doesn't speak.

"Sorry for not calling you back," I apologize. "It was a shitty thing to do."

Her eyes soften a bit, and she looks from me to the ground.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Nothing." Her voice is cold.

"Rache-" I begin.

She stomps her bare foot on the grass. "It doesn't matter! You're obviously fine."

My pocket vibrates, and I pull out my new phone. There's a text from my mother.

'He just got in. Looking forward to later. ;)'

I smile.

"Is that the two-bit slut you've been fucking?" I hear Rachel spout.

I give her a quizzical look.

"Oh, don't even pretend." She spats and lunges at me, grabbing the phone from my hand.

'Shit.'

I reach after her, but she slips back a few paces.

"Rachel it's just my mom." I feel blood rush to my cheeks and the sensation of people staring.

"Give it back," I state as assertively as I can muster. She disregards me, too busy scamming through my phone for incriminating evidence of...

'Oh fuck, the picture.'

The look of abject horror that crosses Rachel's pretty face, a ball of disgust and confusion, as my phone tumbles through her shocked fingers onto the lawn, says it all. She gasps and looks to me lost, as if her mind is glitching and she can't process the incoming data.

'Please don't start crying.'

I rush over, picking up the phone and shoving it into my pants. Rachel is paralyzed, and peeking around I confirm that we are the center of attention.

'Damage control. We have to move.'

I put my arm around her. She shudders at my touch, not wanting to go anywhere with me.

"Let me explain," I whisper while guiding us toward the house.

No one says anything. It's not completely uncommon for exes to start drama in public, but based on what Rachel just saw, and how affected she seems to be by it, it's paramount we move to somewhere more secluded.

Though Cady obviously doesn't mind her house getting trashed. She does restrict the upstairs where her room is. The crowd is thicker now, and reaching the staircase isn't easy, especially when leading a walking zombie.

"No." Rachel finally speaks, albeit in a strangely fainter voice than usual.

"Two minutes. Just give me two minutes and it'll make sense," I lie through my teeth.

'What the fuck can I say in two minutes that will explain why I have a picture of my own mother posing nude on my phone.'

Rachel doesn't protest, but she does shake off my arm before marching upstairs. I catch my reflection in a glass picture frame of Cady's family. My face is pale, my glare frantic, and each step feels like my knees want to give out. We slip into the first room, a study with a large desk and full bookcase.

'Okay. We're alone... Have to say something.'

"Are you alright?" I ask hoping to temper the shock plastered on her face.

"I-I can't believe..." she cuts off.

"You know me Rachel, I'm not some freak." My words do nothing to calm her.

She moves backwards, her hands shaking nervously.

"Okay, this is weird. I get that. But what if I tell you it's just a stupid picture. It's not like-"

"And the text?" She cries with surprising command of the situation.

My eyes widen, and my mouth clamps shut.

'At least it didn't say anything really dirty.'

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." She covers her face with her hands.

"Rache, please," I beg. My voice shakes, not sure what exactly she's put together.

She looks at me over the bridge of her fingertips, her eyes welling with tears.

"What did she do to you?"

"It's not really her fault." I reply.

"What?" Rachel expresses. "Jake, you have to believe I didn't want this to happen."

'Huh?'

She starts to ramble, "...I was mad. It was impulsive. I didn't think she was serious." Tears stream down her cheeks.

'What is she on about?'

"This has nothing to do with you," I declare. She goes quiet and looks at me with her red eyes and a serious expression.

"The night you dumped me I left the party, but didn't go directly home. "I wasn't in the mood to be around friends, so I called my aunt to pick me up." She reveals.

'The wacky one who believes in ghosts?'

"Yeah, I know you think she's crazy," Rachel remarks. "She's not a big fan of yours either... Especially after I told her that you were the jerk who ruined my graduation. The whole car ride home she kept repeating that boys like you need to learn there are consequences to your actions. I assumed it was her way of trying to make me feel better."

Rachel sighs, "But there was more to it. The more I told her about the shallow, misogynistic way you viewed our relationship... That you ended things solely for the chance to get your dick wet in the trashy cunts at state...

The more I complained, the more animated she became. She confided that when she was younger she had dated someone similar. That when he ultimately fucked her over, she got back at him using an incantation from one of the mystic books she collects. She volunteered to-"

"To curse me?" I interrupt skeptically.

"She was so adamant, Jake. She guaranteed that the next time I saw you, you wouldn't be the same. And now you're carrying around nudes of your mother on your cell phone!" Rachel squeals.

The couple times I'd met Rachel's aunt she'd come across as a kooky, middle aged cat lady. Not exactly the most intimidating of people.

'Could she have some connection to this? Is she responsible for turning my family incestuous? For the necklace? For the old witch haunting my dreams?'

Rachel takes my silence as confirmation, and that reality sends her spinning.

Fresh droplets descend from the corners of her eyes, which dart around the room hysterically.

"I'm sorry," she recites repeatedly.

She grows dismayed the more the truth sets in, choosing to look away from me as much as possible.

"Rachel..." I begin.

She sweeps past me. "I can't. I'm sorry. I have to go." Her departure leaves me standing alone in the study to process the latest revelation.

'Should I be upset? Should I be scared?'

I reach into my pocket and wipe off some dirt from the face of my phone before turning on the display. The image of my mother on her bed, looking downright wicked, hair tossed to one side, perfectly made up, in nothing but her black slingbacks and necklace. It's hard not to gush over the delicious olive skin tone of her slim, delicate frame, or gawk at her well-rounded breasts and the shadows which embellish their depth.

I zoom in on the engorged pink thimbles rooted sensually atop each. My dick digs into the crotch of my pants. I'm so starved of sex, I almost whip it out right here and now.

'What kind of curse gifts you the best sex of your life?'

The voice in my head, the one echoing morals and calling me and my mother sick had slowly died over the course of this week.

'Rachel's aunt is right. I have changed.'

After one last soulful look at the picture, I delete it from my phone.

'Can't risk this happening again. Besides, who needs a picture when you can have the real thing.'

I debate looking for Rachel, but figure that even if I found her I wouldn't have much to say. Instead, I spend the rest of the party socializing until I felt it was safe to slip out and head home.

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Night swallows the streets, suppressing the stars in the jet-black sky, and making my journey home all the more exhilarating. The summer air whips up and rustles my hair as my foot tests the accelerator. Mischievous thoughts engulf my mind thanks to the backup of teenage, sex-starved hormones clogging my veins. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of people start having sex every minute. How many are prey to the same forbidden cravings that have ensnared me and my mother? How many sons are drilling their devotion into the sexy women who raised them? How many mothers are deciding that it's time their big boy becomes a man? How many sons are forcing their fathers from their wives' minds?

I glare through the windshield with the blind determination of a man minutes away from finding the Holy Grail.

'I'm not going to stop fucking her until that dress is so spoiled and unsalvageable we have to throw it out with the rest of her marriage vows.'

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"Wumph!"

I shut the car door with too much emphasis.

'Why's Dad's car is still here.'

My phone says 10:15 PM.

'Am I going to walk in on an argument?'

I linger in front of the garage door, but I don't hear any voices.

"Fuck it," I whisper to myself and ease the door open. It's dark. The lights are off, and all is silent. I sense my way through the hallway and past the unlit kitchen with skills I perfected early on in high school. Pausing at the family room, I make out what I think is a suitcase leaning against the sofa.

'Is he on the couch? Shit. Why didn't he go to a hotel?'

Feeling an inevitable disappointment coming, I slink to my room with shoulders hunched.

Sure enough, there is no one waiting in my room. I kick my shoes off violently toward the empty twin bed.

'The prick ruined my night.'

My cock hurts. It's been over 48 hours and I consider breaking the arrangement in favor of freeing a load from my system.

'I kept up my end of the bargain. I shouldn't have to wait.'

I think about texting my mother but opt instead to fantasize about how horny she must also be, stuck in her room without me. Knowing she's probably going through the same torture lessens my burden. It still takes me a few hours of tossing and turning before I finally get to sleep.

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Saturday

I'm in a crummy mood. Last night could have been the best night of my life, but instead my ex thinks I'm cursed, my swollen balls pang with unused reserves, and the one woman who could help me is not the first person I see when stepping into the kitchen.

"Hey Sport!" My father's voice rings out.

'Pretty chipper for a man who's getting a divorce.'

He's sitting at the table with his feet kicked up on another chair.

"Hi," I respond while walking to the cereal cupboard.

"Did you hear the good news?" He asks proudly.

I shake my head.

"Those Italian bastards... It took the whole week to convince them, but they're in. The merger is happening."

"Cool," I state with no conviction.

He launches into the retelling of his trip, so I tune him out.

'I don't care if it means I have to lock him in the bathroom. I'm fucking my mother today.'

"... And how have things been here?" He concludes after five minutes.

'Seriously?'

"Didn't you talk to mom last night?" I ask.

"We didn't get a chance to discuss much before heading to bed," he reveals. The smirk on his face rattles me.

'What happened? Did she get cold feet?'

"Speak of the devil," my father perks up as my mother struts into kitchen, heels tapping the hard tile. I can't help but smile. Her work skirt seems so modest and bulky. I wonder if she finds the material suffocating compared to the colorful satin and lace garments she modeled all week.

"I was just asking Jake if I'd missed anything while I was gone," my father continues.

My mother shoots a glare of disapproval in my direction before bending to give my father a kiss on his cheek. I flinch at the normal display of affection shared between husbands and wives.

'I don't understand.'

I stare at my mother, hoping for a hint of explanation.

"What?" She snaps, put off that I am looking at her.

"Uhhh, nothing," I say.

She glares angrily at me, and then turns back to my father. I can feel my heart beating faster.

'This has to be an act. It has to be.'

Then I notice something. I blink a few times as chills shoot down my spine. My eyes aren't tricking me.

My father laughs. "Brilliant, isn't it? Honey, show Jake the new necklace I got you. Cost me an arm and a leg.

There, above my mother's beautiful breasts, the absence of the black diamond is evident. A thin new chain snakes around her neck, supporting four white pearls that link just below her collar.

"Where's the other one?" I blurt out desperately.

My father shrugs. I look to my mom, but she ignores me, deciding to study her nails instead. Her expression is painfully familiar. It displays the same bitchy disregard I learned to loathe growing up. She tuts with scornful distaste as my father suggests that some of the merger money can go towards my first year's tuition. Unidentifiable is the person who had used this summer to seduce me. Her lush face and body remain the same, but no love lingers behind those captivating blue eyes, no warmth for what we have shared. I feel like I've been hit by a bus. As if I've just been slapped into a reality where the last few weeks never happened. I want to cover my eyes and wake up, but I'm grounded by a realization.

'You're going to have to fight for her.' The witch had said during my dream.

'Is this what she meant? Was this what she was trying to show me?'

The irony is not lost on me. For two years, college has beckoned me with promises of random hookups, awesome parties, and the understanding that I would finally be rid of my parents. I hated my mother, the chronic obstacle to my enjoyment of life, and wouldn't have missed a thing about her. But that was then.

'How do I fix this?'

I stand dumbfounded, watching incredulously as my father leans back on his chair.

"Ah," he sighs contentedly, "it's good to be home."

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Huge thanks to all the volunteer editors who helped. Particularly Winderboy, Generall, and TrueLove55.