When Tis Done – Part 31

A discussion follows about Luminous and Opal. Luminous was unhappy for many years with her, but she used a compulsion spell to get pregnant with her last baby. Brian tells them she had her husband under a spell in order to keep him with her. Once again, Chase annoys Brian by talking about the sex he’s not having with Marissa.

“I told you to jack off. It’s not ideal, but it helps. Trust me on that, okay?”

“Brian!” Marissa screeched.

“Oh, shut up. I’ve got you both whining on your various troubles and I don’t care. Either fuck or shut the fuck up. Those are your options.” Turning abruptly, he strode from the room.

Jordan followed quickly, leaving Chase and Marissa in stunned silence. Skipping and hopping, Jordan caught up with him in the parking lot, only because he halted.

“Sorry,” he said without turning around. “I’m sick of their bitching. I’m just as hot for you as Chase is for Marissa, and you don’t hear me complaining about it all the time.”

Jordan touched his shoulder, leaning her head against his arm. “No. Of course, I’m not as big a cock tease as Marissa.”

“Thank you for that. I know it’s not the time yet. I can feel that, too. But it doesn’t make me want you less. Sometimes, when we’re at school, I see you walking down the hall ahead of me and I drag my feet, watching you, thinking, One day, that girl will be all mine. It excites the hell out of me knowing that.”

“Do you really—a lot?” She made distinctive hand gestures which were readily understandable.

Brian blushed. “Yeah, well…. I’m a guy….”

“Must have a hell of a porn stash, Casey.”

Brian pulled her close, lifting her by the elbows as he kissed her. “I don’t use porn,” he whispered. “I think about you and that’s enough.”

Shocked to silence, Jordan tried to catch her breath. Brian set her down on the ground, kissing the top of her head. Strangely flattered, she followed him to the car. She could hear Marissa and Chase arguing and was just as glad to get away from there. The idea of having dinner with them was really more than she could handle. If it weren’t that they were expected by Dora and Myra, she’d beg off.

Brian drove aimlessly, finally going to the park. Jordan hopped on a swing and he pushed her, watching her smile and laugh in the late afternoon sunshine. Her dark hair fluttered around her like satin ribbons. Her jeans fit just right and her top clung to her curves. It was almost more than he could bear, but he smiled and comforted himself with the fact that she was his. One day they would be together, and he had to be grateful for that.

The sun was sinking low as they pulled into the driveway at the Braxton house. Katie and Lucy answered the door, grinning.

“I lost a tooth,” Lucy told them.

Jordan made a big deal of it, talking to Lucy about the Tooth Fairy and how much money she would make. Brian went to the family room to chat with David before dinner. Chase and Marissa weren’t there yet, and he felt compelled to speak to the older man. He found Chase’s grandfather sitting in his recliner, TV on, but muted. He looked up, smiling.

“Been expecting you,” he grinned, pointing to the chair nearby. “How’s my son?”

“Better. He’s got a long way to go, sir, but I think he’ll be okay if we give him a little time.”

“Boy, we may not have that time.”

“He’ll step up. He has to find his balance. This isn’t easy for him. I know how he feels, having so much responsibility thrown at him all at once.”

“We all go through that, Brian.”

“Respectfully, David, no you don’t. He wasn’t the chosen one for his Circle. For whatever reason, Dora was the one. I think that it wasn’t so much for her and Cliff, but because the Powers That Be knew my Circle would need Chase.”

“Your Circle?” The old man’s face pulled into lines of deep disquiet. “You’ve been claimed by it?”

Brian nodded. “By virtue of who and what I am, it’s mine as sure as the Center Circle is Neil’s and the Outer Circle is yours. But you didn’t have the shit handed to you that I did. I’m a Dreamer who had no idea what that meant. My folks could have prepared me. I was their only child, their heir, yet they didn’t. You prepared your children, Cliff taught Chase, but I got it thrown at me and it’s damn near killed me more than once. I had another person possess me. I tried to kill the girl I love.”

David sat quietly watching the young man work through what troubled him. He could see the anger and frustration inside him, swirling like a dark red cloud.

“You can bet when Jordan and I have kids, we’ll teach them all and even those who aren’t chosen will know enough to protect themselves. And I won’t allow the others to be cast off and ignored like Neil was. You could have done something about that, but you didn’t. Not because your callous or unfeeling, but because none of us knows how he feels. We aren’t the ones on the outside. I can’t even imagine. But in my darker moments, I think he was the lucky one, because this is a horrible responsibility that’s thrust on us. If I had a choice, I might have said no. But no one asked. A quirk of the universe decided that this is my life.” He laughed harshly, shaking his head. “Some cosmic joke, huh?”

© 2018 Dellani Oakes

To Buy Dellani’s Books