Chapter Five
It was another Wednesday; another day in which Monica's favourite art class met. This week she was nervous. She had set in motion a plan to seduce the students of this class and things had gone terribly wrong. As she waited by her front window for everyone to arrive she was unsure about whether or not she wanted to continue with her plans.
As she contemplated her choices she saw a car pull into her driveway. Shawn got out, took his backpack out of the backseat and began to make his way up Monica's front steps. Monica moved over to the front door and opened it.
"Am I too early?" Shawn asked as soon as the door was opened.
"Not at all," Monica said ushering him inside. Just the sight of him and the smile her reply brought to his face made her feel better.
"Where do you want me to change?" he asked. He then pointed to the door directly opposite the front entrance. "Angel and all of the life models you hired changed in the downstairs guest bedroom. I'm assuming I'm going in there as well."
"Yes," Monica replied, "but I'd like you to wait until everyone is here. Dennis has something to say to everyone."
Shawn gave her a puzzled look. "Any idea what it's about?"
Hesitating for a second before answering, Monica explained the events of the previous Saturday. "So, now you know as much as I do."
Shawn whistled in response before speaking. "Are we going to continue with things?"
"I'm not sure. Dennis told me he wants to try, but it somewhat seems like he's doing it to please Lenora and not himself. I'm not sure if that's a healthy way to be going about this sort of thing."
"What do we do if the decision is for him not to continue?"
"I'm not sure of that either. Angel would like to I'd think and I wouldn't mind. I think I can assume that you would be a yes as well."
"Yep," Shawn said with a grin.
"The there's Ellie and Mark. Ellie is a yes, but we haven't really gotten Mark's true view yet. The last thing I want is to find that he feels like he's being pushed into this too fast like Dennis did."
"I think Ellie is being careful with him along those lines."
"Maybe, but I thought the same thing about Lenora and I was wrong. I don't want to be wrong again."
A frown appeared on Shawn's face. It remained there for a few minutes before he sighed and shook his head. "You know something, fretting about it like this isn't going to help." A smile appeared on his face as he asked, "So, how has your week been going overall?"
Seeing his smile, she couldn't help but laugh. "After Saturday and tossing aside those events, not all that bad."
Their conversation settled into topics of a more everyday variety after that. It wasn't long before the rest of the class began to arrive. Angel came first, followed by Mark and Ellie and then finally Dennis and Lenora. Dennis wasn't wearing his usual clothes. Instead of the ones that gave him a thuggish type look, the clothes he was wearing made him look more stylish. He wore dress pants and a shirt with a tie. His fedora was gone and judging from the fuzz on top of his head, he had stopped shaving and was allowing his hair to grow again.
When Dennis and Lenora entered the living room they both said polite hellos, but had worried looks on their faces. Lenora eyes in particular never left Dennis. They were normally all smiles and laughter. Seeing them like this, knowing she had a big part to play in why, made Monica want to shrink away in shame. She looked at Angel and saw her quickly look downward at the floor. This reaction told her that Angel felt the same.
With Dennis's arrival the rest of the group grew quieter. Everybody slowly took their seats in the semi-circle of easels surrounding the black, shag rug in the center of Monica's living room. All eyes turned toward Dennis.
"Can I assume that everybody knows what happened Saturday?" Dennis asked.
"I told Ellie on Monday when she got to the restaurant. She said she would let Mark know," Angel said.
"I phoned and told him while I was on my lunch break," Ellie confirmed.
"And I told Shawn when he arrived today," Monica said holding her hand up in the air.
Dennis nodded his head in response before beginning. "So I don't have to go into any of that then. OK, I guess the best place to start is with my mother." He reached out at that point with his had to clasp Lenora's. "Lennie, you know about my mother leaving Dad and me when I was a kid. What neither Dad or I told anyone was what happened the night she left. She had been cheating on Dad a lot. I remember her bringing home lots of guys on nights when Dad was working late. She'd send me to bed as soon as one of them arrived."
Dennis paused at that point and seemed to be struggling to force the words out of his mouth. Lenora raised their still clasped hands top her mouth and kissed his hand. "You're safe here," she said, "you can continue." She moved their hands to the side of her face and stared intently at him.
After another nod he began to speak again. "One night I decided to see what she was doing with the men. I slipped out of my room and made my way downstairs. I don't remember checking any of the upstairs rooms, but if I was looking for my mother I probably did. I heard the moans as soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs."
There was a long pause at this point. Dennis opened his mouth a couple of times, attempting to continue, but ended up closing his mouth instead. As he wiped a tear from his eye Lenora slid her chair over so that it sat right against his. She wrapped one arm around him as she nestled her head into his chest. She placed her other hand on his body, right in front of her face.
Dennis kissed the top of her head before continuing. "I saw them in our living room. They were both naked. He was sitting on our couch and she was riding him. I'm not sure how long I stood there looking at them. I was young at the time, maybe six or seven, and I really didn't understand just what I was seeing. At some point while I was standing there, Dad came home. He was suddenly there, yelling at my mother and ordering me to go to my room."
He took a deep breath at that point. Lenora, who still had her head on his chest, rubbed him with her hand in reaction. "I'm right here," she said, "and I'm not going anywhere."