Dear Readers: This is Chapter 3 of a 5 chapter story. All of the chapters are completed and will be released in the next couple of weeks. In Chapter 1, the McCall family moved into a new neighborhood that already had three other families. Frankie McCall, an 18-year old high school student, stumbled upon his neighbors, Claudia Park and her son Kurt, having sex. In Chapter 2, Alyssa McCall walked in on another set of neighbors, Carl Hart and his daughters June and Lacy, having sex. If you need more than that, read the first two chapters.
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Chapter 3: Susan and the Listons
Susan McCall was sitting on her front porch swing, sipping an ice tea and sighing wistfully. She couldn't even figure out how she'd ended up there, alone. She'd taken a bit of a risk and taken an unauthorized "sick" day to spend time with her family. She knew that she needed to be with them, it was so urgent that she'd decided to take a Thursday rather than wait until Friday. The previous night at dinner she'd told both of her children that she was going to be home the next and wanted to hang out with them. Together. They'd been noncommittal. Then they'd both apparently woken up early the next morning and escaped from the house. For the last six hours or so, Susan had been waiting for one or both of them to come home. They weren't responding to texts beyond saying that they were fine and that they didn't know when they'd be back. They were not together.
The problem was, their sudden absence was just more evidence of the problem that Susan had stayed home to fix. She couldn't really put her finger on what it was, there was just a general uneasiness in the house and it was getting worse. She thought that maybe if she'd gotten both of her kids together, they might have had some fun and whatever the funk was that they were stuck in would lift. They would get over the move and maybe start to get over the divorce...to be a family again. But now Susan felt they were closer to falling apart entirely that ever before.
It had started with the divorce. She knew that. She'd known that Alyssa hadn't taken that well. And the moving, becoming so unsettled right as she was about to finish up her associate's degree was tough. And Alyssa was closer to her father than anyone else. And so Susan had focused a lot of her attention on Alyssa during the period around the move, trying to cajole her daughter into forgiving her so that they could move forward as a family. It hadn't worked. It seemed that anything Susan did just annoyed Alyssa further. Her attempts to be friendly came off as condescending and her attempts to help came off as nagging. In the end, she'd just alienated Alyssa further.
What's worse, in focusing so much of her attention on Alyssa, she'd somehow managed to drive Frankie away. She'd never thought that was possible. Up until a couple of weeks ago, Susan had felt that, if anything, Frankie was too close, too dependent. He was her mama's boy and she'd taken that for granted. But something had happened right after the move. Maybe he'd decided he didn't want to be a mama's boy any more or maybe he resented Alyssa's prodigal son treatment. Whatever it was, he had suddenly become distant. He was never around and when he was, he wouldn't look her in the eye. He seemed sullen and unhappy anytime they were together. He made up flimsy excuses so he wouldn't have to be around Susan. And so he wouldn't have to be around Alyssa. He wanted nothing to do with either of them. And Susan found herself trying to reconnect with Frankie with the same success she'd found with Alyssa.
What was worse, if she'd hoped that a little distance and time away from Alyssa might have, incidentally, been beneficial in their relationship, she was wrong. If anything, Alyssa had grown more distant in the last few days. She was almost never at the house and when she was, she had a glassy eyed, hollow sort of look about her. Both of her children were floating away from her, faster and faster all the time. She didn't really understand why, it seemed like more than the divorce or the move. It hadn't been this bad in the city. Regardless of what it was, Susan felt helpless to stop it.
Susan looked down at her watch. It was passed 3:00 p.m. She usually got home from work around 6:00. That meant that unless her children came home and she managed some sort of reconciliation (from a fight she didn't know she was having over issues she didn't know existed) in three hours, then she might as well have just gone to work anyway rather than risk having a note put in her file. She sighed again and drank more deeply from her tea. Maybe it would be better if it had something with a little more bite in it. Like turpentine.
She hung her head, feeling defeated. What if this really was the end? She hadn't really kept in touch with her own family, beyond some limited contact with her mother. She knew her ex-husband never spoke to anyone in his family after his grandfather died. These were things that happened. Some families remain close and other break apart. Susan just didn't think that it could ever be her family. She thought...well she didn't know what she thought anymore. It hurt too much to think about the future. She finished the last of her tea and stood to walk back inside. Maybe a long bath and then a movie alone in her room. Then maybe she wouldn't have to think about it.
As she walked across the porch towards the front door, she saw a car pulling into the cul-de-sac. Without really thinking, she looked up and saw Martin and Bethany Liston moving slowly towards their home. Susan looked at the smiling brother and sister in the beat up Honda Civic that they (apparently) amicably shared and it felt like a knife twisting in her stomach. She'd noticed that about the Listons, more than the other families in the cul-de-sac; they brought out this feeling of jealousy that Susan could hardly control. Maybe it was because they were the only "intact" family in the neighborhood. Or maybe it was because they were all so attractive. Or maybe it was because they seemed to damned happy to be together all the time. Susan didn't know why, but with each passing day, she liked the Listons less and less.
As she approached the front door, she heard the Civic pull into the driveway and heard the doors open and then slam closed. Martin and Bethany were talking to each other loudly and Susan was surprised by how well their voices carried. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but it sounded happy and light. The knife twisted deeper.
Still, jealousy isn't just about hating someone for what they have. It is wanting that same thing for yourself. Listening to Bethany's musical laugh and Martin's calm voice made Susan ache. When was the last time her children had spoken together civilly? When was the last time she'd heard Alyssa laugh? Hell, when was the last time she'd heard Frankie do anything but mumble?
For reasons she probably couldn't explain, when she reached her front door, instead of turning left and walking inside, she abruptly turned right, heading for the stairs off of her porch and into her front yard. She walked quickly, climbing up the small incline up towards the cul-de-sac. Before she had really realized what she was doing, she was walking in the street, crossing the distance separating her house from the Liston's house.
Bethany and Martin Liston were walking across the small sidewalk in front of their house that led to the front door. Bethany Liston was the older of the two at 22 and she was walking in the front. Bethany was around 5'5 and very lissome, if she were taller people would say she looked like a model. She had long brown hair and tanned white skin. She had an ovular, somewhat narrow face with a pointed chin. Her eyes were somewhat wide-set, round, and deeply blue. She had very thick pink lips and a long, slender nose. Her throat was very long, making her appear quite delicate. She had small, high-set breasts and a flat stomach. Her hips were somewhat wide (though not enough to make her pear shaped) with a large, round ass. She accentuated her large bottom with tight pants and she effectively off-set her otherwise slender built. Her limbs were slender and evenly proportioned.
Nineteen-year-old Martin's face matched his sisters. It was also ovular with the "Liston" pointed chin. He had wide-set blue eyes and a long slender nose. His lips were less pouty than his sister's, but the difference in appearance was negligible. Even his hair had the same dark color, though it was cropped very short. In build, however, they were quite different. In fact, Martin was actually slightly shorter than his older sister, around 5'4. He had a slightly stocky build. His upper body was somewhat muscular, with thick arms and a roundish chest, but he had a little bit of a belly and somewhat thin legs below. However, despite his short stature and thickish build, he was an attractive boy, a powerful look (at least Susan casually believed so).
