“Jace,” she said, stepping back as she brought her trembling fingertips to her lips which a minute ago had been attached to her son’s. “This is wrong.”
“What’s wrong?” Jason replied, a mischievous smirk now on his face, and it seemed all the sorrow had vanished, perhaps rejuvenated by the kiss. He reached forward again, quickly pecking his mother on the lips a second time.
“Gramps is waiting, I better go. I’ll call you tonight.”
A stunned Vivian stood, as she watched Jason casually get into the car as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. At the same time, her eyes focused on her father — who luckily seemed engrossed in the song. ‘What the fuck Vivian! Your son just kissed you and you’re more worried about getting caught? Get ahold of yourself…’
As the car sped out of the street, the dam broke and she couldn’t stop the tears. Yet, now she couldn’t figure out why she was crying. Because he had left? Or was it because she felt guilty over the unwanted arousal gathering between her legs as she thought of the kiss she had just shared with him?
Chapter 1: Home for Christmas
The front door slammed shut with a bang, as Vivian jerked up from her well-worn copy of ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ — the current novel she was teaching in her Feminism in Literature class.
“Bitch, where the fuck are you? Get me my beer.” Her husband, Jefferson Kesley, staggered into the living room, leaving no doubt he was drunk. Immediately, Vivian regretted letting her son, Jason, leave for a party on that Friday night. This would be one of those nights, she thought.
Vivian dropped the book onto the round coffee table, “Right away honey.” She hurried to her feet, scurrying to get a glass to pour the chilled beer into.
It had all begun a few months earlier after Jeff had undertaken a million-dollar project developing an app for a well-known sporting brand. As his workload significantly increased, so did his violence towards her. Sure, like any other married couple they did have their problems, and he had hit Vivian on several occasions, but that was nothing compared to his newfound abusive behavior.
With Jason out of the house quite frequently for his tennis commitments, or his friends and the occasional party, Jeff would typically pick these days to torment and vent his frustrations on her. It was as if she was just a punching bag to him. When her son was home however, Jeff would just grumble around the house before retreating to his den in the basement — leaving her alone, probably he didn’t want his son to witness his true face.
“What’s taking so long bitch, make yourself useful for once. Or can you only bury yourself in those rotten old books all day?” Vivian’s eyes blazed in defiance at his comment. ‘So now he was taking a dig at her profession’, she thought. To him, English and Literature were inferior to the natural and physical sciences. Something he had made clear more than once. But she couldn’t bring herself to speak up, as she was afraid of what could happen.
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