Chapter Seven #3
“Dad,” Dean says. Jeff is the sweetest man. He’s always picked at Dean, saying he needed to marry me before someone else did. His ex-wife was a deadbeat, just like Penny’s husband, so they’ve always had a lot in common.
I hear Greg and Cindy, Lance’s parents, close by. “I wish you guys had called first,” Lance says as he hugs his Mom.
“You would have said no,” Cindy says as she hugs me. “How are you, dear?”
“Mad. Embarrassed. Scared,” I say.
“Scared?” Jeff asks.
“The religious nuts have made death threats, but she hasn’t talked to her parents yet,” Mason says.
“Oh, fuck them,” Jeff says, and I laugh through my tears.
“Come sit and talk to us, please,” Penny says.
“Mom,” Mason starts to say.
“Please, Mason. We love you guys. You know we support y’all unconditionally,” she says. “Even if it did take you two and a half decades to figure out what everyone else already knew.”
We go to the couch, and they all smile when Dean pulls me into his lap to sit, and Mason lays my legs in his lap where he starts massaging my feet.
“Are you here to be nosy or are you really wanting to talk?” Lance asks.
“Both,” Greg smiles. “How long have you all been dating?”
“I don’t know if we technically are,” I say. “It’s not been said.”
“No offense, but that looked like dating to me,” Penny says with a smirk.
“God. Y’all didn’t watch it, did you?” Mason asks.
“Just a few seconds before I realized what it was. I called Jeff, and he got a hold of Greg,” Penny says.
“I’m shocked how many people have seen it,” he says.
“It’s a nice video,” Cindy shrugs.
“Mom. Really?” Lance groans.
“What?” she asks. “You’re young and in love, even if you don’t want to admit it. Anyone with common sense can see that the four of you obviously have a connection, and no one forced anyone to do anything.”
“I don’t know what to expect from Mom and Dad,” I say.
“Well,” Lance says. “You can always turn your phone on and find out.”
“Todd said I shouldn’t,” I say.
“Todd is trying to keep you from seeing what people are saying,” Dean says.
“I’m a computer engineer. I literally cannot escape the Internet,” I say.
“I know. He’s just trying to protect you,” Lance says. “Better to face it head-on with us than for you to try and ignore it.” I nod, and Mason hands me my phone from my bag. I turn it on and lay it on my leg while it powers up.
It dings once, and I look up, and then it keeps dinging.
It doesn’t stop for a while. When it does, I see I have thirty-six missed calls from Mom and Dad and dozens upon dozens of notifications from my email and social media.
My phone starts to ring, and it’s Mom. I sigh and answer the phone on speaker.
“Hello?” I answer with a sigh.
“Sadie Graves. What on earth is wrong with you? Do you realize what you have done?”
“Good morning to you, too, Mom,” I deadpan.
“Good morning? It is not a good morning. Do you know that I woke up to a video from Pastor Paul of you and your so-called friends doing depraved things?”
“Good to see Paul is still a fucking creep,” I say. “You do realize I’m an adult, correct? What I do is none of your concern.”
“It is my concern when it directly impacts me,” Mom snaps.
“Your life?” I laugh. “I’m getting death threats, Mom.
Have you read the awful comments? We couldn’t even drive straight home because we were afraid someone would follow us.
Oh, poor pitiful you, people gossip. Millions of people saw something that was not meant to be seen by anybody.
Have you thought to stop for a second and ask who it is that is targeting me? Or do you not even give a shit?”
“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you went around acting like a whore,” she says with venom in her tone. “Everything you get out of this, you deserve. What were you thinking, letting them take advantage of you like that?”
“No one took advantage of anyone. I’ve known them for twenty-three fucking years, Mom. We own a business together. We live together. What the fuck did you expect?” I ask.
“For them to take care of you. Not turn you into a mockery.”
“Well, they do take care of me,” I say, and Mason smirks. “You’ve literally never had an issue with them until this very moment.”
“It is a sin to have premarital sex. Sex is meant for reproducing, not pleasure,” Mom says.
“I won’t ever be reproducing, so you can just get that out of your head right now.”
“At this rate, one of those boys is going to knock you up, and then there you’ll be a single parent.”
“First of all, I wouldn’t be a single parent because I would have them, but that doesn’t even matter because no one’s having any kids. They had a vasectomy, and I have a ten-year birth-control implant that was just replaced last year. No one’s getting pregnant.”
“Well, we are still coming into town next weekend,” Mom says.
“Don’t think I’m letting you stay here after you just called me a whore. You’ll be lucky if I even see you when you come into town,” I say.
“Your father and I are very disappointed in you. Pastor Paul is disappointed in you,” she says, with a disapproving tone.
“I swear to God if you mention Paul one more time, I’m hanging up on you,” I say.
“Why?”
“Why?” I yell at her. “The fucker did all but rape me for six weeks, and you blamed me, an 11-year-old victim. You blamed me for him being attracted to a fucking child. Do you know how fucking sick you have to be to…”
“Stop cussing at me,” she snaps.
“Fuck you, Mom,” I snap. “Both of you. Stop fucking calling me before I block your number.”
“Sadie Marie Graves,” she gasps. “How dare…” I end the call and toss my phone on the coffee table.
“Damn,” Jeff says.
“That was a bad idea,” I sigh and lay my head on Dean’s chest. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my head.
“No, it wasn’t,” he says. “They deserve far more than that.”
“Well, we are going to let y’all spend time together,” Cindy says.
“We are here if you need us, and please understand that we support you, okay?” Penny says.
“Exactly. Tell me if you have any issues with Paul, okay?” John asks.
“I will,” I sigh.
They hug us before leaving, and Mason locks the door before setting the alarm. “What do we do now?” I ask.
“Now… we relax. We take a mental health day and just do whatever we want,” Lance says.
“I want to stay with you guys,” I admit.
“Then we can go take over one of our beds and watch movies all day,” Dean says.
“I liked sleeping in the same bed with all of you. It was… comforting,” I say.
“Do you even remember falling asleep?” Mason asks.
“No,” I laugh.
“I didn’t think so,” he smiles.
“My bed is the largest. We can congregate there and talk about the long-term later,” Dean says.
“I feel like we should prepare for a meeting tomorrow,” I say.
“Nope,” Lance says. “We all need to take a step away for a minute. We all know the next few weeks are going to be hard while we face this, so for now, we relax.”
“Yeah. You’re right,” I sigh. “I’m not looking forward to work tomorrow.”