Rocks in Their Heads Pt. 01

"Yes please. I could probably do with one."

"Yes, it seems you and Jake have done quite a bit of catching up this afternoon," Evelyn chuckled as she made an implicit reference to Scott's obvious state of drunkenness. "Take a seat in the dining room and I'll be right back. Do you take sugar?"

"Ah, no thanks." Scott sat at the dining room table. The realisation hit him; he was sitting right where he first met Evelyn all those years ago. He was conscious of his heart beating faster and he was also becoming aware he was probably more drunk than tipsy and began to think perhaps dropping in to Evelyn's after way too many rums was a bad idea. As he was considering making his excuses and leaving, Evelyn came back into the room and set a coffee mug down on the table and sat adjacent to him around the table corner. Right where Scott first laid eyes on her.

"It's really good to see you, Scott. I miss the days when this street had all you kids riding your skateboards and bikes up and down. It seems like everyone is moving on."

"The good ole days, hey? I guess we all grow up eventually. It's been great to see you too, Evelyn." He hoped he wasn't slurring as he took a sip of his coffee, but decided to charge ahead anyhow. "Tell me, Evelyn, if you don't mind me asking, have you, um... Is there anyone in your life? Like, Nicola lives in Sydney. Do you see her much?" Much too late he realised Evelyn already discussed Nicola earlier when she had dropped by.

Evelyn hesitated, and with a slightly confused expression, studied Scott for a moment before responding. "Well, I see Nicky sometimes. She comes home maybe once a year and I go down to see her when I can. We have tried to improve our relationship. We Skype every now and then and Facebook message too."

"That's good. I miss Nic sometimes. Tell her I said hi next time you chat with her." Scott wasn't quite sure how to proceed. His confidence had dropped because he slowly realised he was quite a bit more drunk than he'd initially thought and knew he was rambling a little. Furthermore, in most of his previous experiences, all he had to do was simply chat and be nice to a girl and they generally responded positively, but that was mostly with girls closer to his own age. Evelyn was different. She was a woman, twenty-five years older than himself, and for whom he had feelings for a very long time. Well, if Scott was completely honest with himself, his feelings for Evelyn were mostly sexual. Still, his heart was pounding in his chest, as if Evelyn was the one and only woman he'd ever wanted. He knew he should back out and leave. If he hadn't been under the influence though, would he have even come around at all? The little niggling voice in his head goaded him, telling him he'd come this far and the moment was now and this was probably his one and only chance. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

It was like a train wreck, both fascinating and terrible, as Scott found himself making his move on Evelyn. He looked her in the eye and said, "I've been thinking. I really like you, Evelyn. I think you're very beautiful. I always have. I'd really like to see you and I'd really like to kiss you."

Evelyn looked at him, her facial expression turning to both shock and amusement. She backed off from him slightly and spoke softly and directly. "Scott, I know you don't mean that. I know you're joking and you've just had a few drinks. I also know from chatting with your mum that you broke up with Rachael a couple of months back. You're a nice and handsome young man and I know you will find someone else, someone around your own age."

"Age shouldn't matter, should it? I really do like you, Evelyn. I'd really like to see you. I've wanted to for a long time."

"Oh my goodness," Evelyn whispered to herself in exasperation. "Scott. Please, you've had some drinks. Go home. Sleep it off. Please. When I see you next we'll forget this happened. Okay?" She was speaking like a mother to a naughty child, firm and direct.

"I'd really like to kiss you."

"Go home, Scott, please."

Scott knew he'd blown it and was horrified with himself as he realised what he was doing and how badly it was turning out. "Oh, Evelyn, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I don't know what came over me. Please, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you!" He'd had a crush on Evelyn for years and he'd just blown it. He rose and apologised again. "I'm so sorry, Evelyn."

"That's okay, Scott. We'll pretend this never happened."

"I really do like your paintings though."

"I know. Just, well, just, just go please."

Scott walked back home, thoughts racing through his head. He lay down on his bed and the room spun from the alcohol.

Dickhead! You totally fucked that up! Now Evelyn thinks you're a drunken sex pest!

The room spun as he felt a wave of nausea, and he ran to the toilet and vomited. When he returned to his room he passed out on the bed.

~0~

Flashback - January 2002

Several days after his family moved to the new neighbourhood, Scott Mackenzie rode his BMX down his new street to explore. Two houses down there was a girl practicing tricks on a skate board in the driveway.

"That's a cool ramp you've got there. Did ya build it?" Scott asked, pointing to the small wooden kicker ramp the girl was using.

The girl halted and glared at Scott as if he were an unwelcome intruder before answering. "Nah, me uncle made it." She paused and then added, "You just moved into the Peterson's old house, didn't ya?"

"Yeah, we moved in on Wednesday. I'm Scott."

"Yeah, I saw the truck. I'm Nicola."

They didn't say anything else, but Nicola road up and down the ramp and her driveway, practicing ollies and attempting flips on her board while Scott watched her. Nicola appeared a little older than Scott, skinny as a whippet with long honey blonde hair. Two things about Nicola stood out to Scott: her considerable skill with a skateboard and the way she glared at him with her large piercing blue eyes when he'd first spoken to her.

"You must have been doing that a while, you're pretty good," Scott remarked. He wasn't a shy kid and it was in his nature to give credit where credit was due. He was genuinely impressed by Nicola's skills with her skateboard.

Nicola stopped and smiled for the first time since they started conversing. "Thanks. My uncle taught me a few tricks. He's in the army now so I don't get to see him much these days though. Do you skate?"

"Just a little. Not much. I do have a board though." Scott had been given a skateboard for his tenth birthday, and despite riding it reasonably regularly he was not as proficient as Nicola was.

"Bring it over and we can ride. I'll teach ya some tricks."

Scott fetched his board and joined Nicola riding up and down her driveway. Later, a tall skinny man came limping out of the house and watched them for a bit from the veranda.

"Hey, Nic, who's your new friend?" the man asked in a deep voice.

"Scott, the kid who moved into the Peterson's old place," Nicola replied, and then added for Scott's benefit, "This is my dad."

Nicola's father grunted a little and said, "Joe Peterson reckoned his place was haunted. I reckon you might have to share with a ghost over there. It's probably old Joe's wife looking to nag him some more." He chuckled to himself, then went inside. Nicola glared after her father.

"Don't listen to him, he's a dick. Anyway, Mrs Peterson didn't die in the house, she died in hospital, so I doubt your house is haunted. Jeeze it way too hot out here, let's get some ice blocks." It was a bright, hot and humid summer's day outside, and inside the house was dark and dingy in comparison. When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, Scott noticed many photos of horses covering the walls. Nicola's father was sitting on the lounge reading a newspaper and ignoring them, while at the dining room table there was a lady going through a red handbag. Nicola walked past her and mumbled, "Mum, this is Scott, the new kid who just moved into number forty-six."

"Oh hello, Scott, I met your mum yesterday. I'm Evelyn. Or Mrs Collins to you, I suppose."

The most remarkable thing Scott noticed about Evelyn Collins was she was a grown-up version of Nicola; skinny as a rake with shoulder length light brown hair and widely set large blue eyes that seemed softer than, and not as piercing, as her daughter's. She was maybe average height and was wearing a black dress with bright orange flowers on it.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Collins," was all Scott could think to say.

Nicola came out of the kitchen a moment later with two raspberry flavoured ice blocks and handed one to Scott. Her mother addressed her. "Trish will be here soon to pick me up. Please make sure you clean your room before I get home."

"Yeah, sure, Mum." Nicola didn't look up at her mum and fidgeted next to Scott at the table while sucking on her ice block.

There was a deep chuckle from the lounge room, and Mr Collins' voice called out, "Hey, Evie, listen to this. Says here that Geminis will meet someone this week who will become a very important person in their life and who will bring them great happiness and love. Ha! Maybe you and Trish are actually going out to meet men rather than catching up? Or, maybe it's her I should keep an eye on." Mr Collins chuckled to himself once again.

Mrs Collins rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't reply to her husband's churlish remark. After a second or two she smiled a dashing smile at Scott and winked as she quietly said, "Maybe it's you my horoscope is talking about, honey."

Nicola groaned, "Muuuuumm. Jeeze you are embarrassing!"

Mrs Collins' smile disappeared and she sighed. "Well, I hope my horoscope is right, that I at least meet someone who will give me great happiness, because I'm not getting it around here with you rotten lot. Anyway, you just make sure you clean your room."

Nicola sighed with exasperation. "Yes, Mum, sure..."

Scott watched after Mrs Collins as she turned and walked into the lounge room where she had a muffled discussion with Nicola's father. When they finished their ice blocks, Nicola led Scott to the back room. She couldn't contain herself, whispering in an angry tone, "Dad's such a dick. He always gives Mum shit. She ignores him most of the time. I don't even know why they're together. Mum should just dump him."

Scott was shocked at how matter of fact Nicola was about her parents. His own family were generally a tight unit where his mum and dad rarely, if ever, bickered. He was feeling awkward and all he could think to say was, "Your family has a lot of photos of horses."

"Yeah, Mum and Dad both used to ride. Dad was hurt real bad in a car accident and couldn't ride much again. I think that's part of why he's such an arsehole, because he blames Mum for dragging him to the city. So how old are ya, anyway?"

"Eleven and a half. I turn twelve in June."

"I'm almost thirteen. My birthday's in March but Mum's birthday is at the beginning of June. Anyway, here's my Nintendo. Have you played Mario Kart before?"

~0~

Between 2002 and 2016

A year or so after Scott's family moved to the suburb, Bill Collins left Evelyn. Evelyn and Nicola stayed in their house, though, and Nicola and Scott formed a strong friendship that lasted for several years, hanging out constantly after school and on weekends. Consequently, Scott also saw Evelyn on a regular basis. Tammy and Harry Mackenzie would often chat with Evelyn, most commonly when the kids were out riding their bikes in front of their houses or when one of the parents would come calling their offspring home for dinner when they were more than likely playing video games.

However, when she was in her mid-teens, Nicola became somewhat troubled, running with the wrong crowd. She was still mostly friendly with Scott when they saw each other and they remained what could be best described as friendly acquaintances. But they saw less and less of one another, rarely hanging out together.

By the time he was eighteen, Scott rarely saw Nicola, but he'd occasionally run into Evelyn. As an adult, despite having no shortage of girls in his life, he regularly thought of her. She became his wildest fantasy, his most common muse. One of his favourite and enduring fantasies about Evelyn was fairly straightforward, where Evelyn and he would run into each other out front of his parent's house on her forty-third birthday, two days after his eighteenth birthday. They would exchange birthday greetings and he would invite her in, which would somehow result in them having passionate sex. It was pure fantasy with no real sense to it.

Scott's imagination was powerful and in his early twenties, he found if he hadn't had sex or wanked in a week or so, he could lay on his bed with his hands by his side and imagine making love to Evelyn, bringing himself to orgasm without even physically stimulating his cock. His fantasy would start by kissing Evelyn all over, slowly till he reached her wet juicy slit, and tonguing her clit till she moaned and arched her back with orgasm. His cock would respond to the imagery in his mind, growing hard, as if preparing itself for the real thing. Then, he imagined looking into her eyes and telling her how amazingly beautiful she was as he slowly entered her and made love to her, harder and harder until she came again. His cock would be rock-hard, and his body would tingle as he imagined kissing her with great passion, their bodies joined together. He visualised his cock deep within her, thrusting in and out. He concentrated on this imagery of their love making, and eventually his abdominals would involuntarily contract, and his body would lose all other sensation except for a severe tingling all over his lower regions as the pressure built in his loins. His mind could fool his body into believing it was truly having sexual intercourse with Evelyn Collins, and at this point he needed extra strong visualisations in his imagination to get him over the edge, so he imagined her moaning his name over and over as he looked deep into her eyes, and after about half-an-hour or so, without once touching his cock, he'd climax, with warm streams of jizz pumping from his cock onto his face, his hair, or sometimes his pillow, then his chest and belly.

~0~

June 2016

The morning after his twenty-sixth birthday Scott woke severely hungover, his mouth dry and his head pounding. He managed to rouse briefly so he could piss, then drink a lot of water with electrolytes, and take some paracetamol before lying back in bed until late-morning. When he finally crawled out of bed again, he managed to keep down some left over food from the previous day's barbecue. While taking a long shower, he thought long and hard about what he'd done yesterday evening. In a short period of time he'd embarrassed himself in the eyes of Evelyn. And now he was sober, he was acutely aware he had more than likely embarrassed Evelyn too, making her feel uncomfortable. And in her own home! He felt terrible for them both.

That's it, I'm never drinking alcohol again!

He felt he should apologise properly, but he was currently in no shape, both physically and mentally, to do so. He checked his Facebook account and saw many people had wished him a happy birthday the previous day. Surprisingly, one of them was Nicola. They hadn't exchanged more than a few words in years.

Hey Scotty, long time no chat. Have an amazing birthday! We should catch up next time I'm up in Brissy!!

He wondered if Nicola would want to catch up if she found out about his lecherous, drunken, and to be completely honest, pathetic attempt to seduce her mum. But he 'liked' her post and replied.

Hey thanks Nic! I hope all is well with you. I'd love to catch up, just let me know when. We could play some old skool Nintendo if you still have it.

He noticed another post was from his ex, Rachael, but decided to ignore it for the time being as he wasn't in the mood for dealing with her, even if she was being nice to him. She'd broken up with him so why was she still keeping in contact? Perhaps, he thought, he should just un-friend her.

By mid-afternoon Scott was in a better physical state. He still felt terrible about what he'd done, and he decided he was going to apologize to Evelyn before he left his parent's place that evening. And so he found himself walking to her house again, with a clearer mind but with more uncertainty about whether he should be seeing her so soon. Perhaps he should let the water flow under the bridge so-to-speak? He almost chickened out but rang her doorbell and thus he was committed.

"Scott, this is a surprise," Evelyn said when she opened the door, standing defiantly in the doorway, as Salty yapped from behind her legs.

"Hi, Evelyn. I want to apologize about yesterday. Look, I've known you since I was a kid and I'm really sorry I was so pathetic and made you feel uncomfortable. I know it's no excuse, but I was drunk, and, well, I wish I could take my behaviour back. It wasn't my intention to upset you."

"Oh, I think I know what your intentions were Scott Mackenzie. I'm just surprised you tried it on me. I'm shocked!"

"I know, I know. Please. I'm not like that. Well, not normally. I'm sorry."

There was silence between them, broken by the barks from Salty, the terrier. Then Evelyn's demeanour, which had been defiant, softened and she stood aside from the door.

"Apology accepted. Please, would you like to come in?"

Scott was taken aback, but entered the house. Salty gave out a low growl but quickly relaxed.

"For what it's worth, I really do think your paintings are great. I'm not just saying that either."

"I'm surprised you even remember seeing my paintings. You were pretty pissed yesterday."

"Please don't remind me," he groaned.

"Yeah, well, how do you feel today, anyhow?"

"I'm fine now, but earlier I was thinking I might die or at least give up alcohol forever. But I've been feeling a lot worse about, well, you know."

Evelyn laughed. "Serves you right for being such a lecherous prat! Such a sweet boy, what went wrong? Anyway, would you like a coffee? No sugar if I recall correctly."

She was clearly trying to make light of the situation and so Scott began to feel more comfortable. "Sure. Why not."

"Make sure you keep yourself restrained this time, since I know the effect coffee has on you," Evelyn replied with a cheeky smile.

As they sat on the lounge and drank their coffees, Scott wracked his brain for something to say. He still felt awkward about the previous day and only expected to apologise to Evelyn and then leave, and he was not feeling ready to chat to Evelyn in a more casual setting like this.

"So, I checked my Facebook this morning and Nicky sent me a happy birthday message yesterday. I haven't spoken to her in quite a while."

"Nicky has always been fond of you. She used to come home from school so excited and couldn't wait to go out and play with you. To be honest, when she used to play with you it was the happiest I've ever seen her. She says she's happy in Sydney but I'm not sure." Her voice trailed off.

"I was the same, coming home from school and excited to go and play with Nicky, but when she was older, well, I was left behind. You know how it was."

"Yeah, she made some poor choices in friends. You were definitely the high point in that respect. I thought, or at least hoped, you would have been able to influence her since she had so much good clean fun with you, but I guess she was a typical teenage girl once she started getting attention from the older boys and girls."

"This is going to sound silly, but when I was friends with Nicky, you know, good friends, I thought she and I would get together. She was my best friend, and for some stupid reason I thought that's how it was supposed to be. Like, we'd get married one day or something. Sounds dumb when I think about it though, but back then that's how I thought people got together."