The Fruits of Indifference Ch. 1

With the snakish grin of a man completely unburdened by his sins, Kevin Ralston calmly walked out of the seedy Western Pennsylvania motel room that he had just spent the day. A gruff and stony hint of satisfaction shimmered in his heartless blue eyes as he descended the rusty stairs and walked through the late afternoon dusk towards his car, hidden around the corner.

In his wake, Kevin had just left nearly two years worth of pent up anger, seething lust, and aching frustration laying in a soiled heap on the motel's creaky and cover strewn bed. For the first time since he could remember, Kevin looked up at the sun slowly disappearing beneath the horizon and honestly looked forward to it rising up for the start of a new day.

* * * * *

18 Months earlier.......

The bright, antiseptic feel of the Somerset County Juvenile and Domestic Courtroom seemed to close in on Kevin Ralston as he stood his ground in front of the judge, like a cocky but clueless martyr, waiting for his sentence to be handed down.

The judge's measured words rained down from the bench with indifferent precision as Kevin and his lawyer stood there listening. Kevin felt his court appointed council tap him on the back reassuringly as the judge's words registered inside his head. It was almost as if his lawyer was congratulating him for only getting four months inside the Somerset County Juvi-Hall.

"It could have been a whole year or at least until you turn 18," The lawyer told him with a satisfied smirk as he gathered his stuff to leave.

"Yeah... but you ain't the one that has to serve it you sonofabitch," Kevin fumed to himself as he allowed the deputies to take his hands into theirs.

* * * * *

The trip upstate hadn't been all bad for Kevin, not that he would have ever suggested it to anyone for a way to spend a Summer vacation.

An only child to a less than affectionate Mother, Kevin's life had simply been dysfunctional up to the point that his Father, a truck driver, died in an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike when Kevin was 11. The fact that he had lost his Father, the only real hero he'd ever had at such a vulnerable age, was made worse by the reality that his Mother had never shed a single tear for her lost husband. By having a Mother that didn't show any sympathy, Kevin never felt comfortable grieving himself and that, combined with a multitude of other indiscret ions created a rather volatile path from adolescense to early adulthood.

That it took four months of 6am cattle calls and 10 pm lights out, along with his first taste of a loss of freedom was just what Kevin needed however to have the peace and quiet to put the first 17 years of his life into perspective.

Having lost the end of his Junior year of high school to the drug conviction, Kevin had been given the option of returning to high school in the Fall after his release from custody but he would have to repeat the 11th grade, leaving him a year behind his graduating class. An already indifferent student, that option didn't readily appeal to Kevin, but a promise he had made to his paternal grandmother, years earlier, in the last days of her life about finishing high school caused Kevin to make the decision to give his education another try.

He was only two months away from turning 18 by the time he was released and wasn't surprised a bit when his Mother, Pam Ralston, wasn't anywhere to be found the day he could go home. Using the bus ticket the state provided to take him home, the whole 77 mile trip all Kevin could think about was Pam telling him on the phone that between her two jobs, she just didn't have time to make the one hour drive to see him while he was held in the detention center. The fact that he would have probably spat in her face if she had was something Kevin bravely pictured in his mind the whole trip home until he finally arrived later that day at his Mother's trailer to find her roasting in her normal state of alcohol induced ambivalence.

Walking by Pam as she sat there starring blankly at the TV, smoking a cigarette, Kevin deposited his weight on the sofa and realized that even though he had somehow changed, the world around him had not.

* * * * *

It took less than a week after re-enrolling for his Junior year at Clifton High that Kevin knew he had entered a race he just couldn't win. Having had a Father that didn't raise a quitter, Kevin gutted out the first few days of classes until the pressure simply got to be too much.

The stares and whispers of the other students that he had been the one who had spent all Summer at a detention center for getting busted for drugs was tolerable. In fact, if he hadn't been such a loner, Kevin would have probably been the coolest kid in school. Kevin could also deal with the never ending stares from the school's employees as well. Having been busted the year before on school grounds, he was sure his face had been plastered in every teachers' lounge as someone to keep an eye on.

The final straw in Kevin's self preservation came on the Thursday of his first week back at school when he was leaving his fifth period gym class to head upstairs for 6th period Biology.

Before Kevin even reached the stairs that would take him to the second floor for class, something caught his eye that brought back every bit mind numbing anger that had built up over the previous six months. Through the subway station like flow of the school's hallway, Kevin's fiery eyes latched on to someone that caused the blood pumping through his head to drown out the earsplitting drone around him.

Through the maze of bobbing and weaving bodies, Kevin fixated on Debra Stallings, the late 30ish computer and business teacher, who, although he could never prove it, was the one he felt assuredly had turned him in for dealing marijuana on school grounds the semester before. It was Debra Stalling's room on the second floor that had the perfect view to see down into the shadowy outside stairwell that Kevin had used to make his deals.

The hundreds of other smiling and jovial faces filtered down the hall as Kevin's eyes stayed glued on the teacher's haggard face. A petite, almost frail, woman, Debra was having a difficult time keeping up with the flow of youngsters as she tightly clasped her overflowing briefcase against her chest, desperately trying to work her way through the crowd so she could get upstairs on time for her class.

Knowing she didn't see him, or anyone else around her for that matter, as she awkwardly made her way for the staircase, Kevin slowed, then leaned back against the row of lockers behind him to observe as Debra scooted down the other side of the hall.

His anger now boiling, Kevin instantly clenched his fists together as he feet instinctively began pacing forward, following the teacher up the steps. By the time Debra had reached the second floor, Kevin was only six feet behind her as he blankly stalked the woman who had turned him in.

Gripping his blue backpack tightly against his shoulder to quell the demonic angst bubbling in his soul, Kevin seethed when he saw the tiny brunette reach her classroom and disappear inside. Standing like a statue for several moments, as countless students swirled past, Kevin finally turned on a dime and made his way back down the steps, somehow knowing that he was done with school.

Even though he had learned a good bit of self discipline from his four month incarceration, Kevin couldn't fathom having to survive an entire school year of seeing Debra Stalling's face without being tempted to do something that would lead to a much longer jail stint than the one he had just endured.

Dropping his backpack, with a thud, into one of the black trashcans that lined the main entrance to the school, Kevin Ralston calmly walked out of Clifton High for what would prove to be the last time as a student, just the same way he had done weeks earlier at the detention center, a free man.

* * * * *

For the better part of the next six months, Kevin kicked around doing a series of odd jobs, helping out with a friend's landscaping company and hustling just to keep a few extra dollars in his pocket. Without school to fall back on, Kevin had initially been forced to listen to his Mother's incessant bitching about him making a waste of his life and not helping out with the bills around the trailer but with his 18th birthday approaching, Kevin decided to cut the last vestiges of the umbilical cord before Pam Ralston got the chance.

Always one to take a hint, Kevin packed two gym bags full of his possessions and ended up going from one living room floor to another until he finally settled at his girlfriend Tina's Mother's townhouse on the other side of town.

Kevin's daily routine didn't change all that much once he moved in with Tina and Deloris Shantz. He gravitated from one job to the next but spent a majority of his time having sex with Tina when Deloris wasn't home, eating everything he could in the fridge and smoking as much pot and drinking as much alcohol as he could from the money Tina made as a waitress at the local Waffle House.

* * * * *

It was an early October Tuesday morning at Deloris Shantz's townhouse that Kevin groggily dragged himself out of bed and headed into the kitchen to find something to eat. Looking up at the clock above the stove, Kevin saw that it was 10 minutes till noon, just a little over an hour before Tina got home from her morning shift at Waffle House.

Scarfing down a bologna sandwich as he flipped on the TV, Kevin sat and watched Jerry Springer until Tina got home, not having a clue that by later in the afternoon, he would have a story that would even bring a chuckle of disbelief to Jerry Springer's face.

A few minutes after 1 pm, Tina burst through the front door with as much bluster as her 5 foot 2 inch and 140 pound frame could muster, in the same piss-poor mood as usual as she hurriedly disappeared down the hall to change out of her greasy brown uniform. Ten minutes later, Tina emerged from her bedroom dressed wearing a long blue tee-shirt, and nothing else.

"Get me a beer," Kevin matter-of-factly ordered when he saw Tina approaching out of the corner of his eye.

"You lazy piece of shit," Tina venomously shot back, even though when she did disappear into the kitchen, she came back with a can of beer in each hands.

Tossing Kevin's can down onto his bare belly, Tina cracked a lustful smile as she eased around the sofa and nestled down beside her boyfriend. Wrapping her naked legs around his stretched out frame, Tina seductively reached down and started to rub the inside of Kevin's muscular thigh.

Each popped the tops to their beer and took a few sips before it appeared an invisible director had yelled the word, "Action," and the two sat their cans on the coffee table, allowing their lips and groping hands to meet with laser-like precision.

Their mouths working like two hungry pistons, Kevin's hands dug fervently into Tina's fleshy thighs as she positioned her weight on top of him. Rolling their tongues in and around each other's mouth, it appeared that the two lust struck lovers were becoming one as Tina planted her bare knees into the sofa cushions, straddling her boyfriend right across his waist.

Kevin could feel Tina's superheated pussy leaking against his stomach as he spread his legs apart to position his crotch underneath her.

"You ready," Kevin asked, in a tone that clearly stated he knew the answer.

"UHHMMPPAAHHHAAA," Tina savagely grunted as she grinded her pelvis on top of her boyfriend's torso.

Raising her hips slightly, Tina reached down with her sweaty fingers and dug her grip into Kevin's cotton sweat shorts, yanking them cruelly down his legs until his jutting cock sprang free and majestically waved in the air.

"Fuck the shit out of me," Tina hoarsely groaned as she watched Kevin's manhood twitch and throb underneath her vagina.

Like a shrew in heat, Tina wrapped her tiny fingers around Kevin's swollen pride and aimed it blindly for the burning pink target of her quim, just the same way she had done each afternoon and night since Kevin had moved in.

* * * * *

To afford the townhouse she and her Daughter had moved into, Deloris Shantz had committed herself to six days a week of ten hour shifts at the local plastic processing plant. No stranger to dealing with pain, Deloris have bravely worked through the initial stages of arthritis over the past few years, worked through the normal cuts and bruises that came with life on an assembly line as well as the mental anguish of having to raise a troubled Daughter, without a Father.

The one thing even Deloris had a hard time dealing with however, were the rare occasions when she was forced to endure the sickness and disorientation that came with the migraines that haunted her. That Tuesday happened to be one of the days that Deloris was burdened by the dark storm clouds of a serious headache. Even though she had dealt with worse ones over the years, by the time she had made it to her afternoon lunch break, Deloris decided surrender was the better part of sensibility and informed her boss that she was going to take the rest of the afternoon off.

By the time Deloris had clocked out and began her 20 minute trek home, she instantly started to feel a little bit better by simply not having to listen to the constant drone of the plant's loud engines pounding in her ears. Taking a left hand turn that put her on the street she lived, all the 42 year old woman could think about was getting out of her clothes and spending the rest of the day closed up in her bedroom, sleeping off the headache.

What Deloris saw as she neared her driveway however, caused her to instantly recoil.

"Damn.. she's home already," Deloris hummed to herself, seeing Tina was already home from work and knowing if Tina was home so was Kevin, who was most likely lounging around as if he owned the place.

Pulling into the driveway with a determined scowl, Deloris fought the urge to slam the car door shut, fearing the reverberations would only cause her throbbing head to feel worse. After gently closing the car door, Deloris turned and slowly started to make her way up the walk to the front porch. Before she had even taken two full steps up onto the porch however, a bone-jarring sense of disbelief overwhelmed the tired woman.

The blood inside Deloris Shantz's veins seemed to freeze as her eyes caught a peek inside the living room's huge bay window. An animalistic gasp of shock escaped Deloris's mouth and her feet came to a paralysed halt six feet from the glass. With a combination of disgust and embarrassment, Deloris turned her head from the sight of her Daughter and Kevin engaged in a brutal coupling inside. Standing there with her head turned for more than a few agonizing moments, Deloris deliriously tried to decide whether or not to burst into the house to put a stop to the encounter or to simply disappear for a while and save herself the trauma.

Her eyes glued to the ground, Deloris vacillated on the edge of the porch for nearly a minute, trying to convince herself that what she saw inside wasn't happening. Even though she was enough of a realist to know that Tina and Kevin had been having sex under her roof, to actually be confronted with it was something that caused Deloris's stomach to roll.

Finally deciding to retreat back towards the driveway, the acid etched image of Tina straddling Kevin's crotch filled Deloris's head as she fumbled in her purse to find her car keys. By the time she had finally turned the ignition and started to back out of the looping driveway, to find a quiet place to calm her nerves, Deloris had no clue that when she finally switched the gearshift into forward to drive off, at that very moment, the 18 year old boy she had been allowing to live under her roof was sending a scalding jet spray of jism deep into her only Daughter's slurping womb.

Gripping the steering wheel tightly in her numb hands, Deloris anxiously but fruitlessly searched the floorboard for an extra pack of cigarettes. "SHIT," She yelled out loud as she helplessly drove on, fighting off the constant images of Kevin screwing Tina in her head as she swerved aimlessly through traffic.

By the time Deloris had reached the safety of the local convenience store's parking lot, she eased herself into a far away stall and sat there trying to compose herself, sensing full well, Tina was less than a mile away, cleansing her lazy boyfriend's cock with her thirsty mouth.

"BITCH," Deloris angrily spat out, not knowing if she meant it for her slut of a Daughter or possibly for her own cowardly weakness and denied jealousy.

In desperate need of a smoke, Deloris peeled herself out of her car and walked like a zombie across the lot. Once inside the store, she seemed oblivious to the presence of the other people milling around as she stoically asked the clerk for a pack of Marlboro Lights, handed him $4 and turned without even getting her change.

Anxiously ripping the plastic off the top of the pack, Deloris scooted back to her car, trying to muster the courage to return home to face her Daughter and Kevin.

* * * * *

Putting out the third cigarette she had smoked during the five minute trip home, Deloris wheeled her vehicle into her driveway for the second time that afternoon with a renewed determination to reclaim her home as her own. Slamming the car door shut this time so everyone around could hear, Deloris made it a point to stomp across the porch, giving fair warning to the two inside that she had arrived.

Her purse swinging wildly against her shoulder as she beat a path to the front door, Deloris's hand looked like a heat seeking missile as it reached for the doorknob. Determined not to shy away from any confrontation, Deloris didn't even attempt to sneak a peek inside the window as she passed by to see if the two teenagers were still fucking on the couch before she entered.

Forcing the front door open with commando fury, Deloris prepared to yell at the two as soon as she entered but when she finally did step into the house, all she saw was Kevin sitting shirtless on the sofa with his feet propped up on the coffee table.

Casting a hateful glance at the lazy 18 year old, Deloris gathered all her strength and slammed the front door shut, causing the physically spent kid on the sofa to jump slightly.

"What they Hell was that for?" Kevin sarcastically asked the older woman.

"Don't you worry what the Hell that was for... It's MY house... MY name on the fucking rent check every month.. now shut up and get the Hell out," Deloris angrily snarled as she slipped past the sofa for the sanctuary of her kitchen.

As she passed by a still seated Kevin, Deloris could hear the shower running from the bathroom down the hall and got a sick taste in her mouth knowing why Tina was taking a shower and just what she was trying to scrub off and out of her.

In a maddening rush, Deloris threw her purse onto the counter as she made a beeline for the window that looked out over kitchen sink. Finally able to allow the reservoir of tears that she was holding back to flood down her cheeks, the disheveled woman sobbed to herself as she looked out at two birds dancing on the electrical wire that looped up to the house.

"Why the fuck can't I just fly away like them?" Deloris groaned internally as the adrenaline of her embarrassment and anger pounded in her head.

So loud was that pounding in fact, that Deloris didn't hear it when Kevin sprung up off the sofa and started to make his way from the living room into the kitchen. It wasn't until she felt the floor begin to vibrate underneath her feet that she knew Tina's imposing boyfriend was creeping up behind her. Turning her head meekly to the right so she could steal a glance at him over her shoulder, Deloris cringed when she saw his brooding, shirtless frame closing in.