FALLING: The Negative Ion Series (2 page)

“And
that brings us back to you, young man,” John shouted, turning Jaxen back to him. “What have your mother and I told you about the marijuana usage? And in our home!”

Jaxen
’s lips slowly curled into a sexy grin and I fought to hide the gasp I had no choice but to let out. Jaxen was… is…
sex
… pure and simple. He oozed it, sold it… just looking at him would make anyone want it. Especially with him. He was six-feet-something tall and muscular. It was beyond ridiculous how broad his shoulders were and how his body narrowed to his chiseled stomach and abs, down to his muscled hips. Fucking sigh, he was hot.

He was shirtless when I met him
in his parents’ kitchen and I have to sigh again as I remember what he looks like without his shirt on; how defined his body is, how the muscles ripple in his back at the slightest movement. Then there was his legs… oh, his powerful, muscled legs that were long and defined. Working part-time in a gym in his teens definitely helped him. And my imagination. I’ve often wondered what Jaxen looked like naked, especially while thrusting inside of me.

Just look at him
in that loose green tank and army shorts, completely amused at his father’s rant as his shoulders shook from his laughter. Damn. I never see him without a shirt anymore. I wonder if I will ever again. God, I really,
really
hope so!

“What the hell is so funny,
Jaxen?” John shouted.

“Technically, John, I wasn’t in the house… I was in the garage,”
Jaxen laughed back. “You said nothing about the garage!”

John’s mouth tightened as he stared at his clearly intoxicated son.

“One more ‘John’ out of you, and your life will be over,” John snarled.

Jaxen
appeared to try at seriousness but failed quickly and fell to the ground laughing. John stared at his son, disgusted. He once said he had never understood why people used marijuana and he was really disappointed that his son used the stuff. Sighing, he walked over to the side of the house and calmly grabbed the water hose then turned the tap on until it stopped. He smirked as he walked up to his still laughing son and shot the ice cold water on his body.

“WHAT THE… DAD! FUCK! THAT’S FUCKING COLD!”
Jaxen shrieked, trying to get away.

I cannot believe how funny that was
and obviously neither could Sara and Samantha because they laughed as loud and hard as I did.

“Oh, it’s
‘
Dad’
now, is it?” John shouted as he followed him, still spraying his dancing about son. “I thought you were calling me ‘
John’
now. And that language will never do in front of your mother and me!”

“
DAD
! Will you stop now?” Jaxen screeched then gurgled when the water shot in his mouth which made me, Samantha and Sara burst into tears from laughing so hard. I couldn’t take anymore. I had to move away from the window and collapsed on Samantha’s bed as I tried to calm.

Chapter 2

Whoa… two?!

A week later,
I happily bounced into the home I shared with my mother, Shauna Kessler, bursting to tell her my news but she was busy nodding her head to the blaring music while painting a living room wall a rich red color. I stopped and quietly stared at it, thinking I loved the color but on all the walls? I silently let out a shudder then went to my room to change clothes, knowing my mom was going to wrangle me into painting once she knew I was home.

After choosing an old pair of sweats and a tee that
I wouldn’t care if I ruined with paint, I tied my long auburn hair into a makeshift bun and returned to the living room. This time, Mom was standing in front of the finished wall grinning.

I
turned down the music then stood to Mom’s side and smiled. “I like it, Mom but, um, it’s kind of much for the whole room, isn’t it?”

Shauna
frowned at me as she put an arm around my shoulders. “Honey, this is the accent wall. This will be the only wall this color. I have a coordinating color that will be on the other walls and ceiling.”

I
nodded and smiled, completely relieved.

“I’m glad you changed,
Itsy. We can get started on the other walls now. We have to hurry. The furniture will be here in the morning and my redecorating will be done, thank God. I was beginning to forget what Marvin looked like,” Mom chuckled then heavily sighed. “Not that it matters now.”

Marvin
Wilder, Mom’s boyfriend and a deputy in her police force, is a good guy and I like him. He treats her well and me also, but he really doesn’t have a choice since Mom would flip in three seconds if he ever got out of pocket. I giggled at the thought then watched as Mom opened the new paint color and I nodded. That was so much better.

“It’s called Dapper Tan and it should go
well with the red. It’s got primer already in it so that’s one less step we have to do. But we’re doing two coats, at least. Ready, honey?”

I
nodded and smiled again at the color as the doorbell rang. Mom went to answer it while I stirred then poured the paint into two pans. I looked over and frowned when I saw Samantha walk in behind Mom with her overnight bag.

“Hey,
Sammi. I thought you were celebrating with Parker tonight.”

“Yeah, I was,”
Sammi sighed. “But he got called into work and its overnight. I hate being at his by myself and I really didn’t want to go back home with Jaxen and the band there practicing half the night. I have the biggest room in the house but it sucks it’s over the damn garage.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh
at that. “Yeah, I love your room but that does bite. I’m glad you’re here. Mom and I could use an extra set of hands.”

“Yes, we could,”
Shauna replied as she rolled paint on her wall. “Two coats, girls. Sammi, look on my bed and find something to change into. Come on, Itsy, roll!”

I
chuckled and went to my designated wall and started painting. Samantha was back in no time, in sweats and tee and she had piled her brown hair on top of her head, and started doing the cut in. Mom watched her for a few minutes then, with a relieved nod, got back to her own painting. Thank God Samantha was an artist with a steady hand. She finished all the cut-in work quickly then picked up a roller.

“So,
Sammi, what were you celebrating?” Shauna asked.

Samantha
stopped painting and turned. “Itsy! You didn’t tell your mom?”

“I didn’t have a chance to,”
I sighed. “Mom put me to work as soon as I walked in the door.”

Now it was M
om who turned and stared at me, a deep frown on her face. She hated it when I kept things from her. No matter how good or bad it made me feel, she wanted to know and right away.

“Tell me what?”
Mom asked.

I
smiled then looked at Mom forlornly. “Samantha and I graduated early. That last paper we did got us an A and we’ve met all the criteria.”

M
om froze then dropped her roller to the floor and wailed into her hands. I felt sad for Mom but realistically, she knew this was coming. My father, Samuel Forrest, told me when I graduated college, I would have a job in New York and wanted me to move east with him. When my dad told Mom this plan, she wept then, too. I am her only child and she did not want to lose me.

Q
uietly, I walked over to Mom and put my arms around her and she bear hugged me as she sobbed loudly on my shoulder. Samantha bent at our feet and cleaned up the paint on the floor from Mom’s roller.

“I’m sorry,” M
om wept and I gasped as she managed to hug me tighter. “I knew it was coming but it’s only March. I was hoping for at least June, if not the entire summer. It’s too soon, honey.”

“I understand that, Mom
. I already called Dad. He’s agreed that I should come out in July, right after your birthday.”

M
om relaxed a little and looked at me. “Really?”

“Yes. I’m not ready to leave
Samantha. She’s the only appeal here for me, you know,” I teased.

“All right, college grad,” M
om sniffed. “I can still put you over my knee.”

Samantha
and I laughed at that and Mom managed a chuckle.

“God, if the furniture wasn’t coming tomorrow, I’d make you two go out
and celebrate,” Mom sighed as she wiped her face, getting paint under her eyes. “I know! Tomorrow night, don’t make any plans. I’m throwing you ladies a barbecue in my backyard. Samantha, please invite your family and a few friends. Not too many, I don’t want to be cooking and shopping all day. I wish I could go shop now!”

Samantha
looked at her watch and smirked. “I can take of that, Shauna. Go on and take off. I’ll have a crew here in 15 minutes and it will be done by the time you return.”

“Dining room, too?”
Mom blinked.

“Dining room too.
” Samantha confirmed. “Is that the last room?”

Mom
nodded and pointed out what she wanted done and after confirming, she ran off to change.

“Crew?”
I asked after Mom left.

“Yeah,
Jaxen and the band. They owe me.”

“
Sammi! My mother is a police captain! They can’t come here intoxicated and paint her house! She’d have them arrested! You know how she feels about drugs!”

“Don’t worry about it
, there’s no way they’re slammed. I hid their stash before I left,” Samantha giggled. “In my box of tampons!”

Samantha
went for her cell and was holding it close to her mouth as she came back. Jaxen answered his cell completely breathless and I tried not to react to the way his voice sounded over the speaker. Even on the phone, I felt a tingle surge through my body.

“A little busy now,
Sammi. I’ll call you back later.”

“Stop fucking the doorknob
and listen, Jaxen! I need a favor.”

“Come on,
Sammi! Not now! Try me later.”

“
What do you mean, not now? You can’t get off that overly used mouth and exhausted pussy to do a favor for your twin sister?”

“
Nobody’s fucking, asswipe! I’ve misplaced my stash and the boys are getting rowdy. Fuck! What did I do with it?”

Samantha smirked into the phone and, suppressing a giggle, she told me she’d found his stash in their mutual bathroom on the sink, sitting out in its ‘glory’. She hid it in the one place she knew he’d never look.

“Oh, about that,”
Samantha grinned. “I know exactly where it is and if you want it back you will listen and do what I say.”

“What do you mean? Are you saying you hid it?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“For fuck’s sake,
Sammi!” Jaxen shouted into the phone. “You’re about to get me killed here! Tell me where it is right now!”

“
Not until you and your cronies do what I say and with exuberant smiles on your faces as you do it correctly.”

“Fuckin’ grrr!”
Jaxen shouted. He paused for a minute then gave a defeated sigh. “Fine! What do you want? Me to kill Parker? Done.”

“No, b
arfbag! Meet me at Itsy’s in 15 minutes.”

“
Itsy’s? Her mother is a fucking cop, cootie!”

“
I know that and trust me, it’s not here, dinghy. I wouldn’t dare bring that stuff to a cop’s house. I’m not fucking stupid, you know.”

“You better not have or I’ll have your head in the toilet bowl again,
error!”

“Yeah, that’s going to happen
, fuck-head! Put on old clothes that you won’t mind ruining and be prepared to stay awhile.”

“I ha
ve shit to do, geek! Find someone else to do your dirty shit!”

“Are you arguing with me, h
ell-raiser? Need I remind you what I have hidden?”

Jaxen
paused then groaned in frustration. “No, iceberg! Fuck!”

“
I didn’t think so, jackass! Get changed and get your asses over here!”

“Whatever, keloid.
Big fuckin’ grrr! The boys may need a minute to change.”

“Fine, lame-ass. Be here
no later than 20.”

I
stared at my friend in awe as she ends her call. She got my mother five extra painters and she won the latest alphabet insult game with her brother.

“You didn’t really bring
any of that stuff here, did you?” I grinned.

“Of course not,
Itsy. I don’t want to be arrested and I don’t want Jaxen to be either, as much as I hate him.”

I
laughed and shook my head. “You hate him as much as I hate my brother.”

“Yeah, it’s unnatural how well you and Parker get al
ong. Must be because you and he have different mothers and lived mostly apart.”

My brother
Parker, Samantha’s boyfriend that she met through me, is three years older than us. His mother and mine loathed one another. My mother had ‘stolen’ Sam from Terri when Parker was two and Terri was still bitter about it but she welcomed and embraced me as Parker’s sister and never let her animosity toward Shauna spill over to me. To me, she was this sweet, loving woman but to Mom, she was a total calculating bitch who couldn’t do anything right ever and she always says she is amazed Parker turned out so well with her as a mother.

“Terri is nice to me and never gave me trouble. It’s Mom she hates and I still don’t get why. I’d be madder at Dad. He was in th
e relationship with her, not Mom.”

“I agree and so does Parker. Though we both can’t understand why she’s
still
mad since neither of them is with Sam anymore, he’s on the east coast and Terri’s been married for fifteen years. Sam broke up with that actress, you know.”

I
nodded. “Yeah, he told me. He didn’t sound too upset about it to me.”

“No, I don’t think he is. I think he’s still in love with your mother.”

“What? No way, Sammi. That was over a long time ago.”

Samantha
shrugged and was about to say something else when Shauna walked back in the room, freshly scrubbed and changed; her own auburn hair and amber eyes gleamed as she strolled in wearing red yoga pants and a fresh white tee and runners, looking nothing like her 39 ½ years. I smiled when I saw her, hoping I would age as well as my beautiful mother.

“Okay, I’m going now. If you’re done before I get back, please clear the room of everything. I want nothing in the way when the furniture comes.
And remember: two coats, please,” Shauna sighed. “I can’t believe everything is coming to a close. My home being finished finally, my daughter graduating college. God, I’m
so
old!”

Samantha
and I looked at one another and smirked. The doorbell rang and Samantha ran to the door and flung it open, grinning as the boys sullenly entered the house.

“
Jaxen, Terrence, Michael, Greg and Stanley, you all remember Captain Kessler of the Hampton Police Force, don’t you? You boys are painting her living room and dining room. Two coats and don’t do sloppy work. She’s not afraid to arrest any or all of you.”

“Damn right,
Samantha,” Captain Kessler confirmed, standing tall and straight, her persona taking an authoritative form. “I better not see one stroke out of place or any paint where it does not belong, understand?”

The boys stared at her with their mouths gaped.
Captain Kessler was in the building and she took no shit from anyone, ever. She cleared her throat and stepped up to Greg and after studying his form, she smirked.

“Keyboardist, right?”

“Yeah,” Greg nodded.

Captain Kessler
’s eyebrow raised on her stern face.