|
Post by Dean Foster on Dec 14, 2020 19:54:39 GMT -5
When Dean was fourteen he started to get suspicious of the way that his dad and his aunt interacted with one another. Really, it all started from one overheard conversation while his aunt was visiting from France. He was heading downstairs in the evening and his dad was talking to his aunt Melanie, the two of them the only ones still downstairs. He'd thought that his aunt would have left already, his uncle and cousin had gone earlier but usually aunt Melanie stayed later, spending time with his mom and then his dad gave her a ride back to the hotel that she stayed at. It was pretty late though, so it seemed odd that she hadn't already left.
"You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this," his aunt said, letting out a longing sigh.
That in itself was enough to make him peek around the corner of the stairs, looking at his dad and aunt getting their coats on.
"Yeah, me too," his dad answered.
Melanie let out a laugh. "Oh, better not let Beth hear you say that. It'd be bad." Her tone was light and teasing as she pulled on her boots.
"Shut up," his dad answered and it was serious sounding but Dean knew him well enough to hear the undercurrent of affection in his tone.
When the door shut behind the two of them, Dean stood for a moment in shock trying to figure out what in the world that was about. The two of them were hiding something from his mom? They had the air of people sneaking around. Was it possible that his dad was cheating on his mom? It didn't seem like it should be possible, his mom was the best and he couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't be happy with her. He thought that his dad was but maybe he'd been wrong? Thoughts whirling, he made his way back upstairs and forgot about the snack that he had been in search of. Worried that maybe he was just overreacting, he went back into his room and sat down on his bed. There was any easy way to figure this out.
His grades weren't great, but he knew about the scientific method.
So, first, he was going to start with his question. Were his dad and aunt having an affair?
Next, he had to come up with an experiment. Well, there wasn't much to be done there but what he could do, he realized was time the length of his dad's trip.
Using Google Maps he determined that the trip to the hotel his aunt was staying at, one way, should take no more than 15 minutes. So his dad's return trip should take no more than 30 minutes and with the way that his dad drove, probably less.
Since the only thing that he could do was wait. Not content to sit doing nothing, he pulled up an episode of one of his favorite shows on Netflix and put it on. The episode would run 45 minutes, so his dad should be home before it finished.
Only, the end of the episode came and went and he still didn't hear his dad's footsteps or the door opening. Convinced that maybe he just had missed it with his show, he looked out into the driveway and found that the car was still gone. Oh no.
Oh no.
What was he supposed to do? His mom was going to be heartbroken!
In a panic, he made his way over to Kaitlyn's room, giving a couple of quiet knocks and then shooting her a text to ask if he could come in to make sure that he didn't walk in on anything he didn't want to see.
What do you want? Kaitlyn had texted back and he'd taken that as a good enough sign that he could enter.
"What the hell are you doing, Dean?" his sister hissed, putting her phone down and glaring.
"I think dad's having an affair!" he exclaimed, moving to sit down on her bed and speaking hurriedly. Just as soon as the words had left his mouth the front door was opening.
Kaitlyn looked at him in disbelief and then laughed. "Dean, you need to go to sleep."
"No, Kate, I'm serious! Listen, I know it sounds crazy but he left to take Aunt Mel back to her hotel 50 minutes ago and he just got home!" As if to prove his point, the sound of their dad's footsteps walked past the door just then.
Kaitlyn was trying and failing to hold back another laugh. "Let me get this straight. You think that dad is having an affair with Aunt Mel because it took him longer than usual to get back from dropping her off? No one is gonna cheat on Uncle Oli with dad. Uncle Oli, Dean! Have you seen him?"
"Yes, I've seen him." Sure, his uncle was attractive but that wasn't the point.
"And you still think someone would cheat on him?" When he nodded she shook her head. "Have you been taking edibles or something?"
"If you're so right how come before they left I heard Aunt Mel say, 'You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this' and then she mentioned how bad it would be if mom found out?" He looked at his sister expectantly, waiting for her to try and find a way to explain away that.
"Maybe she was talking about visiting us and dad was talking about the dinner that we had? God, Dean, I don't have time for your dumbass theories. Go the fuck to sleep and get out of my room," she shoved at him lightly.
"Fine, I see I'm the only one who cares about mom here. Maybe Michelle will listen to me." He stood but he doubted that his other sister would be anymore helpful.
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes and snorted. "Okay, sure."
Nonetheless, Dean did make his way over to his oldest sister's room and walked right in, not chancing a knock this time. He did, however, close his eyes just in case. Michelle would yell at him if there was something truly awful happening.
"Dean, what the fuck are you doing in my room?" No yelling, just the regular annoyance.
"Michelle, something serious just happened."
Her brown hair fell back onto the pillow as she groaned and tilted her head back. "Dean, if Donovan told you he's in love with you I really couldn't give less of a fuck about your sexual identity crisis."
"Wh- no! You know Donovan and I are strictly platonic best bros." It wasn't the first time someone had insinuated that something more might be going on but he was secure enough in himself to know that he harbored zero romantic feelings for his best friend. "I'm here about mom and dad!"
"Unless one of them is dying I don't see a reason for you to be bothering me." Michelle wasn't even looking at him, her eyes on the screen of her cell phone where she was typing something with the clack of her nails against the screen.
"I think dad's having an affair," he explained.
Michelle paused for a moment, turning to look at Dean like he had lost his mind. "What the hell are you on about now?"
"Listen, here's the facts. dad left with Aunt Mel and was gone an extra 25 minutes more than it would have taken him to take her back to the hotel," he started to lay out his case.
"What the fuck, you think dad is gonna cheat on mom with Aunt Mel?" Michelle managed to pack an insane amount of disbelief into her tone. "Get out."
"I heard them talking about how mom couldn't find out and about how much they were looking forward to something!" he insisted.
Michelle turned back to her phone. "Get out of my room, Dean. You're an idiot and I don't have time for you to try and convince me of your stupid theory because you don't understand how traffic delays work."
"I checked Google maps! There are no traffic delays!" he protested.
"Dean, seriously. Fuck off."
With a glare, he left his sister's room and made it back to his own. Since neither of his sisters apparently cared about their parents' marriage, he decided to text Donovan. This was a mistake because his best friend texted back, 'so your mom about to be single then 😏'
After telling him to fuck off, he settled into his bed and tried to figure out what he was supposed to do with this information.
The next morning when his aunt and uncle came back, he carefully watched his aunt to see about her interactions with his dad, trying to figure out if he could see any other hints about what was going on between them. The problem was, they weren't really interacting. His aunt was talking with his mom (his mom!!) and his uncle was talking to his dad (his dad!!), until his aunt came back into the living room and took a seat between his uncle and dad. She jumped into their conversation and made some joke that Dean didn't really understand but it made his dad laugh.
Okay, it made him chuckle but that was as good as his dad got! And they were looking at each other with smiles and now Aunt Mel was nudging him and saying something else in a teasing tone. Right in front of Uncle Oli! But that wasn't his main concern.
He had to tell his mom. It would break her heart but he had to do it. She was in the kitchen right now, in the midst of making some yogurt covered pretzels that were going to be very delicious when they were finished.
When he walked into the kitchen, she looked up at him and gave a warm smile. "Hey baby, did you want to help out? Or are you here to steal some extra snacks?" She was so oblivious to the bomb that he was about to drop on her, standing there with her sparkling eyes and snowman apron looking just like the nicest mom someone could have and he was going to have to tell her that she was being betrayed.
"Mom, I have something I need to talk to you about," he said, his voice grave as he took a seat at the island with a sigh.
She set down the tool she had been using to dip pretzels into the yogurt mixture, her own face pulling into a worried frown. "Of course," she said, reaching for his hand and giving it an encouraging squeeze. "You know that you can always tell me anything."
"I just don't know how to say it, exactly."
She offered him a smile. "Take your time, honey."
For a moment there was silence in the kitchen, the sounds of the conversations in the living room the only noise. Then he managed to blurt it out. "I think dad's having an affair."
His mom shook herself lightly, her eyes widening in surprise and then narrowing in confusion as she tilted her head. "You think?" she started.
"With Aunt Mel."
She took a long blink and her mouth opened as if to form words but then she shut it again before saying anything. The two of them were silent for a few more moments before she finally spoke. "Why would you think that?"
"Okay, so last night when dad left with Aunt Mel, they were talking about you not finding out and about how they'd been looking forward to something all week, and then it took dad an extra almost half an hour to get back than it should have." He laid things out as clearly as he could have. "And they've been looking at each other."
His mom tilted her head in the other direction and then frowned at him. "You really believe this?"
"Yes! And I'm sorry mom, but I think you deserve to know," he said, giving her a pleading look.
"I guess there's only one thing to do," she sighed. Then she turned toward the living room. "Mel, Sam, can you come in here, please?" She wasn't yelling but her voice was loud enough that it would be heard in the living room.
"Wait, Uncle Oli should be here too," he pointed out.
"And Oli," she added.
Within a couple of minutes, all three adults were there. Also, he noted that Michelle, Ryker, and Kaitlyn were lingering behind the adults as well, clearly wanting to see what was going on.
"Dean was just telling me something very interesting," his mom started, looking between his dad and his aunt. "He thinks that the two of you-" She gestured between his dad and aunt. "Are having an affair."
He heard Michelle and Kaitlyn groan, saw his dad look surprised and then horrified, and watched his aunt go from surprised to full out laughing.
"Oh my god," she gasped, leaning onto her husband as she laughed and ducked her head. For some reason, Uncle Oli wrapped an arm around her to keep her steady and was shaking his head.
"This isn't funny!" Dean exclaimed, wondering why he was the only one seeming to take this seriously.
"For the record," Kaitlyn spoke up. "I'd like to say that I told him there was no way that Aunt Mel would cheat on Uncle Oli with dad."
Michelle rolled her eyes and then begrudgingly added. "And I told him that there was no way that dad would cheat on mom with Aunt Mel with mom. You're supposed to trade up in affairs."
Aunt Mel stopped laughing and looked mildly offended back toward Michelle who gave a shrug, as if to say that she was only telling the truth.
"I guess we see where we stand," his dad said drily, looking over at Aunt Mel.
"I mean, it's true but they didn't have to say it like that," she said with a shake of her head.
"You're all off the point! If you're not having an affair, how do you explain the extra 25 minutes it took dad to get home when there was no traffic and the 'I've been thinking about this all week' and the 'can you imagine if Beth found out' and all the looks and touching?" he crossed his arms and eyed his aunt and dad suspiciously.
His dad closed his eyes and made the tiniest shake of his head before giving a deep sigh.
"You thought we had a 25-minute affair?" Aunt Mel questioned, shaking her head as she pulled out her phone. "Not very worth it, besides being disgusting because that's my brother but if you must know where that extra time was here you go."
She had pulled up a photo, clearly taken last night as she and her dad were wearing the same clothes they had the day before. In it they each held up Taco Bell menu items toward the camera. She was grinning brightly and his dad was making the same face he always made in photos when his mom couldn't force him to smile.
"Every year we have fast-food together that I can't get in France. You kids aren't invited for obvious reasons, same with your mom. Your uncle and cousin aren't invited because they don't care for American fast food," she explained. "And we didn't want your mom to find out because she's going to lecture us about what's in the food."
"Sometimes it's KFC, sometimes it's Taco Bell, sometimes it's Sonic," his dad shrugged. "Either way, we go, we eat, we chat and then I drop her at the hotel and come home."
"Okay well, how was I supposed to know that you're just eating terrible food together?" Dean demanded, admittedly feeling a little stupid right now as he handed his aunt back her phone.
He chanced a look at his mom who was looking at both of them with a faintly disgusted look. "Do you know what kind of meat they use at Taco Bell?" she asked, horrified.
"Ground." Aunt Mel shot back and then gave a look to Dean to say that this was his fault. "Have we cleared up the infidelity rumors?"
"Yes," Dean grumbled, turning to leave the kitchen as his mom started talking about why no one should ever put Taco Bell into their bodies even if it was only once a year and his aunt started arguing about her being a killjoy.
"Told you," Michelle gloated as he passed by her.
"You're an idiot," Kaitlyn added.
"I hate you both," he answered, meaning it at the moment and retreating to the living room. All in all, it was for the best that he'd been wrong but he didn't want to listen to his sisters brag about it.
|
|