Falling Dumb Into Desire

A light breeze blew through the backyard, bringing with it a momentary relief of the hot summer air. I breathed in deeply, happy to be breathing in air that wasn't so dry, but then the breeze left just as quickly as it had come. I licked my lips, wetting them down before I turned to my boyfriend.

Lying beside me for some time, it was Kenny's idea in the first place for us to come out here and take a nap underneath their big maple tree in the backyard. Granted it was late morning when he suggested it, therefore sounding like a good idea at the time, a few hours had passed since then and the sun was high in the sky.

Kennedy may have the ability to sleep through anything, but I contained neither the skill nor determination to nap through the summer day.

Reaching over, I gently shook Kenny's shoulders, stirring him from his sleep. He growled slightly, his words incoherent as they were spoken into the grass and then tilted his head to the side, focusing an eye upon me in an expression I recognized as annoyance.

"It's got to be over one hundred degrees out, Kennedy." I told him. "I can't nap like you in this temperature."

"You said you wanted to spend the day outside though." He mumbled.

"I know, and I know that I had agreed to take a little nap, but when I said outside, what I really meant was actually doing something." I said. "I have an appointment to see an apartment at 3:30; I was sort of hoping to go out and do something before then."

"Okay, okay." He muttered, slowly sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before he peered over at me. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know," I sighed. "Make smoothies."

"Smoothies?" Kenny asked quizzically. "I thought you just said that you wanted to go out and do something?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I changed my mind. I want a smoothie." I insisted.

Kenny shook his head, giving me a strange look before he climbed to his feet and then took my hands in his, helping me up as well. He made sure to dust the grass and any traces of dirt off of my backside before he grasped my hand tightly and led me inside the cool, air conditioned house.

Kenny's mom looked up at us as we entered and smiled warmly at us. "Finally decided that you'd had enough of that heat?" She asked.

"Hey, I was perfectly fine with the heat," Kenny replied, "but Madison can't hang."

Rolling my eyes, I nudged him slightly without saying a word. Kenny laughed quietly in response and then wrapped an arm around my shoulders, hugging me to him tightly. "We're making smoothies, mom." He announced. "Do you want one?"

"If your first batch of smoothies turns out good, I'll put in an order for a raspberry one." She said.

Kenny faked a look of hurt, "what do you mean 'if'?" He asked. "Our smoothies will totally blow you out of your seat, mom."

"Oh really?" She laughed. "We'll just see about that, Kennedy."

With that, I let him lead me into the kitchen where we began to set to work on our smoothies. Unable to choose between a strawberry and a banana smoothie, Kenny decided to make a blend of both while I sat on the edge of the island, watching him. After a few minutes of adding a little more of each ingredient, he finally nodded his head in approval and then poured the concoction into a glass, handing it over to me.

"Taste it." He insisted before he went to the sink and rinsed the blender out.

I raised the glass to my lips and took a sip while Kenny started on another raspberry smoothie for his mom. Licking my lips, I nodded my head as well. "That's actually pretty good, babe. You really do know what you're doing, don't you?" I teased.

"Hey, you're forgetting that I worked at Orange Julius our freshman year." He said. "You can't work at a place like that and not be able to make bomb ass smoothies."

I smiled in amusement and then made a move to take another drink but stopped short when I heard my cell phone starting to ring in the living room. Hopping off the countertop, I hurried through the house and found my phone sitting in the middle of the coffee table. Without bothering to see who it was, I flipped it open and held the receiver to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Maddi," Jesse asked quietly, "can you pick me up and take me over to auntie's house?"

"Um, I'll be heading over that way in about an hour or so." I told him. "Can you wait until then?"

"Oh, no, that's okay Maddi, just forget about it." He mumbled. "I'll just walk or something."

"Jesse, that's a ten mile walk." I said. "You're not going to walk that far in this heat. Stay put, I'll be other there in an hour."

"I can't Madison. I need to get out of here." He muttered. "I'll just walk." He repeated.

"Jesse, what's going on?" I asked. "Why are you so determined to leave?"

"I just need to get out of here," he whispered, his voice breaking slightly.

Hearing this, I felt my heart break and I nodded my head despite the fact that my brother couldn't see me. "Okay, sit tight, Jesse, I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay." He said, his voice barely audible.

Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I ended the call and shoved my cell phone into my pocket. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I did my best to calm myself down and ride myself of the worried expression before I went back to the kitchen to tell Kenny that I was leaving. When I entered, I found that Kenny's mom had since joined him while she sipped on her smoothie.

"Who was that?" Kenny asked, sipping on a smoothie of his own.

"That was Jesse." I replied. "I have to give him a ride somewhere, so I suppose I'll see you later."

"Are you going to come back for dinner, sweetie?" Kenny's mom questioned. "I was planning on tossing those tri tip steaks on the barbeque."

"Um, I'll try." I said. "I'm not sure what my family has planned. I think my auntie was talking about barbequing tonight as well. I'll give you a call later on when I find out the plans."

Kenny eyed me momentarily with his glass raised halfway to his lips, before he set it side and wiped his hands off on his shorts. "Okay, babe," he said, coming over to give me a hug, "drive safe." He muttered before kissing my lips softly.

"I will." I said quietly.

I was pulling onto my street within a matter of minutes and I slowed down when I caught sight of my brother sitting on the edge of our neighbors' driveway, sheltered from the sun by their large maple tree. I stopped directly in front of him and unlocked the door, allowing for him to get in. He hurried to buckle himself in, and then turned his head out of the window as if he were determined not to look at me.

"Jesse, what's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing," he mumbled, "can we just get out of here."

"Not until you tell me what's going on." I said. "Now tell me what happened."

"Forget about it, Maddi," he snapped, "let's just go."

"Damn it, Jesse," I growled, "what - "

"Dad hit me, okay?" He said. "Can we just get out of here, Madison?"

"He hit you?" I gasped. "Well, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He mumbled. "Come on, Maddi. Let's go. I already called auntie and she's expecting us."

"Did you tell her what happened?"

"No," he hissed, "and you'd better not mention it to her either."

"Jesse."

"Madison." He mocked. "Let's go."

Frowning, I put my transmission into gear and then reached over, squeezing my brother's hand tightly. I don't remember much of the drive over to Johno's house because I was so caught up in my own thoughts. Once we got there, Jesse got out without another word to me and I simply sat there, staring at my brother while wondering what I should do. I bit my lip slightly, fighting back the tears and then shook my head, knowing that the best thing for Jesse would be to get him out of our parents house.

I reached up and turned my engine off before stepping out of the car and making my way slowly up to the house. Jesse had since disappeared into the backyard where our cousins were playing around with the slip and slide, so I went off in search of either my auntie or uncle. I lucked out when I found that they were both sitting in the den, watching a rerun of Mythbusters on the big tv.

They looked up as I entered, and greeted me with friendly smiles which soon turned to worry when they saw the look on my face.

"Madison, sweetheart, what's wrong?" My uncle asked, standing to his feet.

In a couple swift steps, he was standing in front of me, concern inscribed deep in his hazel eyes that matched my own. Taking my hands in his, he squeezed them tightly and brought one up, kissing it gently.

"Dad hit Jesse." I whispered. "I was at Kenny's when it happened, and Jesse wasn't even going to tell me."

"Oh God." My uncle gasped, releasing my hands. "Is Jesse okay?" He questioned, ready to go outside and check on Jesse for himself.

"He says he's fine." I mumbled. "He looks like he's okay. He didn't want me to tell anyone, though." I whispered.

My uncle let a low growl escape from his throat, and his fists balled up at his sides. "I'm going to go over there and straighten the guys' ass out." He said angrily, speaking my dad, his younger brother. "No one lays a finger on you kids and gets away with it. I'll be back later on tonight." He said.

"Uncle, don't tell him that I told you." I said quietly. "And don't tell him that Jesse said anything either."

My uncle examined me, and then nodded his head. "He doesn't need to know how I found just, just that I had found out." He said. "Don't worry, sweetheart, he's not going to do it again." He assured me, and then quickly made his way out of the room.

Frowning to myself, I gazed out the window and watched as my uncle got into his car, and then back out of the driveway. Although the temperature was reaching a melting point outside, I couldn't help but feel cool. Our entire lives our parents had fought, but not once have either of them laid a hand on us. At least, they haven't laid a hand on me, but seeing how reluctant Jesse was to tell me what happened, I couldn't help but wonder if our dad had hit him before and he just hadn't told me.

I wasn't aware that I was crying until I felt someone wipe a tear off of my cheek. Tearing my eyes from the window, I looked up and saw Johno standing in front of me, a sad look on his face. Looking over his shoulder, I noticed that my auntie had left, most likely to check on Jesse for herself.

"Kenny said you have an appointment to look at an apartment." He said quietly. "Let's go and find you a nice one so that you and Jesse can finally get out of that hell hole."

Silently, I nodded my head and reached up, wiping the rest of the tears away before I took a deep breath and cleared my mind of all the bad thoughts. I took my cousin's hand in mine and squeezed it tightly as if to reassure myself that everything was going to turn out fine.