Destined For Them (Story 3)✔

~2~

~Caroline~

I'd never seen so many empty chip bags, candy wrappers and flattened energy drink cans in one bedroom. I had to give it to my rebelling stepchild though, he sure knew how to hide his junk. How had he even gotten his hands on all of this anyway? My thoughts on it suspected Miriam had. Some moths ago she had found out she was ill with cancer and ever since then she had spoiled Chris. Something or other about 'giving my only child everything before my time comes' type of thing. It had caused endless arguments between her and Sol. All she was doing was entitling him.  

She'd already shared with everyone that medicating was out of the question. It had surprised me, coming from a woman who had made a living altering bodies and inserting implants. So what was a little medication? I completely disagreed on giving Christopher what he wanted though and as much as it pained me, I didn't really have a say in the matter. Miriam ran her household how she pleased and there was nothing I could do about it-or Sol for that matter. So it was an ongoing battle. 

"Can we go now, Mommy?" Lydia was standing in the doorway of her brothers bedroom, clutching one of her baby dolls closely against her and watching me clean the mess. If Christopher was here, she wouldn't be caught alive on this side of the doorjamb. Sibling rivalry and all..."We are gonna be late." She was referring to my shift at the boutique. Today she would have to join me because my mother was unable to. There was only so much the woman who had borne me could do. Mrs. Thomson had a life and her own job to worry about. 

"We aren't going to be late. We still have an hour before we have to leave." I answered her, pulling a few more wrappers from deep underneath his bed and stuffing them into the bag that was already half full with trash. I would be in here half the day if I decided to clean the entire room; it needed to be vacuumed, the dirty clothes needed washing along with his comforter set. 

When I glanced in the direction of the doorway, Lydia was turning away, no doubt to go play in her bedroom or some other corner of the house. I was just about to stand up again and start putting clothes into his hamper when I noticed something sticking between the mattresses of his bed. When I pulled a magazine out, my eyes grew and for a second, I felt like I was invading the eleven year old's privacy. Porn magazines. Where on earth had he gotten...

I shook my head, not really caring to wonder and lifted the mattress. There was a quite a stash hidden away. I didn't expect anything less from a child his age. He was getting up there..in a few short years he would no long be a 'pre-teen' but a full fledged teenager. I abandoned my task at hand and took the stack down the hall,  to the master suite where I had left Sol, ten minutes prior, to get around. When I closed the door behind me, my husband was sitting at the end of our bed, lacing his loafers. "Guess what I found in Chris's room." I said, walking the carpet, heels sinking into the softness with each stride, until I was standing in front of him. 

"What's that?" He asked and I held out the mags with their covers of naked women decorating the fronts. Sol paused and then straightened. The grin that broke over his handsome face was prideful and he took one from the top. "That's my boy...well, hello there." He made a show of flipping open the magazine and checking out a woman posed so whorishly, I rolled my eyes. 

"You really are a pervert," I ticked and snatched it back. It won me a chuckle from him.  Not that I cared if that was Sol's thing. I wasn't one of those women who forbid her man to look at porn. It was practically in the nature of every upright, walking creature with a thing dangling between the legs. "Isn't this a serious thing? Shouldn't you talk to him?" I asked and one of those rare moments slipped over me where I thought this was probably something I should let his real parents handle. 

"About what? Just put them back and maybe I'll mention it later. He's a boy." My husband just shrugged as he finished his shoes and rose from the bed. He was so large and suddenly the room felt like it would close in on me. "Aren't you glad you gave me daughter?" I could hear the humor in his question as he went over to the chair that occupied the corner and grabbed his suit jacket. I wanted to argue that girls were curious too but decided I had quite a few more years before I had to deal with that.