Alienated Affections: Getting By
by Silvina

"Time for bed, children. You've got school tomorrow."

With only minor quasi-expected mumblings, Francesca and Maria stood up and headed for their rooms. Rosa Vecchio looked at her son, sitting by the window, staring out.

"Time for bed, Caro."

Startled, he looked up at her with sad green eyes, masking the pain of another broken promise from her husband. Quietly he stood and turned toward his room.

"Ray-"

Without a word he turned.

Disquieted at his silence, she swallowed her familiar words of comfort. "I'll be in in a moment."

Still quiet, he nodded and left the room.

She listened to Francesca and Maria as they recited their prayers and then tucked them into bed with a kiss. Rolling back her shoulders unconsciously, she checked on her son. He didn't say anything as she tucked him in which surprised her. He was a little old for such things, and normally he would have put up a fuss. She wished she could say or do something to make him feel better, but only one person could have done that and he was blind to the hurt he caused.

Later that night when Carmine finally came home she attempted to talk to him.

"Where's dinner?" He interrupted loudly.

"Hush. You'll wake the kids. Here. Eat." She laid a plate of pasta in front of him. Thankfully, he didn't think to ask for anything else. She knew better than to bring up his promise to Ray now.

When they were in the bedroom with the door closed, she brought it up.

"Carmine, you forgot your promise to Raymondo."

Still half drunk, he ignored her.

"He just wanted to spend some time with you." She helped him undress.

"Stop pestering me, woman."

They were both unaware of little Ray next door, able to hear every word of their argument. Eleven year old Ray didn't cry. He was too old to cry. But he couldn't stop his hands from fisting up or his breathing from getting ragged. He lay in bed for several hours, staring at the ceiling, wishing he was somewhere else.

Here's the beginning of the series I was talking about. It's called Alienated Affections --borrowed the title from "Alienated Affections - being gay in America" by Seymour Kleinberg" Haven't read the book, the title just fit. This was posted to thecloset as my anonymous challenge so I had to wait. I'm also posting the second part, a reworking of something I posted here a while back. No hot sex in this series, well maybe in part eight. I think everyone will catch on and hopefully won't hold it against me.

Standard Disclaimer. How sad is it, when you're getting inspired to write m/m slash by a song called "All Woman?" Just a thought for the rest of this series. Please send comments, questions, compliments, and otters to sdelcul@m... or visit http://members.nbci.com/dueSou and http://www.learnlink.emory.edu/~sdelcul

Getting By