Oliver sat at a small outdoor table on his parents’ back porch, a large blue umbrella keeping him shaded as he worked. Over the top of his laptop he could see his boyfriend, Ben, half asleep in the hammock that swayed between two trees in the corner of the yard. “I’m going in,” he yelled, closing his computer and standing. Ben tipped his baseball cap further over his eyes but otherwise didn’t move or speak. Oliver packed up his things and walked through the sliding glass and screen doors and into the kitchen of what had been, for most of his childhood, home.
They had been there for much of the day waiting on a furniture delivery at his mother’s request; the drop off had gone smoothly and now her office had a beautiful new recliner. Sunny and Jessica would be home soon, though, so they’d decided to wait a bit longer and see them. Oliver walked around the house, tidying up out of habit more than anything, gathering coasters from the living room and refilling the hand soap in the downstairs bathroom. Through the front door came the squeak of their mail slot and the rustle of paper landing on the floor in the front hallway. Oliver collected it, thumbing through the campaign flyers and local advertisements idly as he took them to the kitchen, pausing when a plain white envelope caught his eye.
“Benjamin Kendrick,” it read through the plastic window. But sent here, to his parents’ address.
That didn’t make any sense.
He shuffled quickly through the rest, at the bottom finding a second identical envelope. He pulled it out as well, tapped the remaining stack twice against the counter to even up the bottom edge, and put everything in a basket on top of the microwave that was already half full of white envelopes. He walked back outside and yelled his boyfriend’s name; Ben ignored him until, with an eye roll, Oliver walked out into the yard and gave the hammock a gentle push. Ben moved the cap off of his face and gave Oliver an exaggerated, “Yesssss?”
“What’s this?” Oliver asked, handing over the envelopes. Ben’s face mirrored the same curiosity and confusion as his boyfriend’s as he shrugged and tore into one of the mystery letters. Oliver watched Ben’s pupils dart left and right as he scanned the sheet of paper and he felt a tingle on the back of his neck. He’d assumed there was something fishy going on, a selling of information they had probably cheerfully agreed to that let some company market to Ben here. But now, watching his boyfriend’s face, he understood there was more to it than that.
“Benjamin?” he asked, watching Ben’s eyes flit up to his and then back down again.
“You aren’t going to like it,” Ben said, eyes now at the bottom of the page, then muttering to himself. “Oh those little…”
“What?” Oliver asked, patiently waiting for whatever was unfolding.
Ben dropped the pages to his lap, his abrupt movements making the hammock jostle. Oliver grabbed the edge of the white rope mesh, steadying it. His boyfriend’s shoulders sagged.
“You have to promise not to be mad,” Ben said, paper crinkling in his grip. ”At me,” he added.
“I’m not promising anything,” Oliver said, and Ben swallowed hard despite the predictability.
“I meant to tell you but then I just forgot,” he said, handing over the documents, “and, you know, time passed…”
He continued to talk as his boyfriend read over the first page, chasing his tail without actually offering a lot of information. “This is a bill,” Oliver said, interrupting the attempted explanation.
“That’s what I was saying,” Ben said, but before he could continue, Oliver cut him off.
“Why is Jessica’s name here?” he asked, his voice steely. He stuck the set of papers he’d been reading under his left armpit and ripped open the other envelope, quickly scanning through the text. “Why is Sunny listed on this one?”
He looked up, his forehead creased with concentration. He currently held two credit card bills, both with impressively high balances for what looked like inaugural cycles. Ben appeared to be the co-signer for both, alongside Oliver’s younger sisters. “I can explain,” Ben said. It was clear he wanted to be out of the hammock now but Oliver was leaning against it and he felt effectively trapped. He forced himself to speak.
“So… so basically, there was one of those tables at some college fair that Jessica attended and there was a scholarship I think, or maybe it was like a drawing? For a cash prize?” Ben said, speaking quickly and starting to become defensive.
“And how did Sunny get involved?”
“She was already there,” Ben answered with a shrug, and then in a rush, “Do you remember that day they called about a dead battery and I went to jump them off? Well when I got there, someone else had already done it. But then they had already made some deal with the guy who was signing people up at the table– they were in the lot next to the hall where they were hosting the thing– and Jessica asked me to come hear him out. And I don’t know, it sounded pretty legit and like it’s supposed to help them build credit or something and there was a sign up bonus but it had to be that day or they didn’t get it.”
Every new tidbit of information was a puzzle piece clicking into place. He’d thought it was odd that they’d called Ben– they weren’t shy people, they could have made friends with someone with cables…now he suspected there had never been a dead battery. It had seemed fishy but he had not been able to pinpoint why, so he let it go. Now he understood. Ben had been ambushed.
“It’s no interest for six months and then it’s through the roof, Ben. And the limits are so high. It’s socially irresponsible,” Oliver fumed. “The credit card companies, not you,” he corrected himself, and then, “And also you. You were also incredibly irresponsible, Benjamin Ryann.”
“But Oliver I did say that and they promised they wouldn’t use them! I swear! They said it was just about the bonus and they could cancel them as soon as they got them.”
Oliver sighed, bringing a hand to his forehead as if to smooth out the creases there. Ben wasn’t naive usually but he did get overwhelmed easily and had a hard time standing up to peer pressure. His sisters fast-talking him while some slimeball from the industry performed a whole spiel would have been a lot. Still, Oliver’s palm itched as he thought about putting Ben over his knee later. He’d obviously had misgivings, but instead of talking about it he had ignored them. It was a bad habit that Oliver planned to make sure always came with painful consequences.
I’m going inside to wait for the girls and I imagine that is going to lead to a longer conversation,” Oliver said sternly. His jaw tightened as he thought about the two of them scheming and all the little lies that went into making this plan work. He was going to take every dollar out of their hides. “You and I will talk at home.”
Oliver turned to go back in the house, and Ben let out a low groan of frustration as he placed his baseball cap back over his face and crossed his arms. He was now the most unrelaxed a person could be while swaying in a hammock on a summer afternoon. He kept trying to calm down but he was too worked up. Any minute, Jessica and Sunny were going to come home and there was no way they were explaining this to Oliver without getting their asses handed to them. No way, Ben thought.
And then at home, Ben was going to get the same punishment even though he himself was a full fledged adult. Who made a very childish decision, he heard Oliver say in his head. Then he flushed anew as he realized it wasn’t Oliver’s voice, it was Danny’s, and it wasn’t his imagination, it was a memory. Ben had had his own issues with credit cards when he himself was a freshman in college, and it had led to a rather unpleasant experience. A shudder ran down the length of his body as the memory formed more fully in his mind.
~ ~ ~
“Don’t do that, don’t get all big brother on me, it’s been such a good trip!”
Ben was sitting on the arm of the couch in the living room of the house he rented with two classmates. They were gone for the long weekend while Ben had stayed to host his brother, who was also on a break from school. Danny was currently leaning against the other side of the sofa, his arms crossed and eyebrow raised.
“Ben, I’ve been trying to ask you about this stuff since I got here. This is not an ambush. We have to talk about finances.”
“I’m handling it! Look around,” his little brother said, gesturing at the space around them. It was an older house but well-furnished for a group of teenage renters. “Everything is fine.”
“I am looking around,” Danny said, “which is how I know things are not fine. And Mom and Dad keep having the accountant call me and I don’t know what to tell him.” His frustration put an edge in his voice and he stood up straight and moved his hands to his hips. “Nothing’s coming out of the joint account. How are you paying for groceries? Did you get a job?”
“No,” Ben said, eyes darting around evasively.
“Good,” Danny said, fully in support of Ben just getting through the semester; he was having enough trouble concentrating on school as it was. But it still meant the question was unanswered. It suddenly occurred to him with certainty what was going on, and he hated the surety that came with the thought. “Benjamin Kendrick, did you get a credit card?”
“I’m allowed to get a credit card,” Ben said huffily, glaring at the wall.
“You absolutely are not,” Danny said, his voice sharp.
“Well I did, so,” Ben said, shrugging now as he looked right into his brother’s eyes. “So I did. It’s done. And it’s awesome. And I don’t need Mom and Dad’s help except for tuition. And it’s not your business.”
Danny’s mouth fell open, then shut slowly as his jaw tightened and his face seemed to become more angular. Then he nodded, turned, and walked out of the room. Ben did his best not to stare nervously at his brother’s retreating back. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, ignored the burning in his face. He was an adult now and Danny was not in charge of him. Not that they’d had a talk about it or anything, but it was just the rule. He swallowed as he thought about how this rule hadn’t meant much over the summer. Things were different now though.
He looked up as Danny walked back into the room, a quick jaunt down the hall apparently having been all the time he needed to make a decision. He sat on the couch and pulled Ben down easily enough, the younger Kendrick having been perched precariously anyway. “Danny!” he screeched, but he wasn’t in a position to do much else.
“We’ll talk in a minute,” Danny said, securing the boy tightly and then delivering a hard swat across the seat of his jeans.
“That isn’t fair!” Ben yelled, struggling as his brother continued to spank him. He hated how childish he sounded but it was all he could say– it wasn’t fair! “I’m an adult!”
“Who made a very childish decision,” Danny said over the muffled thud of his hand landing. As if to drive the point home, he paused and pulled Ben up. The boy stood and tried to pull away but Danny had the waistband of his jeans and was quickly unbuttoning and unzipping them.
“Danny stop,” Ben said, still trying to tug himself free but only half-heartedly. He’d been here enough to know that there was no stopping things now. In a moment he was again belly down, this time with his ankles tangled in denim. He grabbed a couch pillow to clutch as Danny started up again.
And now his big brother had figured out what to say. “This is not financial independence, Ben. This is reckless. And foolish. And you should have talked to me about it first.”
“I’m going to get a job when I graduate and pay it off!” Ben said, body straining to take the spanking. His exclamation only made the swats come down harder.
“That is not how it works,” Danny said, trying to keep his shock at his brother’s lack of logic out of his voice. Ben’s entire attitude seemed suited to a freshman in high school, not college. He wasn’t sure how he had neglected to correct some of these childish notions before now, but clearly he had. He was going to do his best to correct them now.
He paused to relieve Ben of his underwear, taking his time shoving them down his legs until they were tucked against the boy’s jeans. Then he returned to the task at hand, connecting his hot palm now to Ben’s now bared and reddening bottom. “Credit card money is real money, Ben. They are going to charge you money for spending money.”
“It’s not your problem,” Ben said, voice now dipping into petulance. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
Ben couldn’t see it, but Danny rolled his eyes, then shifted his focus to the crease between Ben’s thighs and bottom. Over the boy’s renewed squeals, he said, “I’m always going to look after you,” and then he added dryly as he began to pepper Ben’s thighs with swats as well. “I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear before.”
“Ow, it’s clear!” Ben said, legs scissoring wildly as he tried and failed to dodge this new barrage. And suddenly it did feel very clear, with his bottom throbbing and thighs stinging, with his breath coming in gasps as Danny continued to spank him and no apparent end in sight. He wished he could at least escape more lecturing, but he was out of luck there, too.
“I don’t monitor everything you do. I don’t care to micromanage your life. But part of trusting you to make some of these decisions means trusting you to come talk to me. And to not make rash decisions because you’re mad at Mom and Dad. This is basically just a temper tantrum that only damages you in the long run.”
“Who even understands credit scores, it doesn’t matter,” Ben said pitifully, now starting to feel sorry for himself. It wasn’t supposed to be this complicated. It hadn’t even been hard to get, so it couldn’t be that big of a deal.
He gasped as Danny abruptly dropped a knee, angling Ben’s torso toward the floor and raising his backside just enough that the swats echoed around the room even louder. Danny wasn’t going to use this moment to explain all of it– a system he didn’t feel that confident navigating himself, to be perfectly honest– to his little brother. He wanted this spanking to remind Ben that they were on the same team, and to punish him for being impulsive.
Now he did give Ben his wish, lapsing into silence as he put the full force of his concentration into drumming his message into Ben’s backside, turning his hand into a paddle. It wasn’t long before he heard a slight hitch in his brother’s breathing, and soon after his yells faded into whimpers. Finally Danny felt like they were getting somewhere. He pulled Ben in a little tighter.
“Talk to me about big decisions. And use better judgment. I know you’re capable.” By now Ben’s thighs and bottom were both swollen and Danny knew he’d be feeling this spanking every time he sat down or even walked for the next day or two. He wrapped up with several dozen more swats anyway, making Ben gasp and sob through all of them.
Then finally he stopped, not pausing before reaching down to pull Ben’s underwear back up, unfazed by the hiss of pain Ben released as the fabric ran over his bottom. They stayed like this for a moment, Danny rubbing his brother’s back until the boy’s breathing steadied some. Then Ben sat up, kicking his jeans off and then leaning against Danny’s shoulder. The older brother patted Ben’s knee affectionately, then put an arm around him.
“We don’t have to do it tonight, but this week we are looking at this account and figuring some things out about the future. Is that understood?”
Ben nodded miserably, even now thinking fleetingly that it was unfair to put someone in this state and then ask them questions. He didn’t really have a choice but to agree, did he? He shifted his weight, an attempt to find a better position backfiring immediately. He was pretty sure he’d never sit comfortably again.
~ ~ ~
The memory made Ben wiggle in real time and the hammock swayed a bit. He glanced toward the house, where he could see Oliver walking down the stairs, past the sliding doors and to the front, where Sunny and Jessica had just come inside. They’d dragged him into trouble, and now they were going to get it, he thought resentfully. He couldn’t quite get himself to mean it though. It just reminded him that he was in trouble, too. Pouting, he turned away from the house and tried to force himself back to sleep.
Length: 2605 words
Updated: 01/27/2024
The Shadows Play 