Spanking Story: Alex 8: The Sling (F/f, M/m)

The Sling

Sheriff Norton nodded, saluted her briefly, and walked away. Clara’s thin profile remained in the frame of the door, still playing his words in her head.

“The lady will not press any charges, but she wanted to make sure that the parents found out,” the sheriff had said. “I may be wrong, but when I was driving my car today, I saw your son and your daughter, with their friend, taking a walk on the main street and gathering rocks. And the lady's description of their clothing was correct… Besides,” he had added, extending his left hand towards the dusty road, “it also happened right there, on the main road“. Sheriff Morris had avoided her eyes. Bringing the news was hard and Clara knew why – Dr. Pierce, her husband, had always been a call away when any of the sheriff’s family members had been sick. Jack Pierce had also operated on the sheriff’s sick mother.

Slowing closing the door, Clara gathered her thoughts. With the corner of her eye, she could see the tiny silhouette hiding on the stairs, behind the white balusters.

“Ashley, come here, Missy,” she called. “I know you’re there.”

The figure moved, peeking from behind the banister's vase-shaped supports.

“Mommy, it wasn’t me. It was Alex,” – the girl said. No denying: thank you, Lord; She was confessing everything, without much questioning. Unlike Alex. And Clara relaxed knowing that Ashley would tell on her brother without blinking an eye. As for Alex, she could never get him to talk. Only Jack could.

“Did you or didn’t you throw rocks at the cars?”

Ashley considered.

“I didn’t hit any, though…” She said in the smallest and softest voice she had. “I’m sorry, Mommy.” Her eyes searched the floor and the blond hair ran into her face, covering her tears.

“It was very wrong what you did. I’m sure you know that.”

The girl nodded. You know such things when you are 7, but you do them anyway. In the same way in which Alex knew, at 11, but couldn’t care less.

Clara unleashed her long blond hair from the pony tail, brushed it off her face, and gathered it again to the back of her head. How would Jack handle this? He would talk to Ashley, spank her, ground her. She couldn’t bring herself to do that. She looked at a contrite Ashley – so small and innocent – standing on the stairs. The child was close to tears.

“Go wait for me in your room,” she said. Clearing her mind and acting like an adult was a priority. And she couldn’t do it with her daughter watching.

“Mommy, noo…” The child knew.

“Now, young lady.”

The small foot steps echoed as Ashley ran to her room.

And it was supposed to be a vacation, Clara thought, rubbing her temples with two shaky fingers. She checked the clock, and it was only 5, and Jack would be back from shopping probably by 6. And where the heck was Alex? She hadn’t seen him since morning; he had skipped lunch even. The weather had been splendid, but she had spent all day in the kitchen, cooking for tomorrow evening’s party. And Jack had been helping around cleaning the house. And the kids… the kids had run wildly. And on Alex one should keep an eye or he would always get himself – and his sister – in trouble. What happened today should teach both her and Jack one or two things about parenting.

Alex throwing rocks at passing cars was easy to picture. It was impossible to create such an image for Ashley, though.

She brought herself to walk upstairs for the discussion with her daughter. She passed by the bathroom, to pick from a mahogany cabinet the wooden hairbrush, and walked in Ashley’s room. She found the child sitting on the bed, crying.

“Don’t spank me, Mommy,” she pleaded. Big teary eyes were fixing Clara.

“I’m sorry, Sweety, but you can’t just start throwing rocks at cars and people and not get punished for it.”

“Just ground me like you did other times…”

“I’m afraid I can’t. This is far too serious.”

Clara came next to her daughter, hairbrush hanging heavy in her hand. “Common,” she said, taking Ashley’s hand and sitting herself on the bed, child in front of her. The girl didn’t need a spanking to get her crying. She was already there.

“Common, Ashley, quit stalling. Do you want your Dad to take care of this?”

The child shook her head and went over Clara’s lap, leaving the mother in an uncomfortable situation. The thin shorts offered little protection and Clara decided against taking them down.

“Don’t bring your hands back...”

The child nodded again, rubbing her red eyes.

The descent was not hard, yet the pace was fast. One sharp stroke of the hairbrush got Ashley’s feet into motion and Clara had to pin Ashley’s restless hands to the small of her back. Spanking Ashley was harder than she had expected. It was not like swatting her butt once or twice – it was a struggle. The brush hit the round spot about ten times and Clara found herself crying as her own daughter hissed and struggled with the pain. She picked the weeping child up, and wrapped her arms around her.

“Clara? Kids?” – Jack’s voice called from downstairs.

“Up here!” – Clara responded, still rocking softly her daughter. “You know that spanking you hurts me,” she whispered. “Why on earth would you do such a stupid thing?”

“Alex and Josh were also doing it. And it was fun.”

“That’s not a reason, Ashley, honey…”

Jack remained rooted to the ground, in the doorway, surprised at the scene. The smile had turned into an anxious look.

“Everything all right?” The worried tone surfaced even when he tried to hide it. “Are you two ok?”

“Fine, honey,” Clara said, wiping her eyes. “Ashley has something to confess.”

Jack raised his eyebrows to his daughter. “Let’s hear it, then.” His crossed arms were not a good sign.

The girl shifted nervously on her mother’s lap.

“Common, honey, tell Daddy what you did.”

The small fingers played nervously with her Buggs Bunny imprinted t-shirt.

“Alex and I slang rocks at passing cars this morning…”

Jack’s eyes widened.

“And Alex hit a car’s tail lights. By mistake” – she added fast, hoping this would diminish the guilt of telling on her brother.

Jack suppressed the “Did what?” cry, hanging in his throat.

“You’re in trouble,” was what came out instead.

“But Mommy spanked me already!” – Ashley cried fast, the small voice becoming high-pitched and desperate.

Clara nodded.

“In which case you are grounded.” – Jack added, matter-of-factly. “Downstairs right now and put your nose into the corner. Now. Don’t look at your mother and don’t try to milk sympathy from me; for something like this you won’t get any. You know better. Downstairs. Now.” His pointed finger seemed to vibrate in the tensed air.

There were no protests on Ashley’s side.

When they were alone, Jack asked the question which was twisting his brain. “You spanked her?”

“I did. And it wasn’t easy.”

“I do it so you don’t have to.” – Jack sighed. “You can’t handle it and you become a mess. At least I try to control my feelings.”

He wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on her lips. “Thanks, though… I can handle Alex because I know how a boy feels. But with Ashley… It’s unfair to say it-”

“It’s easier with Alex. I know.”

“Where is he, anyway?”

Clara almost shrugged. “I haven’t seen him since morning - you know, when you saw him last… Oh, I forgot to mention: the sheriff came. That’s how I found out.”

Jack stood up, thought for a moment, looking blank. “He might be at Adam’s house, playing with Josh. Did you call?”

“Nope.”

“Ok, let’s go downstairs, see how Ashley’s coping with her situation, and then I’ll try and call Adam to check on Alex.”

***

Alex saw Ashley first, sitting on the floor with a coloring book in front of her and a bunch of crayons lying around. Her puffy red eyes triggered his defense mechanism. The thought that something else might have been the reason for her crying was not strong enough to stick to his mind.

Jack popped in the living room from the kitchen, holding a kitchen towel in his hand. Alex took off his shoes slowly, waiting for any word from his parents that might give away his current situation. He didn’t have to wait long.

“What time is it, Alex?” Jack asked, drying his hands with a kitchen towel. No reply came from his son. Jack disappeared into the kitchen and appeared again in the living room, hands in his pockets. He measured his son from head to toes: his dirty hands, his mud-stained face, the dusty t-shirt and khakis. A small branch was still hanging in his dark hair and he had managed to scratch his arm again. The look in the boy’s green eyes, when he confronted his Dad’s, was guiltless.

“I was fishing but I couldn’t catch anything all day and then we started catching more fish towards evening so I stayed more.” “I’m sorry.” – he added fast, checking closely his Dad’s reaction.

“That’s all you’ve been doing today?”

“I guess so.”

Ashley looked up and in her face Alex felt the danger of the upcoming storm. She had started picking up her crayons and gathering her coloring books and papers.

“You guess so?” – Jack asked again, arms crossed.

That was the kind of question his Dad would ask when he knew. Alex looked down. “Dad, I’m hungry,” he whispered. Which he was.

“Ashley, go help your Mom in the kitchen, Sweety,” Jack turned to his daughter.

“Yes, Daddy.”

Alex could tell she was happy to be out of the room. But he was hungry. He didn’t care about how hungry he was; until now. At that very point he felt the hunger as unbearable. He felt the hunger tightening his stomach into a tensed small ball.

“I’m hungry,” he whined again, rubbing his eyes.

“And tired. And whiney.” – Jack added staring at his son who was still at the entrance, not daring to come any closer to his father. “Which is what you get when you stay out all day, running wild and skipping lunches. It’s past your curfew and past our dinner time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Go take a shower and change your clothes, please. The sheriff passed by today and we’re going to have a little talk about it tonight.”

Agony was painted on Alex’s face. The word ‘sheriff’ was enough to startle him; he looked at his Dad, as if questioning the truth of the statement.

“I didn’t do anything,” he began.

“Stop whining and go wash.”

As Alex slid past his Dad, Jack swatted his bottom hard. “Fast!” – Jack added, watching the boy rubbing his bottom and his tired eyes.

Jack turned his gaze to Clara, who had finished emptying the dish washer and was setting the table for Alex. “After I talk to him,” Jack told her.

“But he’s hungry, Jack. He didn’t have anything to eat today.”

“I doubt he would be able to swallow anything right now. When we’re done he will be more relaxed. Trust me.”

She sighed. “If you say so… I hope you know what you’re saying.”

Ten minutes later Alex came downstairs, dressed in his blue pajamas bottoms and in a dark blue t-shirt. His sight had grown accustomed to the floor, as he had been studying it intensely for the past few minutes. From the kitchen table, Jack saw him coming and met him in the doorway. He stared patiently at the slim small figure in front of him.

“Do you have anything to say to me, Alex?” – Jack questioned.

There was no answer. The clink of dishes and cutlery being moved around in the kitchen had also ceased.

“What were you doing this afternoon on the road, Alex? With Josh and Ashley?”

Alex shook his head “no”. He rubbed his eyes again and his lip began trembling on its own will.

“It won’t happen again,” he replied as Jack had paused allowing for the silence between them to grow. “We were just playing and it happened.”

“This did not happen by accident. You can’t tell me that you were shooting rocks at cars by accident?”

“But I didn’t mean to hit them…”

“No, you mean to tell me that you were shooting at them to miss them, right?”

“We were playing…”

“Playing is not hitting cars with rocks. Not to mention that you are not allowed to play on the main street.”

“But there are hardly any cars passing on that street, Dad!...”

“That is not the point. The point is you had no business to be there in the first place. And second, you do not – do NOT – throw rocks at passing cars, animals, people, or whatever else. That is the point. Am I making myself clear?”

“But how come Josh can be on the main street and I can’t?”

“What Josh does is his business and his parents’ business, even though I am quite sure his Dad wouldn’t approve of him playing on the street.”

“But there are no cars on the street!”

Alex stomped his foot and pouted. Jack grabbed his arm before any protest could come out, spun him around and smacked his bottom hard a few times. The kid arched his back in reply and his hand covered his bottom.

“Young man, you do not argue with me.”

“I’m sorreee…”

More sharp slaps landed.

“And you certainly do not stomp and pout!”

“Daddy I swear it won’t happen again please don’t spank me Daddy please!…” Behind the darkness of his closed eyes Alex could feel the distinct sting of his father’s handprints on his behind.

Jack walked an unwilling Alex to the couch. The kid tried to resist but another smack got him moving and whining.

“I won’t do it again. Daddy, I promise....”

“I’ll show you throwing rocks at cars and being late home.”

He removed his belt, doubled it, and sat himself on the couch, dragging Alex in front of him. “Pull your pajamas bottoms down, please,” he added patiently, fixing his son. Alex was crying already so asking him again was no good; it would only raise the frustration. Jack pulled Alex closer and did the work himself. Then took his arm and pulled the boy over his knees.

Silence engulfed the room before the belt landed. Only three licks, and then it stopped; but Alex was crying hard by now, both his hands locked behind his back under his Dad’s firm grip.

“Why am I spanking you, Alex?”

“I threw rocks at cars… But I won’t do it again, Dad. I promise. I swear.”

“And I want that sling you've been using tonight, understood?”

“Yes, Dad.”

The belt landed a couple more times and the butt began turning red. Jack stopped. A knot had formed in his throat. He knew how hard it had been for Clara to spank Ashley. Alex was wailing, unaware that the spanking had stopped. Jack lifted his son up, on his lap, and wiped his eyes. He pulled up slowly the kid’s PJ’s bottoms. In his chest, Alex went on sobbing. He was aware only later on that Jack had taken him to the bathroom, to wash his face, and then carried him again downstairs, to the kitchen. By now he had calmed down but the sting in his butt was still there.

Ashley was already in bed. But Clara, in the kitchen, was still warming some chicken soup with noodles. She kissed his hot forehead.

“You stupid little boy, you,” she whispered.

Jack watched silently, shaking his head, speaking to no one in particular:

“What am I gonna do with you when you grow up, Alex?”

The kid looked up from his plate, innocent look in his eyes: “But I’ll be good, Dad.”

Jack only laughed. Fuck - he was in trouble.

Spanking Story: Alex 7: When the Cat is Not Home… (M/m)

When the Cat is Not Home…

The real world had dissolved for Alex a few good hours before, when he started playing online with Josh WWE Smackdown! VS Raw 2008 for PS2. His Dad was attending a conference on ‘who-the-fuck-cares’ in Boston and only with his Mom around life was pink. Last night he went to bed at 4 A.M. He woke up at 7 A.M. to continue the game. This time, victory shall be theirs.

“Tag me, Josh. Fucking crawl and tag me, man!” His bloodshot eyes could only see the screen.

“Alex,” the woman called on an irritated tone. “How many times do I have to call--“

She walked in Alex’s room, slightly aware that her son couldn’t care less about her shouting. She stared in disbelief at the pile of clothes on the floor, on the chair, on the bed; at the magazines lying all over the desk. Drawing pencils were scattered on the floor, and the crumpled papers buried the trash bin.

“For God’s sake, Alex, you were supposed to clean up this mess already! Martha will be here in an hour. How can she clean your room?”

“Josh, tag me you idiot!”

“Alex! I’m talking to you.”

“Mom, I’m busy, I’ll talk to you later, ok?” He stared at the screen where a very groggy Shawn Michaels was slumbering on the ring and an angry Undertaker was viciously attacking the referee with a chair. “Get out of there, you moron!” – Alex shouted in his mic.

“Alex Pierce, I am talking to you!” Without Jack around to knock some sense into Alex, Clara could only waste her energy on shouting. The fury was mounting though.

“Who’s that,” Josh asked in the headphones.

“Just my Mom. I’ll get rid of her in a second.”

“Excuse me?” It was the flipping out moment for Clara. “Turn it off right now or I’ll call your father.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Josh, can you give me a second, man? I’ll be back in five. Don’t get yourself killed, ok?” He pressed the mute button and turned to his Mom. “Dad’s in a conference,” he explained patiently as if he was reasoning with a toddler who wanted a candy before lunch. “I’ll finish the game and then I’ll clean the room. What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal?”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve said because I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Give me the phone!”

“Mom, I am playing, remember? I can’t hang up. Use the one downstairs, it won’t make a difference. Dad’s still in a conference.” She wouldn’t tell on him. She never did. But he had to play a bit less dangerously because one never knows with women and their PM syndrome.

He wished he had that brilliant thought before his last sentence. He watched as Clara’s eyes bulged in her head and she attacked Alex’s Play Station, pulling out the plug.

Forget about playing safely - He shot up, standing, black screen of the TV staring back at him.

“What the fuck?... Mom!”

“You are not playing anymore. You are tiding up this room this instant, young man, you hear me? Now!” She fumbled with the cables and the joysticks, picking them up. If he had the tantrum she was having now with his Dad he would be get the spanking of his life. And she hadn’t even reached her peak – but Alex’s overcooked brain could only work one way – the game, the precious game he had tried to win for the past few days. He and Josh had to win it. “What the hell are you doing?” He wanted to snatch them back so badly he had to grit his teeth to refrain himself.

“God help you when your Dad gets home. I won’t be there to save your ass this time, trust me on that!” The cables writhed dangerously around the floor, as Clara bent down to tug at them, unplug them, throw them all around. Looking up at him, she finally took the cable-free console away. “Clean you room.” She turned around leaving Alex in a shock.

He followed her closely. “What are you doing with my Play Station? Have you lost your mind? Mom!”

She stopped to confront him, - “I’ll show you lost my mind. If you don’t understand when I you are told nicely, maybe you understand like this,” – then continued her march, with Alex behind her, like a famished dog tracking down a juicy sausage.

“If you don’t give me back my game, I swear I won’t clean up the room. I swear!” They made eye contact, as Clara pushed the Play Station into one of the drawers in the master bedroom. Alex’s fists tightened and he seemed to grow by five inches in her eyes.

“Go to you room!” – she ordered, straightening her back. But he didn’t move. “Are you defying me? How dare you?” She slapped him hard across his face and he stared at her again, not even bothering to sooth the hot pain in his left cheek.

“I just want to finish my game. Then I’ll do whatever you want.”

“I said NO.”

“I’ll take it from the drawer when you leave anyway…”

Clara gave up her fight. There were other ways. She fished for her cell phone in her pocket. She didn’t care about any of her husband’s conferences; she only cared about settling this down with Alex. Alex dropped his hands in his pockets, taunting her. But she could see the confidence fading away from her son’s eyes as she dialed the number. Still sure his Mom would get the ‘leave a message’ reply, he stubbornly refused to leave the room. The ring surprised her as much as her first words to Jack surprised Alex.

He started for the corridor, his fury melting into a pond of fear.

“Alex,” Clara called before he got past the door. She extended the phone to him. As he took it gingerly, like you’d manipulate a fragile porcelain that could blast the moment you touched it, she crossed her arms across her chest, watching. He glared at her with the incredulous look of someone who had been set up. He was good at exploiting her; he was even better at manipulating her feelings. This time he had failed.

“Dad, I was just trying to finish my game…”

“What did I tell you when I left the house three days ago, Alex? About sassing your mother?”

“I was just playing and she came fuming in and unplugged my game, Dad! I’ve been playing all night to get to this point-“

“You what?”

“Not all night. It’s just a figure of speech…”

Pointless to add this was not going the way he had expected. Well, the phone call wasn’t part of the plan in the first place, to be honest.

“This is so unfair,” he mumbled. “She is just ticked off because it’s cleaning day. You know how she gets when Martha has to come.”

“Watch it, mister…”

“That’s the truth, Dad.” He stared at his Mom defiantly. He thought he saw her eyes getting watery and maybe for an instant he felt ashamed with himself; the feeling was gone when the trumpets of victory – victory over her will power - began playing in his mind.

“You listen to me, young man,” Jack hardened his voice and Alex’s brain felt trapped in the man’s words. “You are going to clean the room right now. Do you hear me?”

“Yes…”

“Are you walking to your room right now? I don’t hear you moving…”

Alex sighed, turned around, and left his Mom’s bedroom behind. He dragged his feet towards his own room.

“You are going to tidy up that room spotless, you hear me? Spotless, Alex. And when you’re done, you will call me to tell me that you’re done. If I have to check on you the way I did when you were in kindergarten, I will. You’d better not bother your mother again. And I will be home for dinner, and then we, as in you and I, are gonna have a small discussion about this. Is that clear enough for you?”

Alex paused frowning. He was kicking the foot of the bed hard enough for the whole house to hear it.

“I am talking to you, mister.”

“Yeah yeah I heard,” he mumbled.

Jack paused enough to recover from the shock himself. “You’re in deep trouble and I hope you know that,” he added. “You know what? Martha is not touching your room. You are going to clean and scrub it, got that?”

“As if I care…” – it was barely a whisper but Jack heard it.

“I’m home at seven. And by eight your ass will be so tanned you will sleep on your stomach for a week, mark my words, Alex. Start cleaning that room.”

He hung up. Alex threw the phone against the bed, paused, unsure of the anger still bubbling inside his veins, then picked up the phone again and smashed it against the wall. He threw himself face down on the bed. How dared his mother call his Dad? How dared she? She had ruined his game. He and Josh had been working on the strategy of that match forever. Now all his work had been for nothing and he had to start all over again. He turned around on his back, staring at the ceiling, both arms supporting his head, like a pillow. Rushing to his parents’ bedroom and getting back his console crossed his mind and he even indulged himself with the look on his mother’s face if he went for it. He almost pushed himself to defy them even more, but in the back of his mind one small worry was building other small worries and they all created panic as realization of what he’d done dawned onto him. He stared at the shattered phone pieces. Oh fuck! Oh fuck! He grabbed his cell phone in a desperate attempt to call his dad but this time, when he did want his Dad to answer, the “leave a message” reply greeted him.

By 4 P.M. he was so famished he could have eaten one pound of green beans without feeling the taste and so tired that he remained down on the floor, with his back resting against the leg of the desk. The attempt to reach his Dad failed again and for a long time he sat there, phone in his hand, eyes at the ceiling. He used to be a good kid – well behaved in front of his parents and certainly more careful. During the past two or three years he had become a dick-head and he was well aware of it. Controlling himself was not an option anymore; controlling himself had become almost as hard as not having a joint in the weekends. Joints were not addictive; he knew that for a fact. But how he wished he could have had one now. He gathered his energy and will to stand up and crawl towards the bed, like a drunk, throwing himself face down. He rummaged for the pillow under the blanket, scooped it out and doubling it over he tossed it under his head. He lost track of his thoughts the moment his eyes closed.

He moved a few times in his sleep, breaking free from one dream and falling back into another. When he finally budged again, his tongue felt heavy in his mouth. The room was dark and silent. An orange streak of light squeezed in the room through the ajar-left door. The TV was on downstairs; he could hear the soothing gurgle of voices but the words remained a mystery to his ears. A few kids were playing outside, calling each other and laughing. They were probably ten, maybe eleven years old. And he envied them. He was growing up too fast. If he closed his eyes again, he could almost ignore his age and relive any other day of his childhood, especially those afternoons when he would be put to bed and he would wake up in the laughter of his friends playing outside.

“You feeling ok?” The voice of his Dad didn’t startle him.

Alex nodded in the dark.

“Do you want to talk?”

Alex shrugged. “I tried to call you,” he said, one hand under his head, the other playing with a rebel streak of hair running into his eyes.

“I know. What happened today, Alex? You went too far.”

“She’s exaggerating. She burst into my room and started screaming. I was in the middle of a game.”

“She asked you to tidy up your room on Monday. I was there so you can’t deny it. And she comes in today and finds a room which is still a mess and you, playing your game, having no intention of cleaning it up. And you sass her.”

“I was pissed off.”

“That kind of behavior is not accepted in this house, Alex. You know it. And for your own sake you don’t want me to remember the way you spoke to me on the phone.”

A cold chill ran down his spine. He went silent, staring at the ceiling.

“And you smashed the phone too.” The voice was calm, merely pointing out a fact.

“I was angry. And frustrated…”

“We could have talked about it.”

The boy shrugged. “I know. But I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I want to solve my problems alone.”

“Anything going wrong between you and Alexis?”

“We broke up.”

In the dark, Jack nodded. He was still holding in his hand the main piece of the broken phone.

“I don’t want to talk about it. It’s over anyway. Besides, I need to focus on my stupid classes and grades. I really don’t want to talk about it.” He bit his nail nervously and Jack allowed him this moment to recompose himself.

“You gonna spank me?” – the boy finally asked, and as much as he tried to look indifferent, his edgy tone gave him away.

“Yes.”

With his chin in his chest he managed an “I knew it.”

“I care about your problems and I care about your feelings but you don’t talk the way you did and you don’t act like you just did.”

“It’s still unfair.”

“I am not going to discuss the fairness aspect because by now you should now what is fair and what is not. And before you opened your mouth to say the things you said you were aware of the costs. So I have no sympathy for the way you acted. Get up, go brush your teeth, wash your face and come back in here.”

Alex must have accomplished each one of the tasks while his mind has been wondering ‘what next?’ because the next thing he acknowledged as happening right now, in that reality, was stepping back into his room and blinking away the invading dirty light of his lamp. As usual, only the TV voices came bouncing through the walls from downstairs. He realized he was still groggy from his dreams when Jack unleashed the belt from the loops of his pants and pointed to the bed – Alex hesitated, as if not understanding the obvious. Jack’s fixed look upon him determined Alex to start unbuttoning his jeans. His sigh might have moved anybody who would have taken the picture out of the context.

“I tolerate many things, Alex, but such disrespect and disobedience – those are things that don’t get unnoticed and unpunished in this house.”

Alex kicked away his jeans, towards his desk. He paused, thumbs hooked in the elastic of his boxers. “I wasn’t thinking though… I’m sorry…”

“You’re still not getting away with it. Next time think twice before acting the way you did. Yes, Alex, those boxers come off too. Not down. Off. You won’t be needing them when I’m done with you. You’ll only be needing your pajamas because you are going straight to bed.”

“But I slept already.”

“Then you will sleep some more. Or I can get you tired by putting you in the corner for the next thirty minutes.”

The boxers joined the jeans, on the floor. Jack shook his head disapprovingly at the pile of clothes under the desk, but didn’t say anything. Again, he pointed to the bed. “Face down, please.”

Alex moved, but gazed one last time at his Dad, as if hoping for a last-minute miracle to happen. But miracles are called miracles because they are impossible to happen. He was actually milking some sympathy. There was none.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t home today to straighten things out before they got out of hand,” Jack said.

Alex wrapped his forearms on top of each other and hid his face in them. “For back talking, for being that sassy, and for your attitude towards your mother and myself, I’m gonna tan you really good.” He pulled on the side of the doubled-over belt, snapping it.

“I wasn’t thinking…” – Alex played his excuse again. His voice was small, barely audible. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I swear.”

“Believe me it won’t.”

The first one was hard but he could take it reasonably well. So was the second one. And the third. But the fourth one was already overlapping the previous lick of the belt and his body stiffened at the pain.

“Dad, please, I really swear it won’t happen again. I promise.”

He closed his eye, fighting back the tears. The screams were piling up in his throat after each blow. He stopped breathing, scared that the mere act of breathing out would let out a cry. Jack knew him well. So when the first whispered “owe” came out he knew that Alex’s roller-coaster had reach its peak, and from there to the end it was only a constant and accelerated fall. Another soft “owe” came, followed by a frantic move on Alex’s side to shift the position of his butt, trying to avoid the belt falling on some already sore spots. Jack increased the pace. Alex’s hand moved to his side with the intention of covering his burning ass, but without actually daring to do so.

“Both hands in front of you, Alex. I don’t want to see them anywhere around your butt, you hear me?”

The boy whimpered but brought his arm back, holding it down under the blanket.

What followed was a cascade of stingy licks across his butt, reaching down to the upper part of his legs. He screamed and kicked his feet, but his hands never came back to cover his butt again.

“You will never ever, in my presence or not, talk to your mother like that again.” – Jack marked his words with sharper strokes. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yessss…”

“And when I talk to you, you don’t raise your tone. The answer ‘whatever’ and ‘as if I care’ will vanish from your vocabulary.”

“I’m sorrreee…”

Jack paused.

Alex’s body trembled with sobs. He knew he could have expected this the moment his mother had dialed that number; but if things had stopped right there and if he had been talking to his father in a civilized manner, he might have gotten away with a lecture and with being grounded. Sassing his mother was a wrong move; sassing his father was suicide. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t there when it happened, because sooner or later he would be. And his Dad would occasionally forget about or ignore smaller crimes, but on his list, disrespect was a major crime.

“I swear it won’t happen again.”

“No, it won’t.”

The last strokes got the boy begging. He shouted anything that went through his head that could make the spanking stop. The pillow had become a pond of tears, similar to the sleeves of his shirt. His feet were rubbing against each other and he had managed to move himself a foot higher on the bed, with the bed sheets gathered in front of him, in his fists.

“Do I need to repeat any of things I’ve just said again? Ever again?”

Alex shook his head ‘no’ desperately. “I’m sorry…”

The belt unfolded and started sliding back in the loops of Jack’s pants.

Alex recovered slowly. He pushed himself up, without looking at his Dad, more preoccupied with wiping his nose and eyes. He nodded a ‘thank you’ when Jack offered him the paper towels.

“Now,” Jack said, still staring at his son’s crumbled figure on the bed, “I want you to put on your pajamas bottoms, wash you face and brush your teeth, and go down to your mother and apologize for what you did. Then you come back in here and you put your nose in that corner for twenty minutes. And when you’re done you will be getting to bed. I’ll be here to make sure about that. And tomorrow, if you want to talk about it, we will. Clear?”

Alex nodded. He fished for his PJ’s in the drawer and, head hung down, started for the bathroom.

Story: Alex 5: Rivalries (M/m)

First, I want to thank all of you who have supported my writing over the past two years. I had my moments of being active and then disappearing, but feedback kept me going. So thanks a lot, guys, for your comments and support. I always appreciate your comments, even the criticism (even though I defend myself against it first), because it helps me grow; it helps me get better at what I am doing. :) So thanks again.


This story is somehow linked to what has been going on in Alexis's life, on Juju's blog. Reading Alexis: Chapter 14 on her blog might help you understand better the context. So would the Alex-Alexis story to which you can find links on my blog.

All disclaimers apply. Over 18.

An Alex Spanking Story: Rivalries (M/m)

Copyright: KayleyBlue, 2008

After classes, Alex had been waiting for ten minutes on the second floor corridor when he saw Lizzie appear. She came without Alexis and it wasn't a suprise to him.

He watched her wave goodbye to the two girls she’d been chatting with. She hadn’t seen him yet. As she opened her locker to get her things, he approached her. He needed to know a few things about Alexis. And who was the person who knew Alexis best? Lizzie, her old time friend. He had always disliked her for a reason which was not quite clear to him and which, at this time, held no importance in his view.

“Why lookie lookie who’s here,” he said, resting his left shoulder on a locker.
Lizzie sized him from head to toes.
“Whacha want?”
Alex smiled, not to be courteous, but because he was quite amused.
“Where is Alexis,” he asked, drawling the words.
“What’s it to you?”
He slammed the locker door in her face, almost catching her fingers.
“What the fuck is your problem?” – She cried , but her anger was on the edge of panic.
He felt she was somewhat scared. And that is exactly what he was after.
“Where is Alexis?”
“How the fuck should I know?” – she screamed. “Let me get my things.” It was a plea.
“Alright, then,” – Alex smiled. “Maybe you know something about that kid, Joey? What’s he after?”

Lizzie grinned. “Oh, I see. You are jealous, aren’t you?”
“Not your problem.”
“Joey is hardly a threat. But if I were you,” – and the smile she gave Alex was the evilest she could manage – “as the song goes, I’d be careful about the new boy in town.”

Alex watched her bemused.

“Oh, the boyfriend doesn’t know, does he?” She pushed him away from her locker, opened it, and grabbed her things. “Maybe if you were less full of yourself you would notice…” She turned her back on him and walked away like a winner.

Alex watched her go. Yes, he was jealous. Maybe because the vibe he had been getting lately was good. The news was more of a shock than something else.

Josh and Mike appeared by his side, schoolbags on their shoulders.
“So?” – Josh asked watching Lizzie disappear on the stairs.
“Who is new in school?” – Alex asked, speaking to none of them in particular.
“Just a new kid came a few weeks ago. A transfer. Why?”

Alex’s fists tightened.
“I wanna know everything about this guy, you hear me? He’s dead meat. There is no messing around with my girlfriend. I want to know where he lives, what bus he takes when he goes home. Everything.”
“He’s after Alexis?”
“If he was, he won’t be anymore. Not after tonight.” He turned to face them. He was smiling. “So guys, we haven’t beaten up anybody for way too long, right? It was getting a little boring, really… Time to spice things up. Let’s have some fun tonight.”
The other two also smiled.

***

His name was Ben, Alex found out from Mike. He was riding in the same school bus with Alexis. He was living a couple of blocks away from her. He was too new to have his own gang at school, but he was growing one in his own neighborhood. He was sixteen and good looking.

He was also a tough ass.

Alex learnt that the hard way, when the Ben’s fist caught Alex’s jaw. He felt his lip go numb and swell instantly. Blind anger rose to his brain; he punched the new kid in the mouth, then in the stomach. Ben fell on his back, with Alex on top of him.

“That’s enough,” Josh cried. “Fuck, man, that’s enough. You made your point. Let’s go.” It took both Josh's and Mike's strength to pull Alex back.
“You don’t fucking mess with my girl, you hear me, you piece of shit?” He fought to escape both his friends’ grip.

From the corner of the building, two massive shadows appeared. Sharp steal was flashing in their hands. Ben watched them approach and dared to stand up, slowly, wiping drips of bloody saliva off his chin.
“Over here,” he called, and the strangers began running in his direction.

First, the three friends froze. Then Josh turned around and hit the road. “Run, you idiots,” he called back. Mike followed his lead. Except for Alex, who took his time to punch Ben in the mouth twice.

Later that evening he thought he was lucky, although back then he only felt angry; a motorcycle’s breaks screeched to a halt next to him.
“Get on,” the man said.
Alex’s eyes widened.
“Get fucking on, I said. Now!”
He did, quite puzzled. The motorcycle’s wheels screeched again while it accelerated into the distance. He looked back at the guys with the knives. They had stopped running. They were simple watchers now.

As they rode on dark streets, no one said anything; now and then the dim yellow light of a functional street lamp cast deep shadows into the dingy alleys of the neighborhood. Then Alex began recognizing the surroundings; they had reached the east extremity of his own neighborhood.

“Are you ok,” the man asked. They weren’t running anymore.
“Yes. Thanks.”
It was Drew. It had taken Alex about one minute to realize it. He mostly recognized the voice and the motorcycle.
“I’ll take you home,” Drew said.
They were quiet again. The adrenaline, which had kept him going until then, began subsiding. His muscles felt weak. Realization dawned onto him – home, to his Dad. He was in trouble.

***

Jack listened calmly to Drew’s story. Alex watched the conversation take place in the kitchen through the glass sliding doors. He didn’t hear a word, as they were almost whispering, but he could see his Dad’s reaction. The face of the man had hardened and when he turned to look at Alex, Alex didn’t see anything good in those dark eyes.

His lip burnt. It had swelled. Blood had stopped pouring, but he started now and then when his mother attended to it. She wasn’t talking. And she didn’t say much either.

Drew came out of the kitchen, accompanied by his father.
“You should come for dinner, one evening.” - Jack was saying. “How about this Saturday?”
Clara stood up and went next to her husband. “We would very much like it if you could come, Drew.”
“I’ll see what I can do. We’ve been quite busy lately and we two didn’t have time to catch up on old times. I guess we could come...”
“Bring Michelle too, if you feel like it,” Jack said.
“We’ll see.” There was something strange in his tone. “We’ll talk about it.”
“Just give me a call when you know for sure and we’ll arrange it. We can play Dungeons and Dragons…” - Jack teased.
Drew laughed. “That’s a good one, doc. Well… it might be a healthy change for the kids. I’ll see what I can do. Ok. Gotta go,” he said turning towards Alex. “You take care. And I’d better not see you in my neighborhood again unless you’re visiting. Or else I’ll tan your ass myself.”
Alex nodded. He tried to smile but he couldn’t. “Thank you,” he said. He was too preoccupied to observe his Dad’s mood to care about the future.

Drew waved again and went out, followed by Jack. He saw the two men exchanging a handshake and Drew patting his friend on the shoulder. Then Jack came back inside. He paused in front of the front door, looking at Alex.
“I can explain,” the boy said fast, standing up from the couch.
“No explaining will get you out of this one, Alex,” Jack concluded.
“You could have gotten killed,” his mother also said. “Do you realize what you’ve done? What if Drew wasn’t there to save you? Oh, God, I don’t even want to think about it!” She sighed and collapsed in a chair. “Look at you! You have stains of blood everywhere on you. You have a broken lip. Your eye is swollen. How are you going to go to school like this?” She paused and turned to her husband. “Jack?”
“If you think that I'm gonna write a medical note for him to get him out of trouble, you are wrong,” he said.
“But he cannot go to school on Monday with a black eye and a puffy lip!”
“Are you blaming me for what's happened to him?” His jaw tightened.
She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant and you well know it.” She turned to her son. “Go wash your face, take a shower and go to bed.”
“No,” Jack said, and Alex’s heart leaped out of his chest. “Go up and bring me the cane from your room.”

“Jack!” – Clara’s eyes opened wide, but not as wide as Alex’s. Alex waited, looking expectedly to his mother. He hoped she could save him. But the chances were dim. Then his eyes turned to Jack, pleading.
“Oh, no, mister, you can give me that look all you want. Both of you can stare all you want,” he said shaking his head and smiling. “It’s not gonna work. Has it ever worked, Alex?”
For what Alex could remember, no, it hadn’t. But he had the right to hope.

“He has a puffy lip, Jack,” Clara insisted.
“Does he have a broken butt? No. Alex , go get the cane. Quit stalling.”

Alex threw one last desperate look to his mother, who was now rubbing her hands furiously. Then he saw his Dad’s gaze upon him and he stood up, walking slowly, head down, to the stairs. As he reached his room, he heard the muffled conversation taking place downstairs – his mom, pleading; his dad, explaining calmly.

He felt the urge to call Alexis. He listened to his parents, who were still bickering. He picked up the phone in his room and dialed her number. He was lucky: it was she who picked up the phone.
“Hey,” he said. He wasn’t sure what he was going to tell her. He wasn't sure why he had called in the first place.
“Heeeey! What’s up?”
He heard himself laugh dryly. “Did your Dad get home?”
“No. Why?”
He studied the cane in his hand. He paused. “Never mind.” He couldn’t tell her himself. Let Drew do that for him.
Jack’s call resounded from downstairs.
“I gotta go,” he said suddenly, all senses alert. “I just wanted to say that I’ve missed you, pretty face.”
“Me too.” Her voice was soft.

He hung up, smiled to himself, and rushed downstairs. His mother was no longer there; either they did have an argument, or they agreed but she didn’t want to watch the scene – it was all the same to Alex. He placed the cane into his Dad’s extended hand. Alex thought that Jack had hesitated there for a second; unfortunately, it was only a second, because the next moment Jack showed his son to the coffee table.

“Take off your shirt,” Jack said. “I don’t want it falling over your butt every second.”
Alex began working on the buttons. He undid the first three and pulled it over his head, like a sweater.
“Don’t you want to know why I did it?” – Alex asked.
“I will know after we’re finished with this,” Jack said. He sighed. His voice became mellow. “Alex, listen carefully: no reason, and I mean absolutely no reason, is good enough to get yourself in that situation. Do I make myself clear? Not even if someone did something to you or to Ashley, you don’t bring yourself to the situation to be killed. Things are not supposed to be handled through fights, and especially not by a seventeen year-old, with a gang, in another neighborhood. Do you understand that?”
Alex nodded. He was confused by this way of reasoning.

“He was after Alexis,” Alex finally confessed.
“I imagined. And that makes the situation even worse. Let the girl choose. I don’t think she would approve of your behavior either. This is gang behavior. This is not how men act and solve their problems. What you did was unbelievably reckless and stupid. Take your jeans and boxers down, please. And bend over, hands on the table.”

Alex hesitated. He wanted to say something or negotiate but Jack’s stern eyes convinced him that resistance was futile. Besides, he knew it from experience. He had learnt it the hard way, from when he was only eight.

His dirty jeans fell to his ankles followed by his boxers. The hair rose on his arms as he bent forward, grabbing tight onto the edges of the coffee table. It was all too familiar to him. Only the swishing sound and the horrible bite were new. He stopped breathing, letting his mind adjust to the pain.

Jack gave him time to breathe in and out. He also gave him time to anticipate, which made the situation even more unbearable to Alex. The kid’s mind could grab only the concept of ‘how much until the next one’.

He looked with the corner of his eye as the cane came down again, his teeth gritted before the stroke even landed. Pain exploded again. No, he couldn’t take it. He definitely couldn’t. He made a move, ready to stand up, but the cane bit again, higher on his butt. He screeched. Small beads of sweat were shining on the small of his back.

“Please,” he begged, panting as if he’d run a hundred miles. “I’ll take the belt,” he offered.
“No. You are taking the cane, Alex.”
The fourth one made him bend his knees. The house resounded with his cry. He stood up again, slowly, carefully, scared that the simple act of getting back into position will cause another blow. Which did happen.

He gave up counting when he reached seven. He had hoped for six. Anything past that number meant that there was no set number. And just as he had expected, at some point the cane started coming down so fast that he had no time to move or breathe. He dissolved into cries of pain. His hands had moved so much forward that he was almost lying flat on the table.
Jack stopped.

“Will this happen again, Alex,” he questioned.
The boy shook his head no. Speaking coherently was as possible as avoiding the next stroke.
“You will not get yourself killed by acting the way you just did. Is that clear?”
“Yes.”
Two more strokes hit his upper legs and the most terrifying one, the third, landed in the middle of his bottom. Alex remained in place, weeping hard.
“Ok, that’s it.” Jack watched his son stand up gingerly. His face was screwed. His eyes had become as puffy as his lip. He let him fumble with his boxers at his ankles. Pulling them up was torture. The boy decided against putting on his jeans and simply kicked them off, grabbed them in his hand.

Jack handed him the shirt.
“Does your lip still hurt?” – He asked, raising the boy’s chin slowly, for a better view of the injury.
“In comparison to my ass, no,” Alex said.
Jack smiled, wiped his kid’s forehead with his palm. Even his hair was wet with sweat.
“Are your teeth ok?” – He asked again while checking his son’s lip.
“Yeah…”
“No loose tooth, no nothing, right?”
“No.”
He checked the swollen eye and the eyebrow. Alex flinched.
“Stay still.” He felt the lump. “Well, the bone is not broken, at least,” Jack said. He smiled again, sighed, and kissed his son’s forehead. “You are such a stupid kid, I swear… Go to bed. I’ll see what I can do about your school until the swelling passes… And Drew will make sure nothing happens to you because of what you did tonight to that kid.”

***
“You stupid idiot! Fucking bastard! What the fuck were you thinking?”
Alex didn’t have time to avoid the rain of fists and slaps landing on his chest and face. She had caught him with the tips of her fingers over his eyebrow. It hurt almost as bad as if she would have poked her finger into his eye.

It was Saturday morning, and Alexis had appeared out of blue sky on his doorsteps, in his garden, where he had been relaxing with a manga magazine. She was fuming, although Alex hadn’t had the chance to figure out the exact reason.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” – She yelled.
He wrestled her to catch her hands, which were damaging him almost as much as that new kid’s fist had. She pushed him away, making him fall down in his chaise long. He screamed in pain and jerked up from the seat, as if he had been sat on a wasp nest.

“What’s wrong with you?” – Alex whined, rubbing his ass with one hand.
The incident seemed to calm her down.
“He gave it to you, didn’t he?” She was a teaser. Her eyes laughed in her head playfully. She pushed him again, but this time Alex didn’t fall.
“He did not.”
“Did too.”

The scene reminding Alex of his bragging to his friends, as a kid, about how cool he was and how many things he could do without being caught.

“Did not. Mind your own business.”
“Those are very big words coming from someone like you,” she smiled. “He spanked you. Just admit it.”
“You’re delusional, woman.”
“Haha! You reeaaally got it, didn’t you? Let me see!” She attacked him playfully, jerking down on his pants.
“What gotten into you? Hey! Alexis, stop it! That hurts!” He seized her hands in his, but the girl was stronger than he could have imagined. She gave up for an instant, and went on plan B. “C’mon, Alex… It’s me, remember? Just let me see.”
“Why are you so curious?”
“’Cause I am?”
“What? Me getting spanked turns you on now?”
“You have no idea,” she giggled, slapping his butt and running away. Alex chased her upstairs, all the way to his room.

The slap he got from her stunned him.
“That’s for trying to control my life,” she said. Then she planted a wet kiss on his mouth. “And that’s because you care about me.”

Yesterday's Story

After I went to bed last night - somewhere after a very troubled dream I had - I suddenly realized that I should have warned the readers that what came out of me was the product of the mood for writing horror stories. I'm working on a little plot at the moment and I am not quite sasisfied yet - that's what I actually wanted to be writing last night. Given the circumstances, I said let's write a spanking story instead. So I suppose the mood for writing that kind of genre translated itself, a bit at least, to my spanking story.

I felt it was over the edge. I did. I knew the rections I would get, but I went on anyway. For a second there I got into Jack's frame of mind - being extremely tired and frustrated with Alex's behavior. That's why there was no lecture. I felt there was no point anymore. I thought, in his selfish behavior Alex broke two primordial rules: one, to care for his sister and protect her; two, to warn about her whereabouts when everyone is sick worried and crying their eyes out. Initially, I think, I wanted Clara to interfere. Then, given all of the above, I changed my mind. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. I am evil, ain't I?

As for Ashley, she might be my creation but I hate the whinny brat that she is. Trust me, her butt was barely red so the tantrum was for nothing really. I would have crucified her if I could; instead, I chose to degrade her through her own behavior. Unlike Alex, she is the annoying kind of brat.

The only things that I care about at this point are Alex feeling bad about what he did and Jack being let down again by Alex.

Clara? Clara is a little confused woman, with strong oppinions but controversed feelings. And actions, as well.

Thanks everyone! :)

Story: Alex and Alexis: Smart Schemes p.5

This is a a story that Juju and I wrote together. To read the previous chapters, please see the right sidebar or click below:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4


This is one of those parts where we wrote a lot together. It is also understandable why. ;)

SMART SCHEMES
(MM/mf)
Copyright: Jujubees and KayleyBlue, 2008


The One Where the Trip Comes to an End

Drew was disappointed in Alexis, but very glad she was at least safe. He stood outside for a minute and looked at Jack. “So what do you think, Doc? Where do we start with these two: dinner, a stern lecture?”
“I think we need to get the whole story out of them. Alex is in big trouble and he knows it.”

“Oh, so is my daughter. That look on her face is her ‘I’m fucked’ look. She knows she might not be sitting for a week.” Drew said.

Jack looked at him curiously. “You mean you plan to spank her?”
“Well, Jack, I’ve only been at this father thing for a short time, but when it comes to Alexis she responds to one thing and one thing only: my belt. I told you she’s a juvenile delinquent. She knew that would be her fate the second she started planning this shit.” Drew laughed a little.


“But I don’t mind watching her squirm for awhile, waiting. She knows it’s coming, but with the grief these two have put us through, a little more suffering on their part can’t be all that bad.”
“Maybe we should make dinner first and let them squirm some more?” - Jack asked.
“I like the way you think.” Drew smiled. “Besides, if I don’t take time to cool off some I’m liable to really hurt Alexis, more than I intended.”

***

Alex was flipping absently through the channels, Alexis resting her back against him, when Jack and Drew came inside the house. Drew shook his head in astonishment – the two kids seemed so peaceful. That instant he knew that Alexis had a crush on the boy. He gave Jack a long look, to which Jack simply shrugged.

Drew hung his leather jacket at the entrance, as Jack placed the food on the kitchen counter.
“Alright, you two,” Jack said. That seemed to grab both kids’ attention, as they turned to look at him with scared faces. “It’s time for dinner. Set the table. Then, Alex, you might want you give that stare you are giving me right now to the corner over there.”


“Whaaaat? – Alex protested. “You’ve never made me stand in the corner before.” He turned scarlet. “I’m not five anymore.”
Jack stopped unpacking the food.
“Set the table, Alex. I’m not in the mood for chatting.”

Alex stomped to the kitchen, fuming, followed by a very apprehensive Alexis – the kind that Drew hadn’t seen before. She didn’t dare comment on anything anymore. Drew was a ticking bomb, and she had no wish to make it explode in front of her boyfriend.

Alexis was quite good-tempered at this point (or tried to be), somehow relieved that nothing was coming her way. Alex had managed to get all the attention for now. He was slamming the glasses and basically throwing the cutlery all around the table. Alexis put a hand on his as she passed by, trying to calm him down, but as the time was passing, he was becoming more vexed and more frustrated.

“There. Happy?” – Alex retorted to his Dad, when he had finished.
“Alex, stop it… You’re gonna get in trouble,” Alexis whispered to him, sitting herself at the table.
Drew and Jack exchanged looks for an instant, before Jack turned to Alex: “So what are you waiting for then? Put your nose into that corner, please.”
Alex crossed his arms over his chest, silently.
Jack grabbed the wooden spoon, purposely heading towards Alex.
“Ok, I’m going, I’m going… Geez!” – He stomped, but moved quite fast out of his father’s path. This was embarrassing. He sighed and put his nose in the corner. What a fucked up evening!

“Alexis, you too,” Drew said, checking on the chicken in the oven.
“Dad, you gotta be kidding…”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” – He was mad, she knew it.
Alexis stood up. I mean if Alex was in the corner, she could also be. I mean, it was bad, but having her boyfriend in the same situation made the situation look less uncomfortable.
Now and then one of them would sigh, as loudly as they dared to, making it clear that they were not enjoying it. “Can I come out now?” – Alexis asked suddenly.

“No,” Drew said. “You will stand there until dinner is ready.”

“And isn’t it ready yet, for fuck’s sake?” – Alex mumbled. Jack was behind him in an instant. The sound of the belt being unbuckled weakened his knees. He thought he would fall. Alexis turned her head around from the corner, in shock. It wasn’t the surprise to find out that Alex might get spanked that shocked her; it was the prospect that if Alex got spanked, she most probably would too.

“Do you want to face that corner with your jeans around your ankles, Alex Pierce?” – Jack asked tapping the belt against his leg.
“No, Sir” – the boy answered, eyes fixing an invisible spot on the corner, not daring to shift his look around. He swallowed the knot in his throat.
“But you act as if you want. And you are very convincing.” – Jack went on behind him.
“I’m sorry,” Alex babbled, losing his grip on the control he thought he was having.
“Turn around and look at me.” Alex did, eyes cast down. “Look at me, I said.” Alex tried to. Jack was shocked to discover the moistened eyes. He wasn’t expecting that. But he didn’t make a comment on it.
“Do I need to have a chat with you before dinner or do you think you can behave?” – He questioned. “Alex?”
“No need to have a chat,” Alex answered, blushing even more.
Jack pointed with the belt towards the chair.
“Sit down, please.”
Alex did, but he was looking down, trying to avoid the shame by avoiding everyone’s eyes.

Drew scooped the rice into a bowl.
“Alexis, get the chicken from the oven, please” – He said, aware of his daughter’s glare at Alex.
She moved as if she was hypnotized. Normally she would have started to argue but now she was freaked out; her rebel self hid deep inside. Normally she would have also wanted to get it over with as soon as possible and would have pushed Drew to spank her, but this time she was doing everything possible to delay it. She still hoped she had a chance.

The chicken smelled great, but she had lost her appetite. She placed it on the plate and sat herself next to Alex. Under the table, she slipped her hand over his, trying to comfort him. Until now all she cared about was herself; now, there was also her boyfriend in the picture.

They couldn’t eat. They took a few bites, to avoid their fathers’ nagging them. Drew and Jack cleaned the table, placed the rest of the food in the fridge and the dirty dishes in the dish washer. Then Jack rested his back against the wall, watching them. Drew retrieved a paper out of his pocket, placing it in front of his daughter, on the table. Alexis panicked. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She caught Alex’s distressed look. Now I’m in trouble, he seemed to say.
“So, what’s your explanation for this medical note?” – Drew questioned her. It felt as if she was back in detention again.
“Um,” she said, looking back at Alex again. “I…”
There was no explanation really. Everything she had to say was going to get her into deeper shit.

Jack intervened. “Alex, what did you ask me a few days ago at home? Weren’t you asking me about diseases and I told you Cholecistitis? Please correct me if I am wrong…”

Alex twisted his fingers nervously.

Jack brushed his hair with his fingers. He needed to calm down.
“Ok. Let me ask you this then,” he said picking up the note and pushing it under his son’s nose, “have you stolen this from me and forged my signature and handwriting?”
“It was a mistake. It won’t happen again,” Alex risked a look up at his father.
“And have you used it yourself in class and then also dragged Alexis into this scheme?”

Silence.

“Are you aware that for this I can get in jail and have my medical license removed?”
No word came out of either of the two.

“Alex!” – Jack boomed, and the boy looked up in panic.
“I’m sorry…”
“That wasn’t my question. Are you aware that you can get expelled for using and selling fakes like this and be sent to a juvenile correction center?”

Alex sighed.

“Of course you were. I can’t imagine you being almost seventeen and not knowing that. So what went through your head when you did this?”
“Many are doing it.”
“That’s hardly an excuse, as you well know it.”
“Alexis, that goes for you too,” Drew said. “Now you are not only hurting yourself and your future. You are becoming a full-time delinquent, having no consideration for others. For this prank you’ve pulled, as you’ve heard, he could have ended up in jail. Has that crossed your mind before you used that medical release?”

Her eyes started filling with tears of frustration. She shook her head ‘no’. It really hasn’t. She had been all too focused on herself and how to skip school and avoid Drew to care about others.
“You skipped school again. You lied to me again. You went on a trip without letting me know, you rode in a stolen car. I could even venture to say that you did other things, but I have no proof of it.” “Yet” – he added.

“I just wanted a break, Dad,” she cried.
At least she is communicating, not stubbornly closing inside, like she used to, Drew thought.
“And is this the way to achieve it?” – Drew asked.
“No.”
“I’m happy we finally agree on something.”
“But you don’t understand,” she shouted. “You’re always checking on me! I have no freedom! I can’t live like this! I am tired of school!” She stomped her foot.
“If you don’t calm down and lower your tone, you will get back into that corner over there, until you are ready to speak to me without yelling.” – Drew pointed out. “What did you do the moment I stopped checking on you, Alexis?”

She refused to answer, shaking her head.

“Well, then let me help you remember: you disappeared again. So give me one good reason why I should trust you at all. With anything.”
She didn’t answer. She pouted. The tears were silently rolling down her cheeks.
“I hate you,” she tried again to hide inside her world.
“I love you too, sweetheart. And for sharing that with me, please go face that corner. I warned you once already.”
“This is not fair!” – She cried.
“You know damn well it is. Now move it. When you have calmed down, let me know. I have all weekend, you know…” She moved with small steps back into the corner.

Alex and Jack were watching. It was a ping-pong game. One at a time being charged at, and the ball being passed from Jack to Drew.

“Back to you, Alex,” – Jack said, opening a closet and searching for something. “It seems to me that the belt is not working well enough for you anymore.” He stood up with a slipper in his hand; he tapped the rubber sole a few times against his hand. It wouldn’t bruise; just sting a lot – exactly what he needed, given that he had no plans to have Alex get away with one simple spanking. “In two months you will be seventeen. A few months ago I spanked you for blatant disobedience and getting suspended for three days from school.” Alexis’ ears opened wide. Ok. Now being compulsively careful made sense. She knew Alex was just playing cool about his punishments. He was just bragging. She had known it all along. “Prior to that, I spanked you for drinking and drugs.” Wow, his list was as long as hers, Alexis thought. “And even before that, you got another spanking for dragging two girls into the woods with you and getting them lost.”

“We weren’t lost!” – Alex mumbled again.

“Alex!” – Jack warned him, raising his voice. “I remember you saying that you don’t repeat the mistakes you get spanked for. But this time you did. I think it’s been too long since you last got your ass tanned, mister. You corrupted her” – he pointed to Alexis, in the corner – “got her also in trouble, and stole my car! And skipped school again. And to top it all off, you forged my signature. Haven’t I spanked you in junior high for that once? I thought I made it clear back then. Or has it been too long ago and the impression didn’t last?”

“Daaaad… Pleeeaaseee…” – Alex said, becoming aware of Jack’s intention with the slipper. He could hardly control his calm by now. This was not routine. He could have handled routing. But he couldn’t handle this.

“Dad? “Alexis’s small voice interrupted from the corner. “Can I come out now?”
“If I hear you yell one more time, your nose will be right back there in that corner.” Drew was skeptical. “Go sit in that armchair over there. I’ll talk to you in a second.” He got himself a glass of water so he could think. He wondered what went through Alexis’ head right now. He could recognize her rebel attitude, but her attitude right now had changed.
Alexis cuddled her knees up to her chest as she took her seat.

“You,” she heard Jack say to Alex, “bend over the back of the sofa.”
Alex freaked out.
“Dad, no. You can’t do this to me…”

Jack knew that arguing with his son was getting him nowhere, so out of experience, he yanked him up from the chair and dragged him to the sofa. “You aren’t arguing with me today, mister. Jeans down.” The boy’s face was as hot as if he had been sun tanning in the Sahara sun the whole day. “Unbuckle your belt,” Jack explained to him patiently, “and pull down those jeans. Or should I do it for you?” That got Alex’s fingers moving. He caught for a short instance Alexis’ stare of disbelief. He carefully lowered his jeans. Jack placed a hand over the back of his neck and pushed him down, over the back of the sofa. “Boxers too.” – he added, waiting patiently beside him.

“No. Dad no.”

“Alex?”

He complied, lowering his chin into his chest, for no one to see his expression. When he looked up, Alexis’ eyes locked his. She was sitting right across from him, extremely uncomfortable about the whole thing. Drew was observing the scene from the doorway, in between the open kitchen and the living room, resting his shoulder against the wall. He couldn’t help but think of the time he and Jack had been spanked together for stealing apples from a neighbor’s garden. They had been in junior high then and that hard lesson had worked for them. They stayed out of trouble for a long time. That experience helped Drew realize that spanking can work. It had worked for him and Jack, so it could work for Alex and Alexis too. The same memory was going through Jack’s mind. As for Alexis, she watched the scene mesmerized. She had wondered how a guy would take a spanking. Now she was about to find out.

Jack lifted the tail of Alex’s shirt to his waist.

The sound of the slipper slapping the flesh was deafening in the deep silence of the room. Alex had turned himself on mute. He was determined not to let a sound out. At least that much he could do for his poor self image. He found himself looking for comfort into her eyes, instead of gazing into a fixed point on the couch.

“You should know better than to steal and use medical notes and forge my signature, Alex…” – Jack said, bringing the slipper down again. Again and again, the sound echoing from the walls into the whole house. Alex’s nails dug deep in the fabric of the sofa. The pain was different and he wasn’t accustomed to it. He took deep breaths, forcing himself not to jump up or put his hand back. The slaps were slow paced, but hard.

“Was it worth forging my signature now, Alex?”
Alex gulped in between the swats and his voice was choked: “No, Sir.”

He closed his eyes as the pain increased. He put his head down, buried it in his arm. Jack went on, increasing the pace, covering every inch of his son’s butt, from thighs to upper legs. Alex began jumping up now and then, unable to control himself. “Oww,” he whispered and the same moment his hand went back. Jack grabbed it and went on. Alex found himself unable to keep still. He started moving frantically, pressing his mouth onto his arm to keep himself quiet, biting his own flesh. He was breathing hard, sobbing, and silent tears were running down his cheeks.

“Are you going to forge my signature again? Lie to my face like you did this week?”
“No, Sir.”
“I have asked you if you were going to skip school again and you had the nerve to look into my eyes and tell me not to worry. Isn’t that what you did?”
“Yes, Sir,” his muffled voice came.

Jack stopped for a few moments watching Alex’s reaction. The kid did not move, simply went on sobbing silently into his arm.
“I remember distinctly talking to you two years ago about not using fake medical notes for skipping school, because I knew we would come to this. Have we or haven’t we had that discussion, Alex?”
“We did.”
“And you promised back then never to do it, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Dad.”

Jack put an arm around Alex’s waist and starting spanking in earnest, fast and hard. Alex jumped, screeched, puffed, but did not cry out. He pounded his leg into the sofa, arched his back in pain, and when it was too much to take, he went limp, sobbing like a kid, tears falling down from his chin on his arms and on the fabric of the furniture.

“When I’m done here, Alex, forging signatures and using fake medical notes will become the worst memory of your life, trust me.” - Jack went on, making sure the butt was equally red and trying not to leave bruises on the skin. Prolonged pain was worse than the short intense one - he knew it for a fact. As for the bruises, he will take care of them tomorrow, so Alex would remember every single day of this week and the next one what he wasn’t supposed to do. He finished with a few particularly sharp slaps, on Alex’s thighs and upper legs, which made Alex gasp for air, ignore the witnesses and bring his tear-stained face up. He screamed this time, hand trying to reach back but being caught and brought to the small of his back.

Alexis covered her face, completely freaked out.

Jack stopped, leaving his sobbing son over the back of the couch to calm down.

“Stand up and pull up your pants,” he said eventually. He replaced the slipper on the table.
Alex reached down carefully for his boxers. He tried to hide his face from everyone, constantly wiping his eyes and his nose.

Alexis wished the earth could swallow her. She was shaking.