The Cockney Canuck - 127. Chapter 127 When the Cat's Away

Less than a week to go before Christmas and Southern Ontario was in the grip of winter. It was almost too funny. Don and Sue’s wedding anniversary was met by freezing rain, fierce winds, and plummeting temperatures that turned Cobourg into a shivering ghost town.

It seemed like I wasn’t the only one angered by Don’s dastardly attempt to take back control of the house, but even mother nature suddenly seemed to hold little sway over my adopted father. He was determined to get to Toronto, despite extreme weather warnings urging people not to make unnecessary journeys. At breakfast, I saw it as an opportunity to further test his resolve by pointing out the possible consequences.

“What if you were both killed in a head-on collision with a massive oil tanker, what would happen then?”

Don’s eyes were on fire as he peered over the top of his newspaper. I was surprised they didn’t burn holes right through it.

“Don’t talk like that, dear,” said Sue. “It’s not very nice.”

“I’m only saying. It happens all the time. I’ve seen it on the news.” I scooped another spoonful of cereal into my mouth and chewed as loudly as possible while Don mumbled behind his Globe and Mail. “Then we’d all be put up for adoption, and I’d be an orphan for a second time, how unlucky would that be.”

Don groaned, put his paper down and scratched his head.

“He’s doing this on purpose,” he said to Sue as I stared angrily across the table at him.

“Fine, if you want to risk your lives for a night out, then that’s your choice. Geez, and you call me irresponsible.”

“Robbie, I’m not driving all the way to Toronto, just to the train station.” He huffed and disappeared behind his broadsheet. “It’s less than a mile away.”

“We’re taking the train to Toronto, dear,” said Sue. It took the wind out of my sails, and she smiled as I stopped chewing and glared at her. “Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the show tonight.”

“You went to see a show on Thursday. How many do you need to see in one week?”

“Let’s hope this one’s a little more entertaining,” said Don. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist a dig at Nathan and the school play.

“Someone complained to the school,” I said, looking down at my breakfast bowl. “Don’t you think that’s sad?”

“Not everyone enjoys watching smut, Robbie. Especially at Christmas. People forget what this holiday’s about.”

“Not me. It’s about drinking and getting pissed. At least in England, it is.”

“Well, that’s not the way we do things here,” said Don, he took his paper to his study, leaving Sue to glare at me.

She looked a lot older than she did when I first arrived. Weathered by a storm which I knew I was partially responsible for. It had been a tough year for everyone, but Sue had taken a buffeting from all directions, and it showed.

“He’s trying hard,” she said. Her voice barely above a whisper. “Give him a chance.”

I couldn’t see any reason why I should be so generous to a man who despised me. I could find no compassion in me for Don. I continued eating my cereal and stared blankly at her until she stood up and walked away.

“He needs to try harder,” I said, and she stopped.

“Maybe if you met him halfway and stopped being so stubborn all the time.”

“I’m not stubborn!” There was no way I was going to meet him halfway or relinquish any ground to him. He was wrong, and I was right. Simple as that.

Sue didn’t have the energy to argue, we had been down the same road dozens of times over the last twelve months, and it always ended badly for her.

“What are your plans for today, Robbie?”

“Staying in, what do you think? I’m not going outside; it’s too cold.”

“Well, Nicola will be here if you need anything. Do what she tells you, and don’t cause trouble for her.”

“Will she be here all the time?”

“Yes, dear. Until we get back.”

I knew different.

‘When the cat’s away, the mice will play’, was one of my mom’s favourite sayings and Nicola was a good example. She was in the bathroom getting ready for her night out before Don’s car had even cleared the driveway.

They had an enormous amount of faith in their eldest daughter, which seemed to be based entirely on her age. Nicola was good at being in charge, but she did things her way and rarely followed the rules laid down by her parents. She just told them what they wanted to hear.

I wasn’t sure if they believed her or not, but the truth didn’t seem to matter, and Sue was content to delegate.

The fact that Sue had agreed to go on a romantic weekend with a man whose archaic values were threatening to destroy her family was beyond me. I saw it as the ultimate duplicity, but Jo wasn’t surprised when I called her that afternoon to update her on developments.

“This isn’t about their wedding anniversary, sweetie. I’d be surprised if they’re even staying in the same room. It’s a show of unity designed to get me off their case. They came within a whisker of having you removed from their care.”

“So you think that they’re only doing this because of me?”

“No. They’re doing it to stop me. You don’t matter any more, you're just a pawn. It’s about saving face, not their marriage. Don’s smart. He knows his kids will want them to stay together. You shouldn’t take it personally. No child wants to see their parents divorce, it’s a frightening prospect even for someone of Nicola’s age. Unfortunately, in this case, all they’re doing is giving their kids false hope.”

“So, what happens now?”

“That’s up to them. It’s important to remember that Don’s only backing down because he has to. He’s not suddenly admitting to the error of his ways. His views haven’t changed at all. Just play along with them and don’t repeat anything I told you.”

I usually felt a lot better after talking to Jo, but on this occasion, after hanging up, I was even more confused. I got the feeling that she would have preferred him to lose control so she could flex her muscles and kick some ass, and that was what she was expecting. Don was smarter than that, though, he seemed to know exactly what he could do.

*     *     *

They should have left me in charge, not Nicola. I considered myself more responsible than my older sister. Not that there was much to do. Amy pretty much looked after herself and Daniel was already at Doug’s house. He wouldn’t be home until the following day, so I decided it was a good time to move my stuff back into the basement. I was looking forward to sleeping in my comfortable bed again instead of that squeaky death trap upstairs, and that night, I would be able to make as much noise as I wanted.

I was under the desk hooking up my computer when Nicola came downstairs to tell me, she was leaving. I was disturbed by the sight of her bare legs and banged my head as I tried to stand up. She thought it was funny, but there was nothing amusing about her outfit.

“You’re not going out like that are you?”

“Duh, yes. Do you think I put this on just for you?”

“But you can’t go to a party dressed like that.”

“Well, obviously I’m gonna be wearing stuff over the top to get there.”

“No, I mean when you're there. People can see your …. Well, they can see everything.” Her skirt was way too short and her top too low. It barely covered her breasts and had no shoulder straps. “How does that thing even stay up on its own?”

“Does it bother you that much?”

“Yes, it does.” There was too much flesh exposed, and I found it difficult to look at her when we were talking. “You wear more than that to go to bed.”

She laughed at me. “Don’t be such a prude. You're worse than mom.”

I knew Sue would definitely not have approved and Don would probably have grounded her for a week, but my opinion mattered little to Nicola, who found my objections amusing.

“I don’t know what time I’ll be back. It might be difficult to get a cab in this weather, so it’ll probably be sometime tomorrow.”

She obviously had no intention of coming home that night, and I doubted she would be at the party for that long either. Not after Mister Lube feasted his eyes on that outfit. They were disturbing thoughts, which I tried to banish from my mind along with those of her parents having a romantic evening together.

“Don’t worry, I can see to Amy. It’s not like I got anything else to do.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something to keep yourself amused.”

“You're right, I’ve got loads of friends showing up later.”

“That’s a lie. You don’t have any friends.” She laughed before lowering her voice so Amy couldn’t hear. “This is for you.” She handed me a small white paper bag and stood back, clasping her hands in front of her, as if she wasn’t quite sure how I would react.

“What is it?”

“It’s a gift for covering for me tonight. I thought it might come in useful.”

“You're kidding, is this a joke?”

Nicola looked anxious. “Do you even know what it is?”

“Viagra?” I laughed, and she relaxed a little. “I’ve heard about this stuff. Did you buy this?”

“No, I stole it. Of course I bought it.”

I shook my head as I read the side of the packet. “This is a prescription?”

“Well, I didn’t buy it from the drug store, dickhead.”

“Oh, I see. Does it work?”

“Why are you asking me? It’s for guys, Robbie. It makes your dick hard.” She glanced at Amy, who was watching TV in the other room, but her younger sister wasn’t listening.

“I know what it does, Nicola.”

I was embarrassed and not quite sure what to make of her gift. It felt a little weird. I wondered how many girls gave their brothers Viagra as a present. It was a little outside of my comfort zone, like me buying her a vibrator for Christmas.

“I thought you might wanna try it when you see Conner. I know you told me you were having problems.”

“No one knows about this, do they?”

“Of course not, silly. I’m not gonna tell people you need Viagra to get it up.”

“WHAT? That’s not true. I can manage without this, thank you!”

“Oh my God, stop getting all defensive. I was only joking.”

“Well, it’s not something you should joke about, and if you don’t mind, I’d rather not discuss it with you.”

“Okay, I can always get you something else.” She reached for the packet, but I pulled my hand away.

“No, you can’t take back a gift.”

“You told me you don’t need it.”

“I don’t, but it’s probably a good idea to have something like this, you know, just in case. In the future. As a back-up.”

She smiled. “Yeah, right. In the future.”

“What did she buy you?” My little sister had caught the end of our conversation, and her inquisitive nature demanded answers.

“Nothing, that would interest you,” I said, stuffing them in my back pocket.

“Let me see it then.”

“No, Amy,” snapped Nicola. “Go back and watch TV.”

Instead, she tried to reach behind me and pick my pocket. I was able to block her and carry her back into the family room, where I dropped her on the sofa-bed.

“I wanna sleep down here tonight,” she said. “With Robbie.”

Nicola looked at me and laughed. “Robbie’s gonna be busy tonight, Amy.”

‘What’s that supposed to mean’?

I glared at Nicola. This was getting ridiculous. She was a control freak—I guess she got that from her dad—but I didn’t like my sister telling me when I could jerk off.

I followed Nicola upstairs and watched her pull on a pair of leggings as she waited for her cab.

“You think it’s weird me buying you Viagra, don’t you?”

“Yes, it’s very weird. It’s definitely not the kind of thing you should be doing for your brother. You can ask your friends. No, forget I said that, don’t ask anyone, okay. Not ever.”

“It’s not that embarrassing. Plenty of guys have that problem, and you have a good reason to be, you know … flaccid.”

“Yes, and they go to see their doctor about it.”

“Okay, I get it. I was just trying to help, that’s all. I know you’ve been worried about it and I thought it was probably the reason why you weren’t seeing Conner.”

She made me feel bad. “You can be a bit embarrassing, sometimes that’s all.”

“Point taken. Just let me know if it works.”

“Nicola!”

“You don’t have to go into detail. I’m just interested to know, that’s all.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

“Ha! Let me know tomorrow. I know you're gonna try it out tonight.” She laughed as she zipped up her coat. “I would if I was a guy. Geez, you're gonna have the place to yourself. You’ll probably be at it all night.” I cringed as she giggled and blew me a kiss with her gloved hand. “It could turn out to be the best present you ever had.”

“Thanks.”

“Wait to you see what I got you for Christmas!”

‘Shit’!

“Oh, and you’ve got another spot on your forehead!”

The front door was open for only as long as it took her to walk through it, but even that was too long for my exposed skin, and I slammed it shut and rubbed my arms. Minus twenty wasn’t to be messed with, and I didn’t feel particularly put out by having to stay in the warm.

As the headlights from Nicola’s cab flickered and faded from the frosted glass side panel, I locked the front door and ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror. She was right; it was the third in as many days.

‘I never get spots’.

Nicola seemed to think they were stress-related and gave me some moisturiser to try, which didn’t work. Perhaps Nathan was right. Maybe the mess he liked to make on my face, was good for my skin, after all. It kept my complexion smooth and spot-free. Without it, I looked pale, drab, and pimply. Spunk deficiency, I was sure of it. I had seen the videos but lacked the willpower and pliability to try myself.

I had definitely been spoilt by a boyfriend who would gladly do anything I wanted at the drop of a hat, no matter how weird or unusual the request. I missed the fun I used to have with Nathan. It was a mistake to walk away from him. I always knew it. Now I was able to admit it.

I fed us with North American teenage food. A bowl of popcorn, pizza, and cookies, washed down with a large bottle of pop that gave me wind and made Amy hyperactive.

Because of that, she managed to extend her bedtime by two hours, before finally falling asleep on the couch and spilling her drink over her nightdress. I carried her up two flights of stairs, but when I tried waking her, she just moaned at me and went back to sleep.

‘Shit, what now’?

It was warm in the house, but I still couldn’t let her sleep in wet clothes, so I called Nicola.

“Hey, Robbie. What’s up?” she said and giggled. “Did it work?” It sounded busy, and she had obviously been drinking because she was loud and obnoxious, especially when I told her why I called.

“Robbie, in her drawer, there are clean nightdresses. Take the wet one off her, and put a clean one on. Is that too difficult for you?”

“I can’t do that, she’s a girl!”

“What’s wrong with you? She’s your sister; she’s nine years old. I’m sure you’ll get over it. Or are you expecting me to come back and do it for you?”

Nicola made me feel stupid, and I guess I was worrying over nothing. It showed my naivety. Amy was just a kid, after all, and my little sister. I was supposed to be looking after her. I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of seeing her naked.

By the time I got her changed and the basement cleaned up, it was ten o’clock, my own bedtime, but I wasn’t tired. With the house to myself and no one to tell me what to do, sleeping seemed like a waste of time.

Once again, Nicola was right. She knew what I was going to do even before I did. It was impossible to resist. I hadn’t had so much as a twinge since my eruption two nights before, so it made sense to experiment on my own first. Testing the waters seemed like a sensible thing to do, rather than jumping in the deep end with Conner and not knowing what to expect. Only a fool would be so complacent.

According to the instructions, there were eight tablets, and only one was needed an hour before sex. When I opened the box, there were six.

“I should’ve known.” I chuckled to myself and had at least some sympathy for Mister Lube.

‘No way she’s gonna be home before midday’.

What a difference an erection makes. I was surprised by the results. I was stiff before I had even finished my shower and had to resist the urge to jerk off. My prayers had been answered. I felt better than I had done in ages.

‘Why didn’t I try this stuff before’?

My confidence seemed to grow with my dick, and after my shower, I decided not to put any clothes on. It felt good walking around the house naked. It was daring, naughty, and for some reason incredibly sexy.

I stopped to admire my proud form in front of everything that gave me a reflection. The mirror in the hall, the patio door, I even posed in front of the stove.

The thermometer on the back wall flashed a crazy minus twenty-two, but indoors, every room was a constant twenty-six. Warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt, or in my case, nothing at all.

I remembered the bitterly cold mornings at Tom’s house; shivering as I got dressed, the linoleum flooring too cold to walk on without socks. Yet it rarely fell below freezing. I didn’t miss his old house, but I still missed Tom.

After spending the best part of a month struggling to put some life into my penis, the problem was suddenly reversed. After an hour, I could hardly walk straight. It was actually beginning to hurt as I slumped into my chair and turned on the computer.

Don’s parental controls had the internet on lockdown, and the only porn I had was Nathan’s home-made video. I was toying with the idea of Skyping Conner. I knew he had done that kind of thing before, but I wasn’t sure how he would respond to me calling him at eleven o’clock with a raging boner.

It would have been a lot easier if we had done stuff in the past. This was going to be a little awkward for me. I was, after all, a prude according to Nicola. Conner’s Swedish upbringing gave him a distinct advantage. He was very open when it came to talking about sex, so when I saw he was online, I decided to go for it. I was feeling too horny to let another opportunity pass me by.

I grabbed a t-shirt to cover my top half and brushed my hair in an attempt to conceal the spot on my forehead. It was a good twenty minutes before I was happy enough with my appearance to call, but by then his status had changed to ‘busy’.

‘Busy. Who the fuck is he talking to at this time of night’?

It was my fault for delaying, so I decided to wait, stroking my dick as the minutes passed until it got to midnight. Nearly an hour was longer than I had ever been on Skype. He didn’t have many friends in Ontario, so he was obviously talking to his ex-boyfriend. The boy from Saskatchewan, who he hadn’t wanted to leave.

I started to worry. Conner had been open about this boy from the very beginning, and even then I suspected it would be a problem. They were boyfriends and would have still been together had Conner not been forced to move away. His circumstances mirrored my own when I was forced to leave Tom, and that wasn’t good.

Maybe I was jumping the gun. For all I knew, they could be just talking. That was allowed. It would be like me talking to Nathan. Except we would never have been able to Skype with each other for longer than a few minutes before it degenerated into something pornographic.

At twelve-thirty, his status changed to ‘online’, so I clicked on call.

I had to do it, but afterwards, I wished I hadn’t. I should have gone to bed, or maybe he shouldn’t have answered because he didn’t look as if he had been chatting. His cheeks were red, and his hair messed up. He looked hot, and his shirt collar was askew. I had been around long enough to know he had only just thrown it on.

He looked dreamy and spent. It was a familiar expression; I had seen it plenty of times on different boy’s faces, usually after they had just busted a nut. It looked cute and sexy on Conner, but it wasn’t because of anything I did, and that hurt.

“Are you okay, Conner?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong. Why are you calling me so late?”

“Because you were online. You’ve been busy for over an hour.”

He looked panicked.

“I was talking to my friend back home, and we got carried away, we lose track of time. You should’ve told me you were gonna call.”

“I didn’t know. It was a spur of the moment thing. I was just bored, that’s all. Look, it doesn’t matter. I’ll see you next week.”

I went to end the call, but he stopped me.

“WAIT! Don’t hang up. We can still talk if you want. If I knew you were waiting, I would have dropped the other call. You're more important to me.”

That wasn’t the impression I got. But talking wasn’t the reason why I called either. I had a throbbing penis to attend to, and it couldn’t wait.

“I need to go, Conner.”

“You're pissed with me, aren’t you? Because I was talking to my ex-boyfriend.”

“You said it was a friend,” I said. “But I’m not angry at you for talking, that would be silly.”

“What then?”

“Look, it doesn’t matter. It’s late, okay.”

He rubbed his forehead and looked down at his desk. “I know what you're thinking.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do.”

There was a deafening silence that lasted way too long. It was painful.

“I don’t really care. It’s not important.”

“It is important, and you should care. It won't happen again, okay. I would rather do stuff like that with you.”

‘So he was doing it’.

It was a shock hearing him admit to it so readily. It wasn’t as if I had been interrogating him.

“You shouldn’t have told me that, Conner. I didn’t need to know. Why couldn’t you just lie to me like anyone else?”

I didn’t quite mean it the way it came out, and I wasn’t even sure if he was even cheating, I mean it’s not as if they were screwing, his ex-boyfriend was over a thousand miles away.

“I told you because I don’t like lying to people, especially you. It’s not right.”

“It’s better than what you were doing.”

“You don’t know what I was doing, Robbie.”

“I don’t wanna know.”

“I’ll explain when I see you.”

“Don’t waste your breath!”

“Fine. Why did you call anyway?”

“Do I need a reason?”

“No, I just wondered. You never call this late at night, especially on Skype.”

“I’m not usually on my own. I thought you’d like it. I didn’t realise I had to make an appointment.”

He dropped his shoulders. “Oh, man, I’m sorry. We can still do something if you want?”

‘What’???

I was amazed by his tainted, second-hand offer. Before that, I was reasonably okay about it, but now I was pissed off. “No, thanks. I don’t fancy going second.”

“Robbie, I’m really sorry, okay. That was the wrong thing to say. I don’t know why I said that.”

“I have to go. I got something to do.”

“Can I Skype you tomorrow.”

“No, Daniel will be here tomorrow.”

“What about Monday?”

“He’s gonna be here every day, Conner. We share a room. Maybe sometime next summer or something.” I was frustrated and angry.

Conner looked thoroughly ashamed. “Shit. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

I was hearing that a lot lately, but I wasn’t sure at the time if I even wanted him to make it up to me. I decided it was cheating. Just because they weren’t in the same room didn’t make a lot of difference. He was still having some kind of sex.

He tried to make it look like it was nothing and that I was more important to him, but that obviously wasn’t the case. If Conner was cheating on anyone, it was probably him.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Disappointed, I suppose. Hurt, maybe, but oddly enough, neither of these emotions had affected my dick. A quick check below confirmed what I already knew, and it made me laugh. Little Robbie didn’t seem at all disappointed by Conner’s betrayal. It was already the longest continuous erection I had ever had. Over three hours with just one of those tiny blue tablets.

‘What would it be like with two’?

*     *     *

An hour later. I pulled off my shirt and grabbed my headphones. Then fished around in my draw for a USB stick. Some loud drum and bass would help me to relax, and Nathan would do the rest.

‘Two can play at that game, Conner! I have my own ex-boyfriend, who I can pause, rewind, or fast-forward at any time’.

On my monitor, Nathan was having fun. Playing with his nipples and stroking his dick while rolling his head and licking his lips. If Don thought his performance in the school play was smutty, I wondered what he would think of this.

I decided to fast forward. Now he was on his back, fingering his butthole with one hand and grabbing large chunks of the bedsheet with the other one. Every so often, he would look at the camera and speak to it. Sexy messages exclusively for me. I couldn’t hear him over the repetitive beat of the dance music, but I had seen it enough times to know what he was saying.

‘What would Nathan think of me if he could see me now’?

Strangely enough, I didn’t think he would feel too aggrieved. He might have even liked it. I could imagine him jerking off at the thought of me jerking off while watching him jerking off. It was too complicated for words, so I clicked on fast forward.

This was more like it, he was close to the end kneeling in front of the camera, and fapping at a furious rate, almost in time to the music. He stopped to lift his camera from the tripod for a shaky, close up. Like every great director, he was always looking for an unusual camera angle, but it was a perspective which was very familiar to me.

It was still the hottest video I had ever seen, and because of his age, it was almost certainly illegal. There was no way anyone else was ever going to view it. At least in this film, he was exclusively mine.

He was way ahead of me, so I stopped to rewind, tapping my hand to the beat of the music, before reaching for more of Nicola’s moisturiser.

Something caught my attention, and I spun my chair around.

My heart skipped a beat. I jumped; dropped the bottle. Then froze in absolute horror at the sight of someone standing in the doorway.

“Robbie???”