THE HOUSES IN ROSSFORD

Fenn Houghton and his significant other, Todd are quickly going broke. That’s the bad news. But they find half a million dollars; that’s the good news. It belongs to a drug lord who will do anything he can to get it back. Bad news again. Fenn’s sister, Adele doesn’t know what’s worse, learning of her husband’s cheating ways, or learning who he’s cheating with, and for how long. A young boy is sent to live with his grandparents in hopes that he will give up his criminal ways, but no one knows of his grandparents’ all too criminal past and occasionally risky present; and while two girls deal with their fathers’ sins and their own mistakes, a young porn star decides its time to turn his life around and become a serious actor. With guns in the cookie jar and condoms in the collection plate, no matter how ordinary this Indiana town may appear from the outside, inside the houses in Rossford, there’s never a dull day.

Fenn Houghton
Layla Lawden
Todd Meraden
Dena Reardon
Adele Lawden
Nell Reardon
Brendan Miller
William Klasko
Tara Veems
Thomas Mesda

and

Paul Anderson

CHAPTER
ONE

WHAT THE KIDS ARE WATCHING

“Okay, now you have to watch this!”
On the large bed in his attic, Brendan Miller wrapped one arm around his girlfriend, and the other reached for the remote control, then slapped the back of it to make it work.
“Dumb batteries. We’ve got to turn the volume down,” he told her.
“Who the heck…?” Dena Reardon began, “I’ve never heard of Eagle Studios.”
“They’re not like Paramount or anything,” Brendan said, grinning at her.
“Is this a—”
But then the cheap music began, and there was some innocent, All American looking guy with marmalade hair driving a car with a sign that said Pizza Queen on it.
“A porno?”
The credits were running and the movie starred Bick Throbbing, Dirk Thrust and Johnny Mellow, all in various stages of nudity.
“Yeah. It’s really cool. It gets me hot,” Brendan said, snuggling up to her.
The Pizza Boy, played by Johnny Mellow, drove up to the house and stepped out of the car with a happy go lucky look on his face. A baldheaded, ripped man answered the door and let the Pizza Boy in and then, when the door shut, the man’s housecoat fell off and a enormous erection was revealed. As Johnny Mellow placed the pizza on the table near the door and dropped to his knees, Dena said:
“Why are we watching this?”

“Does it get you hot?”
“It’s not even a straight porn.”
“It’s the whole naughtiness of it,” Brendan said, his eyes fixed on the Dirk Thrust being blown by Johnny Mellow. “Doesn’t it just make you wanna… Doesn’t it just shock you?”
“I think this is really weird,” declared Dena.
“Hold on,” Brendan seemed to come back to himself a little. He fast forwarded the DVD and Dena saw bits and pieces of Johnny Mellow being blown now, Johnny Mellow and Bick Throbbing in a Sixty-Nine, Bick Throbbing’s roommate or something joining in. Then it stopped.
“Okay,” said Brendan. “Here it is.”
Bick and Johnny were on a bed now, and against her will Dena thought Johnny had a sweet face. She wondered how the fuck he’d gotten here, to sucking dudes’ dicks in porn. While she was wondering, Brendan’s voice in her ear said, hotly, “There’s something about this guy… Isn’t there?”
And then Bick Throbbing produced a dildo. Wait! Yes, a two headed dildo. And the two of them got onto the bed. They were ass to ass, and Rod fitted one end of the dildo into his ass and then, with it, approached Johnny and next, the two of them began to fuck each other with the dildo while Brendan laughed ghoulishly and said, “This kinda shit gets me so hard!”

“Bren,” Dena tilted her head while she spoke. “Do we need to stop seeing each other?”
“Uh huh,” Brendan said dumbly. Then, coming to himself, he shook his head and said, “What?”
“I said are you trying to tell me something?’”
“Like what?”
“Brendan, we’ve been sitting her watching gay porn. That you’re into—”
“You read Anne Rice.”
“Not, really—” Then she shook her head and said, “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“Just,” Brendan said defensively, getting up to take the DVD out of the player, “you read about vampires. But it doesn’t mean you want to drink the blood out of someone.”

“Look, Bren. My mom’s single because she found my dad in bed with my uncle. I’d be stupid not to wonder.”
“Well, you can stop wondering,” he said angrily. “I’m not a faggot, all right.”
“My father is not a faggot.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“He lacks judgment,” Dena said, getting up off the bed, and smoothing her hair back. “And so do you. But he’s not a faggot.” Then she said, “No one’s a faggot.”
“Deen… look…”
“Brendan, it’s getting late. I need to go, all right?”
Brendan’s face was red, and he looked confused. He said, “Look, I just… you’re my girlfriend. That’s why I showed you. No one else knows. No one else has seen. Don’t let anyone. All right? I mean…”