Richard quickly unlocked the deadbolt on the font door of his adequately sized single-story house with a strange orange coloured stucco that was somewhere between a carrot and a peach with a practised ease, and the woman that immediately threw herself at him reminded him that today was memorable for another reason.
“Happy eighteenth birthday, Ricky!”
Ricky winced at the volume of the woman's voice and the proximity of her mouth to his ear drum, but hugged her back regardless, although with a fair deal less gusto, if his difficulty breathing at the moment was anything to go by.
“Happy birthday to you too, Mom,” he wheezed while feebly patting the woman's back, as if to tap out of a wrestling match.
“Ugh, don't remind me.”
Rick frowned, “We share the same birthday, how can you remember mine but not yours? Is that even physically possible? And anyways you're only thirty-five.”
“You don't think it's at least a little weird that I'm only seventeen years older than my son?”
“We've been over this before, Mom,” Rick sighed while tossing his backpack aside carelessly. He thought she was just being overly touchy about their age difference. Seventeen may have been young to have a child compared to what was considered the norm, but he didn't see any problem with it. After all, Melanie and Ricky's father, Richard Morrison Sr., had been together since high school, one of those fairy tail marriages where the guy marries his high school sweetheart and they have children and live happily ever after.
That is, they would have lived happily ever after had Rick Sr. not passed away seven years prior. He'd been at the wrong place at the wrong time, some kid, no older than Junior was now that was found to be high on crystal methamphetamine, tried to mug the man but ended up thrusting a switch blade into his kidney instead of taking the wallet. The police never found out why he did it, as he was fatally wounded later that same night when he tried to resist arrest and attacked a cop with the still-bloody knife and the officer opened fire, but the lead detective had said it was probably nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to something that spooked him. If he thought that was comforting to a grieving wife and a completely devastated child, he clearly didn't have the people skills one would expect a homicide detective to have.
Rick was brought back to the present when he heard a gentle feminine voice say his name accompanied by a warm hand resting gingerly on his shoulder.
“Huh?” he said dumbly.
Melanie furrowed her brows, “Are you okay? You just started staring off into space in the middle of a sentence.”
“Yeah, I was just... Thinking about Dad.”
“Hey, today is a special day. Don't let the past spoil it for you. After all, it's not every day my little man becomes an adult.” Melanie chirped with a wide grin.
Rick stood up straight as he could and folded his arms in front of his chest and raised a brow while quite literally looking down at the woman before him. At an even six feet, Richard was almost a foot taller than his five-foot two-inch tall mother. Rick was much like his father, they were exactly the same height, so they both enjoyed to tease Melanie by looming over her small frame, they also had similar builds, not too skinny, but not enough meat on their bones to be considered chubby or husky and just enough muscle to tell that he kept active without obsessively lifting weights. Even their faces were identical, round with a slightly defined jaw and cheekbones, deep blue eyes and messy, seemingly unkempt brunette hair with the slightest hint of red if the sunlight hit it just right and a tanned complexion. They both also kept a little stubble, about a week or two's worth of growth, on their faces. Senior because he preferred the look of it, Junior because he was just too lazy to bother with shaving and trimming a beard every day.
Melanie, on the other hand, had naturally dark-red hair and electric-green eyes, topped off by a milky white skin tone. Her hair was cropped relatively short for a woman, with her bangs only coming down to her eyebrows and falling to about the nape of her neck in the back as well as covering the top half of her ears on the sides. Despite being relatively short, her body was well proportioned with a moderately sized bust that appeared to be right around a 36C. She didn't have a huge 'bubble butt', but what flesh she did have in the buttocks region was firm, well-shaped, and just prominent enough for men, married and single alike, to appreciate it when they thought no one was looking.
“I hate it when you do that,” she pouted, folding her arms under her breasts. Rick had to try and not appreciate the push-up effect this had, emphasizing her moderately large breasts in comparison to her small stature.
“I hate it when you call me 'little',” he replied with a smirk.
“Keep it up, Mister, and I won't give you your present.”
Rick feigned an expression that a mixture of hurt and shock while dramatically clutching his chest.
“Hmm, I might forgive you on one condition,” Melanie said while tapping her index finger to her chin thoughtfully, unable to hide the playful smile that graced her features. Rick merely eyed his mother dubiously.
Melanie turned her right cheek toward her son and cast him an expectant, sidelong glance. Rick responded my rolling his eyes and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
“Now, what'd you get me?” Rick asked with a hungry expression while rubbing his hands together vigorously.
Rick's mother smirked again and pulled out a small, felt-covered, indigo, rectangular box from her pocket. Sort of like a double-wide ring box.
Rick raised both eyebrows this time before settling on a teasing grin, “I know it's a leap year and all, but don't you think it's a little improper to propose to your own son?”
“Very funny, Mister,” Melanie said while handing over the box, “Combo birthday and graduation present, I decided you deserved more than just some measly cash.”
Ricky scrutinized the box closely while rotating it around in his hands, as if willing himself to see through it before he finally opened it. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw what was in it. It was a key, but not just any key. The key to a car that had the Dodge ram moulded into the plastic. Ricky had been going on and on about wanting a 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 for months, but to think he was holding the key to one that now belonged to him was like a dream come true.
“Mom, is this...?”
Melanie barely had time to nod her head in the affirmative before Ricky wrapped his arms around her midsection and hoisted the woman into the air in the bear-hug of a lifetime. After several seconds when Rick finally set his mother back on the ground, he stepped back with an impossibly huge grin.
“Thanks, Mom. This almost makes my gift seem like I'm being cheap,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well if you don't like it-”
“No no, that's okay. I'll just hang onto this,” he interrupted while hastily stuffing the box and key into the right front pocket of his jeans.
“Wait here,” he added, “Your gift is still in my room.”
Rick unclipped his keys from one of the belt loops on the left side of his jeans that he kept in place with a carabiner keychain and made off to his bedroom in a quickened pace, returning not 2 minutes later with a small rectangular box of his own in hand, although this one was more petite than the one he'd received in addition to being wider. The box Rick held in his hand was a glossy white, with a reflective silver bow neatly positioned in the dead centre on the lid, with two curled silver strands made of the same material hanging down several inches on the front and back of the box.
Melanie gingerly accepted the object, carefully looking it over. Despite its simple appearance, she could see that it was expertly crafted, and whatever it contained was sure not to be some cheap knock-off. Carefully, Melanie moved the ribbons hanging over the front off to the side and opened the lid; what she saw nearly made her drop the box, but did succeed in eliciting a gasp followed by her hand clapping firmly over her mouth.
“I take it you like it?” Rick asked smugly.
Melanie ignored his tone of voice however, and gave a sincere response, “It's beautiful, Ricky.”
Rick moved to lift the object from the box, displaying the necklace in all of its glory. From the silver chain hung a square emerald, inlaid on a silver pendant. Melanie took one last look at the necklace, studying it closely, it wasn't too terribly fancy, just a bit of engraving on the silver setting to make it a bit more visually appealing, but part of its charm resided in the simplicity of its design while maintaining aesthetic beauty.
Melanie turned around at last, allowing Rick to place the necklace around her neck and latch the clasp with ease.
Turning back to face her son, Melanie idly fingered the jewellery and playfully placed a hand on Rick's chest to give him a light shove.
“I'll never know how you and your father got to be so good at man-handling the clasps on necklaces and bracelets,” she said with a smirk.
“Lots of practice,” Rick deadpanned with a one-shoulder shrug.
Melanie merely raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips, clearly trying to figure out just how many women her son might have been with to get 'lots of practice' with hooking and unhooking women's jewellery. Although thankfully Rick broke out into a wry smirk before her mind could wander down such avenues. Melanie wanted to slap herself for not realizing Rick was just teasing sooner.
“What am I going to do with you...” Melanie sighed in an overly-dramatic fashion.
Rick simply huffed in response, changing the direction of the conversation abruptly, “How 'bout we go for a spin? Maybe pick-up some take-out on the way back here and rent a movie or something?” He said while retrieving the key to his brand new car from his pocket.
“It's a date,” Melanie grinned, stepping to her son's side and slipping her right hand into his left, intertwining their fingers as they walked towards the garage.
* * * * *
Now, Melanie and Rick Jr. always had a close relationship as mother and son, but never anything inappropriate, which is part of the reason Rick was having so much trouble in his current situation. He was laid on the sofa, leaning back at an angle into one corner where the arm rest meets the back cushion with Melanie comfortably snuggled between his side and the back of the sofa with one arm thrown over his abdomen.
The problem wasn't in their current position, such a thing wasn't unusual when they watched television or movies together, the problem was that Rick could not stop staring, although thankfully Melanie was asleep, having fallen asleep about halfway through the second movie of the night, so she wouldn't notice. Since about his mid teen years when the hormones really went into overdrive, he began to notice just how sexy his mother was, and if at any point he may have forgotten that fact, he was swiftly reminded by his friends and class mates.
Melanie currently wore a white wife-beater without a bra, that showed off not only her shapely bust, but a fair deal of cleavage from Rick's current vantage point, as well as a pair of men's boxer shorts that were nearly too small for her and thus rode up her legs, showing off most of her silky thighs.
