The Intervention

Mary Anne walks through her back door with an armload of groceries, pastel pink sweater and jeggings making her look like someone who votes in every local election. She calls for Charlie, her eighteen-year-old step-daughter, but the house stays quiet. She drops the bags, marches upstairs, and opens the bedroom door to find her topless daughter making out with another girl. The door slams. She barges back in seconds later, screaming, while Charlie and her girlfriend scramble for their shirts. Mary Anne tells the stranger to get the hell out of the house—no gays allowed, period. Charlie grabs her keys and storms out with her girlfriend, slamming the front door on her step-mother’s face. Later that night, Mary Anne paces the bedroom while Steve lounges on the bed, half-listening, mouth full of chips. Steve is the mechanic she met at a church program for court-ordered assholes; he’s still wearing his greasy cap and boots. He tells her not to sweat it, because Charlie’s college fund is in Mary Anne’s hands. Mary Anne wants an ultimatum. Steve jokes that what the girl needs is dick. One good fuck from a man might cure her “dyky behavior.” When Charlie comes home, Mary Anne blocks the bedroom doorway and orders her inside. Charlie tries to explain—she’s in love with a girl—but Mary Anne cuts her off. No more girlfriend, or the tuition disappears. Charlie cries, pleads, calls it who she is. Steve, still in the background, finally asks how she can be sure she’s gay if she’s never been with a guy. Mary Anne latches onto the idea. If Charlie wants her support, she has to prove she isn’t straight. Mary Anne turns to Steve and snaps, “Take your clothes off. Fuck my daughter. Right now.” Steve hesitates; Charlie looks at him like he’s roadkill. Then she strips, drops to her knees, and snarls that she hates her mother while sucking Steve’s cock. The threesome turns ugly—Charlie talking trash, Mary Anne jumping in to show her “how it’s done,” Steve caught in the middle until he blows across both their faces. After Steve leaves, the room is quiet except for the sticky sound of cum sliding down skin. Charlie wipes her mouth and glares. “Are you satisfied?” she spits. Mary Anne stammers that the lesson is learned. Charlie grabs her clothes, tells her step-mother she’s still a lesbian, and slams the door behind her.