Read Men, Women & Children for Free Online

being discovered and shut down. Hannah felt like she was famous every time her mother got an e-mail asking for a new pose or new outfit or just asking how she was doing or what her favorite color was. Even though her mother would never let her answer any of the e-mails or interact with any of her subscribers, she considered herself to have fans, and she viewed the experience as a type of training for what her life would be like when she had real fame, which was an inevitability in her mind.
    As they got out of the Mercedes, Hannah said, “Do you think we could put up a video blog for the subscribers? Just like a little one-minute thing I could do every week? Like talk about my life and stuff? I think they’d like that.”
    Dawn said, “We’ll see. Let’s just stick with the pictures for now. Here.” She handed her daughter a matching set of Hello Kitty bra and underwear along with a pair of Hello Kitty knee-high socks.
    Hannah said, “Socks? What for?”
    Dawn said, “To wear with the underwear,” and shrugged at her daughter, offering no further explanation.

chapter
    four
     
    A fter school, Chris Truby did his homework; ate dinner with his mother, Rachel, and his father, Don; watched an episode of Two and a Half Men with them; and then told them that he had a difficult science test the following day that would require him to put in multiple hours of studying if he was to make a decent grade. And certainly he would need a good night’s rest as well, so Chris retired to his bedroom earlier than usual, leaving his parents in the living room.
    Don looked at his wife. She had started a new job as an accountant for a nationwide collections agency six months before. The job offered no opportunity for exercise or movement beyond picking up the phone, typing on a keyboard, and making occasional trips to the bathroom or her car. Don could easily notice that Rachel had put on weight, maybe as much as eight or ten pounds, as a result of the job’s sedentary nature.
    Don’s physical attraction to his wife had waned over the years of their marriage due to the combination of her aging features and his overfamiliarity with her body. But no matter how unattractive she had become to him, the basic need to engage in sexual intercourse spurred him to try to initiate some form of physical intimacy on a regular basis. Despite his frequent attempts, the last time Rachel had been willing to have sex with him was more than a month and a half ago.
    With Chris headed off to his room for the night, Don leaned over to his wife and said, “Hey, what do you think?”
    Rachel said, “About what?”
    “About, you know . . .”
    “Tonight?”
    “Yeah—it’s been almost two months, Rachel.”
    “No, it hasn’t.”
    “The last time was after that barbecue at your sister’s house. Chris was at a friend’s house.”
    “Really? How do you remember that?”
    “How do you not?”
    “I don’t know, I guess my new job is just making me tired.”
    “It’s still early tonight. We can do it and you can be asleep by nine.”
    Rachel looked at Don. She knew she wasn’t satisfying him and she didn’t know exactly why, but the idea of sex with her husband was almost completely unappealing to her. She didn’t know if it was because they had been together for so long, or because she knew she had gained some weight and felt less attractive, or because, like Don, she found his aging body and face less appealing than they once had been, but she certainly knew it was not for any reason having to do with her job, which was the excuse she used most often. Despite the fact that it was the last thing she wanted to do that night, Rachel said, “Okay, but it has to be quick.”
    Don said, “It will be.”
    “I mean really quick.”
    “Okay.”
    As Don inserted his penis into his wife’s vagina, all he could think about were the images of the porn star Stoya. Since discovering her on his son’s computer he had become mildly obsessed and had