Synopsis: This story follow April and Tim Mason, a couple whose youngest child, Matt, is headed off to college on athletic scholarship. Matt has a good friend, Malik, who lacks the family money and support, and is trying to save some money for college.

Tim agrees to pay Malik to do some odd jobs; the Masons enjoy his company, the jobs need to be done, Malik gets money he needs. Everyone is happy.

But eventually, some lines get crossed as the Masons get more comfortable with Malik and with April doing some teasing. Eventually, some bad decisions are made.

The yelling and jeering from the living room reached a fever pitch, and Tim Mason sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in response.

“That’s bullshit!” came a young man’s voice in protest. “You’re just mashing random buttons, and you know it!”

Other voices hooted in mocking derision. “Maybe don’t stand so close to the edge, genius!” came another young man’s voice in reply. Howling laughter echoed the comment.

It was a Saturday night in May, just past graduation, and eighteen year old Matt Mason and his friends were currently holding an impromptu Super Smash Bros tournament in the Masons’ living room – much to the dismay of Matt’s father, Tim, who was trying to concentrate on a spreadsheet. Normally, the easygoing Tim wouldn’t have cared about teen boys yelling at a video game; indeed, there had been many times that he would have grabbed a controller and taken the guys to school, as it were. But he had a budget meeting Monday morning, and the stress of the proposal was making it harder than normal to drown out the noises of the combatants.

Tim’s wife April smiled and reached her hand across the kitchen table, laying it on top of her husband’s in a calm affirmation. “Matt leaves tomorrow,” she gently reminded him. “You’ll have all the quiet you need, then.”

Tim gave a tired smile and shook his head in response. “Oh, don’t think I have forgotten that,” he replied. “You’ll notice that I haven’t said a word; I don’t want to put a damper on them. Maybe I’ll just move to the bedroom, though – I really do need to concentrate.”

April stood up and tilted her head to the side, which shifted her wild mane of fiery curls with the motion. “Let me see if I can quiet them down without being a downer,” she offered. As she strode toward the living room, Tim found his eyes fixating on his wife’s round little ass – which was pretty much how he acted every time he saw her walking away.

“Quit staring at my ass, mister!” the redhead exclaimed in a light tone, apparently entirely aware of her husband’s actions without having to look to verify them. “You can’t complain that you need to work, then ignore that work to ogle me!”

Grinning, Tim looked back down at his spreadsheet. “Yes, dear,” he replied in mock chagrin as April exited the kitchen.

April paused as she entered the living room. As she looked over the four boys in her house, she couldn’t help but smile; the diversity of Matt’s friend group made her happy.

Matt himself was a strapping young man with blonde hair and blue eyes; at six feet three inches, he was taller even than his father. Both Tim and April were athletic enough on their own, but Matt seemed to have inherited the best of both of their genes. He was muscular, handsome, popular, a real lady killer – and would be leaving the next day to begin summer conditioning for the D-1 baseball scholarship he had accepted.

Sprawled out next to him on the couch was Chance Roberts, a similarly handsome, athletic young man. More than Matt’s teammate, Chance had been a package deal on their baseball scholarships to university – he and Matt had insisted on finding a school that had room for both of them on the team. The two of them had cooked up a plan to take turns driving on their trip out to college to avoid some big emotional goodbye with their parents at the dorm. Chance came from a well-to-do family; the roguish young man never seemed to have a care in the world.

Slouching in an armchair was a short, portly kid named Eric Jacobs. In stark contrast with Matt and Chance, Eric was pasty, socially awkward, and lacked self-confidence. He had at least been to a lot of athletic events during his high school career – as a clarinet player. Eric had been Matt’s friend since before middle school, but April’s son had never cared about cliques or social levels; he liked Eric’s sense of humor, and Matt was so popular that it bought the chubby boy a great amount of social protection at school. April knew that Eric was set to attend an engineering program at a state school in the fall.

Rounding out the foursome was Malik Williams, a skinny black kid who lived a couple streets over. Malik wasn’t an athlete, wasn’t a musician, wasn’t popular or particularly notable in any way. His grades were decent, but not amazing. As far as April knew, Malik had few friends, nor did he enjoy much in the way of parental support. Somehow, despite their different social circles, he and Matt had become friends in freshman year; the shy young man had spent many an evening at her home since. The last April had heard, Malik was hoping to attend a smaller, all-black school, but she didn’t really know where he stood on that.

Peals of laughter echoed through the room as April stepped in. Matt seemed a little irritated; of course, he had been the one complaining so loudly. The four young men looked up as she entered.

“Hey, Mrs. M!” Eric called.

“Looking niiice!” Chance added with a crooked grin.

April rolled her eyes. “Hello, boys,” she greeted them. “Having fun?”

“You know it!” Malik exclaimed. “Though Matt is struggling right now.”

Matt frowned. “That’s because Chance is doing a bunch of button mashing bullshit with King K. Rool! I’m getting sick of him ringing me out on cheap crap!”

At Matt’s pronouncement, the room broke into chaos, with a lot of grinning arguing back and forth among the boys. In other words, it was a completely typical session of Super Smash Bros.

April put one hand on her hip and held up the other. “Guys!” she exclaimed. “Chill for a sec.”

Chance smirked. “I’ve gotcha, Mrs. M. Are you here to tell us that Mister M has admitted that he can’t get the job done, and you need my help?”

Matt elbowed his buddy, hard. “Dude!” he exclaimed in a mock-angry tone.

April merely rolled her eyes. “Chance, what have I told you every single time you have offered that?” she asked in a no-nonsense tone.

The young man’s expression fell and he sighed. In a defeated voice, he answered. “Not a chance, Chance.”

Malik and Eric laughed, though Matt still shot his buddy dirty looks via side eye. As the laughter quieted, April spoke up.

“Look Guys – Tim has a big budget presentation Monday morning that he’s having to work on,” she spoke in a calm tone. “So I need for y’all to lower the volume just a bit, okay?”

A chorus of good-natured agreement echoed around the room. The guys had always liked both April and Tim, in no small part due to the respect that the Masons had always shown to them. If past experiences held true, April knew that she could count on them to do as they had promised.

She took a step towards the door, but paused for a moment. “And Matt?” she added in a questioning tone. “I have an idea for you on how to deal with Chance’s button mashing.”

Her son smiled widely and looked up from the screen. “Sure thing, mom,” he replied. “What have you got?”

A wicked grin stretched across April’s features. “You should…” she began, but then paused for a moment and glanced to each of the guys. After allowing all four of the boys to stare intently for several moments, waiting for the wisdom she would share, she spoke up in a snarky tone.

“You should get good, scrub!” she added triumphantly. Matt’s face fell comically, and the other three boys hooted and howled with laughter at April turning popular internet slang on her son like that in front of his friends. The redhead turned and walked away to the jeers and laughter and trash talk of the young men in the living room behind her.

Complete story post on Literotica: The Empty Nesters