9.11 - 27. Chapter 27

August 18, 2001

I’d been agonizing over this for over two weeks now, avoiding the inevitable, that time when I’d have to go back home and leave Kai. I’d put it out of my mind last night, when we’d all gone to Kai’s house for dinner. Kai had been nervous, wondering how Stef and Grand would deal with his parents, but they were terrific, and we’d ended up having a great time. Then we’d come back to the guest house, gotten Stef and Grand set up in the other bedroom, and escaped back to my room to make love damn near all night long. It was like we were trying to cram as much sex in as we could since we’d be separated. And now, this morning, we’d woken up early, made love yet again, and taken a shower.

We got dressed and I got ready to leave, packing up my things and putting my bag by the door. “Come on,” I said, and took his hand, leading him out of the house and down toward the gazebo. Stef and Grand were on the deck by the pool, but they didn’t say anything, they just watched us as we walked by. I paused and turned to them. “I’ll be ready to leave in a minute.”

“We are ready when you are,” Stef said.

I turned and continued my route, stopping under the gazebo. “I’m really going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” he said, and looked at me with those deep brown eyes of his. “I don’t know how to thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

“I think you did a lot for me too,” I said.

“Come on, Will,” he said, kind of annoyed. “You paid me a fucking fortune to be my friend, you re-did my parents house, you gave my father a van and this wheelchair with a motor so now he thinks he’s sixteen again and he can drive all over the place.” We laughed at that, and at how funny his dad was with his wheelchair. He was constantly on the move.

“Yeah, but you gave me something way more valuable than that,” I said sincerely. “You gave me love.” He smiled at me shyly. We’d never said it, never said we loved each other, because it just didn’t seem like it was the right word to use, but I did love him in my own way, in that I really cared about him, and I think he felt the same way about me.

“You think you’ll be back soon?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I told him. “School’s starting and I’m not sure what the rest of my family is doing.”

“Will you call me when you come to town?”

“Of course I’ll call you, dumbass,” I said. It was so weird, because last year in Rome, Berto and I had declared our undying love for each other, and I’d done that this year with Tony. Kai had dealt with that dude earlier this summer who had told him he’d loved him, and then vanished without ever saying goodbye. It was like we were hardened to this, and so we weren’t making any commitments or promises. “I have to go.”

“I know,” he said. He reached into his pocket and took out a key and handed it to me. It was his key to the guesthouse. I handed it back to him.

“I want you to bring your dad up here whenever you want, so he can watch you surf,” I told him. “This way he and the nurse have a bathroom.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure,” I said, smiling. I gave him a kiss, a really nice kiss, then backed away to look at his face. There were tears in his eyes, and mine too. He all but grabbed me, and pulled me into a hug, which we held for a long time. The tears poured out of my eyes now, and I thought yet again about how painful goodbyes were. He ended our hug and kissed me again.

“Goodbye, Will,” he said somberly.

“Goodbye, Kai,” I said, swallowing hard. I turned and walked away from him, heading back to the house, wiping the tears away in a futile gesture, since as soon as I did, new ones appeared. Stef and Grand stood up when they saw me walking toward them. “I’ll meet you in the car,” I said, and walked over, grabbed my bag, and headed to the limo. Just as I was leaving the pool area, I looked back and saw Kai still standing in the gazebo, watching me. I gave him one last wave, a lame gesture, then all but sprinted to the limo and jumped in.

It only took a minute for Stef and Grand to pile in behind me. As soon as they did, the driver shut the door, the limo started moving, and I left my house, and Kai, behind. Stef gave me a worried look. “I am sorry,” he said, meaningless words just to tell me that he understood my pain. I merely nodded and looked away from him, out the window.

We got to the plane, and began to make the transfer, and I was doing alright, but the tears just wouldn’t stop. I got to the steps of the plane, and I didn’t want to climb them. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to leave Kai. I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. “Come on,” Grand said. “Let’s go home.” His calm words, and the energy that his hand transmitted through my shoulder, steadied me. My feet began moving, and I climbed up the steps and collapsed into the chair, facing them.

“We are ready,” Stef said to the pilots. We sat there as they wound up the engines and the plane began to move. I said nothing, almost holding my breath, as the plane rocketed down the runway, and the wheels of the Falcon left the earth. According to the Scott Slater Theorem on Vacation Relationships, my time with Kai had been really good, really intense, and now it was really over.

“I was very proud of what you did for Kai’s family,” Grand said, pulling me out of my haze. “We have all of us bought gifts for people we care about, but you worked to make their lives easier, to help them better deal with Kai’s father’s illness.”

“Thank you,” I said. “That means a lot coming from you.”

“You did not get a chance to eat breakfast,” Stef said, trying to help me find something to distract my mind from this emotional turmoil. “There is food in the galley.”

“Awesome,” I said. I got up and brought back some pastries and fruit. “Thanks for remembering to feed me.”

He chuckled. “I have learned over the years to stock up food. I usually add even more when Robbie is aboard.” That made us all laugh.

“So what’s with this dinner party tomorrow night?” I asked Grand, trying to think of things besides Kai.

“You will have to wait until tomorrow night to find out,” Grand said, and his tone told me there was no sense in bugging him about it, because he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Do you know what this is all about?” I asked Stef, since he’d be an easier target.

“I do, but I cannot say anything. I am trying to change my ways, and not be such a blabbermouth,” he said.

“That’s good to know,” I said, and gave him a look of mild annoyance.

“I am sorry I shared your plans for your house with your father,” he said sincerely. “It was not my place to do so, and I should have kept my mouth shut.”

“It’s alright,” I said, giving him absolution. “Has Dad asked you what the dinner is about?”

“Two or three times each day,” Stef said. We all laughed at that. My father would be relentless.

“And have you told him about it?”

“I have not,” he said.

“See, you’re doing better,” I said, smiling at him. “I want you to use that same resolve when he asks you about me, and what I’m doing.”

“I think that is a reasonable request,” he said. “Sometimes you have to make mistakes so you can learn from them.”

“I know all about that,” I said. I undid my seat belt and knelt in front of him, then gave him a big but awkward hug, since he was still sitting down. And with that, we were good again. And somehow, making things right with Stef helped me cauterize the wound I’d opened by leaving Kai. I sat back in my seat, and none of us said anything for probably ten minutes.

“What are your plans when you get home?” Stef asked.

“We lose time going this way,” I noted wryly. “What time will we get there?”

“I suspect we’ll be back at Escorial between 6 and 7 pm,” Grand said.

“Would you mind if I went back now and took a nap?” I asked. I normally didn’t ask, but for some reason, I felt that I should, if only because they’d flown out just to bring me back.

I felt a hand gently shaking my shoulder. “It appears we may finally be able to land,” Stef said. “There has been a delay with air traffic.”

I yawned and stretched as I woke up. “Thanks,” I said. He left me and went up front, while I took a few minutes to work the sleep haze out of my mind. Somehow my nap had cleared away my sadness, at least temporarily. I was determined to be in a good mood. I went up to the galley to grab a coke. “You want anything?” I asked Grand and Stef, but they both shook their heads.

“It appears it was a busy day for air traffic in the Bay Area,” Grand groused. “It is almost 6:30.”

“We might be late for dinner,” I said, smiling at him. “Who do you call and whine to when you’re late?”

Stef giggled. “That is one of the benefits of being the lord and master of your household,” Grand said airily, making us laugh.

“I am not sure that benefit outweighs the burdens that come with it,” Stef said. We felt the plane flare up as it began to land, and then the wheels touched the ground again, this time in Palo Alto.

The Escalade limousine that Stef preferred was waiting to pick us up, along with a handsome young driver I hadn’t met before. The first thing that struck me was his height, because he was pretty tall, probably about 6’1”. He looked Hispanic, but had a sharper nose, a very defined jawline, and piercing brown eyes. This guy was really hot. “Welcome home,” he said politely, then went to help the pilots put the bags in the car. Grand and Stef made to get in the car, but I waited until he finished up. He went over to the door because he must have thought I was waiting for him to close it before I got in.

“We haven’t met yet. I’m Will,” I said, holding out my hand. He looked surprised, because he’d probably thought I was some arrogant asshole. Maybe he’d already met JJ, I thought with a chuckle. He sometimes came off that way to the staff.

He took my hand. “Pedro,” he said simply. “I just started working here last week.”

“Welcome,” I said, hitting him with my best smile. He seemed even more surprised by that, but he got his act together and returned my gesture. I was almost dazed by how much that smile changed him from a very handsome man into a truly gorgeous man. He had perfect teeth that seemed really white, although that may be because they contrasted so well with his light brown skin color. But the way his smile made his cheeks bulge was really cute, and to top it all off, he had adorable dimples that were pronounced, almost like craters in each cheek. I finally pulled myself out of my daze and got into the Escalade.

“I see you met Pedro,” Stef said to me knowingly.

“I see you’re still in charge of hiring the staff,” I shot back, making him laugh.

“He is quite handsome,” Stef noted.

“Have you seen him smile?” I asked.

“I do not recall,” Stef said.

“Then you haven’t seen him smile,” I said. There was traffic on the drive back, and the ride was a little jerky, since Pedro was trying hard to get us home quickly.

“The ride is a little rough,” Stef groused.

“That’s because Pedro is doing everything he can to get the lord and master back to Escorial before the bewitching hour of seven,” I said, giving Grand crap.

“And that is as it should be,” Grand said pompously, really making us laugh.

We drove up to the familiar gates of Escorial, which parted for us magically, then the limo zipped up the drive and parked in front. Pedro hopped out to open the door and let us out. I looked at my watch, and it said 6:57. “Good job,” I told Pedro. “We made it on time for dinner.”

He smiled casually. “I was trying.”

“You succeeded,” I said, and that brought out the full grin. Stef and I walked up the steps, following Grand.

“I see what you mean,” Stef said, making me chuckle. We were about to walk into the dining room when I noticed Grandmaman and Frank coming down the hall. They saw us, and Grandmaman picked up her pace to tease Grand. He chuckled and shook his head, while continuing into the dining room. I stopped and waited for them.

“Welcome home, Will,” she said pleasantly.

I stood right in front of her and held my hands out to her. She smiled and took them. “I am really sorry I was so rude to you.”

“I appreciate your apology,” she said. “I am sorry that your rude behavior had some provocation on my part.” The grandfather clock began chiming out the arrival of the seven o’clock hour. I smiled, and leaned in to give her a kiss on each cheek, but she shocked me by actually hugging me, and not with one of those demi-hugs that were usually the extent of her physical affection, but a real hug. I hugged her back warmly, and felt myself getting teary-eyed. We broke off our embrace and she smiled at me, which seemed to cause one of the tears to dislodge itself from my eye and run down my cheek. She reached up to wipe it off in a typically smooth, fluid way. “And now we must go eat, or JP will become petulant.”

We laughed as we walked into the room and I took in who was here, and who wasn’t. Dad, Robbie, Darius, and JJ weren’t here, which surprised me. I was kind of disappointed by that, because it would have been nice to have my brothers here, but at least I didn’t have to deal with my father. I sat next to Stef, with John on the other side of me. I noticed that Marie wasn’t here either. “Hey!” I said to him cheerfully.

“Good to see you back,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said. I looked across the table and Aunt Claire was looking at me, smiling weakly.

“Welcome home, Will,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said cheerfully, then stood up and walked around to her chair. That freaked her out a little bit, but she stood up to face me. “I’m sorry I was so rude to you. My behavior was really awful, considering how you’ve always been in my corner.” I wanted to add ‘before then’, referring to the guest list, but this wasn’t about me being right, and I didn’t want to sound smarmy.

I watched as her shields dropped and she let her true self show through. She was not unlike Grand in that way, and these times when she was being genuine and unguarded were times to be treasured. “I think that some of the points you made were very valid,” she conceded. “It was not what you said that annoyed me; it was how you said it.”

I smiled at her, remembering from my brief interaction with Pedro how powerful that gesture could be. “Well, I learned how to argue by dealing with someone who’s a little tougher to get through to than you are, and I made the mistake of thinking you were like him,” I joked, referring to my father. I’d felt like we were alone in this room until everyone started laughing at that, including us.

“That is a good point,” she said. “I had not made allowances for your guerilla warfare training.”

We laughed for a bit, until I stopped and looked at her sincerely. “So are we OK, you and I?”

She gave me a hug, one as nice as the hug I got from Grandmaman. “Yes, we’re OK.” I smiled and then walked back around to take my seat.

“So when do Darius and JJ get in?” I asked Stef.

“They have opted to fly up tomorrow morning,” Stef said. “Robbie had a party that he needed to attend, JJ was going out with some friends from the rink, and Darius had a date. I am told that of the three, Darius’ date was the most important delay.” I thought it was funny that Stef said that, and had to admire Darius’ smooth PR. No doubt he planted seeds like that so Ella would know he was macking on other chicks.

“What about you?” I asked John. “You have a big date?”

“Not tonight,” he said with a grin. “I cleared my schedule for you. You want to hang out?”

“I’m all over that,” I said. We had a nice dinner after that, and I noticed that my Uncle Jack made an extra effort to be nice to me.

When dinner was over, John and I escaped back to my room to hang out. We went out onto the patio and I pulled out a joint and lit it. I hadn’t smoked for a long time, since Kai didn’t seem to puff, so I got pretty stoned.

“You excited for school to start?” John asked me.

I shrugged. “It sucks that they start on Friday. What the fuck?”

“No shit,” he agreed. “Gonna be weird to be a freshman.”

“Dude, you so don’t look like a freshman, and you have amazingly cool friends who are sophomores,” I said, joking with him.

He got a little nervous, then. “You may want to brace yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“Marie is really pissed at you. She’s basically on lockdown right now, and she blames you.”

I stared at him and blinked. “She’s on lockdown?”

He nodded. “My parents are all over her about how she never admits that she’s wrong about shit. When Grand first raked her over the coals about it, they sort of blew it off, but then it was like they figured out what a total bitch she could be, and really flamed her ass.”

“And that’s all my fault?”

“As she sees it,” he said.

“So what did they do to her?”

He shook his head. “She lost her phone, and she can’t go shopping.”

“Dude, for Marie, that’s like a death sentence.” She must really be wound up.

“She acts like she’s on a hunger strike, just moping around the house, glaring at everyone.” He shook his head. “She’s so fucking stubborn, I figured she’d outlast them, but I heard my parents talking, and they’re getting, as my mother put it, ‘more resolved with each passing day that our actions are correct’,” he said, mimicking his mother, and making us laugh.

“I don’t get that,” I said. “I don’t get people who do that, who can’t see when they fuck up and or can’t admit it. I feel so much better now that I worked things out with Grandmaman and your mother.”

“Dude, I don’t get it either. The three of you are all so much happier. Meanwhile, Marie is at home, being fucking miserable.”

“So why do I have to watch out?”

“She’s pissed at you, and guess who’s been spending time hanging out with her, like they’re BFFs?” He waited for me to guess, but when I didn’t, he told me. “Ferris.”

“Shit,” I said. “There’s no one bitchier than a gay dude pissed off at you because you won’t fuck him.”

“No shit,” John said. “That’s why you scare me.” He was joking, but it was like a Freudian slip.

“Whatever,” I said, being all bitchy. “I’d rather be your friend than fuck you. Besides, you’re not all that great, anyway.” I smiled when I said that to show that I was joking.

“What the fuck?” he asked, pretending to be offended. “No one’s ever complained before.”

“Dude, don’t go thinking that you’re all that,” I said, then we both started laughing. “So what are they planning to do to me?”

“I think they fucked up, because Marie was talking about all this shit with you and Kyle, so that’s old news now. So they’ll have to come up with something new,” he said.

“You know, I think I’ll just ignore them,” I told him. “I’ve got my friends, and I haven’t done anything to make everyone hate me.”

He shrugged. “Just keep your head up. That Ferris dude is a total little bitch. The two of them together, scheming and shit, scare me.” His phone rang, and he gave me an apologetic look, and then answered it. He walked off, and I could see him talking, as he grinned and blushed. He had to be macking on some chick. He hung up and got all animated. “Dude, let’s go to a party!”

“Whose party?”

“Brendan Shaughnessy’s. It’s at his house,” he said.

“I can’t go back there,” I told him. “That’s where Darius and I got into that fight.”

“Brendan said you can come if you don’t kick anyone in the balls,” John said. I laughed.

“Alright. I’d better change.” I sniffed my pits. It had been a long day. “And take a shower.”

“I’m going to go clear it with my parents, and get ready,” he said. “Pick me up in an hour?”

“Done,” I said. I called and set up our ride with the staff, took a shower, and got ready, remembering to dress a little preppier than I usually did.

I got up to the foyer and walked out to find Pedro waiting there with the limo. “Hey,” I said cheerfully. “I’m going to a party with my cousin, John. We have to get him first.”

“No problem,” he said. I hopped in front with him while we drove down to get John and I gave him directions to Brendan’s house. After we picked up John, I sat in back with him and we smoked a J on the ride over. We were having so much fun bullshitting, and just being stoned, that I was kind of surprised when the car stopped.

“Just let me know when you want me to pick you up,” Pedro said, and gave me his cell phone number.

“What if it’s late?” I asked, flirting.

“I’m used to staying up,” he said, flirting back, which totally cracked me up.

“Dude, hitting on the staff is sexual harassment,” John said, giving me shit as we walked up the steps.

“That dude is so hot, I’ll risk it,” I said. John nodded.

There were a bunch of people there, but that didn’t bother John; he just vanished to go find this girl he was trying to fuck. After a semester at Menlo, I knew most of these people, but I made sure to find Brendan first.

“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“No fights,” he said, pretending to be annoyed.

“Dude, I’m sorry about that, but you know I didn’t start it,” I said to him. Brendan and I usually got along pretty well.

“Whatever. I don’t want anything broken. Not even your nose,” he said, giving me shit. So the Marie-Ferris gossip chain had done a pretty good job of getting that around.

“No problem,” I said. I was tempted to go mingle, but I remembered my first party here, and how I’d ended up getting Brendan’s older brother Patrick to fuck me. I went upstairs and down the hall to the bathroom I’d used that first time, went in, and locked the door behind me. Last time, he’d been in the shower, but when I looked in there, it was empty. There was another door, one that must lead to Patrick’s room. I opened it a little and saw Patrick drilling some hot chick, so I closed it softly and smiled. Damn, he was hot!

I went back downstairs and got some punch. This was different from the punch they had last time, but just as potent. I had a couple of glasses, hung out with my friends, and was on my way to getting fucked up, when I decided to augment that by smoking some more weed. The last party had been in the winter, so not that many people had gone outside. Now, in August, that was where the main event was. A bunch of people were in the pool, and around it, but I snuck around the side, and to the back, where they had a little gazebo. Must be my new thing: gazebos. It was really private, and I was relishing the solitude as I took out my joint and lit it. I inhaled the smoke and relaxed until I heard heavy footsteps. When I saw who it was, I tensed up even more.

Erik Delgado saw me, paused, then headed straight for me. I’d promised Brendan I wouldn’t start any fights. I wondered if I was about to break that promise. I didn’t say anything, I just handed him the joint. He gave me an odd look, then took it and inhaled a hit. We sat next to each other on the bench, not saying anything, just taking a couple of tokes. “I was hoping I’d run into you,” I told him.

“Sure you were,” he said skeptically, with a little bit of cockiness thrown in, since he knew he could kick my ass.

“I’m really sorry that I hurt you,” I said to him, and looked at him sincerely.

“You didn’t hurt me,” he spat, like he was some superhero that had feelings made of iron.

I ignored his attitude. “I used to think that fucking around with a dude who was with someone else was alright, because it wasn’t my place to get involved in their shit. It was up to that dude to live up to his promises.”

“You used to think that, huh?” He wasn’t being all that friendly, but I persevered.

“Yeah. Only that doesn’t work if the other dude is a friend, or if I like the guy. I guess I didn’t realize how much it hurt, to have someone you really care about fuck around on you.”

“You got fucked over?” he asked, and chuckled. “Serves you right.”

I remained calm, even though he was trying to piss me off. “I did. I was with this dude, and he blew me off to go fuck around with this other guy. I didn’t get why you were so pissed off at me until that happened.”

He gave me a knowing look and shed his asshole attitude. “You OK now?” he asked, which was really sweet, since he genuinely seemed to give a shit.

I nodded. “I was all pissed off at the dude he was cheating with, then I went to see my shrink, and he explained it to me.” I told him how David had changed all the names around to make me see how I’d fucked him over, and that made him laugh. I made him look me in the eye. “I really am sorry.”

“It’s OK,” he said, but looked sad. “Didn’t matter anyway.”

“Why?”

He shook his head. “We broke up.”

“Dude...” I said, and put my hand on his shoulder. “What happened?”

He shook his head. “I went out of town for a bit, and then when I got back, I broke up with Kyle. Told him it was stupid to try and have a long-distance relationship.” There was a lot more to this story than he was telling me, but I just went with the flow. This wasn’t about him and Kyle, really, it was about him and I getting to a place where he didn’t beat me to a pulp.

“What did he say?”

Erik swallowed hard, to hide how sad and hurt he was. “He was relieved. He didn’t say that, but he was.”

“That totally sucks,” I said sympathetically.

“It’s OK. I leave for college in a few days anyway. Going to Oregon.”

“Oregon? I hear it rains up there all the time,” I teased. “It’s like Berkeley, only everyone wears flannel shirts and doesn’t shave their pits.”

“That’s just the women,” he joked. “Just like Berkeley.” He ran his fingers gently across my nose. “I’m sorry I hurt you, too.”

“It wouldn’t have been a big deal except I couldn’t surf for a month,” I said. “But I spent most of the past six weeks in Hawaii to make up for it.”

His fingers were still on my nose, gently caressing it. “I think I did you a favor. I think you look hotter now.” He moved his fingers to my lips and traced them, then leaned in and kissed me. I put my right hand behind his head to urge him on, running my fingers through his hair, as we slowly made out. The last time I’d kissed Erik, it had been OK, but nothing too terribly exciting, but this time it was really nice. We just sat there, gently making out, in a really sweet but sexy way. He finally broke it off and gave me a shy look. “I have to run.”

“Bummer,” I said sincerely. He grinned. “Why don’t you stop by and hang out sometime?”

“Your family will arrest me,” he grumbled.

I kissed him again. “No they won’t. I promise.”

“Alright,” he said. We exchanged phone numbers, then he stood up, with his pants tenting, which made me chuckle. I playfully grabbed for his dick, and he just as playfully smacked my hand away, adjusted his cock, and then walked off.