9.11 - 54. Chapter 54

October 2, 2001

Palo Alto, CA

I was kind of worried that John would give me all kinds of shit about Zach at school today, but I guess our big argument in Malibu had shut him up. He acted like nothing had happened, which was cool with me, since my big issue on that ended up being with Gathan. I got that John didn’t like Zach, especially after what happened with the three of us, but in the end, it probably wasn’t that big of a deal to him. We both let it go.

I was heading to lunch when Marie intercepted me. “I’m sorry I had to leave early.” She’d had some Father-Daughter charity event she had to go to, so she and Jack and Claire had left Malibu and headed back to Paly on Saturday morning.

“It’s fine. How was the party?”

“Awesome. I have the hottest dad, and all the other girls were jealous,” she said in her coquettish voice, cracking me up.

“You do have the hottest dad,” I said, then remembered how John and I had argued about that once, and had decided that Robbie was the cutest. I fought back the sadness that memory conjured up.

“I heard about your drama on Sunday.”

“Dude, these people and their grudges,” I said, shaking my head.

“I think you’re a pretty good judge of character,” she said supportively.

“Thanks,” I said, considerably boosted by that compliment. “What are you doing after school?”

“Homework,” she said, only it came out with a groan.

“We found out last night that Carruthers & Schluter is moving to new digs off Sand Hill Road. I’m going to go check it out after school. Want to come along?”

“No one told me about that,” she said, all annoyed.

“No one told me either, until last night. I don’t think even Grand knew about it.” She raised her eyebrows at that.

“Then we should go check it out,” she said. “I’ll meet you after school.” She went off to talk to Jackie, while I went into the cafeteria to get food. I was going through the line, kind of spacing out, when I felt someone nudge me: Austin Biehl. Austin Biehl was a junior who played lacrosse; he was on the varsity team. I kind of had this thing for big, beefy, muscular guys, and Austin was all that and more. He’d nudged me with his left arm, and it was as smooth as silk. His skin was like that, totally unblemished and from the few rare times I’d actually come into contact with it, it was completely smooth and soft. Those ads that said ‘smooth as a baby’s skin’ or whatever, well, his skin was that smooth.

“Hey Shoots,” he said. He had a sexy mouth, one that was kind of small, but with big lips. If he’d been a chick, people would have thought he OD’d on collagen. The upper left part of his mouth naturally seemed to rise up, exposing his perfect teeth, so some of the guys gave him shit about it, saying it made him look goofy. I thought it made him look incredibly hot. Cap it off with brown hair: not light, not dark, a nice medium shade. He evidently found ‘Schluter’ too hard to say, so he’d decided to give me a nickname, and called me ‘Shoots’.

“What up, Austin?” I asked. He leered at me and raised his eyebrows, then chuckled in a playful way. I laughed at him.

“Just eating,” he said. “What about you?”

“Same,” I said.

“You think you can help me with my math homework?” he asked earnestly. “Alex said you’re a whiz with this shit, and it’s kicking my ass.” Even though he was a year ahead of me, my AP Algebra class had already blasted through the same material his class was tackling.

“Sure,” I said. “Wanna come up later tonight?”

“I can do that,” he said, “I got practice after school. I can be done around six. What time do you eat?”

“Seven. Have dinner with us,” I said. I wasn’t being completely altruistic, because with him there, I was sure that the subject I did not want to talk about wouldn’t come up. Or at least if it did, it wouldn’t blow up into a big argument.

“Dude, I don’t know,” he said nervously.

“It will be fun,” I said. “Darius should be there.” He’d hung out with Darius at some of the parties we’d gone to, and they got along well. They were like two wolves out hunting for women.

“I thought he was at UCLA?”

“With all the shit that happened, he took a quarter off to get things organized with my mom’s estate.” I couldn’t help but feel somber, and feel my mood sink as I said that.

“I’m so sorry about that,” he said, and put his arm around me. I just about threw major wood in the cafeteria line, with the feel of his cushy arm around me, and even hotter, the feeling of his strong muscles underneath the skin. He reminded me of a younger, slightly smaller version of that Carullo dude, only covered by that soft skin of his...damn!

“Thanks,” I said, and forced my mind to move away from it. “You remember how to get there, right?”

“Dude, everyone knows how to get to your house,” he joked. We got our lunch and he led me back to the table he was sitting at. He hung with the same group I did, but the upperclassmen tended to sit together, while I usually sat with the freshmen and sophomores.

“Look who’s back,” Blaine Ledington said in his smart-ass voice, just to let me know that I was an interloper. How typical of him to try and make me feel uncomfortable there.

“Did you miss me?” I asked, flirting with him, and totally freaking him out. Everyone who heard me laughed.

“No,” he said, being all grumpy.

“I’ll bet you did,” I said, and winked at him. After that, he left me alone. I ended up having one of the best lunch periods ever. When I sat with the underclassmen, I felt mildly annoyed, since they talked about stupid shit that didn’t really interest me. I mean, I liked video games, but is that all there is to talk about? Even Cam kind of lost some of his allure, but to be fair, that was probably because he was more focused on hitting on the bitches that were around him.

I got up to head to my next class. “See you around 6:30,” Austin said.

“Be there,” I said with a grin, and then all but floated to my next class. I ran into John and he said he was going with us after school too, so I just had time to call Escorial and make sure only one car came to pick us up.

School was out, and I was walking out to the parking lot, when I had one of my ‘attacks’. They happened every once in a while, where I’d get really sad, and my eyes would get all watery. It was weird, because when they hit me, it wasn’t like I was thinking about Mom and Hank or Robbie, they just happened. I slipped into the bathroom and grabbed a stall for a few minutes, using toilet paper to dry my eyes. I paused to wash my face off, then pulled myself together and headed out to the car. My bathroom delay ensured that Marie and John had beaten me to the car. Pedro was there, smiling as he held open the door. “Thanks,” I said, as I hopped in. “You know where we’re going?”

“I know,” he said, as he shut the door. Marie looked at me and could read me so well.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” I said. She stared at me, waiting for me to say more, and I decided that since she’d opened up to me when she was in the hospital, I owed it to her to be honest. “I get these weird spells, where I just get all sad for no reason.”

“Dude, you have reasons,” John said reassuringly. I smiled to thank him.

“They usually pass pretty quickly,” I said, which was true, although sometimes the moodiness could linger.

“Someone’s got a date tonight,” Marie said, giving me shit, and changing the subject.

“Dude, I wish,” I said. John looked at me, his expression asking me what she was talking about. “Austin Biehl is coming over to study with me tonight. Actually, he’s coming for dinner first.”

“Shoots, pass the mashed potatoes,” John said, doing a hilarious imitation of Austin. We were laughing our asses off at him. “Don’t get your ass kicked.”

“No shit. He’s totally straight,” Marie said.

“Totally?” I asked, raising my eyebrows like it was a challenge.

“Totally,” she affirmed.

“Whatever,” I said. “I’m not trying to get in his pants. I just like the guy, and he can probably use some help with math.”

“You’re not trying to get in his pants?” John asked, giving me shit.

“No, but if they fall off and he’s there in front of me, well, that’s a whole different deal,” I said, cracking them up. “You guys want to come up for dinner?”

“No thanks,” John said. “I’ve got tons of shit to do. This is my big break for the day.”

“Ditto,” Marie said.

The limo drove down Sand Hill Road and pulled off when we got closer to I-280. Most of the buildings were hidden from the road, and that made the whole place seem really nice: just a tree-lined boulevard. We pulled up in front of a sleek, all-white building with an awesome water feature in the front. It seemed like half the front was a big pool, with a waterfall and fountains that gave it a cool Zen feeling. “Kick ass,” John said, as we hopped out. Most of the other buildings around here had some red brick worked in, as if to try and make them blend into the surrounding landscape, but not this one. It was bold and modern, and I chuckled as I thought about how it fit Stef’s personality so perfectly.

Sand Hill Road

“Well there you are,” Stef said enthusiastically. I gave him a hug, and then repeated that gesture for Grand, as did Marie and John.

“Where’s Dad?” I asked.

“He is too busy to tear himself away from the office,” Stef said. I got a little nervous about that. It would be just like him to totally absorb himself in work to block out the pain.

Stef took us through the building, showing us where his office and Dad’s office would be. They had their own bathrooms, of course. The whole place was barely roughed in, but he made it live with his words. One advantage of this new building was that it was super close to home. They had a gym and showers, so if Dad wanted to, he could jog to work. Like that would happen, I thought with a chuckle. We spent about an hour there, then strolled back outside and walked by the waterfall to the cars.

“Would you like to ride back with me?” Grand asked. “That way Pedro can take Marie and John straight home.”

“I’m good with that,” I said with a smile. I loved spending time with him. We escorted John and Marie back to their limo, while Stef went back inside, no doubt to talk to the contractors about a few more details.

Grand fired up his Aston Martin and headed for I-280. “Do you have to be back right away?”

“Nope,” I said. “If I’m back at 6:00, I’m good. I’ve got a friend coming over for dinner.”

“A friend?”

“His name is Austin Biehl. He’s a junior, and a really nice guy. He’s just coming over to do math homework with me, and to eat dinner with us.”

“So this is not a romantic entanglement,” he said.

“I would entangle with this dude any day of the week,” I said in my slutty voice. “So would you.”

“I doubt that,” he said.

“He knows Darius pretty well. They hang out at parties together and scope on chicks,” I said. The Aston Martin raced up I-280, heading toward the City.

“You seem to surround yourself with men who have issues,” he said, broaching the subject that was obviously on his mind, and presumably the reason for our drive.

“Men with issues?” I asked, even though I knew what he meant. But I figured if he was going to dive into my personal life, I wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

“Yes,” he said, getting that I was giving him a hard time. “I am thinking of Tony and Zach, specifically.”

“And?” I asked, forcing him to voice his concerns.

“I am wondering if you are just attracted to them, or if they are attracted to you,” he said, but with a smile.

“You don’t think I’m attractive?” I asked, pretending to be offended. He probably found me exasperating when I was like this.

“You are very handsome,” he said in his stodgy way, making me laugh.

“I think it just happens,” I said. He said nothing, and that bothered me. “Say what you want to say,” I said, in a much less pleasant tone.

“I should probably not say anything at all,” he said, being bitchy. He sighed. “I have a theory, and I’m wondering what you think.”

That was an interesting approach. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

“I am merely speculating on this, and I am not trying to judge you, so don’t get offended,” he cautioned.

“No guarantees,” I said. He gave me his dour look.

“I am wondering if you end up with these men with issues because you sleep with them before you really know them,” he mused. That could have really pissed me off, but I sensed that he wasn’t busting my balls. He was in his scientist mode.

“That’s an interesting theory, but consider this. I knew Tony pretty well before I started messing around with him. And I’ve been around Zach a bit too,” I countered. “On the other hand, I hooked up with Kai and Berto pretty fast, and they were both guys without major issues.”

“What about Kyle?” he asked.

“True,” I agreed. “But there was also Jeff, and I knew him for awhile.”

He nodded. “There does not seem to be enough of a pattern to validate my theory.”

“I think I have guys with issues in my life because I don’t reject them,” I said to him. “And regardless of what other family members think, I’m convinced that’s the right thing to do.”

“I happen to agree with you,” he said. “I received an interesting piece of information today.”

I tensed up, hoping that he hadn’t already heard about the issue I was trying to avoid. “What?”

“We got a bill from Dr. Bridgeport today,” he said. “It was for Tony.”

I smiled, a full-blown grin, and he smiled with me. “That’s awesome! Did you pay it?”

“We did, and we made sure that Dr. Bridgeport knew he should forward future bills to us as well,” Grand said.

“I’m so glad,” I said. I felt so happy, and so relieved. “Maybe Tony can actually become the guy he wants to be.”

“Possibly,” Grand said, but with an optimistic lilt to his voice. He turned around and zipped back to Escorial, making relatively idle conversation as we went.

I knocked out my homework so I could focus on helping Austin with his, and even had time for a quick nap. I thought about how much harder things had been at Harvard-Westlake. Ryan and Shiloh had both spent a lot of time bitching about it, and I totally got what they were complaining about. I liked having time to do other shit, and I decided that was important, to not have a good chunk of my evenings sucked up with a bunch of stupid assignments.

I went up to the front hall around 6:25 and buzzed Austin through. He drove a new but smaller Range Rover. It was pretty nice, but it was kind of funny, because it seemed almost too small for him. “Hey!” he said cheerfully.

“Come on, let me introduce you to my grandfather,” I said, and led him to Grand’s study. I knocked and we entered, and found Stef there with him. They both looked mildly annoyed, but they hid that well. They must have heard the big news. “This is my friend, Austin Biehl,” I said. “These are my grandfathers, Professor JP Crampton, and Stefan Schluter.”

“Nice to meet you, sir,” he said to Stef as he shook his hand.

“The pleasure is most assuredly mine,” Stef said, blatantly flirting, but he seemed to get that Austin would think he was funny, and he did.

“And a pleasure to meet you as well, Professor,” he said to Grand.

“Welcome to our home,” Grand said. I looked at him, smiling like an idiot. “I am thinking back to our earlier conversation about entanglements, and I may have to reconsider my prior assertion.”

“Yep,” I agreed, and even though Austin didn’t get our joke, he chuckled along with me.

“I would like to speak with you later, if you have time,” Stef said to me.

“After dinner, we’re going to knock out Austin’s math homework,” I announced. “If we’re done before you go to bed, I’ll come find you.”

“We will see you at seven,” Grand said, ensuring Stef wouldn’t be rude and pushy.

“They seem like cool dudes,” he said. “I heard about them, about the New Year’s party.”

“It’s a bummer you missed it,” I said, as I led him back to my room.

“No shit. My parents took us to the Bahamas, to Atlantis. It was pretty fun, but not as exciting as that party. I can’t believe Kyle came out by kissing you.”

“Why is that so hard to believe?” I asked like I was offended, even though I was joking.

“Since he dumped you for Erik an hour later,” he said.

“Yeah, that was pretty raw,” I said, even though I didn’t mean it. I was so over that. “Guys don’t usually get sick of me that fast.”

“You sure about that?” he asked, giving me shit. We didn’t really have time to do more than put his books in my room before we had to head back to the dining room.

Matt and Wade were there, so I made a point to sit next to them. I wasn’t all that surprised when Gathan showed up, looking really pissed off, and I wasn’t all that surprised to see my dad there, looking pretty mad as well. I greeted them and said nothing, using Austin as my human shield. It was pretty funny to see them force themselves to be polite in front of him. Austin was having a good time hanging out with Matt and Darius.

Grand entered and took his seat at the head of the table, our signal to sit down. “I’d like to welcome Austin,” he said. “He is our guest this evening.” His tone was friendly, but for those of us who knew him, it was also a warning, reminding us all to be on our best behavior. It was hilarious to see how much that bothered Gathan and Dad.

“Austin came up to work on math homework with me,” I announced.

“Come find me when you’re done,” Dad said, more of a growl. A simple look from me reminded him that there would be really unpleasant consequences if he made a scene in front of Austin. “We can talk about our trip to Hawaii.”

“Awesome,” I said, then turned to Wade. “So how was your brother?”

Matt snickered. “What?” Wade asked, shutting him up. “He’s a nice guy. A little dorky, but pretty much the norm for a dude who’s fifteen.” I rolled my eyes at his slam.

“The dude is one amazing goalie,” Matt said. “We were playing soccer, and it took me almost two hours to score on him.”

“And he’s only fifteen?” Darius asked. “Dude, you must suck.”

“He’s coming to visit in a couple of weeks, asshole. Let’s see you do better.”

“Dude’s only fifteen?” Austin asked. Matt nodded.

“You should come up too. We’ll organize a soccer game,” I suggested.

“You play soccer?” Darius asked me.

“I can make my body do anything,” I said, acting all slutty just to annoy him. It worked.

“Guess what,” Gathan said, trying to sound cheerful. We all looked at him. “Zach got a car today.”

“Good for him,” I said casually, like that was a surprise to me. Gathan and Dad gave me dirty looks, while Stef and Grand were more subtle. Darius and JJ were trying not to laugh their asses off. I guess for JJ it was fun seeing Gathan totally pissed off, even if it meant Zach got a car.

“How’d he swing that?” Darius asked innocently.

“I’d like to know that myself,” Dad said.

“He’s a pretty resourceful guy,” I said dismissively. “So where’d you go this summer? I heard you went on vacation.” I asked Austin.

“We were in London for a couple of weeks,” he said. “London rocks.”

“It does,” I agreed. “I was in Rome.”

“I love Rome,” Austin said.

“Wally and Clara are really upset,” Dad said.

I ignored him, pretending he was talking to just his end of the table. “Have you been to Paris?” He nodded. “If you really want to experience Paris, you have to go with Stef. He was born in France.”

“Really?” he asked. And with that, I’d drawn Stef into our conversation, and in his own animated way, he drowned out the grumbling about Wally and Clara and their outrage over Zach’s car. Just as I’d hoped, dinner turned out to be a lot of fun, with us mostly talking about cool places we’d been. It was amazing how well Austin fit into our group, and how at ease he was with us, and we were with him. Darius really warmed up to him fast.

“So what are you doing this weekend?” Darius asked Austin in his casual and cool way.

“Had a game but it got cancelled,” he said, mirroring Darius’ tone.

“We’re going to Hawaii for my dad’s birthday. You should come along,” Darius said, like it was no big deal. It was pretty significant for him to do that, since technically Austin was my friend.

“I don’t want to impose,” he said. I almost giggled at how proper he sounded when he said that. I was willing to bet his mother sounded the same way when she said that.

“That’s bullshit,” I said. “Besides, you can keep Darius company while I’m surfing.”

“Right. If you’re surfing, I’m surfing,” he said.

My eyes bulged at that. “You surf?”

“Duh,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want you to get hurt on the big waves in Maui,” I said, giving him shit.

“Bring it on, asshole,” he said, then got all worried because he’d called me an asshole at the dinner table, but everyone else was pretty much talking amongst themselves, so it didn’t matter.

“Dad, Austin thinks he’s a better surfer than you are,” Darius said. “I invited him to go with us this weekend to see if he’s right.”

I watched my dad struggling with that, but only for a second, and I knew exactly what he’d planned. He was going to get back at me for helping Zach get a car by cancelling our trip to Hawaii, and he was going to spend his whole weekend absorbed in work instead. Only now we’d backed him into a corner, and he really couldn’t do that without being rude to Austin. “I’ll bet he’s not,” Dad said, pretending to be cocky.

Austin pulled out his wallet, took out a twenty dollar bill, and flipped it on the table. “Twenty bucks says I am.”

Dad smiled and pulled a twenty out of his wallet and tossed it on the table. “I’m in,” he said.

“You pussing out?” Austin asked me.

“Nope,” I said, and tossed a twenty out there too. “If Kai’s in, we’ll all lose.”

“Who’s Kai?” he asked.

“Some dude Will hooked up with this summer,” Darius said dismissively.

“He’s a nice guy, a good friend, and one helluva good surfer,” I said. “Maybe we can invite Scott Slater too?”

“Maybe,” Dad said, being grumpy.

“I gotta run,” Gathan said, and got up abruptly and left. I mean, dinner was all but over, but he still managed to make his little exit scene, so I guess that made him happy.

We had desert and then went back to my room. “Dude, I so don’t want to do this,” he whined. His whining upset me because I hated whining, and because whenever someone whined, it reminded me of Robbie.

“You can do what you want,” I said, being all task-oriented, “but if you want my help, we’re going to knock this shit out now, not later.”

“Fine,” he said, and got his book out. It took us a while, because he really had trouble grappling with it, but I think I did a pretty good job of explaining things. “Thanks for helping me out,” he said sincerely.

“You’d do the same thing for me,” I said, then got more playful. “And you were such a good boy, now you get a reward.”

“You gonna blow me?” he joked, but in such a casual, easy way I knew he was just bullshitting me.

“No, that’s my reward,” I said, licking my lips like a whore. While he was laughing, I pulled out a joint.

“Fucking awesome!” he said. We went out onto my patio and smoked, getting really stoned. He was hilarious when he was high. The guys at school teased him about being this goofy dude, which he wasn’t, unless he was high, and then he was. And it was a riot. We ended up playing video games until he felt sober enough to drive home. I think that he just liked hanging out.

“You sure you want me to tag along this weekend?” he asked as we walked to the door.

“Fuck yeah,” I said.

“You sure everyone is cool with that?” Now he was nervous, and on him, it actually wasn’t very attractive.

“Why? What makes you think they don’t want you to come along?”

“They were kind of giving me dirty looks at dinner,” he said. I felt myself get enraged by that, that Gathan and my father, and to a lesser degree Grand and Stef, had made him uncomfortable, but in the end, it was mostly my fault. I’d used him as a human shield.

“Come on,” I said, and led him out to the gazebo. “I was with this dude, who’s kind of like a friend of the family, and he’s going to some private school back east, living with a host family, and playing football.”

“He like it?”

“Yeah, except he doesn’t have a car, so he feels trapped. Everyone is all into controlling him, so they wouldn’t buy him one, so I did,” I said.

“You bought this dude a car?” he asked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I like him. He’s a friend, and one awesome fuck.” He rolled his eyes at me. “You telling me that if you met a girl who rocked your world and you had extra cash, you wouldn’t buy her a car if she needed one?”

“Dude, no pussy is worth a car,” he declared.

“If you say so,” I said. “So why’d you think they were mad at you?”

“They backed my father in a start up that collapsed last year,” he said. “They lost a shitload of money.”

“Did he steal it?” I asked.

“No,” he said, all pissed off, until he saw me grin.

“Did he just completely mismanage the company so it ran into the ground?”

“No,” he said, calm now.

“Then they’re not mad,” I said. “It’s a business risk. They know how that works. They’re smart guys.” I’d heard Dad and Stef have lots of conversations about that.

“Right,” he said.

“Come on,” I said, getting up. “You have to say goodbye before they go to bed.” They didn’t go to bed this early, but I knew what I had to do to make sure this was cool.

“Fine,” he said. He followed me back into the house and up to Grand’s study. The doors were closed and I heard my dad’s voice booming. “Sounds pissed off.”

“Most definitely,” I said, but smiled to show him it wasn’t a big deal. I knocked loudly, and then went in before anyone could say anything. “I thought you left,” I said to Gathan.

“I forgot something,” he almost spat at me. I raised an eyebrow to calm his ass down.

“Austin was leaving and wanted to say goodbye,” I said.

“It was nice to meet you all,” he said formally, and shook their hands. “Thanks for having me over for dinner.”

“You are always welcome to join us,” Grand said smoothly.

“Austin says you know his father, that you were in business with him,” I said to Stef.

“John Biehl?” Stef asked. Austin nodded. “How is he doing?”

“He’s doing alright,” Austin said. “He’s trying to launch another company after the last one failed.” He shuffled his feet sheepishly. “I’m sorry about that.”

And Stef did just what I knew he’d do. He walked over and stood in front of Austin, and looked him firmly in the eye. “Neither you, nor your father, have anything to apologize for.”

“But you lost about $10 million on that deal,” he said.

Stef put his hand on Austin’s forearm, and I saw him flinch slightly as he came into contact with Austin’s smooth soft skin. “That is how business works. Sometimes plans work, sometimes they do not. His company had a good product and a good idea, but it came along at the worst possible time.”

“So that doesn’t bother you, when you lose money?” he asked, amazed.

“I would prefer it the other way around, but without risk, there is no reward,” Stef said smoothly. “Tell your father that I am anxious to hear about his latest plan.”

“I’ll pass that on,” Austin said, grinning as widely as his little mouth would let him. I followed him out to his Range Rover. “Dude, thanks. That’s awesome!”

“See you tomorrow,” I said then went in to face the music. I always like a good offense, so I went in loaded and ready.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Dad demanded as soon as I walked in the door. I held up my hand to him rudely, but the gesture was really meant more for Gathan, while I talked to Grand and Stef.

“Thanks for talking to Austin,” I said sincerely. “He was really worried that you were mad at him.”

“He’s not the one I’m mad at,” Dad said.

I ignored him and focused on Grand. “He said that he noticed Dad and Gathan giving him dirty looks all through dinner, and he also noticed you and Stef looking at him in a relatively nasty way. You all managed to make my friend feel pretty unwelcome.”

Grand was the most upset by that. “I am sorry he felt that way.”

“I didn’t think that I’d ever bring someone home and have that happen,” I said, piling on. “Is this the norm? Should I expect this in the future?” He stared at me, for once at a loss for words. “When does Grandmaman get home?” That was a blatant threat, because if she were here, she’d be losing it right now.

“I am sorry your friend was uncomfortable,” Grand said. “Instead of making someone feel unwelcome, in the future, those of us with anger issues will simply leave the room.” That was a slap at all of us, but I was the only one who was OK with it. The others were pretty upset about Grand’s pronouncement. I took that opportunity to launch a parting salvo at the two resident hotheads.

“After you were so rude to my friend, I’m not in any mood to talk to either of you,” I said to Dad and Gathan. “I’ll let you know when I’m willing to have a conversation with you.” And with that, I turned on my heel, and walked out of the room.