The Unfortunate Occurence at Shenandoah High 2020 - 8. Chapter 8

“Are you going to Finn’s party with Sheldon Lockhart?”

My words shatter the quaint silence between me and Keisha. We are sitting at the table in my kitchen. I’m eating a bowl of Dad’s heart-healthy oatmeal and Keisha’s eating a banana while flipping through the latest issue of Vogue.

Keisha looks up, confusion etched into her face. “Huh?”

I clear my throat. Admittedly my tone was a wee bit … harsh.

“Well, yesterday Finn and I were talking about his parents being out of town so he mentioned the party he’s throwing on Saturday. He mentioned that you may be going with Sheldon.”

Keisha laughs and shakes her head. “I swear, straight guys do not listen. Finn mentioned the party to me after I told him you could maybe help him with his printing and email issue. Then he said he was going to invite everyone in the musical so then I asked him if that included Sheldon, since Sheldon is not technically in the musical. He then told me I could bring Sheldon if I wanted.

“I haven’t even mentioned the party to Sheldon,” Keisha says.

“Well,” I say. “I really want to go, like really, really want to go and I was sorta hoping you’d go with me.”

“Babe, you know I’d be your wing woman in a heartbeat. However, you know how my dad is. He’s extremely anti-party. I think he had a bad experience back in the 80s.”

Keisha shakes her head and sighs. Today she’s wearing her hair in tight curls and they frame her face perfectly.

“Can’t you ask Andy?” she asks. “Something tells me it would do some good for him to get out of the house instead of watching sappy Hallmark movies all day. And night.”

“Andy doesn’t know my extensive history with Finn the way you do and there’s no time for me to catch him up.”

“What extensive history? You’ve been perving on him since Freshman year and he finally spoke to you this year. See – that, took like … two seconds and some change.”

I shake my head in a dramatic fashion. “How can you mock what me and Finn have?”

“Anyway,” Keisha says, rolling her eyes. “I’ll ask my dad just in case he’s feeling particularly benevolent. Maybe he’ll surprise us both and say yes you can go to this unsupervised party at some rich guy’s parents’ house where there most certainly will be drinking and other types of deviant activities.”

“Deviant activities?” Dad calls from behind me. I look up and see that today he’s wearing the magenta scrubs I picked out for him a few weeks ago. I must say – I have good taste in scrubs. Now if only I could pick out my own clothes.

“Good morning, Mr. G.,” Keisha says, Cheshire-grin appearing on her face. “Your sweet, innocent son and I were invited to a party this Saturday and we’re just trying to find a way to convince my dad to let me go.”

Dad turns around and levels a serious look on the two of us. “Will there be drinking at the party?”

“Most likely but I’m not planning on drinking and neither is Tristan.”

“What about drugs? Marijuana or I guess you kids call it weed. Cocaine? Meth?”

“Jesus, Dad,” I blurt out. “Meth? This isn’t Breaking Bad and no, I highly doubt there will be any cocaine either. Finn Montgomery’s like the most wholesome guy on the planet.”

“And those are the ones you have to worry about,” Dad says as he pours himself a cup of coffee.

“There’s oatmeal on the stove,” I tell him.

“Thanks,” he says. “Back when I was in high school, your uncle let me tag-along with him to a party at the quarterback’s parents’ lake house. There must’ve been over a hundred people there. There was all kinds of debauchery going on, I mean I saw things I didn’t think were even possible.”

“Dad – I’m digesting,” I say. “Keep it PG.”

“Anyway,” he continues. “So, to get away from it all I go upstairs and I walk into a bedroom to find Herschel Becker, the high school quarterback, doing a line off of his parents’ dresser.”

I bite my lip and sigh. “Well, Dad – I can assure you … there will not be anything going up either of our noses. We won’t have sex. We won’t steal a cop car. We’re going to be the same well-behaved, well-adjusted people that we always are.”

The sex part I’m okay with – I just want you to be safe,” he says.

“Dad – please. I’m getting nauseous.”

“Well I guess what I’m trying to say is – I trust you.” Dad pours the remaining oatmeal into a large bowl. “I trust you both but there’s so much going on with kids your age. All it takes is for something to be slipped into either one of your drinks or a certain kind of photo to go viral and then your whole lives are ruined before they even have a chance to really begin.”

He walks over at sits his bowl down on the table before taking the seat across from me and next to Keisha.

“Keisha, I’ll talk to Hank and maybe I can convince him to let you go to this party.”

“Aww, Mr. G., you don’t have to do that.”

“I insist. Hank’s a lot like myself. We worry about our kids and we only want the best for them. Now, I’m not making any promises.”

“Thank you, Mr. G. I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it. Now should’ve you two be getting to school?”

I look down at my phone and see that it’s a little after seven.

“Yeah, we better get going.”

“Be careful,” Dad says as Keisha and I scramble to grab our things.

I walk over to Dad and give him a kiss on the cheek and tell him to have a great day. I then follow Keisha out the back door into the driveway where her car is waiting.

~

I’m walking to the auditorium, alone, when I hear someone call my name. Pausing between the main building and the auditorium, I look over my shoulder and I see Andy running towards me. His face is beet-red and the gray I (HEART) New York T-shirt he is wearing is soaked with sweat.

Andy stops a few feet away from me and doubles over. His breaths are shallow and for a brief moment I worry that he’s about to keel over and die right in front of me.

When he finally catches his breath, he slowly stands up and runs his fingers through the sweat-slicked curls on top of his head.

“Sorry – I know I look a hot mess right now but there was no time to change after gym. Some guy mouthed off at Coach so he made all of us run fifteen laps around the football field.” Andy looks down at his damp shirt and groans. “I’m so gross right now. I wish I could just go home.”

“It’s fine,” I tell him. I look down at my watch. “We’ve got six minutes before class starts so how about we go grab some water.”

“Water sounds so good right now.”

The two of us walk into the auditorium and to the drink machine where Andy purchases a bottled water and I get a Sprite.

“Can I get your advice on something?” Andy asks as we slow-walk towards the theater.

“Well, I can’t promise that it will be good advice but sure, what’s on your mind?”

Andy stops walking and looks over at me. “Can we just keep this between the two of us?”

“Yeah – everything okay?”

Andy quickly looks down at the ground and he sort of reminds me of a little kid who is too shy to say hello to an adult. Andy is usually very confident so it’s kind of strange seeing him like this.

“Andy, what is it? You can tell me. I promise I won’t tell …”

“Nick and I hooked up,” he blurts out, his voice echoing throughout the mostly empty hallway we’re in.

“Hooked up?”

“Yeah … you know … we had sex. I lied to my parents and told them I was studying with you and Keisha and then I went over to his place . His parents are on some 4-week tour of Europe for their anniversary.”

Andy slowly lifts his head and makes eye contact with. “It just sort of happened.

“Andy,” I say placing my hand on his back. His back is wet so my hand recoils. “There’s nothing wrong with that. You and Nick were together for how long?”

“Exactly one year, one month, two weeks and three days.”

“Wow – that’s, um … wow.”

“We became official the day after the Fourth of July, the summer before junior year and of course I’ll never forget the day we ended things – or rather I ended things.”

“So, the important question is, how do you feel about what happened?”

“That’s what I need your advice on,” he says. “Being with Nick … it felt exactly like it used to. Nothing’s changed and I know more than ever that I want to be with him. I think … no, I know he is the person I’m going to be with for the rest of my life.

“But lying to my parents didn’t feel good. When I got home, my dad asked me how studying went and I lied again. I ended up going up to my room and throwing up. I hate lying to my parents.”

“Then don’t,” I say. “From what you’ve described, your parents sound pretty awesome. You and I both know how easily it could’ve gone the other way. So tell them how you feel. How you really feel. This isn’t some high school boyfriend you’ll dump as soon as you graduate. This is the love of your life we’re talking about.”

“Tristan – Nick means the world to me and I’m so afraid of what they’ll say. I don’t think I can handle them making us break up again. It will crush Nick and I can’t do that to him. Not again.”

“I get that,” I say. “I get that you don’t want to hurt Nick. But won’t you be hurting yourself if you two continue to sneak around?”

Andy bites down on his bottom lip and frowns. “That’s a good point.”

“You owe it to yourself to be honest with your parents and if they disapprove of you being with Nick, just tell them it’s your life.”

Andy scoffs and then laughs. “You’re obviously not Italian.”

The bell rings and we are officially late, not that Coach McHurk is ever around to notice. The two of us move towards the auditorium. Just as we are about to walk inside, Andy turns to me.

“Thank you, Tristan. You have really given me some food for thought.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m rooting for you and Nick. We all are. A love like yours can’t be denied.”

“You think so?” Andy asks.

“I know so.”