Bloodlines - 42. Chapter 42

January 6, 1999

The end of the third day of classes for the Spring Quarter: sigh. Back to the grind again. I thought back to my idyllic Christmas break, and how Wade and I had spent the entire time just getting closer to each other. It was wonderful, both from an emotional standpoint and from a physical standpoint. So much had changed in less than a month it was almost unbelievable. We'd gotten to the point where we could almost read each others' minds, and when we made love, it was more intense than my best experience with Cody or Lou.

I pulled out my books and started thumbing through them, wondering what hell they’d inflict on me this semester. I had Microeconomics on Mondays and Wednesdays, which should be good since I liked it. That was my first class, and it started at 10AM. How kick ass was that? After that I had English Composition, which was way better than English Lit. This was mostly writing, and I could do that. I was done by 2:00. Tuesdays and Thursdays sucked. I had French at 9AM, then nothing until 11AM when I had Advanced Calculus. Wade was in my English Comp and Calc class, while Cole was taking French with me.

Cole. He’d come back on Saturday, moving back into the dorms and into the same room he'd been in when he'd tried to kill himself. The University had offered to move him, then him and Cramer, but Cole didn't want to. He told me that he needed to remember how he'd lost it, so he didn't do it again. Everyone in Lag was awesome. They treated him like a celebrity, really making him feel welcome and loved. He’d been practicing on the ice with us for the past month or so, so it didn’t feel like a big deal to those of us on the team not to have him around. Still, now that he was back, it felt like a void had been filled for me. I guess I hadn't really realized how weird it was without him there.

I looked at my watch nervously, wondering where Wade was. We had practice in an hour, and it wasn’t like him to be late for anything. I thought about calling him, but that might seem too clingy. I didn’t want to crowd him; I didn’t want to do anything to ruin the magic we had. I logged on to check my mail, and saw that I’d gotten an e-mail from Mummy. I swallowed hard, steeling myself for whatever was next, and opened it.

Matthew,

I suppose you think your stunt at the Country Club was funny. I cannot believe that you would do something so incredibly rude and obnoxious simply to embarrass your father and me. Poor Mrs. Parsons was more offended than I can say, and Geneva Kelso has spent the last few weeks extracting the story from Todd on how you tried to convert him to your aberrant lifestyle. The poor boy will probably need therapy. I hope you’re happy with yourself.

And as for the large bill you ran up; don’t think you’ll get off scot free. We’re incorporating it into your claim on the bank trust department.

I stared at the e-mail and started laughing, then printed out a copy for Wade. She only called me Matthew when she was really pissed off at me. It felt so fucking great to reach out and fuck with their lives for a change. They’d come out here, shaken up my world, been obnoxious as fuck to my family, and rejected me without batting an eye. They'd cut me off without any warning at a time when it would hurt me the most. This was pure, blatant revenge, and it was really really sweet.

Wade came charging into the room, worried because he was late. “Hey. We gotta go.”

“I was waiting for you,” I told him, and grabbed my jacket. He charged down the stairs, clearly stressed out. “Dude, relax. We have lots of time.”

“Coach will bag skate us if we’re late,” he said.

“Yeah, but we won’t be, because I’m driving and you’re not,” I teased.

“Fuck off,” he said with a smile. We hopped in the GMC and took off.

“So where were you?”

“I had an appointment,” he said cryptically. I didn’t say anything, I just waited. I knew him so well now, knew that he was just playing me to make me pressure him before he spilled his guts. It pissed him off that I didn’t. “I went to see Robbie’s shrink.”

I almost stopped the SUV and stared at him. “You did?”

“Yeah.” He looked at me. “Why, don’t you think I should?”

“No, not at all. I’m sorry man. I was just surprised. I think it’s awesome that you’re going to talk to someone about all of this shit,” I said.

“But?” he asked. He knew me just as well, and he could sense that I was holding back.

“You’re happy, right? I mean, I’ve never been so fucking happy in my entire life. I’m in love with the most amazing guy in the world, and he satisfies me in every way,” I said. The unspoken question was whether he felt the same way about me.

He smiled and reached over to hold my hand. “I’m really happy too. I feel the same way. I just want to make sure I deal with this shit, to make sure it doesn’t lurk in my psyche and fuck me up.”

I squeezed his hand. “That is probably the smartest and coolest thing. Not many people are together enough to make that call. So how was it?”

“It was pretty rough,” he said, his mood changing. “I had to go through and explain everything.” His voice cracked a little, and I wanted to stop and just hold him. That and I wanted to beat the shit out of his father. He got himself together and sighed. “But it felt good in the end to go through it all, and to have him tell me none of it was my fault. I see him again next Wednesday.”

“God I love you,” I said.

“I love you too,” he said with a weak smile. This had fucked him up, but hopefully it was just pain before healing.

“I got an e-mail from my mother,” I said, handing it to him. “I pissed them off.”

He read it and started laughing. “Dude, you have to forward this to your lawyer as soon as we get back.”

“Why?”

“She just told you, in a roundabout way, that your father was colluding with the bank,” he said. I just stared at him, wondering yet again how he figured this shit out when I was clueless. “This is going to cause all of them some problems.”

“You mean it could end up costing them more than a dinner at the club?” I teased.

“It could. Plus it will be embarrassing as hell when they have to stand in front of a judge and tell him that they wouldn’t pay for you to go to Stanford because you’re gay,” Wade said.

“What if the judge is a homophobe too?” I asked, worried.

“That’s awesome. You can appeal it, and maybe make the national news,” Wade said playfully. I didn’t really give a shit about getting money from the bank or my parents, all I wanted to do was get back at them for hurting me, for fucking with me. But still, some extra cash could never hurt.

January 8, 1999

We skated onto the ice to the thundering cheers of our fans. We were playing the University of Santa Clara, a Jesuit University not too far from Stanford. Of course we were better, both as a school and a hockey team, but since it was nearby both our fans and their fans were here, and that made it a rowdy crowd.

I usually didn’t get any ice time in the first period since I was just a freshman. At some schools, we'd have spent the whole season on the bench, but our coach tried to let us rookies get on the ice some. His strategy worked, because when we actually did get to play, we put everything into it. So Wade and I sat on the bench, watching the juniors and seniors make the Santa Clara boys their bitches. We were winning 5 to nothing after the second period, so he let us rookies go on the ice to flex our muscles.

I lined up for the faceoff with some goon who had drool coming out of his mouth and snot coming out of his nose. “Dude, you look like a walking virus,” I said.

“You’re a stupid fuck,” he said. “I’m not walking, I’m skating.” That cracked me up, but I still won the face-off. We battled the puck into their zone and Bledsoe took a shot from the point. His slapshots weren’t even close to as powerful as Cole’s and this one was snagged by the goalie easily enough. They got the puck back and we started the retreat back into our own zone. I stayed back to harass them.

The snot goon passed the puck back to one of his defensemen and then took off past me, heading for center ice. The defenseman wasn’t thinking, or just fucked up, and passed it back to him, only I caught it. I smiled. I was there, with only one defenseman and the goalie between me and a goal. The defenseman scrambled to cross the ice and catch me, but I was faster. I maneuvered around him and headed for the goal.

I’d watched this goalie and he was good at the direct shot. So this time I skated toward him, making him think I was going to shoot, but instead, I kept the puck until I was almost past the goal, then I back-handed it in, right under his pad. The horn went off, the crowd went wild, and I’d just scored my first goal for 1999. It wasn’t all that important, since we were already winning by such a huge margin, but a goal was a goal, and it would look good on my stats. We ended up winning the game 6-0.

“Dude, you better play that well when we go up against Cal,” Turner said in the locker room. I beamed with pride at praise from this guy. Turner commanded more respect in the locker room and on the ice than any other captain I’d run into.

“Yeah, whatever,” LeBrand said, dissing me good-naturedly. “Fuck Carrswold. Where’s the party tonight?”

“The A-E-Rho house,” Gillespie said. “You guys coming?”

Cole looked nervous, so I made the commitment for him. He needed to get out. “Fuck yeah we’ll be there.” Cole gave me a weird look, but he didn't say no. He rode back with us to the dorms, where we changed clothes and then wandered over to the A-Ho (as we called them) house.

Those hos knew how to throw a party. They had a bunch of beer, not to mention tequila, Jaeger, and Jell-O shots. In an hour, we were all well on our way to being totally fucked up. Cole was hanging out with Wade, Konrad, and I, but not in an ‘enjoy the party’ kind of way, but in an ‘I'm hiding behind you’ kind of way. I watched him out of the corner of my eye and he was staring across the room. I couldn't tell what had his attention, but he was completely focused.

I dragged Wade off to grab a beer and asked him. “Dude, what's Cole scoping?”

He laughed. “It's not what, it's who. Allison Channey,” he said.

“Who?”

“Look behind me,” he said as he pumped the keg. “See that girl hanging out over in the corner?”

“Yeah. She's kind of cute in a Melvin kind of way. He's looking at her?”

“All night,” Wade said. “And she looks back, but they both stay on opposite sides of the room.”

“She could be hot if she wasn't a total fucking dork,” I said, looking at her. She had nice tits. “I'm going to go hit on her.”

“What?” he asked.

“I'm going to go hit on her. If I do, Cole will come over,” I said. Wade shook his head. He knew politics, but I knew this game. I headed over to meet this woman who had captivated Cole. She saw me coming and kind of freaked out, looking first one way then the other, trying desperately to avoid me.

“Hi,” I said. I leaned up against the wall and turned on my smile, my full charm, and did it so Cole could see me doing it.

“Hi,” she said nervously, almost a whisper. I saw her look over toward Cole.

“I'm Matt,” I said, holding out my hand. She took it but instead of shaking it I bent over and kissed the back like I lived in the fucking 17th century. She blushed. Cole was getting really irritated. Too funny.

“I'm Allison,” she said.

“Well Allison, it's nice to meet you. Did you come see our game tonight?” I hit her with the raised eyebrows and the full smile, but all it did was make her uncomfortable. I glanced at Cole and he was almost freaking out.

“What game was that?” she asked.

“You don't know? Wow. I guess we must be pretty insignificant,” I pretended to be all offended.

“Oh I'm sorry,” she said, moving forward and putting her hand on my shoulder in a friendly gesture. She really was a sweet girl.

“It's alright. I was just teasing you. Hockey. I'm on the hockey team,” I told her. “You don't like hockey?”

“I, uh, I've never seen a hockey game,” she said.

“Maybe you can come watch me play sometime? I mean, only if you want to,” I said.

“Hey Matt, what's up,” I heard Cole say. He'd moved so quick he'd almost snuck up on me. I barely stopped myself from laughing.

“I'm just meeting Allison. Allison, this is Cole Weber, my best friend,” I said.

He smiled down at me and put his arm around me in a really friendly gesture. Then he looked at Allison and got all nervous. “It's really nice to meet you Allison.”

“It's nice to meet you too, Cole,” she said, flirting. How funny. She'd totally shut down on me, but not on Cole.

“I, uh, I saw you from over there,” he said lamely.

“I saw you too,” she said, then looked down and blushed. It was so cute and so pathetic I couldn't stand it anymore.

“I gotta bail,” I said. “It was nice to meet you Allison. Cole's on the team too, so you really should come see us play.”

“I might do that,” she said. Cole looked at me funny, and then rolled his eyes. He'd finally figured me out, what I was doing.

I got back to where we had been standing. Konrad was there but Wade wasn't. I made myself stay calm. This was our first party since all that shit at Christmas. I'd really hoped that he'd be over all this bullshit and that he'd stop trying to fuck random women at parties, or that at least he'd do it when I wasn't around. It hurt me when he did that, I was able to fully admit that now, and I had even figured out why. It wasn't the actual act of him sticking his dick in the bitch; it was that he would blow me off to go do it. Just like tonight, we'd be having an awesome time, and then he'd vanish and end up in bed with some ho.

“You playing matchmaker?” Konrad asked, bringing me out of my train of thought and probably saving me from really depressing myself.

“Yep. Looks like it's working,” I said. I saw Cole standing there talking to her, smiling shyly and flirting. We were feeling really good about things when one of her sorority sisters busted in and started playing for Cole. “Who's that?”

“Marianne Sommers,” he said. “I'll bet these hos wish they'd never let her pledge. She's a fucking bitch. Look at her working Cole. She doesn't really want him; she just wants to show that she can have any guy.”

“Yeah, but it's not working,” I noticed. We busted up at that. Cole was being polite, but he clearly didn't want anything to do with Marianne. Still, Allison was just sort of melting into the background and looked like she was almost ready to bail. “Your turn Konrad. He's being cock-blocked. Go take her out.”

“I'm on it,” he said. He sauntered over and put himself between Marianne and Cole, and took over. Marianne was trying everything she could to work back to Cole, but he'd refocused on Allison. He said something to her and then left her there alone. Why was he leaving her? What the fuck? It was working, and he was leaving? I was going to have to coach this boy. He walked up to me nervously.

“Matt, I need a huge favor,” he said.

“You need a condom?” I teased.

He actually looked pissed. “She's a nice girl.” He calmed himself down. “Can I borrow your GMC? I want to take Allison out, you know, away from here.”

I didn't let people drive my GMC. But this was important, way more important than a fucking vehicle. “You got money?” I asked. Stef wanted to buy him a car and give him an allowance, but he'd been adamant that he wasn't taking charity. He could be like that. As fucking stubborn as a mule.

“A little,” he said.

“You dumb fuck. Here,” I said, handing him my keys and a couple of twenties. “You're gonna let Stef get you a piece of shit car and give you an allowance. You may have to fuck him once in awhile, but it will be worth it.”

He smiled. “Thanks!” I saw him walk back to Allison and ask her out, and she grinned and followed him as they left.

Konrad had disappeared too. Maybe his stunt with Marianne had worked. I did a Jell-O shot and wondered where Wade was. It was starting to bother me to the point of making me depressed. I'd dealt with that before, letting shit like this get me down, but this was worse because I'd been so happy. I sighed. If this was how it was going to be, I'd have to deal with it.

I was kind of spacing out when a familiar voice cut into my thoughts. “Hey,” Wade said cheerfully. “The line for the fucking bathroom was like a mile long.”

“Just pee outside,” I said. He rolled his eyes. Wade wasn't the kind of guy who could be that crass, not unless he was a lot drunker. I just smiled at him, so happy that he'd stuck around with me. “I wondered where you went.”

“Thought I was fucking some bitch?” he asked. I felt really guilty, and I looked at him, trying to tell him I was sorry. “Those days are over.”

“Really?” I asked. He nodded, grinning at me. “What if someone sees us hanging out? They know I'm gay. They'll think we're together.”

“Let them think whatever the fuck they want. As long as it's not a formal thing, it won't be an issue,” he said. In other words, idle gossip wasn't going to cause a scandal.

“It only bothered me when you were with them because you blew me off to do it,” I said.

“Yeah, but it bothered you, so I'm not going to do it anymore,” he said. He looked into my eyes and I looked back at his. Anyone who was watching us would have caught the total love that we shared, so I quickly changed the subject.

“You missed my major moves on Allison Channey,” I said.

“Oh yeah? So am I going to have to worry about you running off and fucking these hos now?” he teased.

“No. I put on a total act and it bugged Cole so much he actually came over and interrupted,” I said. Wade started laughing his ass off. “He borrowed the GMC and took her out.”

“You loaned him your GMC?” Wade asked, giving me shit. “The black one? Your baby?”

“Fuck you. It was important to him. And it's just a thing.” He raised an eyebrow. We were having a total blast, and it was like we were alone in this party, just drinking like fish. We were completely obliterated when things started to change.

“Hey Wade,” a voice said. Felicia Barry, a lithe, smokin' brunette came up and wrapped an arm around Wade.

“Hey Felicia,” he said flirting. “Nice party you've got here. You plan this all by yourself?” He was totally fucking with her.

“Pretty much,” she said. “You want a tour of the house?” In other words, ‘want to come upstairs and fuck me?’.

“Maybe later on?” he asked. “Your party is too damn good to bail right away.”

“Who says you wouldn't have a good time if we went on a tour?” she asked, really pouring it on. He just laughed with her, ignoring her remark. She gave him a disapproving look and wandered off. She was the kind of girl that never got rejected, and it had pissed her off. I was just about to ask him what the fuck that was all about when another girl came up. Another brunette, just as hot.

“I haven't met you yet,” she said. “I know, because if I'd met you, I would have remembered it. I'm Candy.” Now that was so stupid it was lame. Candy. If ever there was a slut's name that was it.

“Nice to meet you Candy. I'm Wade,” he said politely.

“I'm having a problem getting up the stairs,” she said. “Think you can help me?” What the fuck was this? Two women in sequence offering to fuck Wade. I was starting to think that this was some sort of conspiracy to totally ruin my life. I started to freak out, but calmed myself. I knew Wade loved me. Even if he walked Candy upstairs and fucked her senseless, he loved me.

“We were just bailing,” he said. “I can have one of my friends help you out though,” he said politely. Another dirty look from another rejected woman. She stormed off in a huff, and he turned to me. “Dude, let's go.”

I followed him out of the house, grabbing a couple of Jell-O shots for the walk back. “What's wrong? Weren't you having fun?” I didn't get it.

“I'm fucked now. It's out,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think those girls were asking me to fuck them?” He looked at me like I was an idiot.

“Because you're the hottest guy at the party, and you make all those bitches cream their panties.”

“Yeah right,” he said, chuckling. “You're biased.”

“Maybe, but you're still smokin' hot. So what's out?”

“Who I am,” he said. “Wade Danfield, son of the esteemed Senator Danfield.” He modified his voice to make it sound like a male version of Mummy and it was funny as fuck. “Scion of one of Virginia's oldest and most powerful families. A Mayflower Society member, a Son of the American Revolution and a Son of the Confederacy.” We were both laughing now.

“No shit? That's what this was all about?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I kind of expected it; it was just so nice last quarter when no one really knew. My days of just having fun at parties are pretty much over.”

“That blows. I guess we'll have to just stay home and fuck,” I teased.

“OK,” he said. I just looked at him, stunned. Wade, the social beast, willing to just hang out at the room with me?

We got back to Lag and headed to our room. “Dude, first things first,” I said. He laughed and we went to the bathroom to pee, then we went to our room. I tore off my clothes and threw them on the floor like I usually did, while he took his off neatly and folded them up like he usually did.

“Let's fuck in your bed and sleep in mine,” he teased. “You need to do laundry anyway.” I wrapped my arms around him, my hard dick pressed against his while my lips moved in to meet him. Kissing him was magical, sending shockwaves through my whole body. I pushed him back to my bed and helped lower us both down. Then I got on top of him, grinding away at him. He wrapped his arms and legs around me, pulling me in like a boa constrictor. It was so awesome, but I was horny, really really horny, and I wanted more than frotting.

I reached up and grabbed the lube. He made to lift his legs but I put the lube on his dick. I straddled him and lowered myself down onto him, welcoming him into my body without a single bit of pain, so badly did I want him. Then I pinned his arms back and started to fuck him, maintaining my position on top, maintaining my dominance. In the old days he'd have just laid there, going into his trance, but not now. Now he thrust back up into me, moaning and groaning and putting his whole body, his whole spirit into it. It was fucking amazing, especially when he came and his whole body just spasmed over and over again. I sat up, feeling his still-hard cock swishing around in me, lubed up by his massive load. I started stroking my dick and he just watched me, amazed, as I blasted my own load all over his chest and abdomen.

We toweled off and then I collapsed onto the bed next to him. He rolled over onto me in my favorite position of all and I just held him, so happy and so in love it was scary. It seemed like in the past when I'd gotten close to someone, there was always something to fuck things up. What could fuck this up? What would come along and ruin this beautiful thing we had? The thought of that was really devastating, and I felt my whole body shudder.

“What's wrong?” Wade asked. He leaned up so he could look at me.

“I was just thinking about how happy I am with you, and then I was wondering what was going to come along and try to fuck it up,” I said.

“You are such a stupid fuck,” he said. “Nothing is going to ruin us. The only thing that can do that is, well, us.”

“Right,” I said dubiously.

“Well, I'm not planning to do anything to ruin it, are you?”

“No,” I said, grinning.

“And if you get pissed off about something, instead of freaking out, promise me we'll talk about it,” he said.

“Alright,” I said.

“No. Dude, this is serious. I'm so into you, I can't handle the hit if you just blow me off. You have to promise that we'll at least try to work things out.” This was important to him, like a sacred oath.

“I promise,” I said sincerely. I got all pensive.

“What?” he asked.

“I think that this time things are really different,” I said.

“Duh,” he told me. “Alright, why?”

“Because this time you love me as much as I love you.”

“Fuckin' A,” he said.