Gap Year - 67. Chapter 67

March 8, 2004

Palo Alto, CA

 

Will

We were riding in the huge Cadillac Escalade limo that Stef preferred. No one else used it unless we had to convey a bunch of people. I was sitting in the back facing forward with Casey across from me, Stef was next to me with my father across from him, and finally Grand was on the other side of Stef with Jake across from him. “I’m amazed that you got him sprung,” Dad said to Casey jovially.

“That was not easy,” Casey said, shaking his head. “Will explained to me that it was important that he talk to you immediately, and I managed to convey that to the administrators.”

“Only the downside is that Casey has to stick around and keep an eye on me,” I said, leering at Casey, who rolled his eyes. “How long do you get to stay?”

“I’m going to stay until I’m sure you’re alright,” he said.

“You may be with us for a while then,” Stef joked, making us all chuckle.

I ignored them and focused on Casey as I leaned forward and took his hands into mine. “I really appreciate you doing this.”

He smiled then focused on the rest of the crew. “I think Will is going to be just fine, but any meetings you have with him should be calm.”

“Inasmuch as that is possible, we will try to keep things at a tranquil level,” Grand said, then leaned forward to smirk at me. I just smiled and shook my head. He was so funny.

“Who all is still at Escorial?” I asked.

“My understanding was that everyone but Jack had stuck around,” Grand said.

“I need to call him and tell him this wasn’t his fault,” I said urgently, until a look from Casey told me to calm down as instructed.

“What happened to you?” my father asked.

“I think Will had a psychogenic blackout,” Casey said, and then described what that was to everyone. I was so glad he was here to jump in and explain things.

“What caused this blackout?” Stef asked gently, and emphasized his concern for me by holding my hand.

“When we were taking off from New York, we saw Curtis Buck’s plane burst into flames on the ground,” I said. “Travis was supposed to be on that plane, and Darius had opted to go with him.”

“Darius didn’t do that, did he?” Dad asked, totally panicked. His instinctive reaction to freak out was totally understandable, even though he had to know Darius was alright, otherwise I would have been losing it from the moment I got back.

“Neither of them did,” I said with relief. “Curtis called Travis before they boarded and was giving him a bunch of shit about being late to the airport. Travis basically told him to fuck off and decided to fly back with us.”

“That must have been very hard on Travis,” Stef said with concern.

“It was,” I agreed. “I spent the flight focusing on him and making him feel like at least someone loved him. Then at dinner, when Marie asked me which brother was almost killed, I realized that I hadn’t even begun to process that.” I focused on my father. “Your reaction just now was probably a small fraction of what hit me, because I’d been so focused on Travis, I had blocked out that Darius had a near-death experience.”

“Now this blackout makes sense to me,” Dad said ruefully. I noticed that the Escalade had paused as the gates to Escorial opened: we were home.

“Are you up to talking about this?” Jake asked me.

“I knew you would all need to know about the situation, but especially you,” I responded, focusing on Jake. “I have no idea if the pilots survived that fire or what caused it, but it’s pretty important that we find out if it was a legitimate technical issue or it was intentional.”

“Curtis Buck has a lot of pull, so I can see him trying to hide the truth should it be nefarious,” Stef said.

“Pretty much everything he does is nefarious,” my father said with a scowl. Our conversation was interrupted when the door to the Escalade opened, which was our cue to get out. They’d opened Grand’s door first, but I opted to open my own door and climb out.

We walked into the entry hall just as the clock began its chimes for midnight. “A late night,” I said.

“Sometimes it’s good to stay up,” Jake said, cracking me up.

“I need to hit the bathroom,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

“We will be in the television room,” Grand stated. I took that cue to go to the bathroom, then before I went to meet them, I stepped outside for a bit and called Jack.

“Will?” Jack asked and sounded completely surprised.

“I want you to know that you had nothing to do with my collapse at dinner,” I said firmly.

“I was a complete asshole and treated you like shit,” he said. He sounded really devastated, which made me sad.

“You were, but that’s not what caused it,” I said in a joking way. I explained to him what happened with Travis and Darius and the plane.

“I’m glad you’re all alright,” he said.

“So what’s with you?” I asked, since I had the chance to have a quick conversation with him. “You are not acting normally at all.”

“I’ve just got some real stresses in my life, and they’re weighing on me pretty heavily,” he said somberly.

“Can I help?” I instinctively asked.

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine,” he responded. “I’ll explain things to you eventually.”

“That’s cool,” I said, then ended the call. My bathroom and chat break had taken a bit, so by the time I walked into the television room, Casey had already told those who weren’t at the hospital what had happened to me. I scanned the room briefly, taking inventory of who was there and trying to pick a seat. In addition to Casey, Marie and John were there, along with Claire, Grand, Stef, Grandmaman, Frank, my father and Jake. Ryan was sitting next to Marie and stood up to leave. “Stay,” I said to him, almost as a command. He smiled slightly, then sat back down. I took a seat on the couch next to Marie, with Casey on my other side in a chair.

“I now understand why you were so upset,” Grandmaman said, referring to the near-death plane experience Travis and Darius had.

“What were you doing in New York with Travis Buck?” Ryan asked me. His tone, which was mostly curious about Travis, pivoted this whole conversation away from one that was maudlin to one that was more inquisitive.

“I reconnected with him when I went to Big’s party,” I told him.

“I heard about that,” Ryan said. “Heard you faced Craddock and were nice to Crawford.”

“Yeah, so of the douches I knew in middle school, one of them has redeemed himself,” I joked. “You talk to Crawford much?”

“Once in a while,” he said casually. “I haven’t talked to T since I moved up here.”

“When I got down to LA, I spent some time with Zach,” I said. “He told me he was happy, that he had a girlfriend and a dude on the side.”

“Did his girlfriend know about the dude?” John asked.

“No,” I answered. “At the party, I reconnected with Travis, and there was this surreal connection between us. It was like we hadn’t talked since we were thirteen, but we clicked almost like we’d never had four years of separation. At the party, I was flirting hard with him until I realized I was pissing Zach off, so I bailed to go to the bathroom.”

“Alone?” Marie asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Sadly,” I said, pretending to be unhappy about that. “Curtis Buck had guards outside his office that also blocked the way back to the wing where Travis and I used to hang out. When he left to go get someone for Curtis to meet with, I snuck past and used the half bath.”

“Why did you do that?” my father asked.

“Because I was fucked up,” I said. “Anyway, I flushed the toilet, they heard me, so I scampered down the hall and hid in the closet. The closet was next to Curtis Buck’s office. I’d snagged that little tape recorder you have in your office.” That last line was directed at my father.

“I could never figure out how to work the damn thing,” he grumbled.

“I did,” I answered, then looked at Stef. “Do you have the CD?”

“I expected you would want to play it, so I have it loaded,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said with a smile. I went up to the CD player. “I managed to tape some of his conversations.”

“That’s an invasion of privacy,” Jake said. I looked at him with a steely gaze. “Never mind,” he said, making me chuckle.

I played the first part, the one with Zach confronting Curtis Buck. When that was done, I paused it. “He’s taking quite a risk,” my father said.

“I’m proud of him for standing up for himself,” Frank said, intervening on Zach’s behalf.

“That’s all fine and good, but he’s still playing with fire here,” Dad argued. “I wonder why Curtis Buck hasn’t unleashed his demons on Zach?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “So one of the biggest douches in Malibu is Keith Craddock. Here’s his conversation with Curtis.” I played that for them and watched them all stare at it in shock.

“He hired one of Travis’s friends to spy on his own son?” Aunt Claire asked. It was odd that was the first thing she’d said since I’d gotten back from the hospital.

“He did,” I confirmed. “The next one is tough to handle.”

“I have to agree with him,” Stef said. “If you do not wish to deal with it, I recommend that you excuse yourself.”

No one did, so I hit play, and even as they listened to Curtis Buck rape Sierra Gardner, I tried to shut it out because I didn’t want to listen to that again. When it was over, the collective group was shocked.

“Dude, I know her,” Ryan said, with fury in his eyes. “She’s a nice girl.”

“Even if she wasn’t, she did not deserve that,” Grand observed. John bolted out of the room, while Marie just cried silently. It must be hardest on her, since she was a chick not too much older than Sierra so she could visualize how hard this was on her.

“I should have left the room,” she said as she wiped her eyes. Ryan put his arm around her in a supportive way, which was really cute. John came back and looked like shit. He’d probably puked just like I had when I first heard it.

“After that, I decided to escape from the closet,” I said.

“Dude, you got out of the closet a long time ago,” John joked, trying to help me get beyond that.

“No shit,” I agreed. “Anyway, I went to sneak back to the party, but the guard was there, so I dashed up the stairs and went to the room Travis and I had crashed in when I was a kid. Turns out he picked that as his room when he moved into the Buck Mansion.”

“Did anyone see you?” my father asked. I ignored his question.

“I was going to jump out of the window in his bathroom when I heard voices outside his door, so I hid in another closet,” I said. John and Ryan chuckled at that.

“Was it the guard looking for you?” Marie asked.

“No,” I said. “It was Travis and Zach. They came in, ripped off their clothes, then Travis fucked Zach.”

“Travis is gay?” Ryan asked, surprised.

“He is,” I said. “I know I can trust all of you, but you cannot say anything about that to anyone.” I got annoyed looks from them since they knew better than to do that.

“So did you make it a threesome?” Jake asked.

“No,” I said. “I was a little upset, because I still had pretty strong feelings for Zach, so seeing them together was a little tough.”

“Because you still had feelings for Zach, or because you were crushing on Travis?” Casey asked.

“At that point, I was jealous because of Zach,” I said. “Anyway, after they finished, they got into an argument, and Zach ended up pinning Travis down. I hate bullying, and I was so tempted to get up and intervene, but I decided to stay put. Zach left; Travis cried for a little bit, then decided he needed a clean shirt. When he went to get it, he found me in the closet.”

“I’m betting he wasn’t all that happy about you being there,” Jake said.

“He wasn’t,” I said. “Travis is totally alone. He doesn’t have any real friends, and his family pretty much ignores him. In order to survive in that world, he fiercely protects his privacy.”

“And you violated that at a very deep level,” Casey said.

“I did,” I agreed. “I apologized, then asked him why he hadn’t told me he was gay.”

“He actually talked to you after that?” John asked, totally shocked.

“As he was throwing me out of his room,” I said. “He told me he couldn’t be with me because he can’t be out. There’s a morals clause in his trusts. If his father finds out he’s gay, it could cause him all kinds of problems.”

“Why would Curtis Buck care if he were gay?” my father asked, stunned.

“Apparently Curtis has no problem with gay people, as long as they aren’t family members,” Stef said bitterly.

“He thinks being gay is a genetic deal, and he doesn’t want a gay son out there demonstrating that their genes are spoiled by vices like that,” I said in the same tone.

“That is fucked up,” Ryan said, then got embarrassed because he dropped an f-bomb.

“No shit,” I agreed. “Anyway, right before I jumped out the window, Travis invited me to go surfing with him the next morning.”

“That’s not what I was expecting,” Marie said.

“Me either,” I said. “After that, I left with Zach and we went back to Malibu. I basically laid things out for him just like I did for you.”

“Was he pissed?” John asked.

“He seemed okay with things,” I said, remembering how we’d fucked like crazy. It was telling that the memory of our sexual extravaganza didn’t excite me at all. “The next day, I met Travis outside our house and Keith Craddock showed up uninvited.”

“Seriously?” Marie asked, then laughed.

“I dragged Travis into our house and left Craddock out there to watch the waves, then I played the tapes for T,” I said.

“How did he handle that?” Casey asked.

“Not well,” I said. “He was almost desperate to get out of there, so I borrowed Jeff’s car and we went down to Newport.”

“To the Wedge?” Dad asked.

I nodded. “The waves were huge. We had a total blast.” We smiled at each other, thinking of good surfing moments, then I went on. “When I first got down to LA, I told Zach it bothered me that we never talked anymore. We agreed to talk to each other every Sunday night at 10pm. I called him on the way back to the hotel and he blew me off that night, which was Sunday. He told me he had to study.”

“Maybe he did,” Frank said. I gave him an evil look, then continued.

“We got back to the hotel and that was the first time I slept with Travis,” I said. I knew I had that glow of new love, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. “Around 9:30, he told me he had to go meet someone. I managed to get him to admit he was going to meet Zach.”

“Some study group,” John said, shaking his head in disgust.

“I went over to see Stef and forgot to bring that CD. When I went back to my room, I found Travis sitting by the door waiting for me.”

“He didn’t go see Zach?” Casey asked.

“No,” I said. “I was pretty upset that he was blowing me off to do that, and he decided staying with me was more important.”

“Aww,” John said sarcastically, giving me shit.

“I took Travis back to Malibu to get his truck, then went to see Stef,” I told them. “I was really freaked out, because I still loved Zach, but I was totally falling for Travis, and we were in this weird love triangle.” I focused on Stef. “You were awesome, helping me see all of my options.”

“And what did he recommend?” Grandmaman asked.

“A threesome,” I said. It took them all a few seconds to process that, then everyone but Frank started laughing.

“I thought it was an ideal solution,” Stef said defensively.

“It might have been,” I said. “I went back to my room and found Zach in my bed, sound asleep. I thought he was naked, but after I stripped down and climbed in with him, I noticed he still had his pants on. That’s when I knew something was wrong.”

“Is that when he hurt you?” Marie asked me gently.

I nodded. “He went off on me for coming down to LA and stealing away his fuck buddy. He said he had things all set up perfectly, with both Taylor and Travis to satisfy his needs.”

“Wait a minute,” Ryan said. “Travis is Taylor’s brother, and he was fucking her boyfriend?”

“Yep,” I said, shaking my head. “I was pretty pissed, so I got dressed and went outside to cool off. When I came back in, Zach was just finishing up getting ready. He told me he was out of there, but I was between him and the door. I told him we needed to work things out before he left. He glared at me, and the look in his eyes was something I’d never seen before. It was sheer rage. He grabbed me and threw me across the room. I hit my head on a shelf, which is how I got that bruise,” I said, gesturing at my forehead. “The force of that pivoted me against a dresser, which is how I got the bruise on my side. After that I slammed into the wall and slid down to the ground.”

“Shit,” Ryan said. “He must have thrown you really hard.”

I nodded. “I looked up at him and he just sneered at me, as if he was glad of his handiwork and proud of himself for being the alpha male. I was so pissed off, I didn’t even feel the pain from hitting the shelf, the dresser, and the wall.”

“I’ll bet,” Marie said, imagining how enraged I must have been.

“I’d grabbed a can of Pepsi, and somehow that was still in my hand. I stood up and threw it at him. It hit him in the eye,” I said.

“That really messed up his eye,” Frank said. “They’re worried it could permanently damage his vision and could hurt his football career.”

“He got what he deserved,” I said to Frank, who seemed to realize that no one in the room had any sympathy for Zach. “I spent the next few days hanging out with Travis, and it was awesome. He got in a fight with Keith Craddock and ended up getting suspended, so I invited him to go to New York with me.”

“Why’d he fight with Craddock?” Ryan asked.

“Because Craddock was teasing Sierra and being totally rude to her in front of a bunch of their friends,” I said.

“Dude has always been a douche,” Ryan said, shaking his head.

“Zach had been calling me and texting me constantly, so on the morning we were supposed to fly out, I met him for breakfast at a diner,” I said. “I wasn’t very polite, and he was a total dick. He told me that no matter what I thought, if he wanted Travis to be with him, Travis would dump me like a rock.”

“Why would Travis do that?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Zach must have some kind of hold over him. As soon as I was done eating and hopped into the limo, Travis called me and told me that Zach had called him and he couldn’t go to New York with me.” I had to wipe a tear away because that still hurt like hell.

“That’s really strange,” my father said.

“I heard that you threatened to mess up his life when you were at breakfast,” Frank said. “Is that why you torched his truck?”

“I did tell him that,” I said. “I’m still working on ways to make that happen.”

“Did you torch his truck or not?” Frank demanded. I ignored him.

“I was pretty fucked up when I got on the plane, but Darius helped me get over it,” I said. “Of course, then I had to hang out with JJ, and that was a whole new nightmare.”

“Did you apologize to him and Susannah for being rude to them in New York?” Aunt Claire asked. Of course, she’d know about that, since JJ usually called to whine to her.

“I did,” I said. “On Saturday, I went up with him to see Carullo’s new house. It’s really cool. JJ did a great job.”

“He sent me some pictures, and I have to agree with you,” Stef said.

“When we got back to Manhattan, JJ told me that he and Bellona had a competition for the thing at MOMA that night. He picked out my wardrobe, and she picked clothes for Darius, and the competition was to see who could make Darius or me look hotter. He hired a makeup artist and a stylist to come over, but I told him I wasn’t doing that.”

“I’m surprised you were so uncooperative,” Grandmaman observed, since she was usually in JJ’s corner too.

“I explained to him that the whole thing was a stupid idea, and he was playing with fire,” I said.

“Why is that?” Stef asked.

“Because if he managed to win, Bellona would be pretty annoyed with him, especially since she was dressing up her boy toy,” I said.

“I can see that,” Marie said.

“Anyway, he and Zanie saw reason, and went to try to make my outfit lamer. I was hanging out in the great room, avoiding them, when Travis showed up,” I said. I couldn’t help but smile.

“He flew out to see you?” Marie asked.

“He did,” I said.

“Who won the best-dressed competition?” Aunt Claire asked. It was hilarious that she would focus on that instead of Travis flying out there, and even more funny to see Stef paying rapt attention as he waited for my answer.

“Patrick Christian,” I said.

“How did that happen?” Marie asked, since that came out of nowhere.

“Travis and I put on the clothes JJ and his mother had picked out, and they were lame, so I called Patrick and we went over to his condo so he could fix them.”

“What did he do?” Stef asked. I spent a few minutes describing that whole experience. When I was done with that, Stef gave me an evil smile. “I received an interesting video.”

“Terrific,” I said. He got up and hit ‘play’, and it was a video of us on the disks in MOMA. I was impressed that it started even before I got up there. Everyone laughed hysterically at that, and I had to admit we looked pretty good.

“Pretty slick,” John said.

“After that, we bailed and went to that diner near Times Square where they sing,” I explained. I paused to go grab the tape I’d bought from that dude in the diner out of the backpack. They must have been talking about me because they shut up as soon as I walked into the room. I put the mini-tape into the adapter, rewound it, and hit play. I hadn’t even known if the tape of Travis singing was legit, but it ended up being a really good video.

“Holy shit,” John said. “He is really good.”

“No, he can’t join your band,” I said, making everyone chuckle. “So the next morning we woke up and went to the airport. Darius said he wanted to fly home with Travis, and told me I could have his proxy in dealing with this whole tracking deal.”

“And you put him on the committee as payback?” Marie asked.

“Maybe,” I said, making her laugh. “We got to Curtis Buck’s plane. Travis and Darius were walking over to board when Curtis Buck called Travis. They had a massive argument, one that resulted in Darius and Travis getting back in the limo and flying out with me. As we were taking off, we saw smoke on the ground. We stared out the window and saw that Curtis Buck’s plane was on fire.”

“Was Travis supposed to be burned up on that plane?” John asked, horrified.

“That’s the big mystery,” I said. I went on to explain how I’d supported Travis on the way back, and how when I finally thought about Darius being on that plane, it had blown through all of my shields and that’s when I passed out.

“Looks like I have some work to do,” Jake said.

Grand glanced at the clock, and it was 1:00am. “I think it is a good idea for everyone to get some sleep. It will also give us an opportunity to think about this situation.”

“I think that is an excellent idea,” Claire said.

“Do you need us to call one of the drivers to take you home?” Grand asked.

“If it is alright with you, I think I will just stay here,” she said.

“That is fine,” Grand said, but Marie and John were looking at her suspiciously.

“Why are you staying here?” Marie demanded.

“I don’t want to drive home this late,” Claire said. Even I could tell she was full of shit.

“Right,” John said, calling her on it. Their conversation had become more interesting as it had gotten more controversial. Claire looked around in frustration as she suddenly realized that we were all staring at her.

“So what’s the deal?” Marie demanded. She was probably still pissed off about the whole argument about phone tracking, and she was also probably tired, which made her bitchier than usual.

Claire swallowed hard. “Your father and I have decided to get a divorce.”

“What?” John exclaimed, totally stunned. I scanned the crowd and noticed that Grand, Stef, Grandmaman, my father, Jake, and Frank were relatively unruffled, while the rest of us were stunned.

“I hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” my father said to Claire. “I am so sorry.”

“What happened?” Marie asked.

“You both can skip school tomorrow,” Claire decreed. “I’m exhausted. I’ll explain things in the morning.” John and Marie were annoyed that they’d have to wait until morning, but in the end, politeness won them over, because Claire seemed so flustered that no one wanted to push her any further.