The Freshmen - 11. Chapter 11

August 15, 2004

Marousi, Greece

Will

I was heading back to the apartment smiling because I was enjoying the beautiful weather, and because I was still on a post-orgasm high from my encounter with Paul the gymnast. I was walking through a park when I felt something smash into my head. “You fuckhead! Now that you’re not at the pool, let’s see how fucking tough you are,” I heard Gillis say. I staggered forward, and started running, even as I grabbed my phone, found the SWAT key, and pushed it down. I stumbled and fell on the ground, rolling in a grassy area, but did not let go of that key until I felt it vibrate, which meant the signal had gone through. I felt Gillis land on top of me.

“Get the fuck off of me!” I yelled. “Get the fuck off of me!” I was screaming as loud as I could to try and attract attention, which freaked him out, so he put his hand over my mouth. I moved my head back quickly then bit down hard on his hand, catching the fleshy part between the thumb and the index finger.

“Oww!” he shouted, and tried to pull his hand away, only I’d sunk my incisor into his skin pretty deeply. He shook my head back and forth until he finally forced me to let go. “Fuck!” I smiled at his bleeding hand until he punched me. That was going to give me a major black eye.

He was freaking out about his hand, so I took advantage of his distraction, braced myself, then pushed up hard, knocking him off of me. He started to lunge at me, but I started running. I swerved around some bushes to avoid him, but he plowed straight through them. I’d gone about 20 feet before he caught me again, knocking me back onto the ground. “Help!” I shouted. “Help!”

“You are gonna fucking pay for this, bitch,” he snarled. I felt his hand on my head, slamming my face into the grass, and then he stopped. Suddenly he was being lifted off me, and when I turned around to look up, I saw three guys there. Two were holding Gillis back, while another stooped down a bit to talk to me.

“You are Will Schluter?” he asked me in French, helping me up.

“That’s me,” I said, replying in that language. “You guys are fast.”

“What the fuck? Who the fuck are these guys?” Gillis asked. Evidently, he didn’t speak French. “Let me go!”

The SWAT key transmission was automatically routed to a dispatching company, whether it was here or in the US. The set-up in Greece was the same as it had been in Australia, where the SWAT signal was sent by the dispatching company to a private security force. In the US, the alert went to the police. I pulled out my wallet, grabbed a wad of Euros, and handed it to the guy. “Hurt him,” I said.

The guy got an evil smile and pocketed the money then said something in Greek to the two guys holding Gillis. Those two grinned back and dragged Gillis off. Gillis looked back at me, kind of in a daze. “I can escort you back,” the guy I’d been talking to said.

“Thank you,” I said. “I am amazed at how fast you were. I would have taken a pounding otherwise.”

“I would pretend we are that good at our jobs, but during the Games we stay near the stadiums, because the people we watch out for are most likely going to be here,” he said, and smiled at me.

“Clever,” I observed.

“That man was stupid,” he said, shaking his head. “To attack someone in broad daylight is idiotic, although he did pick a good place.”

“Yeah, the whole fucking city is crowded except that park,” I said grumpily. When we got to the apartment, I gave him some extra cash to thank him, then used my keycard to activate the penthouse elevator. I decided that my treat to myself for enduring this bullshit was to grab a joint and hit the hot tub.

I went into the kitchen and managed to find a bag and put some ice in it, then, holding that over my eye, I sort of staggered into my bedroom, and from there into my bathroom. I looked in the mirror and studied my eye, which had already started to swell up. I was so pissed off, because now I’d look like either a pussy or a thug in all my pictures. “Fuck!” I yelled at the mirror. I sighed, stripped off my clothes, put on a robe and grabbed a towel. My final step was to fish my weed out of my pants, which I easily accomplished, then I walked back into the bedroom.

“Took you long enough to fucking get here,” I heard Travis say. He was lounging on my bed, grinning at me. I blinked, processing this amazing turn of events, and then all of my previous problems vanished.

“You’re here!” I said, then lunged at him, landing on top of him with a thud.

“Ow,” he whined, but smiled at me.

“This is the best surprise ever,” I said. “I am so happy, it’s like I’m going to explode!”

My robe was open, so he ran his hands up the sides of my body, then back down again. “I’d be happy to make you explode.”

“I want that so bad,” I said, like I was desperate, which I was. I all but tore his clothes off, and then he was in me, and I was in heaven. I made him take his time, because he liked that and because I was in the mood to really bond with him, and when we finally came, it truly was an explosion.

“That was worth a flight,” he said playfully, then noticed my face. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“Some dude ambushed me,” I said, shaking my head in annoyance. “Grab a robe and let’s go hot tubbing.”

“You’re just going to blow this off?” he asked, annoyed at me.

“No, I just figured it would be so much more pleasant to tell you all about my bullshit while sitting in the hot tub, drinking a beer, and smoking a joint,” I said.

He smiled, then laughed. “I see your point.” I added the beers to my repertoire while he grabbed a robe, then we strolled out onto the patio and I turned on the hot tub. “This is fucking amazing,” he said, looking at the view.

“Best place to hang in Marousi,” I joked, then lowered myself into the water. It felt so good, especially after an amazing round of sex.

“This was a good idea,” he said. I popped open a beer and handed it to him. “Wow. Good service at this place.”

“I am here to take care of all of your needs,’ I said, and slid over so I was next to him. “Tell me why you’re here.”

“You don’t want me to be here?” he asked.

“I wanted you to be here more than anything; I’m just wondering how you managed to free up your schedule,” I said.

“My schedule is pretty much wide open at this point,” he said a bit sadly. “Cody told me it will take a couple of weeks to line up some more auditions.”

“I’m sure it’s not because people don’t like you,” I said, referring to whoever made casting decisions.

“Yeah, that’s what Cody said, but it still feels kind of like they’re unimpressed,” he said.

“You thought you’d audition for a commercial, and the next thing there would be directors begging you to be in their movies?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Fuck you,” he said, then shook his head. “Why is that so hard to imagine?”

“I don’t think Cody would bullshit you,” I said. “If you want, I can try to find out if he’s being straight with you.”

“Cody? Straight?” he joked.

“Whatever,” I said. “So you decided that, since your schedule was open, you’d come see me, because you missed me.” I gave him a nice kiss after I said that.

“Yeah, let’s go with that,” he said sarcastically. “So tell me about your fight.”

“There was some dude at the aquatic center who was treating me like shit, mostly because I’m gay,” I explained. I told him all about my confrontations with Parker Gillis, making him laugh his ass off.

“Dude, do you really think he’s a big closet case?” Travis asked.

“Actually, I do,” I said. “Just the vibe I got.” I told him about my conversation with Patonki, and how Gillis had ambushed me when I was on my way back here.

“Are you alright?” he asked me, his voice full of concern even as he ran his hand lovingly across my cheek.

“I’m alright,” I said. “I’m pissed that I’ll have a black eye, but it is what it is.”

“Dude, you’ve been getting your ass kicked a lot this year,” he said, teasing me by referring to my altercation with Zach in March. “We need to work on your skills.”

I laughed at that. “No shit.”

“So what happened to that asshole?” he asked.

“He hit me in the back of the head with something, and yelled at me, so I immediately hit the SWAT key on my phone,” I said. He ran his hand gently through my hair, feeling the back of my head.

“Got a bump back here,” he said, and looked at me with concern, because he assumed it would be painful, but my adrenaline levels were peaking because I was so happy he was here, and I was feeling no pain.

I told him about our lame-ass fight. “He finally had me pinned, and was jamming my face into the dirt, when all of a sudden he wasn’t.”

“He decided to leave you alone?” he asked, surprised.

“No, the security dudes showed up and dragged him off of me,” I said.

“I hope they kicked his fucking ass,” he said with real venom, reminding me of the dude who could be a big prick if he needed to.

“I gave the guards a bunch of cash and told them to hurt him, so we’ll see how that turns out,” I said. He laughed.

“Maybe they’ll smash his balls and that will make him less horny,” he said.

“Maybe,” I said. We floated for a bit, and he seemed a little uncomfortable. “What’s bugging you?”

“I fucked Jeff,” he said. He was probably expecting me to lose it, but that didn’t really bother me at all. Jeff was a close friend, but there was no great romantic attachment there.

“Dude, no wonder you were so amazing,” I said, referring to our fuck.

“I wasn’t good before that?” he asked.

“You have always been good, even when we were blowing each other in middle school,” I said, and kissed him.

“How do you know Jeff is good in bed?” he asked, referring back to my comment.

“Jeff is the dude who taught me how to be a good lover,” I said. I gave him some examples of how Jeff had done that.

“Wow. Didn’t know I fucked the master,” he said, making me chuckle. Then the mood got more serious, and I realized that it was my time to share.

““I’ve messed around with two guys since I’ve been here,” I said, hiding how nervous I was.

“Who?” he asked, remembering not to act pissed off. “I’m betting you took the Thorpedo.” I laughed at that.

“I made out with him, and we blew each other,” I said. “And guess what I found out?”

“What?” he asked.

“The Thorpedo is pretty fucking big,” I said, making him laugh. We stopped laughing, and my mood seemed to swing to the other end of the spectrum and I got somber. “I feel sorry for him, because he’s so gay but he’s totally forced to be in the closet. It’s like he wants to let himself go, but he can’t.”

“That would suck,” he said.

“I was making out with him, and I could feel his restraints slowly breaking,” I said. “That was last night. I texted him today and he pretty much blew me off, so I’m worried I freaked him out.”

“Maybe he’ll hook up with you later,” he said sadly.

“Travis, that is not how this works,” I said. “You are here now, and you are all that I want. The only way I’d be with another dude is if you were with me.”

“There’s a thought.” He seemed both nervous and excited about a potential threesome, then seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. He smiled and kissed me. “I got it.”

“If you did that to me, just took off to fuck someone while we were hanging out, I would be majorly pissed at you,” I said, in a severe enough way he knew that was a pretty big warning. “And if I did that, you should fucking kick my ass.”

“Yeah, that would be pretty raw,” he said. “Who was the other dude?”

“A French gymnast,” I said, and raised an eyebrow. “He was really short, really cute, amazingly nimble, and had a totally fuckable ass.”

He started laughing. “Oh yeah?” I told him all about my encounter with Paul. “I kind of get where you’re coming from.”

“I’m glad,” I said.

“I also totally understand the confidentiality deal,” he said.

I nodded. “I don’t think Paul is as worried about being outed as Ian, but regardless I don’t want to be the one who does that to them. I knew you wouldn’t say anything, but I just wanted to hear you say it, and let you know that was my deal too.”

“I’m on board, so it’s no problem,” he said.

“Were you worried that I’d be upset about Jeff?” I asked. “Is that why you came to Athens?”

“No,” he snapped, which told me that he was. “It’s a little of that, and also it kind of freaked me out.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it was the first time I did that, and I don’t know, I just needed to be here with you to tell you about it, just to make sure things were cool,” he said.

“I’m glad you did,” I said. “How long can you stay?”

“Unless I get a call that says I have something important to audition for, I’ll stick with you until the 29^th,” he said.

“That is the bomb,” I said, and gave him a massive hug. We were in the middle of that embrace when the door opened, ushering Dad and Jake onto the patio.

“I didn’t know you were here!” Jake said to Travis. He knelt down to hug him and Travis stood up in the hot tub enough to hug him back, only when he did that, his dick was out of the water, and right in front of me. When I decided he’d hugged Jake long enough, I reached up and started playing with his cock, which freaked him out enough that he pushed Jake away and splashed back into the hot tub. I was laughing my ass off, Jake was chuckling, Travis was embarrassed as fuck, while my father stood there, his arms crossed, an expression of total annoyance on his face.

“What?” I demanded. With him it was always better to take the offensive.

“The security company called us and told us you were mugged,” he said. “Then we got a call from them telling us that the guy who did it is in the hospital.”

“What happened to him?” I asked casually.

“Couple of broken bones,” Jake said.

“Cool,” I said, like it didn’t matter to me at all, which it didn’t.

“What happened to you?” my father demanded.

“I’m not talking to you about this unless you get in the hot tub,” I said. Travis snickered at that, and even Jake was trying not to smile.

“Just tell me, goddammit,” he said loudly.

“No,” I said in a very calm and aloof way, then turned my back on him. “Tomorrow is the big swim event,” I said to Travis.

“Fuck,” I heard my father say, then he stomped back into the condo.

“See you in a few minutes,” Jake said, chuckling as he followed Dad back to their room. Travis started laughing hysterically when they were gone, and I joined him.

“OK, tell me about this big swim event,” he said, finally getting back on topic. “I’m guessing it involves the Thorpedo?”

“It does,” I said. “It’s the men’s 200-meter freestyle. Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, and some Dutch dude are like the three best freestyle swimmers, so it’s like a battle of the champions.”

“Aren’t all the finals like that?” Travis asked.

“Probably, but in this case, you have really big names, so that makes it more exciting,” I said. He gave me a skeptical look. “Dude, that is how it works. Don’t blame me if I fall into the marketing traps laid by the Olympic Committee.” Travis chuckled at me.

Our conversation was interrupted by a splash as Jake jumped in the hot tub, making us all laugh. We splashed him back. I looked up at my father standing at the edge, looking down at us. I started heaving water at him, and Travis followed my lead until he finally jumped in too. Then Dad started a water fight with us, and that was not good, because he was the only one who could kick my ass in a water fight. It was like he could turn his hands into a hose. “Enough!” Jake finally said, because he sucked at it.

“So now will you tell me what happened?” my father asked much more pleasantly.

“Sure,” I said. I told them my story, just as I had for Travis, probably boring him to death with the repetition. I knew that for someone with ADHD, that was probably torturous. Halfway through the story he got up to go to the bathroom, giving me an apologetic look as he did.

“The Olympic Committee is responsible for this,” Jake said, with fire in his eyes. “We should sue those bastards until they squeal.”

“Squeal?” I asked, then started laughing at him, joined by my father.

“Whatever,” Jake said. An idea sparked in my head.

“Here’s what I want,” I said. “This whole thing is forgotten if they give Travis and Marie employee passes like the one I have.”

“What about JP?” Dad asked.

“He’s happier in the stands with all the other rich people,” I joked, making my father chuckle.

“I’ll see if I can pull that off,” Jake said.

“Tell them they have until tomorrow morning to make a decision,” I said.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jake said. He got out of the tub with both me and my father ogling him.

“Damn, you picked a really hot partner,” I said to my father.

“I did,” he said, chuckling. “I think we’re going to leave on the 18^th and stop in New York to see JJ.” I started laughing; I could not stop myself. “What?” he demanded rudely.

I paused to light up a joint, then handed it to him. Travis chose that moment to walk back out and get in the hot tub, and we both stared at his fine form just like we’d done for Jake. “Hey stud,” I said, leering at him.

“You picked a hot boyfriend too,” my father said. I laughed, then choked on the weed, while Travis gave us an annoyed look until I handed him the joint.

“Most definitely,” I agreed.

“So you going to tell me why you were laughing?” Dad asked, getting us back to our conversation before I was distracted by Jake’s amazing body.

“JJ is going to lose his mind when you call him to tell him you’re going out there,” I said.

“Why?” Dad asked.

“Because he’s got this new romance going with Kris, and it’s kind of shaky because they’re still getting to know each other,” I said. “Then all of a sudden you, Jake, and Stef drop into their lives. That’s like taking someone home to meet your parents after two dates.”

“That’s about how long they’ve been dating,” he grumbled.

“Don’t you even think about creating problems with JJ and Kris,” I said, only the thought of him doing that had totally pissed me off, no mean feat since I was pretty high, and my tone was pretty aggressive.

“I’m not going to do that,” Dad snapped back at me. I realized there was no use arguing with him about it; I’d just have to take his word for it.

“Cool,” I said. Dad got out of the hot tub and went back inside, leaving me and Travis alone. “I need to call JJ,” I told him.

“If you say so,” he said.

I moved over to him and gave him a really nice kiss. “Let’s go rinse off.” He was out of the water as soon as our kiss ended.

August 15, 2004

Tribeca

New York, NY

JJ

“What?” I asked rudely, as I answered the phone. It was 9:00am, and I had just finished eating breakfast with Kris, gone back to bed, fallen asleep, and now Will was waking me up. He knew the deal. He knew how much I hated being bothered in the morning, so since he’d violated that rule, I was prepared to unload a whole bunch of suffering on him.

“Travis and I are about to go out, but I wanted to talk to you first,” I said.

“Travis is with you? Where are you?” I sat up and looked around, worried that he’d come breezing into my room.

“He flew over to Athens because he missed me,” Will said, sounding totally lovestruck.

“Lovely,” I said sarcastically.

“It was,” he said. “At least I’ve known him for more than a week.”

“Fuck you,” I snapped. “I don’t need you to call me, wake me up, then make me insecure about my relationship with Kris.”

“Fine,” he said. “I was just calling to warn you, but you’re being such a bitch, you can fuck off.” Then he ended the call.

I stared at the phone, so incredibly pissed off. He was taunting me, forcing me to be nice to him or he wouldn’t tell me why he was calling. Why the fuck should I care? I didn’t need to grovel to him to get information. What could he possibly be calling to warn me about? Then I thought about that and started to get paranoid. It could be anything. There may be some horrible story about my family that was about to land in the press. There might be some international scandal at the Olympics. He probably got busted with someone. Probably Ian Thorpe. He’d been crushing on that guy for a while. But why would he warn me about that? My brain was doing loops until I realized that if I wanted to regain some level of sanity, I had to call him back. I dialed his Greek number and waited for the line to click before I heard the ring tone. It went to voicemail, which annoyed the shit out of me, but I left him a message anyway. “I just woke up and I was crabby. Call me back.” I rationalized that that was an explanation, not an apology. I sat there, staring at the phone, but he didn’t call me back, which just frustrated me even more. I all but growled at my phone and called him back again.

“Hello,” he said coldly.

I rolled my eyes and cringed. “I left you a voice message.”

“I didn’t listen to it. What did it say?” he asked.

“I explained that I was cranky because you woke me up, and asked you to call me back,” I said. There was silence on his end. “What?”

“What did you forget to say,” he said, making me grimace.

“I’m sorry, alright?” I said, frustrated.

“Dad, Stef, and Jake are coming to New York on August 18^th to see you,” he said.

“They’re coming here?” I asked. “Here?” The last thing I wanted was them all traipsing in. They’d probably say something to offend Kris, or say something about me that would make him not like me anymore.

“They are coming there,” he said. “They’ll only take up two bedrooms.”

“That’s all the guest space I have left,” I said.

“I thought you had an extra room?” he asked.

“The room that used to be Carullo’s is Kris’s room,” I told him. “I’m taking out the bed and making the closet bigger, then setting the rest of it up so it’s an office for him.”

“Why are you doing that?” he asked.

“So he can work at home, and that way he doesn’t have to stay out so late,” I said.

“That is so thoughtful of you,” he said sarcastically, which just about set me free until I remembered that I’d had the same attitude when he’d told me Travis had flown over to be with him.

“It is,” I said, snickering to myself since I hadn’t fallen for his torture bait.

“What kind of office does he need?” Will asked.

“Why do you care?” I responded. “He needs a space to work.”

“That was not a hard question,” he said. “I’m going to tell Dad I heard a rumor that Kris is part of some dangerous secret society.”

“Don’t you dare!” I screamed. God, that would be hell. There would be fifteen private investigators on Kris’s trail in half an hour if he told my father that. My fury only grew when I heard him laughing. “Very fucking funny.” I did not need this bullshit when I was supposed to be enjoying my morning nap. He was going to throw my whole schedule off for the day.

“I tried to talk him into just going back to Palo Alto, but I think they’re all too curious to meet Kris,” he said, finally not being a dick.

“Terrific,” I said. “What if they come in here and mess things up. We’ve been doing so well, and I have never been happier in my entire life.”

“JJ, they would never be rude to Kris,” he said, trying to calm me down. It actually worked, because he was right. “The worst you’ll have to deal with are snarky looks when Kris isn’t paying attention.”

“I’ll have my verbal flame thrower ready in case they try anything,” I said, determined to keep them from screwing this up.

“I think a better idea is for you to chill out and enjoy it,” he said.

“How can I possibly enjoy that?” I asked. I saw no upside to their visit.

“Kris will be really impressed with Stef and Dad,” Will said. “He’s into business, investment banking even, and in that world, they’re both gods.”

“Maybe,” I said, not entirely convinced.

‘When you tell Kris, five bucks says he’s so fucking excited he fucks you an extra time tonight,” he said. He was so gross.

“Idiot,” I said, so annoyed with him.

“Did Kris embarrass you yet?” he asked.

“No, he didn’t embarrass me,” I snapped.

“Then why are you worried about this?” he asked. “I think he’ll make a really good impression.”

“If this is going to be such a fun, happy, and fucking joyous event, why did you call to warn me?” I demanded.

“So you could think about it and not be a total spaz when they call you,” he said. I glared at the phone for five seconds, then ended the call.