The Freshmen - 27. Chapter 27

September 14, 2004

In the Air

California

Will

“Breakfast is ready,” Celeste said in her calm, professional voice. She was the flight attendant for our trek to Boston today and was probably my least favorite of those who served that function on Stef’s planes. Her body was smoking hot, but her demeanor was very formal in a way that was polite but cold. There wasn’t a single part of her that emitted joy, not even the slightest bit.

“It’s freaking early,” I grumbled, as I got up and headed to the buffet she’d set up.

“We have a check-in time of 3:00,” Marie pointed out. The flight would take about five hours, the time change would tack on another three, then we’d figured an hour to land and load our stuff into the limo. “That’s why we had to be ‘wheels-up’ by 6:00am.”

“Wheels-up?” I challenged, since that was such a dorky term.

“I saw it in a movie,” she said in annoyance. “I’m kind of surprised there’s no one with us.”

“No one else wants to get up this early,” I groused. She gave me a dirty look for being a bitchy buzzkill. “I talked to Grand and Stef, and they thought it was a good idea for us to do this on our own.”

“That makes no sense at all, based on how freaked out they were when you went to Australia in January,” she said.

“I don’t know if I’m buying that story either, but I decided in the end to just think it was flattering and to go with it,” I said.

“Probably a good plan,” she agreed. I got a bunch of food then went back to the boardroom area of Stef’s plane. She did the same thing, although with a lot less food. “Are you alright?”

“I have cried so much I’m going to be dehydrated for a week,” I said sadly. “Saying goodbye to Travis this morning was absolute hell and knowing that he was probably hurting worse than me just made it that much harder.”

“Ouch,” she said. “Ryan and I shed some tears, but it wasn’t as wrenching as it was for you.”

“You’re not going to miss him?” I asked.

“Of course I’m going to miss him,” she snapped. “It’s kind of like it was for my mother.”

“I’m not following you,” I said, since I was seriously confused.

“Over the past few months, we’ve just gone in different directions,” she said. “He’s completely into the band.”

“No? Seriously?” I asked sarcastically, since that was all he and John talked about.

“No shit,” she agreed. “We’ve been doing our own things for so long, it wasn’t as painful when we actually separated.”

“Relationships take a lot of work,” I said philosophically.

“So how are you and Travis going to handle it?” she asked.

“I’ll probably get to see him every two or three weeks for this first term,” I said. “After Christmas, it gets tougher.”

“Will,” she said and made me make eye contact with her. “Let me know if you need someone to prop you up.”

I smiled broadly at that. “Thanks. Works for you too.”

I finished my breakfast and Celeste took the plate away from me. She did it so smoothly it was like she was an android. Maybe she was. I took out my laptop and logged onto the plane’s network. “We got an email from your mother,” I said. I tried to load it but the internet was slow.

“She and my father are both so fucking weird. I’m glad to be out of there,” Marie said, shaking her head.

“What’s their deal?” I asked, ignoring the email and focusing on her.

“My father said that he loves my mother, but if he forced himself to go back to the way things were, he’d be miserable,” she said sadly. “My mother said she realized that was how he felt and that meant being with him was not an option, so she’s decided to move on.”

“Does she seem alright?” I asked.

“She seems great, actually,” Marie said, with no small amount of surprise. “She said that she feels free, and for the first time, she has no relationship that will confine and restrict her.”

“Do you think she’s sincere?” I asked. “I mean, she said at dinner that having her marriage blow up was the most traumatic thing that’s happened to her.”

“I think she’s being real,” Marie said. “She told me that she’d been putting herself fully into trying to figure out what was wrong between them, trying to fix their relationship, and it was just so much work and was totally exhausting. She said that slowly realizing things were over was her mourning period.”

“I guess if she says that’s the deal, that’s the deal,” I replied.

“She’s flying down to St. Barts with Luke later this morning,” Marie said with a grin. “I think he’s helping her cope with breaking up with Dad.”

“You’re not pissed at me about that, are you?” I asked her.

“Why would I be mad at you about her dating Luke?” she demanded.

“Because it was pretty much my idea to set them up in the first place,” I said, the guilt oozing out of me like some nasty pus discharge.

“I’m glad you did,” she said. I blinked at her in surprise. “I want her to be happy, and he’s helping her out.”

“A little sexual healing,” I said crudely.

She gave me a dirty look, then rolled her eyes in annoyance. “My mother was Mrs. Jack Hobart, society wife and a fixture of the Palo Alto and San Francisco elite for almost twenty years.”

“You said she was?” I asked.

“Now she’s Claire Crampton Hobart, a stylish trendsetter. She’s her own woman. She belongs to no man,” Marie said confidently.

“You sound like you decided to get a concentration in gender studies,” I teased.

“It’s tempting, but I’m going for biology,” she said.

“So you can be a doctor just like your father?” I asked. “That will truly make you a daddy’s girl.”

“Like my mother, I belong to no man,” she said, cracking me up. “I’m not sure if I’ll do that, but I’m going to take enough classes to find out.”

“Pre-med is some heavy lifting,” I said.

“I’m up for a challenge,” she said. “What are you going to concentrate in?”

“Economics,” I said.

She gave me an odd look. “I didn’t expect that from you.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“I mean, are you going to follow Stef and your father and become a rich capitalist?” she challenged. “You going to trade your soul for money?”

I shook my head at her idiocy. “I’m already rich. Besides, communism is part of economics too. It’s not all about free markets.”

“Alright, that’s a good point,” she said. “Still, I figured you do something different, like environmental sciences.”

“I’m not into science, at least not to the degree that I’d have to be to major in it,” I said. She’d always thrived on biology and chemistry, while I’d sort of forced my way through it. “I’m thinking of getting a second concentration in psychology, but I’m not sure yet.”

“That will be a lot more work,” she speculated.

“Maybe,” I said. “Right now, I’m focused on moving in, and figuring out how this place works and where to eat.”

She laughed. “Me too. It’s a little scary, but I’m super excited.”

“So am I, especially since we’re doing this together,” I said. “You get your housing assignment?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I was really pissed off that I didn’t send my application in earlier, but I still scored a room in Grays.”

I started laughing at her. “You’re such a princess. You ended up in the Harvard Hilton.”

“The what?”

“That’s what they call Grays: the Harvard Hilton,” I said.

“Whatever,” she grumbled. “Where did you end up?”

“Weld,” I said. “Same dorm John F. Kennedy was in when he went there.”

“Makes sense, since you’re the golden boy of our family,” she said in a snarky way because she was still annoyed at my comments about Grays.

“Right,” I said, rolling my eyes at her. “Maybe I should transfer to the Harvard Hilton too.”

“Too late,” she quipped. “So what did my mother’s email say?”

“Let’s find out. I’ll read it to you,” I said in a perky way, only that ended when I saw what it was about. I so did not want to think about JJ, or whatever the fuck he was calling himself now. They’d told us last night he’d been hospitalized, and everyone acted like that should excuse what a total douche he’d been. I wasn’t willing to rule out the chance that JJ had set this whole thing up to give himself an excuse to dodge the need to seriously apologize. I’d managed to keep my mouth shut and ignore that whole topic of conversation, only here it was hitting me again, only this time in writing. “It’s about JJ.”

“No wonder you’re frowning,” she said. “Read it.”

FORWARDED MESSAGE FROM Claire.Hobart@escorial.com:

Dear Claire,

The purpose of this email is to follow up on our phone call this morning and give you an update on Jeremy’s condition. I’ve also outlined the steps we’re taking to help him recover.

Jeremy experienced an extreme cyclothymic fluctuation. In layman’s terms, you can probably best understand this by equating it to a nervous breakdown. His physician, Dr. Feingold, has prescribed an entirely different drug regimen which will hopefully help him stabilize his moods. My role as his psychologist is to help him identify the elements in his life that created the stress that contributed to his breakdown.

Dr. Feingold had him transported to the Eleven West section of the Mount Sinai Hospital. You will not be surprised to hear that these are premium patient accommodations. This is not a lockdown ward, where no visitors are allowed, but Jeremy has insisted that he have limited access to people. To date, the only people he has put on the visitation list are you and his housekeeper, Jacinta.

Jeremy and I both feel that, at this point in his journey, he should limit communications with others to email. Jeremy asked that you be responsible for forwarding this message on to family and friends. If anyone wishes to send Jeremy an email, please direct it to: Lawanda.4.Jeremy@yahoo.com. I am not going to screen his messages, but I plan to help him put them into context.

Dr. Feingold and I have consulted on Jeremy’s condition and feel that he will need to remain here for at least a week.

You will recall that JJ had opted to be known as “Jays”. He has decided that instead he would rather be known by his full name. Please address him in the future as “Jeremy”.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lawanda Jones

“That sucks. I hope he gets better,” she said. I ignored her and started typing. “What are you doing?”

“Sending a response,” I said.

“What did you say?” she asked, so I read it to her.

REPLY ALL FROM Will.Schluter@escorial.com:

Please remove me from this email distribution list.

“Not saying you're wrong, but that may be just a little fucked up,” she said cautiously.

“Then maybe he, and his psychologist, and all the fucking members of this family, will finally get the hint and stop talking to me about JJ,” I snapped.

I had expected a pretty strong response from her, but I didn’t get it. “Maybe.”

“I’m just going to pretend he doesn’t exist, and maybe over time, I won’t have to deal with him,” I said.

“Probably won’t work, but I get where you’re coming from,” she said, then changed the subject. “Did you find out anything about your suitemates?”

“We’ve been emailing each other,” I said. “I’m starting to get a feel for them.”

“So what do you know?” she asked.

“They say that they try to match us up with people who we’ll get along with, but I’m thinking that because I was late in getting my housing stuff in, I got stuck in a suite with people who are pretty different,” I said.

“Different doesn’t mean you won’t be a good match,” she responded. “Did you tell them you were gay?”

“No,” I said. “I probably should.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I mean, it’s really nobody’s business. I don’t know. I think it’s because I want to do it in person, to see their reactions.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” she said, validating me. “Now tell me which of these guys I should try to go out with.” That was too funny.

“The first dude who responded was Nicholas Parry,” I said. “He goes by Niko.”

“Is Niko hot?” she asked.

“He’s attractive,” I said. “This dude is a total frat bro.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“I checked out his Myspace account,” I said. “It’s like all he does is go to parties. Some looked like fun.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Dude’s from La Jolla and a surfer. His concentration is neurobiology, so you’ll probably run into him.”

“Seems kind of odd that Niko, the ultimate social beast, would choose neurobiology,” she said.

“Just because he likes ragers, that means he’s dumb?” I challenged, getting the expected frown in return.

“Whatever,” she said, making me chuckle.

“His father is a doctor, so that’s why he’s doing that,” I said. “Just like you.”

“Fuck you,” she said. I smiled at her to piss her off. “How do you know all this?”

“Like I said, we’ve been emailing,” I said. “He’ll send me these long diatribes about what he did the night before, I’ll respond with two sentences, and he’ll send me another epistle a few days later.”

“Christ,” Marie said.

“The one who has the looks is Eric Lindegaard,” I told her. “He looks like a Viking.”

“You’re rooming with Odin?” she asked.

“More like Thor,” I corrected. “He’s from Minnetonka, Minnesota, and he plays baseball, so if you go out with him, you’ll be known for having a type: blond baseball players.”

“Then I’ll have to go out with him and a bunch of other guys,” she said. She was so funny.

“You should,” I said. “Seriously. This is your time to cut loose.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said dismissively. “So is his father a doctor too?”

“No, his dad is some big finance exec at 3M,” I said. “You know, the Post-It Note company.”

“I know,” she said. “So he’s an econ major?”

“He is, and so is Scott Mitchell.”

“Scott Mitchell?” she asked, just as she was supposed to.

“He’s a hockey player, and is pretty scruffy looking,” I said.

“Figures you’d end up rooming with a hockey player,” she said.

“Yeah, but that sucks, because I haven’t had much luck hooking up with those guys,” I said with fake sadness.

“They sound like decent guys,” she said.

“The last guy is Shawn Post,” I said. “He’s from Seattle, where his dad is supposed to be tight with Bill Gates and shit.”

“You sound like you’re already annoyed with him,” she said.

“When you look at his Myspace account, it’s filled with him talking about shit he got to do or stuff he has,” I said.

“Likes to brag?” she concluded.

“Seems like it,” I answered.

“Is he richer than us?” she joked.

“No one is richer than us,” I responded playfully. “His dad got a new boat and he had a new jet ski, and the world just didn’t realize how cool he was.”

“This will be an interesting group,” she said. “Which one is the hottest?”

“Hmm…” I said, thinking about it.

“Rank them, in order of hottest to not hot,” she commanded.

“Alright, well, based on the pictures I’ve seen, Eric is the hottest. He’s got blond hair and that total Swedish look going on. He’s not as hot as Ryan or Travis, but close,” I said. “Next on the list would probably be Shawn, followed by Niko and then Scott.”

“Why is Scott lame?”

“Scott is not lame,” I insisted, probably a bit too defensively. “He just looks kind of unkempt. Like I said, scruffy.”

“Well, I’ll have to check them out and tell you if you’re right or not,” she said.

“I’ll have to meet them first and see if I change my mind, then you can pronounce judgment,” I said.

“I can do that,” she said, cracking me up. She then told me all about the girls she was rooming with. It was funny, because I got basic info on my dudes, but she knew all about her girls: which ones were in relationships, which ones were planning to dump their dudes, and shit like that.

I decided to crash and managed to wake myself up right before we landed. The plane taxied to the FBO, the door opened, and I smiled at her. “The start of a new adventure.”

We descended the stairs and found both Matt and Wade waiting for us. “Welcome to Boston!” Matt said excitedly, and enveloped me in a bear hug. “Happy birthday!”

“Good to be here,” I said. I hadn’t really thought about it being my birthday; I’d been so focused on moving. He went on to greet Marie while I focused on Wade. “Good to see you.”

“I am so glad you’re going to be here,” he said, and gave me a very intense hug, which was really cool, because Wade didn’t usually do that, but he did for me. When I’d been talking to Marie about maybe going to college in the Bay Area, she’d suggested that I’d probably miss doing college without Grand being around. Wade was as much his twin as someone could get without sharing a uterus, so as we embraced, I realized that I pretty much had him here in the form of Wade. “You’re early, so we planned to stop by the house so you can eat.”

“I like this place already,” I said to Marie. The prompted us to get into the SUV and kick back for the drive.

We walked into their house and I headed straight for the kitchen. “Rosa!” I exclaimed, and went over to give her a huge hug.

“It is good to see you,” she said as she hugged me back warmly. “I am so glad you are going to be around.”

“I’m even more glad that you’ll be around,” I said, then joked with her. “I’m still a growing boy.”

“I am cooking food for you,” she said. “We will talk more later.” I gave her another hug then went back to find Matt, Wade, and Marie.

“Tiffany is out with the kids,” Wade said. “Let me show you two to your other rooms.” Marie and I got into the elevator and zipped up to the fourth floor. The elevator opened and we got out, with me making a beeline for Alex’s old room.

“This one is mine,” I said.

“Asshole,” Marie said in a playful way.

“You’ll like the other one better,” I told her. “It was designed for a princess.” Matt and Wade had to hide their grins at that backhanded slap at JJ.

“You guys should treat this house like it’s yours,” Wade said firmly. “Now let me show you to your room,” he said to Marie.

“Why thank you,” she said, flirting with him. Wade actually blushed a bit, so Matt and I cracked up, and were still laughing as they walked out.

“I heard what happened with JJ,” Matt said, as soon as they were gone. “I’m really sorry.”

“It was pretty raw, but at least I got to punch him,” I said a bit glumly.

“I just want you to know that what he said was bullshit,” Matt said. “I’m with Darius on this. You’re my brother and that is never going to change.”

“Thanks,” I said, and got a little teary-eyed. I hugged him almost as tightly as I had Rosa. We broke our hug and I opted to check out the room, which was perfect. I could look out the window and see Harvard. “This room is kick-ass!”

“If you bring hot guys over to fuck, you have to introduce them to me first,” he said.

“Why, so you can steal them away from me?” I asked. He looked amazing, with a much bigger frame now that he was in his 20s.

“No, just to make sure the dude is worthy of you,” he said.

“The guy that you’ll probably see the most is Travis,” I said. We went downstairs to eat, and I told Matt, Wade, and Rosa all about Travis’s television roles.

“I know this is your first night in the dorms, but we planned a birthday dinner for you,” Wade said.

“That sounds amazing,” I said. “Can I bring my roommates?”

“Sure,” Wade said. “We’ll send Jorge over to pick you up around 6:45,” he noted.

“Got it,” I said, then looked at Marie to make sure she was cool with it. A slight nod told me she was good.

We got back into the Escalade and drove the brief distance to campus. It was beautiful, even with the tourists walking around. That would take some getting used to. We checked in, got our room assignments, then Marie went to Grays while I went to Weld. I found my entryway, met some grad student dude named Stuart who was basically my RA, even though Harvard called him something else. The elevator was pretty popular, but since I didn’t have my stuff yet, I took the stairs up to the third floor. I found my suite, walked in, and found three of the four guys I’d been emailing. I briefly thought about how easy it was to recognize them from their pictures, even though they were much more handsome in person.

“Hey, I’m Niko, and you must be Will,” he said, and shook my hand. He had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and was about 6 feet tall. He was handsome, but what really made him attractive was that he just oozed charisma.

“I am,” I said, and smiled in a slightly flirtatious way.

“Scotty,” Scott Mitchell said. He was shorter, about 5’10”, and was just as I’d expected: scruffy. He had brown hair that, even if it had been combed, sure as fuck didn’t stay in one place; plus he had a beard that looked like it was maybe a quarter of an inch long. I’d seen that “haven’t shaved for a week” look on models in New York where it was still well-groomed, but in his case it just looked like he was too lazy to shave. I shook his hand, then greeted the next guy.

“I’m Shawn Post, but you can call me Poster,” he said. It would be hard to describe someone who looked entitled, but he was truly the poster boy. I chuckled to myself at my pun. He had light brown hair with darker brown eyes, and was a little taller than Scotty and a little shorter than Niko.

“I’m Will, but my friends call me Shoots,” I said, reluctantly reviving my nickname from high school. In the end, Marie would let that out, so it was inevitable.

“Shoots, eh?” I heard a deep voice from behind me say. I turned around and found myself facing a god. He was about my height with very blond hair, very blue eyes, and a very toned body. I had to force myself not to act like a dumbass and just stare at this dude. “I’m Eric, but my friends call me Thor.”

I started laughing. “Dude, that is the perfect name for you.”

He grinned slightly. “Works.”

“We were just talking about room assignments, since we have two doubles and a single,” Poster said. “I figured that if I took the single, I could just give you guys some extra cash.” I was all ginned up on meeting these guys, but that totally took my buzz away.

“We are not doing this based on money,” I insisted. “The only fair way to handle it is to rotate.”

“That’s up to you,” he said defiantly, “but these guys can make their own decisions.”

“I don’t need your cash,” Thor said.

“Yeah, I’ll take my turn in the single,” Niko chimed in.

Scotty seemed nervous, but ultimately fell in line. “Whatever.”

“So who’s in what rooms?” I asked.

“I took the single,” Poster said in a bitchy way.

“You can stay there for two months,” I said, deciding that I was the one who was going to have to keep this asshole in line.

“We got here about the same time, so we’re in a double,” Niko said, referring to Scotty.

“I guess that means you’re stuck with me,” I said to Thor.

“Could be worse,” he said, then looked at the other dudes. I cracked up at that. The open area we were in was mostly filled with desks, since we each had our own. There was a couch and a table as well. All of the furniture looked beat up. “Come on.”

He led me back to a dorm room with two beds, two dressers, two nightstands, and a closet. “Pretty tight quarters,” I said.

“We can turn these into bunk beds if you want,” he suggested.

“We could,” I said, but I wasn’t in love with the idea. “I need to go get my shit.”

“I’ll help,” he said. I called Jorge and had him bring the Escalade into the drop-off area. With Thor’s help, I managed to grab my suitcases and boxes so we could lug it all in one trip. This time we definitely had to use the elevator. “Who was that guy?”

“That was Jorge,” I answered. “He works for my brother and his boyfriend. They live in Harvard Square.”

“Your brother has a boyfriend?” he asked, as we rode the elevator up to the third floor.

“He does,” I confirmed.

“Cool,” Thor said, as he wrapped his mind around that.

“I have two brothers,” I continued. We got to our room and set all the stuff down. “Darius is straight and Matt is gay. That’s something Matt and I have in common.”

He looked at me, not a little shocked. “You’re gay?” he asked. His eyes darted around, as if he was looking for a way to escape the room, then they finally met mine, and that seemed to calm him down.

“I am,” I said. “If you don’t want to share a room with me, I can see if one of the other guys will switch.”

“No, it’s cool,” he said insistently. “You just didn’t seem gay.”

“I may not seem gay, but I really am,” I said. We both laughed at that, then started unpacking our stuff.