The Freshmen - 31. Chapter 31

September 16, 2004

Escorial

Palo Alto, CA

Brad

“That was a wonderful dinner,” Claire said, as we strolled out onto the patio for an after-dinner drink along with JP’s nightly joint. The weather was nice, but a little chilly, so we were all wearing jackets.

“It was very good,” I agreed. I sat in between Claire and Jake, while JP sat next to Claire and Stef was next to Jake.

“I spoke to Will today,” Stef said. I almost sighed, worried that he’d gotten in some sort of trouble.

“Is he alright?” I asked. The rest of them looked at me like I was an idiot. In this case, they were right. I shook my head, as if to clear away my negative thoughts. “I’m sorry.”

“Why wouldn’t Will be alright?” JP asked, probing in his gentle but annoying way.

“I will tell you my read on it,” Jake offered.

“Go ahead,” I said with dread, as if he were going to lacerate me. He rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky, as if he was asking for divine deliverance from my nonsense.

“You’re not really worried about Will because you know he’s going to be just fine,” Jake said. “You’re just asking because you miss him.” His words rocketed through my brain, and I smiled as I realized that he was right. I wondered how many times I’d done that in the past. Probably way too many.

“That is a very astute observation,” Stef said as he smirked at me.

“Well then, tomorrow I should be much calmer, since we’ll be in Cambridge,” I said. Jake, Claire, and I were flying out to visit our offspring at Harvard. I refocused on Stef. “Did he say anything interesting?”

“But of course,” Stef said happily. Will was probably the person he enjoyed spending time with the most, or at least one of them. Now that they’d gotten over their issues, they were tight, and Stef seemed to appreciate Will’s joie de vivre instead of being jealous of it. “He asked me to decorate their dorm room.”

“I have already worked with Marie on hers; that way she can avoid a disaster like Will is going to have,” Claire said, taunting Stef playfully.

“So this is a competition?” Stef asked. JP and I looked at each other, while he raised his eyebrows as if to signify that this whole deal had changed. Claire and Stef were both very competitive, but nothing fired up their need to win more than trying to outdo each other on either fashion or interior design. This had gone from Stef and Claire doing Will and Marie a nice favor, to Stef and Claire in a cutthroat battle to win.

“It is,” Claire confirmed. I was impressed with how confident she was. “Daddy, Brad, and Jake can be the judges.”

“I can do that,” I said as I chuckled. Will was going to have one way over-the-top dorm room.

“Me too,” Jake agreed.

“I can also serve on this distinguished panel,” JP said waspishly.

“And what are we playing for?” Stef asked.

“You mean what will I win?” Claire taunted.

“Let us hypothesize along those lines,” JP said, before those two started sniping at each other.

“Whoever wins gets to choose what the other person has to wear on the opening night of Spring Fashion Week,” Claire said.

“You have a bet,” Stef said, smiling. “I asked Will to send me measurements, and one of his roommates did a very good drawing of the spaces.”

“Yes, but I will actually be there,” Claire noted.

Stef looked at JP. “We will go to Boston next weekend.”

JP raised an eyebrow to challenge Stef’s making plans for him, then caved. “I am amenable to that plan.”

“Will also told me all about the drama with his suitemates,” Stef said. He loved gossip. He told us all about the problems with one of the guys and how that asshole had actually referred to him as a faggot. We were all furious. “This individual’s father called the school and raised hell, but when Will met with the Dean, he told him that his dad was richer and louder.” We all laughed at that.

“This trip may be more interesting than we had anticipated,” Claire said a bit nervously.

“A little drama will be fun,” Jake said in a chirpy way.

“Are you taking Luke with you tomorrow?” I asked Claire, deciding to throw that barb at her to take the focus away from me.

“I’m taking Jack, as long as you have no objection,” Claire said. We all stared at her, pretty shocked by that.

“I’m totally fine with that,” Jake chimed in, prompting me to do the same.

“It will be nice to hang out with him,” I agreed.

“I am rather surprised that, shortly after you served him divorce papers, you invited him to fly to Massachusetts with you,” JP said.

“I was completely willing to push Jack out of my life, but that won’t work, and in the end, I don’t really want to do that,” she said. “We have shared so much together, we have two amazing children, and we are truly close friends. I decided that I have two choices.”

“Two?” I asked.

“The first option is that I cut him out of my world completely,” she said. “That would create problems with John and Marie, and any time he was around, there would be this huge amount of tension.”

“The only satisfaction would be that he would not be around,” Stef said. “That would only be a preferred course of action if you really hated him.”

“And I don’t,” Claire said. “So that’s why I picked option two.”

“Which is?” I prompted.

“That we maintain our connection and enjoy the friendship that still exists between us,” she said.

“You agreed to this so you could still sleep with him,” I accused.

“That’s where I was this afternoon,” she said, and gave me a smarmy look. I hadn’t really thought she’d do that, and I really didn’t think that if she did, she’d admit it. “I will see you tomorrow morning.” We all stared at her back as she walked back into the house.

“I sure didn’t see that coming,” Jake said.

“I am a bit surprised too,” Stef said.

“Jack has hurt her really badly, but she can overlook that to maintain some sort of relationship with him,” I said. “It’s really sad, because it shows how much she still loves him.”

“You think they’re getting back together?” Jake asked.

“No,” JP said. We all zeroed in on him because he said it so definitively. “She does not want that and will not renew her marriage with Jack. She is putting on a pleasant face while she subconsciously plans to hurt him back.”

“What?” Jake asked, totally confused.

“She will let him get close to her, then she will push him away, only to relent and start the cycle again,” JP said. I knew Claire almost as well as he did, and he was absolutely right.

“How do you know that?” Stef challenged.

“That’s exactly what she’s going to do,” I said, supporting JP’s theory. “But it isn’t as insidious as you make it sound.”

“I do not think I made it sound insidious,” JP replied in his huffy tone.

“You did,” Stef said, to shut him down, then looked at me to explain.

“She will push him away and pull him back, but it is not necessarily to hurt him,” I said. “She is trying to find a distance between them that works. If he gets too close and becomes annoying, she will avoid him until she misses him. Ultimately, they will find a balance.”

“I guess it’s Jack’s turn to go through hell,” Jake said ruefully.

“Hard to feel sorry for him,” I grumbled, because I was still mad about how he had treated Claire.

“You are all quite profound tonight,” Stef said. I was done talking about this and needed to change the subject.

“So what does Will want you to decorate?” I asked.

“They have a main room that has desks, but which they would like to make more of a social space,” Stef said, speaking like he was an interior designer. “There I will create the dorm equivalent of a speakeasy.”

“If you put a bar in the room, they could find themselves sanctioned by campus security,” JP said in his stuffy way. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Will is smarter than that,” I pronounced. Unless his roommates were idiots, they would be able to avoid campus cops.

“He told me that he needed a way to hide their alcohol, and wanted to see if I could work in a hidden version of something called a kegerator,” Stef noted.

“I think I’m going to go back on the weekends just to party with them,” Jake joked. “That sounds like the perfect setup for guys in a dorm.”

“I have enlisted Geoffrey to help me pull this together,” Stef said. “I have explained that time is of the essence.”

“He’s the guy who did the condo over the bar in Chicago, isn’t he?” Jake asked.

“He is,” Stef confirmed. “He will remind you occasionally that Geoffrey is spelled with a ‘G’, as opposed to a ‘J’.”

“I’m sure that’s very important to him,” I said, acting like I didn’t like the guy, even though I did.

September 17, 2004

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

Will

“They should be here any minute,” Marie said, as we stood in the area where the limo could pull up. My father, Jake, and Claire were coming to check up on us.

“Is your mom coming alone?” I asked her.

“She’s actually bringing my father with them,” she said.

“That’s not what I expected,” I said, but it was more of a question.

“I’m no less surprised than you are,” she said. “She was furious with him when she found out that Jessica was pregnant, but that has faded and she wants to find a way for them to have a friendship.”

“She missed him,” I concluded.

“That’s my guess,” she said. “According to my father, they spent yesterday afternoon together.”

“Together?” I asked, wondering if that meant they’d had sex.

“Together,” she said, confirming that they had indeed fucked.

My mind went back to 1999 when my father and Robbie had all but broken up. “This is going to be really tough on both of them.”

“Why do you say that?” she asked.

“Because it’s going to be very volatile until they find a stable place,” I said. “I remember the back-and-forth between my dad and Robbie. One minute they’d be back in love; the next minute they’d be fighting.”

“My parents are very different than Robbie and your father,” Marie said with a bit of disdain, implying that Dad and Robbie were idiots whereas Claire and Jack weren’t. She wasn’t wrong, but it still pissed me off a little bit.

“It will still happen, but the drama will be less intense,” I said, then we both chuckled at that.

“Hopefully,” Marie said. I remembered how hard that whole experience had been on me, and now Marie was going to have to go through something similar. I put my arm around her in a supportive way and she smiled at me in return.

A sleek black Escalade limousine pulled up, and even though the windows were tinted so you couldn’t see inside, I knew that they were in that car. The Escalade stopped, and before the driver had a chance to let them out, the door opened and my father emerged, smiling broadly at me. “It is so good to see you!” he said, and gave me a really warm hug.

“Thank you for coming out here to check up on us,” I said, hugging him back just as strongly.

“I am not checking up on you,” he said firmly, which was a bit surprising, but that thought had to wait as I exchanged a similar hug with Jake.

“I’m so excited to meet your hot suitemates,” Jake said, making me laugh. Then it was like Marie and I swapped family members, as Jake and Dad went to greet her, and I was faced with Claire and Jack.

“I have missed you,” Claire said, giving me a hug that wasn’t as intense as the one I’d shared with my father, but just as meaningful. “Although there has been less drama since you left.”

I laughed at that. “Stef must be so disappointed.”

She moved aside and I was face-to-face with my uncle. We had never been all that close, and recent events hadn’t done anything to strengthen our bond, so I was pretty shocked when he moved forward and hugged me. Thankfully I responded quickly enough that it wasn’t awkward. “I am so glad you’re here with Marie.”

“So am I,” I agreed.

“I’m going to show my parents my room,” Marie said as she started leading us to the Yard. That was our cue to split up, so I led Jake and my father to Weld, regaling them with its history. We went through our entryway and took the elevator up, even though we had to wait a bit.

We walked into the main room to find everyone hanging out. “Hey guys, this is my dad, Brad Schluter, and his husband, Jake Pike.” I said. They all greeted each other, shaking hands.

“What can I get you to drink?” Niko asked.

“Gin and tonic,” Dad said. Jake opted to have the same thing. We bullshitted while Niko played bartender.

“Here you go,” Niko said. “This is college, so there’s no crystal, only Solo cups.”

Dad laughed. “I’m very used to these.”

“Nothing says it’s a party more than red Solo cups,” Jake said. I gave him and Dad a tour of the rooms, then we ended up back in the main area.

“I should probably warn you about your plan to have Stef decorate your rooms,” Dad said with a smirk on his face.

“Why?” Thor asked.

“Because Stefan and Claire opted to have a contest to see who could do a better job. Stef is doing your suite, and Claire is doing Marie’s,” Dad explained.

“What does that mean?” Scotty asked.

“They are both really competitive about decorating and fashion,” I explained. They just looked at me blankly. “It’s like when you guys play against your biggest rival. Things get intense.”

“And that means that you guys will probably end up with one incredible but overdone suite,” Jake concluded.

“He brought Geoffrey in to help him out,” Dad said.

“Geoffrey with a ‘G’?” I asked.

“He’s the guy,” Dad confirmed.

“I mean, I guess that’s good news for us,” Thor said a bit nervously.

“It’s very good news,” Jake said. “We just don’t want you to freak out if it’s a bit overdone.”

“I don’t understand,” Scotty said.

“Expect there to be no activity for three or four weeks, then one day a SWAT team will descend upon you,” Dad said. “They’ll probably be here for a day, maybe a day and a half, and this place will be total chaos. Then when they’re done, it will be awesome.”

“That’s not a big deal at all,” Niko said. “Which rooms is he going to do?”

“All of them, if that’s okay with you,” Jake said.

“I’ll work something out so we have a place to stay if it’s an overnight deal,” I promised.

“Sounds good,” Scotty said, although a bit nervously.

“Stef said he’s going to try to create the equivalent of a speakeasy in this room,” Jake said. “Although you should expect it to be very modern.”

“And he promised he’d work in that kegerator,” I added.

“Awesome!” Niko said enthusiastically.

We were interrupted when we heard a knock, then the door opened and three people walked in: Mark Garfield, Stuart, and a really handsome dude who was probably a freshman. He was lugging a suitcase along with him. They looked pretty surprised to see two adults here with us, and even more shocked when Dad got up and introduced himself. “I’m Brad Schluter,” he said, tossing out serious power like only he could do. “This is my husband, Jake Pike.” I wondered how this new guy would handle that, but he just looked amused.

“I’m Mark Garfield, the Resident Dean, and this is Stuart Feinstein, their proctor,” Garfield said to my father, then turned to the rest of us. “I brought you your new suitemate. This is Fabien Laurent.”

“Dude, welcome,” Niko said in his sociable way. “Do you need help with your stuff?”

“I just have this suitcase,” he said, and seemed embarrassed. The suitcase was pretty ratty.

“Well, we’ll leave you all to get acquainted,” Garfield said, probably trying to escape before he had to deal with my father. He was not going to get that lucky.

“I’d like a word with you, if you can wait just a moment,” Dad said, then turned back to us. “We’re taking you out tonight, all of you,” he said. “Dinner and a show.”

“Thanks,” Thor said, the only one who could manage to respond quickly enough so that we weren’t embarrassed.

“A car will pick you up at the same place it dropped me off,” he said to me. “Be ready at 6:30.”

He waited until all of them had nodded their assent. “Sounds good,” I said, then ushered them out of the room.

“Jesus Christ, your dad is intense,” Niko said, which made me laugh.

“You have no idea,” I said. “Dean Garfield is going to have fun.”

“You said he was richer and louder,” Thor said. “I’m betting Garfield gets to experience that.

“No doubt,” Niko said, as we all chuckled.

“I’m not sure I want to go out tonight, but I’m too afraid to piss him off to say no,” Scotty agreed.

“What do you want to drink?” Niko asked Fabien, focusing on our new suitemate.

“Vodka and water on the rocks,” he replied. He spoke with a pronounced French accent, but his English seemed to be very good.

“On it,” Niko said, and went back to his room to play bartender. We told him our nicknames, and he told us to call him Fab.

“Here’s the way we’ve got things set up,” Thor said. He then explained to Fab how we’d allocated the rooms. While he was doing that, I was focused on checking this guy out. He was tall, even taller than me, at probably about 6’3”. His body was lanky but muscular, and he had short dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He had a deep silky voice that was incredibly attractive, and a big Adam’s apple to go with it. His skin looked like it was naturally tan.

“Do you play basketball?” Scotty asked.

“I do not,” Fab said. “I play volleyball. That is one of the reasons that I am here.”

“Sorry you came in only to be dragged out tonight by my father,” I said to him.

“I am guessing it will be fun,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. “Your father is gay?”

“He is, and so am I,” I said, hoping this wasn’t a problem for him.

“That is very good to know,” he said, flirting with me in that way that all Frenchmen seemed to have mastered. I rolled my eyes at him to call him out on his game.

“Are you?” Thor asked. It was cute that he almost seemed a little jealous.

“You Americans seem to be obsessed with labels,” he said with that arrogant tone that the French seemed to have perfected. “I find it is much more fun to be flexible.”

“So that means you’re bisexual?” Niko asked, which was pretty hilarious since he’d just tried to slap another label on Fab.

“I like sex, so if an opportunity comes along, I usually take it,” he said. “I do not let the gender of the other person restrict me.”

“You mean you’ll pretty much fuck anything?” Thor asked.

“Well, I have some standards, but otherwise, yes,” he said.

“It’s probably a good thing that you have the single for the first three months,” I said, getting a smile from him.

“I should unpack and see if I have anything nice enough to wear for tonight,” he said.

“Ties are not required, but a jacket is a good idea,” I said. That seemed to be our signal to go back to our rooms.

“Dude seems a lot cooler than Poster,” Thor said when we were back in our room and alone, but something in his tone made me think that he didn’t like Fab.

“That’s not a very high bar,” I joked, even as I sorted through my wardrobe. I’d just figured out my outfit when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Fab there, looking nervous. “Hey there. The rule in the suite is that you knock, then if the door is unlocked you just come in.”

“I will remember that,” he said. “I must have forgotten to pack a jacket. Perhaps you can tell your father that I am sorry I could not go out tonight.”

“Nonsense,” I said. “What color are your pants?”

“I will go get them,” he said.

“Between the two of us, we should be able to come up with something that almost fits him,” Thor said, seemingly warming up to Fab a bit. We were the tallest guys in the suite, so that made sense.

Fab came back wearing a pair of gray slacks that weren’t all that nice. “That calls for a classic blue blazer,” I said. I took mine from a hanger and handed it to him. “Try that.”

He put it on, then stood there, waiting for us to react. “That will work,” I said.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Look, my shoulders are a little bigger than yours, so it’s a bit bulky on top, but not enough that people will notice,” I lied, since my aunt and father would definitely catch that. “You’re taller than me, so the sleeves are just a little too short, but it works.”

“It works,” Thor agreed. “Here, try on my blazer and see if it fits you any better.”

Fab put on Thor’s blue blazer and it was so big on him we all started laughing. Thor was very muscular and much broader than Fab, so it looked like some sort of costume. “Better stick with mine,” I said.

“I think that is a good choice,” he said. “Thank you both for helping me out.”

“No problem,” Thor answered.

At 6:20 we all met in the main room. Thor, Niko, and I looked really good, while Scotty and Fab looked good but their clothes looked like they came from that Target store I’d gone to. “We all clean up well,” I said. “Let’s go.”

We walked down and stood by the curb for only a couple of minutes before an Escalade pulled up. It looked similar to the one they’d arrived in, only much longer. The door opened and Dad, Jake, Matt, and Wade hopped out to say hello, then ushered us back into the vehicle. I was impressed that it was big enough to hold all of us. I was kind of surprised that Jack and Claire weren’t here with Marie and her suitemates, but evidently they’d decided to do their own thing.

We went to a really nice restaurant in downtown Boston which had a private room big enough for all of us. Everything was great, and conversation was pretty animated, but there were two things that were odd. Using my peripheral vision, I noticed that Thor spent a lot of time watching me. Even stranger, Fab spent most of his time flirting with my father. After dinner, we went to see the Blue Man Group. I’d seen them before, and I’m sure some of the others had too, but they were always entertaining. I thought it was sweet that I ended up sitting next to Thor; it was less cool that Fab was next to my father.

“You are all welcome to join us back home for some drinks,” Wade offered. “Or we can drop you off back on campus.”

“I’m going back with you,” I said to Wade. That would give me some time with my father and Jake.

“I’ll stay with you,” Thor said.

“I could use another drink,” Fab said. It ended up with just the three of us heading back to their house. I was kind of frustrated, because I had wanted to spend some time with just my father and Jake, but it was not to be. We found Jack and Claire there, back after their odyssey with Marie and her suitemates. We had a few drinks and talked about our evening, then Fab got up and stretched a bit. “If you do not mind, I think I will head back.”

“We can go back with you,” I offered.

“Please, stay here with your family,” he said. “Do you mind if I use your toilet before I go?”

“Not at all,” Wade said. Wade showed him where the bathroom was, while conversation continued.

“I don’t know what his deal is, but he was pretty focused on you,” I said to my father quietly, in case Fab was still around.

“On me?” Dad asked. “You have to be mistaken.”

“It seems, Bradley, that it may not be safe to take you near college campuses,” Claire said, giggling because it was funny and she was a little drunk.

“No shit,” Jake said, glaring at him.

“Dude, Dad didn’t do anything wrong,” I said to Jake firmly, “He’s just naturally strong and charismatic.”

“You have clearly had way too much to drink,” Jack said. We laughed for a bit, then I walked home with Thor and the rest of them went to bed.