The Castaway Hotel - 8 - 20. Chapter 20 - Just Desserts

It was late Monday afternoon and we still had not taken the college boys back yet. I had decided to let them stay home one more day, so they and Jesse could get to know each other better and it seemed to be going well. However, it was getting to the point where they needed to return to their campuses, but Jake and I were both too exhausted to think about making the long drive. Out of necessity, I had an idea. I went to discuss it with Dustin and Jake.

“I know you are both wondering what this is about,” I began, “so I’ll get right to the point. To save Jake and me from making those long trips tonight, I’m going to let you take the Suburban and drive your brothers back, if you don’t mind,” I stated, while looking directly at Dustin. “We’ll buy another vehicle during the week, but we can survive with the van, Grand Am and 4Runner for now. What do you say, would you be willing to do that for us?”

“You’re going to let me keep the Suburban on campus?” he asked, amazed.

“Yes, until you come home at the end of the semester.” He had this huge grin on his face.

“Thanks, Dad. This is going to be awesome,” he replied.

“Just don’t abuse the privilege,” I warned him.

“I won’t,” he stated, to reassure me.

“I know it will probably be a little cramped this time, but we’ll correct that situation before next year. When you boys come home for the summer, you can rent a trailer to haul behind the Suburban, so you can carry your other belongings in there. Just drive carefully. Does that work for you?”

“Oh, yeah,” he responded, flashing me a toothy grin.

“Before you go, I have something else to discuss with you,” I added, which caused Dustin to flash me a puzzled look. “It’ nothing bad. It’s just about your birthday. Since you’ll be twenty-one this year, I wanted to do something special for you, so I’ve had my lawyer arrange it so you now have complete access to the account I’d set up in your name. That money is now yours, to do with as you please, but don’t forget it’s to cover the rest of your college expenses too. I hope you are as responsible with it, as you have been with everything else.”

“Jeez, Dad, that’s awfully nice of you,” Dustin replied. “I know that even after paying for college, there will still be quite a bit of money in the account, but don’t worry, I won’t blow it. Thanks, Dad. I really wasn’t expecting you to do this, but I will not spend the money foolishly.”

“I was sure you wouldn’t,” I agreed, “so Happy Birthday.” I then gave him a hug, to show him how much he was loved.

“Okay, now I want you to go explain everything to your brothers about you taking them back and then get on your way. I know this is a lot to ask of you, and it will be a long trip, but I will make up a driving route for you to follow, while you are loading up the Suburban. I’ll set it up so you can drop everyone off in one big loop, to make the trip as short and easy for you as possible.”

“Thanks, Dad, but don’t worry about it. I don’t have any classes until 11:00 on Tuesdays, so I’ll still be able to get enough rest after I get back. Besides, it will be worth it, just to have a vehicle around,” he added.

Dustin left and went back upstairs, but before long I heard a scream and shouts coming from up there. I wasn’t sure what it was all about, so I figured I’d better go up and investigate. When I reached the top landing, I saw Dustin carrying a struggling Andrew toward me.

“Okay, what’s going on here,” I asked.

“I found out who’s been playing all those jokes on everyone,” Dustin announced, with everyone staring at Andrew. “I got back to my room and he was messing with my suitcase. I think he was trying to put a couple of water balloons in with my clothes, so they’d break and everything would get wet, before I had a chance to unpack.”

“Okay, you’ve caught him, and now you know who’s been pulling all those pranks. I guess that should end them for now,” I concurred.

“It will, after we punish him for everything he’s done,” Dustin announced, which brought a panicked look to Andrew’s face.

“What are you planning to do, Dustin?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know the answer to my question, but I couldn’t let him get carried away either.

“You’ll see,” he said smugly. “Some of us have been talking about what we’d do to whomever had been playing all of these jokes on us, so we have an idea what needs to be done,” he informed me, and now some of the others moved into position to assist him. While Dustin held Andrew about the chest, the others began to undress him, first removing his jeans and underwear. This troubled Jesse and he clung to me, so I had to reassure him that Andrew was all right.

“Don’t worry, Jesse. They aren’t going to really hurt Andrew,” I explained. “They’re just going to pay him back for all the jokes he’s played on them.” Jesse was shaking his head and tugging on his own shirt.

“Oh, you’re worried about them undressing Andrew?” I asked and got a nod in reply. “Don’t worry, the boys see each other naked all the time and that won’t bother Andrew at all.”

Jesse looked startled, but he did seem to relax a little, while the rest of Andrew’s clothes were removed. He was looking at Andrew and gawking now, and then Jesse tapped my arm and pointed at Andrew’s groin. At first I wasn’t sure why, but then it dawned on me.

“Oh, you’re wondering about Andrew’s penis, aren’t you?” I stated, which drew an immediate nod from Jesse. “Andrew isn’t circumcised, but I’d guess you are, from your reaction, but we’ll explain that to you later, if you want.” He nodded his head again, and then we turned to see what the boys were going to do to Andrew.

“First,” Dustin announced, “I think we need to ‘flush’ all of those terrible ideas out of Andrew’s head.”

I had a feeling from the way he worded it that I knew what was coming next. Anticipating Jesse’s reaction, I did the best I could just to keep him calm. I knew the boys would never do anything to harm their little brother and only wanted to make him regret having challenged them as he did.

While I was trying to reassure Jesse that Andrew would be fine, the boys carried Andrew into the upstairs bathroom. Dustin held him upside down by one of his legs and Pat had a hold of the other, while Ricky and Cole each had a grasp on one of Andrew’s arms. My little jokester was dangled precariously above the toilet bowl now, waiting for what would happen next. Slowly, he was lowered downward, with his head easing past the porcelain rim and dropping toward the water. Andrew began to apologize and plead with his brothers. He told them he was sorry and he’d never do those things again, but the others were unmoved.

Watching Andrew’s plight, Jesse grabbed my arm even tighter, so I bent over and assured him that Andrew would be just fine. I told him the boys were only having fun with him and no one was going to get hurt.

The boys continued to lower Andrew, until the top of his head was in the water, just about up to his eyebrows. That’s when one of them reached over and pushed down the lever to flush the toilet, in a symbolic gesture of flushing all the wicked thoughts from Andrew’s mind. When the bowl began to refill, they lifted Andrew out, and someone grabbed a towel and dried his head for him.

I wondered if that was all they were going to do to him, but quickly discovered it wasn’t. After Andrew’s hair had been dried, they carried him back to his room and tied him spread-eagle to his bed. I was worried about what they had planned for him next, but I did trust they wouldn’t do anything I’d object to, so I stood back and watched. Soon, Dion walked into the bedroom carrying two large jars of jelly. He kept one and gave the other to Danny. Before long, the two boys started smearing the jelly on Andrew’s body, which caused him to squirm and scream in reaction to the cold. I quickly surmised those two jars had come from the refrigerator, not the pantry.

The older boys rubbed some on Andrew’s neck, armpits, chest, stomach, genitals and on the souls of his feet, and then various boys moved into position, so they could lick this sweet substance off those sensitive areas.

Jesse’s eyes were as large as saucers, as he watched what they were doing to his protector, but I held him back and kept him from getting involved. As the older boys began to lick the jelly off of Andrew, Andrew began to writhe and giggle, because they had made sure they had put the jelly on his most ticklish areas. Andrew was laughing so loudly and so hysterically that it was becoming contagious, and soon some of the others, who were standing around watching, were beginning to laugh too, including Jesse and me.

Suddenly Jesse started pointing at Andrew and then at himself, and I understood what he was asking me. “Boys, I think Jesse would like to do that to Andrew too,” I advised them, and quickly got a vigorous nod of agreement from Jesse. It was obvious Jesse had concluded Andrew wasn’t being harmed in any way and wanted to be part of the action.

“Sure, come over here, Little Bro,” Dustin offered, while taking one of the jars of jelly and smearing more of it on Andrew’s tummy. “You can lick the jelly off him here.”

Jesse jumped into the act with great relish and flicked his tongue out. He was soon lapping up the sweet coating, but I could tell he was wiggling his tongue around more than was necessary, as he tried to make it tickle Andrew as well. Most of the other boys had stopped what they were doing momentarily, to watch Jesse’s initiation into the family. They cheered him on and egged him to do more and more. Finally, they couldn’t resist completing their own little revenge, so they went back to what they were doing and renewed their licking of all of Andrew’s various body parts. This sent him into even greater fits of laughter and Jesse nearly fell off the bed, because he was laughing so hard too.

After several more minutes of this torture, I finally called a halt to it, thinking Andrew had endured about all he could tolerate. After his brothers made a few more comments and warned him that future pranks would draw a similar retribution, they untied Andrew, and I sent him off to the shower to clean up. I wasn’t surprised to see Jesse following him like a loyal puppy and Andrew noticed this to. That’s when Andrew turned to look at me.

“Daddy, would it be okay if Jesse took a shower with me?” he asked.

“I think you should ask Jesse that question first,” I advised him, “to see if he’s even interested.” Jesse’s head was jerking up and down so quickly and so hard, I thought he might snap his neck, if I didn’t give my approval. “Okay, but no horseplay,” I warned them

“We won’t, daddy,” Andrew assured me, before turning toward his sidekick. “Come on, Jesse. This is going to be fun.” I watched the two boys disappear into the bathroom, the one Andrew had just had his prankster’s baptism in, and they shut the door. As soon as we heard the water running, Cole made an observation.

“Dad, you didn’t seem surprised to learn that Andrew had been doing these things, when you come up here. Did you know it already?” Damn, I’d been caught. Now, I had to get out of this gracefully.

“Ah, well, I did catch him doing something a while back,” I admitted.

“You knew and didn’t tell us,” Ricky stated, astonished.

“Well, I never told on you either,” I reminded him, “and besides, you boys are all old enough that I don’t have to do EVERYTHING for you.” I received some nasty looks and comments from them, after I said that.

“Were you just protecting your baby?” Brandon wanted to know.

“Well, I think he’s proven he’s not a baby,” I pointed out, “and I didn’t protect him any more than I have any of you.” They all thought about that for a few seconds and apparently agreed it was true, because no one said any more about it for the rest of the evening.

“Well, I was surprised to see Jesse get into the act already,” Trey admitted. “I guess he’s starting to feel like part of the family.”

“I don’t think he’d have done it, if it was anyone other than Andrew,” I corrected him. “Those two have really bonded, and I think it was more about WHO it was being done to, than WHAT was being done.” The boys finally agreed with my observation, but Little Ricky had one more comment to add.

“That’s still a good sign, Pop, ‘cuz it’s hard to feel comfortable and do things like he did, when you don’t feel like you fit in or belong. I think he feels good about being here and that’s why you can’t send him away to the farm now. You have to let him stay here with us.” I looked at him thoughtfully.

“You know, you’re probably right,” I told him. “I think I have made up my mind to keep him now. I believe he and Andrew will be good for each other.”

After chiming in their agreement and thanking me for deciding to keep Jesse with us, the bathroom door opened and the two boys came walking out stark naked, carrying Jesse’s clothes. I was startled to see Jesse do this, because if he’d been abused, he would most likely be very shy about exhibiting his body this way, but he seemed to be fine with it. I don’t think it was only because he saw Andrew naked earlier, or because I told him the boys often see each other naked either. I’d be willing to bet Andrew had something to do with this, which meant he probably filled Jesse in about a bunch of things while they were cleaning up.

I also got to see what Andrew meant about Jesse not being little down there. Jesse definitely had a pre-pubescent circumcised penis, but it appeared to be quite a bit longer than was the norm for a boy his age. I got a kick watching how it flopped back and forth as he walked and it reminded me of how Dion’s penis swung back and forth when he moved about naked too. Who knows, maybe Jesse is going to end up being as blessed as Dion is in that department.

“Hey, little bro,” I heard Pat say, which caused both boys to look up. “Did you have fun doing that to Andrew?” I think Jesse was surprised that Pat had called him ‘little bro’ and he just stood there, not responding. Sammy must have picked up on this too, as I judged by his next comment.

“You are going to be our brother now,” Sammy advised him, while looking at Andrew and smiling in his direction, “so you’d better get used to hearing that. So, did you like licking the jelly off Andrew?” Jesse’s head began to bob up and down again.

“Great!” Vinnie told him. “Just remember, that’s the kind of thing that will happen to you too, if you listen to Andrew and start doing things like he does.” This brought a big grin to Jesse’s face, now that he knew the others were accepting him as an equal. I think he felt good that he didn’t have to feel like an outsider any longer, as if a day is a long time to be an outsider.

“Come on, Jesse,” Andrew interjected. “I’ll grab my clothes and we’ll go down to our room. I don’t want to be around these bullies any longer,” he teased, which caused Graham to give Andrew’s butt cheek a swat. The sting of Graham’s hand on his cute little derriere made Andrew jump and turn to see who had done that to him.

“That’s for the prank you played on me,” Graham admonished him, “and we aren’t bullies. It’s just that you eventually get paid back for what you do.”

Faking hurt feelings, Andrew led Jesse down the stairs and slowly everyone began to filter back to their own rooms, to finish what they had been up to earlier. The college boys had to hustle and get on the road, because it was starting to get late, and when they came downstairs, Jake addressed the group.

“Look, I’ll drive the van and take the guys to Philly and the colleges near there. It’s too late tonight for Dustin to try to take all of you.”

“Are you sure?” I asked him. “You won’t get back until after midnight if you do that, and you have to work tomorrow.”

“I’ll be fine,” he advised me. “I’ll get five hours sleep minimum, and that’s enough for me.” I looked at him carefully, to see if he was telling me the truth, and he grinned.

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” he assured me. I just shrugged my shoulders in response, knowing I had to trust his judgment.

Before all the college guys were ready, Nick and Shannon came up to Jake and me and asked to speak with us privately. We agreed, took them to the living room and shut the door behind us.

“What’s up?” I asked, to get things started.

“I just wanted to let you both know that I’ve been keeping my promise and Shannon and I haven’t had any sex – at all. I brought Shannon to back me up, just in case you didn’t believe what I said,” he added, while scanning our faces.

Jake happened to look up at Shannon at that instant and Shannon merely nodded his head to confirm what Nick had said. I don’t think Jake meant to seek his confirmation, but after he received it, I could tell Jake felt bad that Nick thought we wouldn’t have believed him on his own. The problem was, Jake wasn’t sure what to do to correct his misconception.

Nick wasn’t finished yet, so he continued. “Even though we haven’t been having sex, it doesn’t mean we haven’t been spending lots of time together. I think I’ve learned to love Shannon in a whole new way.” We weren’t sure what he meant by that, but we didn’t interrupt him and he continued.

“I’ve discovered there is more to a relationship than just sex and we’ve spent most of our time just hugging, kissing and being close. I know that in the past I’ve felt that the most important part was the sex and seeing how many guys’ pants I could get into, but after the sex was over, I was usually left alone and the thrill of what happened faded fast. Now, it’s different.

“Even though we can’t have sex, we still spend all of our time together and I’m happier now than I think I’ve ever been. The funny thing is, not having sex doesn’t seem to bother me as much as I thought it would. We do other things instead and just having Shannon here all the time is much more important now.” Jake and I both looked at him and absorbed the impact of what he was telling us.

“What I’m saying is, you don’t have to worry,” Nick added. “I know I messed up in the past, but I won’t do that again. I love Shannon too much and I don’t want to risk losing him. When you tell us it’s okay to be intimate again, I promise I’ll never do anything with him without using protection.”

I think his last statement left Jake and me speechless, at least momentarily. I even took this opportunity to look Nick over carefully, to make sure it wasn’t someone else speaking. Finally, Jake found his tongue and responded.

“I won’t say I misjudged you,” he began, “because I don’t think I did, but I may have been hasty in my assessment that you couldn’t or wouldn’t change. I know my son loves you, so I’ll trust his heart, but I’ll also trust your word that you will never do anything more to put either of you at risk or harm him in any other way.”

This brought an ear-to-ear smile to Nick’s face, because Jake was reaffirming his acceptance of Nick’s relationship with Shannon. A few seconds later, the three of them were entangled in a huge embrace. Shannon started it by hugging his father, in appreciation for what he had said, but soon Shannon also signaled Nick to join them. When Nick got close enough, Shannon brought him into the embrace too and hugged both of his men tightly.

When Jake became aware that Nick was there as well, he wrapped his other arm around his ‘son-in-law’ and squeezed him as robustly as he was doing to his son. It was reminiscent of the scene I had witnessed earlier, so I was relieved and convinced they had buried the hatchet. I was also looking forward to their building a relationship of their own.

After we broke up our little meeting, Jake and Shannon headed out to the vehicles, because the others were all waiting for him there. The rest of us went out to say good-bye to the college crowd, and after they drove off, I told the remaining boys to settle in for the rest of the evening. They had school tomorrow and I wanted them rested and ready for their return.