Normal - 2. Chapter 2

Last time: Ty starts on his journey, leaving home and arriving at Penn State. Lucky to have a first floor room, he sees, but hasn't officially met Colt...how will this go?

Now for the rest…

Wow. Yeah, Colt is hot. Geez, I need to get it together, unless I want to out myself to the entire world within 5 minutes of arriving here. Yeah, let's not do that. Mom is already going to be on emotional overload, let's not add a gay son into that mix.

The fam and I approached the door and, luckily I had a free hand so I could knock..I know, it's my room too, but I don’t want to seem rude. I knock on the door and Mr. Adonis jerks his head over to see who’s there.

“Hey, you must be Ty!”, he greets warmly and energetically.

Now my bashful side decided to show itself. So much for the excitement of a new beginning.

“Hey, yeah, that's me. How’re you, Colt?”, as I hold my hand out to shake hands with this mini God.

He takes the offered hand, and immediately offers to help with anything we need to bring in. Thankfully, he already chose a side and was pretty well set up. I feel like he’s been here for a few hours at least. Makes me wonder where his parents are.

We bring in this first load of stuff, and start putting things together, putting clothes away, Mom insisting on making my bed, the normal stuff. I won't bore you with the details of moving in, as it's pretty typical for just about everyone. We got everything setup well, and it was time for the big stuff to come in, and by big stuff, the boxes of food, microwave and the mini fridge. Thankfully, Colt volunteered, no, more like demanded to help bring this stuff in.

We went back out to the Tahoe, and started unloading everything else. Derek grabbed the microwave, Mom grabbed a box of food, Dad grabbed the cases of water and Colt and I grabbed the mini fridge. All in all, a successful trip. We were pretty smart at home and decided to leave all the cardboard boxes back there, less mess to clean up, Dad thought.

After dealing with all of the typical move in stuff and simple nicety questions, I started to wonder, am I getting one last free meal out of this, or am I eating some nondescript dining hall slop. Maybe I can even convince Dad to stop at Berkey Creamery on the way back, because, who doesn’t love ice cream?

That question was soon answered when Dad asked Colt if he’d join us for one last dinner before they took off for home. I’m sure Mom would be posting all kinds of pictures and weepy stuff on Facebook when they were on the way home, in the midst of her sobs and memories. Yeah, we’re all pretty emotional people, always have been. I swear we’re all criers, not that there’s anything bad about it, but Mom can be a handful when she’s super emotional...sigh, Moms.

Colt reluctantly agreed, and we hopped in the Tahoe, headed for one of Dad’s favorite places in college, which was now owned by one of his fraternity brothers. We’ve been here a few times when we came up for visits and football games. It’s okay food, just typical mom and pop Italian food, pizza and stuff like that. Guess I need to come into the thought of, free food is good food now that I’m in college. Well, not officially, since classes haven’t actually started you, but you get my drift.

We walked into the aptly named Angelo’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant seemingly before the dinner rush could mobilize. Sam Weinstein, dad’s fraternity brother turned owner (never Uncle Sam, always just Sam) saw us come in and came rushing over to see us. Mind you, we’ve been here a lot whenever we visit. It’s always funny, Derek always tries to play cute and call him Uncle Sam, just to get a rise out of him. It usually works.

This time was no different. Dad and Sam did their middle aged bro thing, Derek kissed Sam’s ass (probably for the inevitable tiramisu at the end of dinner) and Mom warmly gave Sam a hug. It’s like a family reunion. I had to step up and introduce Colt, as I’m sure we’d be back before the semester was over.

“Hey Sam, I’d like you to meet my roommate Colton Deemer, we’re over in your old stomping grounds at East Halls. I hope you still remember it from all those years ago.”, poking fun at Sam was always my way of greeting him, I’m the middle child, what do you expect. I had to get my attention somehow, right?

Sam gives me his usual evil eye, calls me a smartass and gives his whole attention to Colt. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Colton, I’m sorry you’re stuck with the wiseass of America for a roommate. You'll have to let me know if he’s causing you any trouble, I'll straighten him out for you” As if anyone was actually going to “straighten me out”, pfft. “No way sir, Ty is a cool guy, won’t need to sell him out, but if I change my mind, I’ll let you know.”

Introductions out of the way, we grab a table and start looking at the menu, not that I need it. I’m a weirdo but I always get the chicken bacon ranch pizza with black olives, and Sam knows it. I think this was more of a lets glance at the menu while Colt figures out what he wants. I feel like he’s going to be a chicken parm sandwich kind of guy, let's see if I’m right.

Sam takes care of our drink orders and asks us all if it's our usuals or not, of course Derek had to be difficult and make his order super complex, Not that Sam didn’t expect it, but it does get kind of annoying, but what little brother doesn’t get annoying at one point or another. Anyway, we’ve all ordered and I’m waiting for Colt to order.

“May I have a chicken parm sandwich with fries, please?” I immediately started laughing, which got me the “mom look”, you know that one that she’s openly disapproving of what you’re doing, but too polite to say it in front of polite company. Yeah, that one. I got it because she thought I was laughing at Colt. No, I was amused at myself that I got his order right without really knowing him all that well.

“Ma, don’t give me that look. I guessed that he would order that in my head, and when it happened, it seemed amusing to me.” I turned to my left to face Colt, “Sorry Colt, I don't want you to think I was laughing at you. I just tend to amuse myself sometimes. You’ll understand me soon enough, or want to kill me. Not sure which one, but we’re destined to find out.”

He just smiled at me and we continued on with our pleasant dinner conversation. Nothing too heavy, just normal getting to know you stuff. Until Dad and Sam dropped the bomb on us. This was evidently a setup. Remember, Dad and Sam were fraternity brothers at Penn State. What I didn’t know was that Sam was the chapter’s alumni advisor, basically the responsible adult in the room so fraternities don’t spend all their money on beer and strippers, at least that's my guess. Since Dad was a member, I’m considered a legacy, basically a sure lock to join if I want to, just so they can keep alumni happy.

I knew where this was going. Sam had already talked me up to the chapter, letting them know that I was a legacy, and that he’d be pretty upset if I didn’t have some ready made friendships, and folks helping to show me the way around campus and stuff. Instead of the check, Sam brought over a piece of paper with the address to their fraternity house on it.

“Ty, you know what this is. You know where it is. Your Dad and I expect you to at least check it out. They’re having a small get together tonight, you and Colton will be welcomed with open arms there. If you go, and I think you should, when you get there, ask for Logan Weathers, he’s the chapter president, and tell them I sent you, “ Sam instructed. “Not that I anticipate any problems at the door, your names will be on the invite list . You should go check it out.”

I looked at Colt then over to my Dad. He had this look of pensive pride on his face. This was really important to him, I couldn’t say no. “Sure, Sam, I'll definitely stop by, it’ll be up to Colt if he goes. But for now, I’d like to say my see ya laters to some important people and a little brother.” Derek just rolled his eyes at my comment, but knew this was going to be another change. He was going to be the top dog at home, well, only dog at least until Thanksgiving.

We finished without dessert, and shockingly didn’t go to the Creamery, yeah, I think this was hitting Mom and Dad on a different level then when Nat went to school last year. They did all the goodbye stuff at the airport before she went to California. This time, it's all of us, and it's going to be kinda public. Oof...here we go.

The mood going back to the dorm was pensive for most of the car, but I had some bubbling excitement underneath. Sure this was freedom, this was my coming of age, but I had a lot riding on it. Most importantly, Mom and Dad’s love and respect. I have to do this right. As we got back to the East Halls, we parked, Colt thanked Mom and Dad for including him, and told me that he would see me inside . He was going to be a good friend, letting us have our moments.

I figured that I’d start easy with Dad, get teary eyed with Mom then finish off with Derek. I guess I’m underestimating the rest of them. But, I’m more worried about Mom’s reaction. OK, I just need to get this done. We got out of the car and awkwardly stood around, I guess I have to be the one to do this. Ugh.

I walked up to Dad and opened my arms for a hug. Getting one, I just whispered in Dad’s ear “I’ll give it a shot, Dad. No promises, all I want is to make sure you’re proud of me.” He choked up a bit and whispered back “I already am. Live your life for you. It’s time to grow.” As he stealthily handed me a credit card and told me to use it for emergencies, and he’d take care of it, Mom doesn’t know about it. I just smiled and nodded my head. OK, one down. Dad went and got in the car, probably so he wouldn't cry.

I went up to Mom next and melted into her as always. She already had tissues in her hand and was ready to bawl at any moment. I just gave her my begging look and said “Momma, I've got this. I'm going to make you and Dad proud. Don't cry, don't worry, I’m going to be OK, you’re going to be OK and you still have Derek for 3 more years.” Some tears started running down her face. I had to make her laugh, “Now, you got all prettied up to come up here today, you can't go ruining your makeup. Besides, you know Dad is going to want to go to the Creamery, you can’t go out with makeup running down your face.” She sniffled and giggled a bit, I knew I had won the battle.

Mom rummaged through her purse and handed me a bank envelope, I knew what was inside, I’m not that naive. She just smiled at me and quietly said “don’t make me a grandmother quite yet.” Oh if you only knew, Mom, if you only knew. I pulled back from the hug and looked Mom in the eye. “Have some bittersweet mint in a waffle cone for me. “ Mom leaked out a tear or two and headed for the car. Now it was just me and Derek.

You’d have to understand my relationship with Derek, to know why I chose to say goodbye to him last. See, Derek was my shadow, always. I never treated him like a pesky little brother like some of my friends at home treated their siblings. We were close, more like best friends than brothers. He’s trying out for the soccer team in a few weeks, trying to fill in for me. He’ll be starting his Eagle Scout stuff soon, following in my shadow. I hated that about him. Now it was time to tell him that.

“Der, you’re my best friend, and I love you, you know that. At least, I’m hoping that you do. Listen, I’ve been thinking about this all summer. Trying to find the way to tell you this. When you get in the car in a few minutes, you’re going to be the man. You’ll be the trash collector, foh walker, leaf raker and anything else that I used to do around the house. I know you’re going to do it, probably with a smile on your face, because that's just how you are. But when you get back home, I want you to be Derek. Unapologetically Derek. Not Ty’s little brother Derek. Not the Derek that does everything that I did. I want you to be you. This is your chance to be you, not my shadow. “ Derek gave me a look, one of those “what the hell are you talking about?” looks.

I grabbed him by the shoulders.and looked down to look him in the eyes. “Der, Just be you. Do whatever makes you happy. If that's soccer, if that’s Scouts, if it's something totally different, just be you. You only get one chance to be your true self, bud, make the most of it.” Derek bear hugs me, squeezing me for all he’s worth. I knew this was going to be the toughest part. “I love you Derek. Go be the best Derek you can be, and you better still text me everyday. If you don't I'm kicking your ass when I come home next.”

Derek looked up at me, broke the hug and just said “like you could,” and walked to the car. Je got in, and I watched them pull away. Life was now mine. Time to live, time to learn. Guess I need to get ready for a fraternity party.