Roommates - 5. Chapter 5

“What’s wrong Brett?” I asked turning to see him sitting up in the bed.

“Nothing,” he said, “go back to sleep.”

“What time is it?” I asked as I sat up on the bed leaning my shoulder against his.

“It’s about thirty minutes before we have to be up getting ready for breakfast,” he said and I could tell he had been awake for a while. He wasn’t a morning person at all.

“Oh,” I said reaching my arms up over my head to stretch and roll my head around loosening all the kinks from the night. When Brett let out a sigh I lowered my arm draping it over his shoulder. I didn’t expect his body to go rigid when I touched him.

“You scared me dude,” he said sleepily. It was still dark in the room so it was difficult to tell what he was feeling.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, “you just seemed like you needed a hug.”

“Nah, I’m good,” he said leaning his head over so that our heads were touching. It was the closest we’ve been for a while and I welcomed the closeness.

“Well, I have to use to bathroom,” I said, “might as well get up and get the day started.”

“Yeah,” he said, “since you just can’t lay around in bed for ten minutes.”

“I’m sorry,” I said nudging him as I stood, “I’m a morning person.”

“Yeah,” he said lying back down on the bed covering himself again. I went into the bathroom wondering what the hell was wrong with my best friend.

The shower was inviting, but I knew it was still dark out the window of the yacht wasn’t casting any light so I wanted to hurry my shower to get out and see the sunrise. It had always been the reason I liked waking up early. Turning off the water and drying off I opened the bathroom door to the darkness of the bedroom. Brett was snoring slightly and I quietly walked over to the closet to get the clothes that I wanted to wear. Dad had wanted us to dress appropriately for the dining room table so I made sure that I didn’t make that mistake again. It was always easier doing what he wanted. Satisfied with the way I looked I saw the blue haze caused by the sun peaking over the horizon so I made sure the clock was set for Brett. I left him a quick note as to where I would be until breakfast then watched him sleep a few seconds before opening the door and entering the hall quietly closing it behind me.

The halls were stirring with staff walking around cleaning when I got up to the front deck to watch the sunrise people were sweeping and mopping. Carl was putting chemicals into the pool that no one had used yet and the table and chairs were being scrubbed. I didn’t see any point in cleaning the yacht constantly. There were only five people to clean up after and none of us were messy. Then I noticed Mom standing at the very front of the Yacht. She was sipping a glass of wine and not paying attention to all of the commotion around her. I was going to leave her there when she turned around and looked at me. I offered her a smile and she lifted her hand and waved me over to her. She was wearing a silk pink nightgown and her hair was down blowing in the breeze. It made her look a lot younger than she was and less intimidating to me.

“Good morning William,” she said leaning forward and kissing me on the cheek.

“Good morning,” I said turning to look out at the ocean. The blackness of the water compared to the bright orange and purple sky made everything look unreal.

“What are you doing up so early?” She asked putting her hand on mine to get my attention.

“I don’t know,” I said smiling, “you?”

“Oh, your father can snore louder than a jack hammer,” she said shaking her head.

“Oh,” I said offering Mom a quick glance. Talking to her alone like this felt so foreign to me. I hated not being able to sit in a room and feel completely comfortable around my own parents. The distance between us over the years made everything normally pleasant strained. I hadn’t realizes how distant my relationship with my parents had gotten until I looked at her and didn’t know anything about her life over the past few years.

“When will we be able to talk?” She asked letting my hand go.

“Right now,” I answered still scanning the ocean.

“You know it may not seem like it William, but I’ve missed you a lot,” Mom said leaning to rest her head on my shoulder. She was a tall woman standing six feet tall and only made her seem graceful in the way she moved.
“I’ll try to come up and visit more often Mom,” I said trying to keep calm being this close to her.

“That will be good,” she said, “I would like that a lot.”

“Ok then, any chance I get free from work I’ll make plans,” I said putting my arm around her gently hugging her closer to me. She let out a soft sigh and when she reached up and wiped at her face I realized she was crying. This morning I realized that she wasn’t this untouchable force. Her emotions did get the better of her. It was strange not seeing her poised and ready for anything. This vulnerability made me want to try and be a better son.

“So, do you have anyone special in your life?” Mom asked stepping away from me so she could look at me. I turned to face her the sunrise losing its brilliance.

“No,” I answered offering her a smile.

“Well maybe you’ll meet someone at the anniversary party,” she said, “I’ve invited all of your sister’s classmates for a reason.”

“Oh, I thought it was so Kathryn could shove her new boobs into their faces,” I said causing her to laugh slightly.

“Well, that too,” she said, “but I want some grand children.”

“You can get that from Kathryn too you know,” I said the lovely morning with Mom starting to come to an end. The staff working on the cleaning the front deck was finished and now I was completely alone with her and it was starting to be unpleasant again.

“Yes, I guess so,” she said blinking a few times then sighing. She had become completely unreadable now as she turned to look out at the ocean again. The sky was a dimmer orange now and the blackness of the ocean was now starting to shimmer as the suns rays started to reflect.

“I’ve been too busy to date,” I said trying to buy myself more time before I had to spill my real heart to them. I knew I couldn’t hold it in forever. Their traditional ideals of family meant they expected a woman hanging on my arm the next time they saw me.

“Nonsense,” Mom said glancing at me, “well I better go get dressed for breakfast.” She patted my shoulder as she stepped around me heading back below deck to her room she shared with Dad. I turned to look out at the ocean again feeling conflicted over who I was for the first time in a long time. I didn’t really know why I didn’t look to date people. It wasn’t because I was busy it just didn’t feel right for me to and I couldn’t figure out why. There wasn’t anything holding me back, I wasn’t tied down, and I haven’t been hurt by anyone making me apprehensive to get out there. I couldn’t use my parents as an excuse as before this summer trip I hadn’t conversed with them.

“So you left me a note,” Brett said causing me to jump.

“Yes,” I said turning to look at him. He was dressed in his usual style the messy clothes and styled hair. I could smell his cologne in the breeze and I returned the slight smile he offered me.

“I saw your Mom in the hall,” he said, “for the first time she didn’t look at me like a pile of cat puke.”

“Oh?” I asked laughing at the way he described the look she gave him.

“Yeah, so I suspect your father let her have it last night,” He said walking up to me and shoving my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I said, “I really needed that thought rushing to my head.”

“See I thought you did,” he said, “so you’re welcome.”

“Aren’t you back to your old self,” I said rolling my eyes, “for once I thought I was going to get a break.”

“Yeah, nothin like a good wank in the mornin to bring a boy back to his senses,” he said patting my shoulder. I shook my head not knowing what to say to him. He only laughed putting his arm around my shoulder hugging me closer to him. He glanced out at the ocean briefly then stepped away.

“What do you want to do today?” I asked wanting to let him have his first real fun day out here with my family.

“Oh, I’m sure your parents have plans for you,” he said, “if not then we can always fuck.”

“Nah,” I said, “I don’t want to be your hand’s sloppy seconds.”

“Oh so you do have a sense of humor Willy,” he said laughing slightly.

“William, Brett it’s time for breakfast,” Carl said appearing from the hall leading to the lower levels.

“Ok, thanks Carl,” I said as we turned to walk to the dining room.

When we got to the door we saw Kathryn fixing her hair in the hallway. The dining room doors were closed and when she looked over to see us she stopped and waited for us to get to where she was standing.

“How are you this morning, sweet ass?” Brett said smacking her on the ass. It caused her to jump and step away from him before pulling her hair back to reveal a series of hickies all around her neck.

“I’m dead,” she said frowning as she pulled her hair around to cover the love bites.

“What did you do?” I asked causing both of them to look at me and smile.

“If you need it all explained to you then you need to get out more little brother,” she said placing her hand on the doorknob.

“Who did you do that with?” I asked crossing my arms not approving of it all.

“The chef, Walker,” she said shrugging.

“Well he’s getting his ass kicked,” I said crossing my arms.

“Dear, I’m too old to be protected by my little brother,” she said, “now just keep the conversation off me in there as I don’t feel like having Walker fed to the sharks any time soon.”

“Oh, just until the sex goes bad right?” Brett asked and I frowned not liking this development at all.

“Of course,” she said looking over to me, “please don’t say anything Will.”

“I won’t,” I said crossing my arms, “but I want you to know that I don’t think you need to be doing that kind of stuff anymore.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” she said as she rolled her eyes and opened the door walking in leaving me in the hall.

“Your sister is an adult,” Brett whispered winking at me as he followed her in with me following behind.

“Good morning,” Mom said after we all entered the room.

“Well it looks like two of you dressed for breakfast,” Dad said pushing up his reading glasses. He was looking over a folder that he had brought with him. I knew they were both probably working while on this trip. They were both important people to their success and that only made me want to be half as good as the two of them were.
“Daddy,” Kat said, “It’s almost been a week just get over him not dressing to suit you.”

“I will not be told what to do by my own daughter,” he said taking off his glasses and putting his folder off the table.

“Kids,” Mom said placing a hand on Dad’s, “maybe we need to move the anniversary party up a few weeks.”

“Why?” I asked remembering the conversation we had this morning. If she wanted to get closer with her kids trapping them for as long as possible on this yacht would be the way to get that accomplished.

“Well I just figured a long time out here away from what you enjoy wouldn’t be the best way to spend the summer,” she said, “and besides the plans and everything can be ready in four days.”

“What about the guests that were expecting this thing to be in the end of Summer?” Kat asked looking down at her hair to make sure her secret was still covered.

“They’re our friends they wouldn’t miss it for the world, even if it was moved up,” she said letting go of Dad’s hand and grabbing her glass of wine.

“Ok then,” she said, “whatever you want.”

“I need to get back to work anyway,” Dad said and I felt like the plan was already finalized before we even woke up today.

“Is it because we haven’t been getting along?” I asked as the doors to the dining room opened with our food being brought to us.

“We just think we’re forcing things with this trip,” Mom said offering me a smile, “and with all of our lives taking us in different directions we all feel held back on this boat.”

“You wanted us to be close this morning,” I said crossing my arms. No one had started eating after being served.

“Yes,” she said, “but on everyone’s own terms.”

“Fine,” I said, “if that’s what you think is best.”

“Is this all my fault?” Brett asked turning all the attention to him. No one answered him at first and I glanced at my parents expecting them to say that it was.

“No,” Mom said, “even if you can’t dress properly you’ve been pleasant.”

“Ok,” he said, “thanks.”

“You’re welcome dear,” she said as she took drink of her wine.

“Kat, you know you can eat a lot more smoothly if you get your hair out of your face,” Dad said after we all started eating. I turned to see Kat cleaning her hair with her napkin. We were having a traditional southern breakfast and she had accidentally got gravy on her.

“Yes, pull your hair back sloppy hair at the table is terrible,” Mom said.

“My hair is fine,” Kat said as she picked up her fork to start eating again. Dad then reached over to move her hair and when he saw the hickies on her neck he slammed his fork down on the table.

“Kathryn Carlton,” he said shaking his head as he stood.

“What have you been doing?” Mom said leaning over the table to get a better look.

“Nothing,” Kat said pulling her hair back over her neck.

“Was this you Brett?” Dad asked walking over to Mom’s side of the table to get a better look at Brett.

“No, sir,” he said.

“I don’t believe that,” Dad said crossing his arms, “I told you to leave my daughter alone.”

“It wasn’t him Dad,” I said starting to stand, “he was with me last night.”

“Daddy it wasn’t Brett,” Kat said before Dad could turn his attention to me.

“Then you better be telling me who it was,” Dad said as he started pacing the floor, “I didn’t bring you on this trip for you to become the staff’s play thing.”

“Honey,” Mom said looking up from the table, “what a thing to say about our daughter.” Mom was smiling at Kat after seeing the evidence of Kat’s wild night.

“I’m not telling you who it was,” she said, “because you’ll overreact.”

“Aren’t you overreacting Dad?” I asked after Kathryn kicked me under the table.

“No,” he said stopping to look at me, “I’m not overreacting.” I glanced over at Brett seeing that he was the only one eating. When he caught me looking he offered me a short smile before returning to his meal. He had almost cleaned his plate and I wanted to laugh as he didn’t seem phased by the uproar in the dining room table. It did make me afraid of my parents all over again though. Dad couldn’t even handle Kathryn having sex, how was he going to accept me for being gay?

“Come on dear let’s go hunt down who did this to our daughter,” Mom said as she stood and put her hands on his shoulders nudging him towards the door.

“Fine,” he said turning on his heel and walking out the door.

“Now Kathryn I want you to know that I’m proud of you,” Mom said after the door to the dining room slammed shut.

“What?” Kat asked and I couldn’t believe what Mom had said either. It wasn’t like her to be this calm and collected.

“Just don’t become a slut, promiscuous women will not be acceptable in this family,” Mom said as she opened the dining room door and entered the hall joining Dad.

“Well breakfasts should have more live shows,” Brett said leaning back in his chair and stretching.

“Oh fuck off,” Kat said as she stood, “come on we need to talk about things.”

“Ok,” I said as we all stood and exited the room. We followed Kat down the hall towards our rooms when we got to our room she stopped. I could tell that she was upset about the fight she had with Dad.

“Go change into some trunks we’re going swimming,” she said as she took out her phone and continued down the hall to the stairs to go down to her room.

“Is she going to be ok?” Brett asked as we entered the bedroom.

“Yes,” I said thinking my sister was a strong enough person to overcome something like this. Dad was old fashioned and we both knew that. He believed in sex after marriage and long engagements. Boys were supposed to ask him for permission to date his daughter. I was expected to bring my girlfriends home with me to see if she was up to his expectations. Neither of us dated growing up so we didn’t understand how important everything was until this morning. It only made me want to keep myself unknown to Dad and Mom longer.

“Well I can’t wait until you tell him we’re queer,” Brett said as we started to undress.

“I’m not going to,” I said turning to look at him.

“No, you have to though,” he said, “its who you are.”

“You saw how he reacted,” I said, “he doesn’t have to know.”

“I told my parents,” he said as he unbuckled his belt. I was unbuttoning my shirt stopping when he said that. I didn’t know that he had told his parents, I wasn’t even completely sure if he knew what he was himself.

“So you told your parents that you are gay?” I asked and he smiled.

“Sure did,” he said unzipping his pants and letting them fall to the floor. He only kicked them off to the corner of the room out of the way. Then he grabbed the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down. I found myself looking him over until he caught me. I turned my back continuing to undress.

“How’d they take it?” I asked wondering why he kept this from me.

“Well bad at first,” he said shrugging, “then a few months later I got a call and they had done some kind of research and said as long as it wasn’t their fault they didn’t care what I was.”

“Really?” I asked as he started laughing.

“Yeah,” he said, “they learned to love my gay ass.”

“Well that’s your parents,” I said shaking my head. No one could really hate him and that’s just more proof.

After we were finished changing we left the room and walked up to the front deck to see Kat just now getting into the swimming pool. It was a small pool and wasn’t deep at all, just made for relaxing. The water was warm from always being in the sun and after Brett and I slid into it I noticed Kat had covered up all the signs of the night she had with makeup.

“Why didn’t you cover those up this morning?” I asked putting my sunglasses on.

“Because I didn’t have time,” she said smiling, “and I wasn’t all that ashamed of them in the first place.”

“Well you need to tell Walker to not do that next time,” Brett said moving over to sit across from Kat and I.

“I won’t be telling Walker anything,” she said, “I’d not change a thing about last night.”

“So he’s that good in bed then?” Brett asked and I couldn’t believe they were discussing this in front of me after the morning we all sat through.

“Yes,” she said, “but we have other things to talk about.”

“Like what?” I asked splashing my shoulders with water to cool them. It was already hot out this morning.

“Like when you’re going to tell Mommy and Daddy about you,” she said leaning back and resting her head on the rim of the pool using her towel as a pillow.

“I’m not going to,” I said crossing my arms, “why do I have to?”

“You don’t have to really, I just think you should,” she said and I looked over at her.

“Even after the way they treated you this morning?” I asked taking my sun glasses off to get a better look at her.

“Well just think about it before we rush off and it be another decade before we’re all together again,” she said, “when we get everything out in the open we can finally be a family.”

“Why don’t you think about moving to California closer to us?” Brett asked moving over to the center of the pool.

“Yeah,” I said, “I don’t think I want to lose contact with you now.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said, “but tonight I think we need a break from this damned boat.”

“Yeah me too,” Brett said then he dunked his head under the water for a second then coming back up.

“So you two want to sneak on board the staff boat and come with?” Kat said looking at the both of us.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said crossing my arms.

“Live a little Willy,” Brett said, “and we will be coming along Kat.”

“Ok, so meet us in the staff hall at nine, it’s the last floor of the yacht,” she said standing up, “I’ll be going to take a nap.”

“Ok,” I said standing up and getting out the pool. I hadn’t been in the intense sun for a long time and I didn’t want to get sun burned. Tonight will seem foreign to me and I couldn’t even picture what Kat had planned.