Bloodlines - 38. Chapter 38

December 8, 1998

I should be studying, I thought to myself as I wandered through Macy's doing some Christmas shopping. Finals started yesterday, and Econ had been first. That was stuff I was really good at, though, so it had been easy to study for, and I felt good about the exam. Today had been history, another subject I'd done well in, if only so I didn't embarrass JP. That final seemed pretty easy. But tomorrow was English, my nightmare class. There was no way I could get an ‘A’ in there. If I did well enough, I might just swing a ‘B’.

But I was burned out on studying, totally burned out, and I needed a break. I was going to DC with Wade next week, and I had tons of gifts to buy, so I decided that I'd make it a study break and be productive at the same time. I got some really nice perfume for Isidore and some cologne for Frank, and stood there waiting for the lady to ring them up. They were lame gifts, but I was in college, so they wouldn't expect anything more.

“That will be $97.54 sir,” she said pleasantly. I handed her my VISA credit card and tried to think about all the fucking literature we read, and all the important points I was supposed to remember. I was kind of spacing out when she came back and interrupted me.

“Pardon me sir, but your credit card has been declined,” she said, still pleasantly, but with a more cautious look.

“Declined?” I'd never had that happen.

“I'm afraid so,” she said.

“Do you know why?”

“I'm sorry; we don't get that kind of information. You'll have to call the number on the back of the card,” she said. She was being really pleasant, so I flashed her my smile.

“Let's see if this one works,” I said, handing her my MasterCard. She smiled and headed off to run that one through. She came back a few minutes later.

“I'm sorry sir, this one was declined as well,” she said. I just stared at her, dumbfounded. I looked in my wallet and I only had $5.

“I'm sorry. I guess I'll have to find out what went wrong and come back,” I said, blushing three shades of red. This was embarrassing, humiliating.

“It's not a problem,” she said soothingly. “It could just be a computer mistake. We're on holiday hours now, so we're open late.” I just nodded, thinking about how lucky I was to have a polite lady waiting on me. If she was a bitch, that would have been an excruciating experience.

I left Macy's and hopped in the GMC. The gas gauge was almost on empty. Fuck. I decided that I'd have to do things the old-fashioned way: I'd have to pay cash. So I drove over to the local branch of Bank of America and pulled out my ATM card to get some cash. $200 ought to tide me over, I decided. I put the card in and entered my code. It came back out again and spit out a receipt that said ‘insufficient funds’. I was starting to get pissed off. There should be lots of money in there. I headed inside.

“There seems to be a problem with my account,” I said to the teller. She pulled up my account.

“You have a balance of $7.54,” she said.

“That's impossible. There should have been $1000 deposited at the beginning of the month,” I told her. That's when the money was transferred automatically from my trust fund to my account.

“I can assure you it's quite possible,” she said with a really shitty attitude. “There was no transfer in the beginning of the month.”

“No transfer?” I asked, amazed.

“I don't know how I can be clearer,” she said. What a bitch.

“You've been most helpful,” I said. “Bitchy, but helpful.” She glared at me and I just turned and walked out of the bank. What the fuck was going on? I got into the GMC and pulled out my cell phone. It was dead. There was no service. I looked at the battery. It was charged. What was wrong with it?

And then it dawned on me. They'd cut me off. My parents had cut me off. Without saying anything, they'd canceled my credit cards and my phone. But how did they mess with my trust fund? That should be free from their control. My father must have pulled some strings at the bank. I sat in the GMC and put my head on the steering wheel. Why would they do this? And even if they'd written me off, why didn't they at least let me know they were going to do that? Here I was, in the middle of finals, and I was broke, completely broke.

I stopped at a gas station and put my last $5 in the tank, then headed back to the dorms. I wasn't naïve enough to think that I'd end up destitute. I was surrounded by rich men who loved me. Stef would give me whatever I wanted, and Robbie was a multi-millionaire in his own right. That wasn't the point. The point was that they'd cut me off at the knees at a time when I was most vulnerable. Yet one more thing to prove they didn't love me anymore.

I guess I should have seen this coming last week. I'd gotten an e-mail, not from Mummy, but from Princess Cruises showing that they'd booked a cruise over Christmas. In other words, they didn't bother to send me an e-mail and say, ‘don't bother coming home’, they just booked a cruise and sent me a copy of the confirmation. Fuck them. I didn't want to go back to fucking Ohio anyway. The only person there I wanted to see was Cam, and if he really wanted to talk to me he would have called me or e-mailed me.

I got back to the dorm room, hoping to run into Wade so I could scam some cash from him. Instead, I found my mail on my desk. I'd given him the code to my mailbox, so he must have picked it up for me. There were two letters there. One was from the trust company that managed my trust, notifying me that they were invoking their discretionary authority to withhold funds if they deemed I was attending an unsuitable institution. I felt the anger rising. Stanford, the premier university in the country, wasn't suitable? I'd sue those bastards into bankruptcy. The other letter was from Stanford itself, telling me that my tuition and fees for the next quarter hadn't been paid. I had until December 9th to remit payment or my registration would be canceled. That would be an enormous pain in the ass. If they canceled my registration, I'd have to go down and re-do it manually. That meant standing in lines, and probably not getting the classes I needed.

I picked up my cell phone to call the trust company and saw that ‘no service’ message again. I got so pissed off I took the phone and threw it as hard as I could against the wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Then I thought about all the contacts that were stored in there that were now gone, and my own stupidity pissed me off even more. I sighed, stuffed the letters in my pocket, and headed over to see the best person to help me out.

It was already 3:00, and I didn't know when JP went home, but it was worth a chance. I walked up to his office and found at least ten students camped outside, waiting to see him. Fuck. I walked past them and headed to the door. “Hey, we're waiting. There's a line, douche bag,” said one guy.

The guy wasn't huge, just a normal, cocky college student. I could crush him in my sleep. I pushed against him, chest to chest, and glared daggers into his eyes. “Well it looks like you're going to be waiting a little longer asshole.” He blinked, totally faced, and I felt bad about intimidating him. It wasn't his fault my parents hated me. “Look, Professor Crampton is my grandfather. I just need to see him for a minute.”

“It's cool,” he said. “We've just been waiting for fucking ever.”

“Well let me see if I can't break up the meeting with whoever he's with,” I said, smiling.

I knocked on the door and then went in, and found an exasperated JP listening to some girl as she chattered on. He looked up, relieved, when he saw me. “Matthew. Just a moment,” he said, and turned to her. “I have to go. I'm sorry if you're unhappy with your grade. If you would have done the work and come to class, you would have done better.” She tried to start talking again but he stopped her with his hand. “I have other people waiting to see me. You'll have to leave.” She huffed out of the office.

“You have about ten irritated students out there,” I teased.

He rolled his eyes. “And what can I do for you?”

I handed him the two letters. “They cut me off.”

“They cut you off?” he asked.

“I took a study break to go shopping, and none of my credit cards worked. They canceled them. I went to the bank to get cash, and the trust company didn't transfer money into my account this month. I tried to call and check on it, and my cell phone service was canceled. When I got back to the dorms, I found out that my tuition bill hadn't been paid. They cut me off,” I said, fighting the tears and barely succeeding.

“Leave these letters for me,” he said. “I will handle it.”

“I'm sorry, I know you're busy,” I almost whined.

“Not too busy to take care of this,” he said. He pulled out his wallet, grabbed a bunch of cash, and handed it to me. “Here, this will tide you over. Go study. Come over for dinner tomorrow night and we'll get you squared away, alright?”

I stared at the wad of cash. “Thanks JP. I'm sorry to drop my problem on you. I barely had enough gas to get around, so I was pretty much stuck.”

“Go study. We'll talk tomorrow,” he said.

I walked out and the guy waiting nodded to me. I'd taken less than ten minutes. I walked by the girl that had been in his office. “He is a total asshole,” she said, referring to JP.

“Skank,” I said as I passed her. The other people in the hall laughed.

I got back to my room to find Wade there studying. He was great to be around this time of year. He was so focused on his studies, it was hard not to be influenced by it, and it was motivating. “Hey,” he said cheerfully.

“Hey baby,” I said, and leaned in to kiss him. He rolled his eyes at being called ‘baby’. The only time he liked it was when we were fucking, but I did it when we weren't just to playfully piss him off.

“'Sup?”

“My parents cut me off. Canceled my credit cards, cut off my cell phone, and talked my trust officer into not paying me my monthly allowance and into not paying my tuition,” I said.

“You're kidding?” I shook my head. “That's fucking raw. I wonder if my parents would do that if I came out.”

“Oh, it's all about you,” I teased.

“For a guy who's broke you're in an awfully good mood,” he said.

“I'm in a good mood because I'm around you. How about a study break?” I leered at him.

“Later,” he said, and winked at me. I smiled, ignoring the fact that our sex life sucked. Well, that wasn't right. It wasn't horrible; it just wasn't anything like it was before Thanksgiving. Before, I'd gotten him fired up by kissing him while we fucked or by squeezing his nipples, but when I tried to do that now he pushed my hand away. Instead, when I fucked him he went into that trance thing. When he fucked me, he put a little more passion into it, but not much. He was holding back and I wasn't, and it was frustrating.

So we'd gone back to our routine before Thanksgiving. We'd go to parties and he'd fuck some girl, and I'd get drunk and fuck Carullo. Just the thought of him made me smile and made me hard. I really liked him, I really cared about him. But I didn't love him. I loved Wade. I sat down and forced myself to study, hoping our break later on would be better than the night before. It wasn't.

December 9, 1998

“I can't believe I came up here instead of studying,” Wade bitched as we drove through the gates.

“Dude, quit whining. We'll get a good meal, and we can retreat to my room and study all night. The bio exam isn't until 10am. We've got time to get back,” I said logically.

“What's wrong with just studying in the dorms?” he asked.

“Because a lot of people are fucking finished, and they'll be partying and making a bunch of fucking noise,” I said, getting irritated.

“Oh,” he said. “Good point.” He smiled at me and I melted. It was difficult to be mad at him. We parked in the garage and headed in, lugging our backpacks with us.

Isidore was walking by as we came in and greeted us with her usual courtesy. “And how did your final go today?”

“It sucked,” I said. “I was hoping I'd do well and end up with a B, but it's looking like a C now.”

“And your other grades?” she asked.

“Econ grades are out, and I got an A in that one. History isn't, but I feel good about that,” I told her. “The bio final is tomorrow.”

“I think that is very good for Stanford,” she said.

“Tell that to JP,” I said. He had some pretty high standards.

“I will,” she said, grinning. “And how about you Wade?”

“I'm doing well,” he said.

“He's pushing straight As at this point,” I said with a sneer. “Geek.” Wade acted all offended and that made Isidore laugh.

The grandfather clock began to gong for 7:00, and Isidore gave us a faked look of fear and ran to the dining room, cracking us up.

“Wade! How fabulous that you are here!” Stef said, and gave him a hug. Wade grabbed his ass like I did, making him giggle. It was neat to see Wade up here, ensconced in a place where he could really relax. Tonight it was just the six of us, Wade and me, JP and Stef, and Isidore and Frank.

“After dinner, we can go over your affairs,” JP said. Affairs? What was this, the fucking UK?

“My affairs? I can't talk about those in front of Wade,” I teased. Wade gave me a dirty look.

“It is really horrible the way your parents cut you off,” Stef said. “You know that we will take care of you.” I smiled at him to thank him.

“Your parents are assholes,” Frank said. He was so direct, so gruff it was refreshing.

“And I don't think I ever thanked you for ripping them up at Thanksgiving,” I said. “You were incredible.”

“You most certainly were,” Isidore said, and smiled at him. He blushed and that made us laugh.

“Wade didn't care about me,” I said. “He was just worried that if he came out his parents would do the same thing. I thought that was awfully selfish of him.”

Wade gave me a dirty look then rolled his eyes. “Wade, if your father finds out you are gay and cuts you off, I will make sure you are taken care of,” Stef said sincerely.

Wade just stared, speechless. “I don't know what to say. Thank you.” It really was a generous thing for Stef to do, even though it probably wouldn't come to that.

“Of course, I may require another form of payment,” he said, flirting. Wade laughed. I wondered if Stef could bring him out of his shell. If he could, it would be worth it.

After dinner, JP and Stef led me into his study while Wade escaped down to my room to hit the books. “I want you to know, first of all, that Robbie and Brad insisted on helping out. They'll be paying you an allowance.” JP handed me a checkbook from Wells Fargo with a $150,000 balance written in. “That is how much Brad got, adjusted for inflation of course,” JP said logically. I just stared at it, stunned. “Provided you keep up your grades, you'll find that much deposited into your account every six months.” Was he fucking serious? Holy shit.

“I'm overwhelmed,” I said. They just smiled at me.

“We love you, and we're proud of you. There's no reason you shouldn't have the same privileges that the other members of our family have had,” JP said. “I've taken the liberty of covering your tuition and fees, along with your room and board.” I started to object but he held up his hand. “I've hired an attorney, on your behalf, to explain things to your current trust company. He thinks he can bully them into resigning, and then we'll move it out here so it's away from your father's influence. Is that alright with you?”

“That's terrific JP. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's such a relief. I never thought they'd be able to mess with that money.”

“And this is my contribution,” Stef said, handing me a new wallet. Gucci, of course. In it were two credit cards in my name. “I will be very offended if you do not use them.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and tossed it to me. It was really cool, super slim. “You will have to program in your numbers, but at least you can stay connected to the rest of us now.”

I turned into a total pussy again, tears pouring down my face. “Thank you so much. I don't know what to say. Every time they kick me in the balls, you guys are there for me.”

“You are family, and we love you,” Stef said firmly. “It is that simple.”

“I'm never going back to fucking Ohio again,” I said.

Stef laughed. “That is funny, I think I have said the same thing several times, yet someone keeps dragging me back,” he said, looking at JP sideways.

“Yeah, but last time you were there was pretty fun, wasn't it?” I teased. JP blushed and Stef giggled, remembering our time together.

“Go study,” JP said. I gave them both big hugs, and then scampered down to see Wade.

“You still broke?” he asked, teasing me.

I tossed him my checkbook and watched him shit a brick. “Shit. My parents give me money twice a month so they can fucking control me.” I showed him the credit cards and my new phone, and I was so keyed up I actually convinced him to take a study break and make love, bland though it was.

December 16, 1998

I stared out the window at Washington DC as we descended into Reagan National Airport. It had been renamed only ten months earlier, and there were still a lot of people who were pissed off about it. I looked at all the government buildings and decided that there were probably a lot of pissed off people there anyway. Politics was Wade's thing, not mine. I looked over at him and got concerned. He'd put off coming back here until his mother had absolutely put her foot down and demanded that he return. Every mile increased his tension, until he was a knot of nerves now.

“So are you going to show me all around the town?” I teased, trying to relax him.

“Sure.”

“I figured you'd have our whole visit planned out,” I said. He gave me a dirty look. “When are you planning to come back to California?”

“Tomorrow,” he said. I gave up and just looked at the scenery. If he wouldn't tell me what was wrong, I couldn't help him. We had to check luggage for this trip. I was planning to be here until the 23rd, and I'd needed to augment my wardrobe for all the shit we were supposed to do. That had actually been a lot of fun, as Stef had taken us shopping and made sure we got the very best of everything. I didn't see why I needed Gucci shoes to go with my dinner jacket, or why it was so important that my shirts be custom tailored, but I caved in to his pressure. I figured that was his turf.

Isidore and Frank had given me my Christmas present early. They'd gotten me a kick ass camcorder so I could take movies while I was in DC. The thing was so small I could almost put it in my pocket. Well, maybe not that small, but pretty damn small. I'd spent half the flight reading the manual and playing with it, taping Wade and pissing him off.

We finally got our luggage and I followed Wade outside. He looked around, irritated, until a big limousine rolled up. “Good to see you Mr. Danfield,” the driver said.

“Good to see you too Anthony,” Wade said formally, and let him put our bags in the trunk while he climbed into the car. He sat there quietly while the car whisked us up the George Washington Parkway.

“Where do you live?” I asked.

“Near the CIA,” he said, and seemed to think that was ironic. “My father is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, so it's kind of an inside joke.”

“I'm sorry you're not happy to be here. I was kind of looking forward to exploring the city with you,” I said. If he'd come to Cleveland, I'd have taken him to see everything, from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to, well, I guess that's all there really was to see in Cleveland.

“I fucking hate it here,” he said loudly, as if he wanted Anthony to hear. “But we'll go out and try to have fun anyway.”

We drove along in silence then, while I gawked out the right window as we drove along the Potomac. After we passed the city, the limousine turned down a road and came to some gates that opened automatically. It drove up in front of a large home, traditionally southern in appearance, with big white pillars in front. There were other buildings around it. The house was smaller than Escorial, but this place looked less like a home than a compound.

“Anthony, please see that Mr. Carrswold's things are put in the room that connects to mine,” Wade said.

“Yes sir,” Anthony said. I watched Wade, watched how his normally relaxed and friendly demeanor had changed into a more cold and formal attitude. It was fascinating. He led me into the front entry, with twin staircases curving up opposite each other in what looked vaguely like a horseshoe. The foyer was elegant and traditional.

“Follow me,” he said, and led me into what could only be called a drawing room. It was furnished in beautiful antiques. Beyond that was an office, furnished in similar fashion, and that was where we found Wade's mother sitting at her desk, going through a mass of papers.

“Wade!” she said enthusiastically. She got up and hugged him, with a kiss on the cheek. I smiled. She was like a southern version of Mummy. Then I remembered that Mummy hated me now, and that removed the smile.

“Mother,” Wade said formally, and allowed himself to be embraced. She frowned at him.

“I do hope you're not going to be difficult during this visit,” she said, then sighed. “And you must be Matt. Welcome. You must treat this as your home,” she said. I had the greeting down, and tried to remember all the manners that had been drilled into my brain.

“Thank you Mrs. Danfield. It's nice to meet you,” I said.

“We don't have any plans for this evening. Beau should get in soon, though, so make sure you're here for dinner,” she said.

Wade looked concerned. “When does Beau get in?”

“I would expect him here in a few hours,” she said. “Mary Ellen is detained at school, so she won't be here for a few days.” Wade really didn't seem to give a shit about that. He obviously wasn't as close to his sister as he was to Beau. “Why don't you go get settled in. Let Annalee know if you need anything.” I assumed Annalee was the maid.

Wade led me up the stairs and opened the door to my room. It was nice, done in antiques just like the rest of the house. There was a television and a VCR, concealed of course in a tastefully ornate armoire, an antique style phone, and a bathroom. I felt like I was in a hotel room. “Let me show you the cool part,” he said, and smiled for the first time since we landed. He led me through the bathroom and into another room, his room.

“This is cool,” I said, and winked at him. His room was different. It was very modern, in a comfortable kind of way. It looked like my room in Malibu. It was like a tangible sign of his rebellion. I kind of wanted to explore around, to see the house and all the rooms, and to go out and see the ‘compound’, but he didn't seem to want to do anything. So we just hung out for a couple of hours until a knock at the door heralded the arrival of Beau.

Beau was nothing like Wade. Wade had light brown hair and blue eyes, Beau had dark brown hair and really beautiful brown eyes. Wade was muscular; Beau looked like the gym was not part of his regimen. Beau was thin, with the lankiness that came with being 15, and he had a magnetic grin that was captivating. Wade lit up when he walked in and jumped up to give him a huge hug.

“You must be Matt,” he said to me. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” I said, shaking his hand. He had a nice firm handshake, of course. Now that Beau was here, Wade lightened up and got more fun. They took me around and showed me the house, with its huge kitchen and dining room, the compound with its pool, and we walked down to the banks of the Potomac.

“So what do you drive when you're in town?” I asked Wade.

“We don't drive, we're driven,” he said sarcastically. Beau nodded. “That's how they keep tabs on us. You want to go somewhere, Anthony or one of the other guys will take you.”

“Oh,” I said. I suddenly felt trapped, and I could see why these guys might be uncomfortable here.

We finally wandered back to the house to get ready for dinner. It seemed that it was routine for them to dress nicely, so I put on khakis and a blazer, adding a tie when I saw Wade and Beau wearing them. We headed down to the dining room, and I got my first introduction to Wade's father.

“Senator Jefferson Danfield, Mr. Matthew Carrswold,” Wade said, almost with a sneer. His father ignored his tone.

“It's nice to meet you Matthew,” he said gregariously, and gave me a really warm handshake.

“The pleasure is mine, Senator,” I said.

“So what have you boys been up to?” he asked.

“We just explored around, Daddy,” Beau said. “We showed Matt the grounds.” He just nodded and smiled. We sat down to dinner and the Senator dominated the conversation.

“You boys ought to come down to the Capitol on Saturday. The House is voting to impeach the President. Should be exciting. We're gonna nail his ass.” He was happy about that.

“Pretty hypocritical if you ask me,” Wade said. “Half of those guys have skeletons in their closets way worse than that.”

“Well no one is asking you,” the Senator said sharply. “Anyway, on Sunday I have a rally after church. We're going to draw all those pro-life whackos together and get some money out of them.”

“Really Jeff, do be more charitable,” Mrs. Danfield said. “They're your base.”

“I don't have to be charitable at home,” he snapped. “I don't give a shit if blacks in the ghetto want to get abortions. I only care that they think I care. As long as I pretend to give a damn about their moral crusades, they vote for me.”

“Pardon me for asking Senator, but what's your policy goal?” I asked.

“Policy goal?” He started laughing. “Matthew, you are obviously new to this. It's all about the money. We let those nutcases set the social agenda and they ignore our tax policies and our corporate links. An unholy alliance, but it's just politics.” I smiled and nodded, as if it made sense. It did, it was just pretty disgusting. I was starting to see why Wade hated his father.

After dinner we all went into the drawing room and sat around, drinking more. We all drank a lot; I was hammered and so was Wade, but no one drank as much as his mother. It was incredible how much alcohol that woman could consume. Yet of all of us, she seemed the least drunk of all. It wasn't until midnight that we headed up to our rooms. It had been a long day, and I was tired. I was hoping to spend some time with Wade, maybe get laid, and then crash.

I got up to the guest room and was feeling pretty mischievous. My camcorder was on my table next to the TV. I grabbed it and headed over to Wade's room while he was going to the bathroom. I set it up to tape and aimed it at the bed. I figured it would be fun to watch us fuck later on. It would give me some good jack off material. He came back in the room wearing just his boxers and I hit ‘Record’ on the handy little remote control that came with the camera. I pulled him into an embrace and felt him sink into me, the feeling that I loved, where he totally surrendered to me. I pulled him away and we kissed, and I was about to lead him over to the bed when there was a knock at the door.

“Wade, I'd like a word with you,” the Senator said.

“Fuck,” Wade said, pissed off. “You'd better go. I'll try to get rid of him.” He hustled me back into my room and locked the door behind me. I tossed the remote on my dresser and just fell back in my bed, hoping Wade wouldn't be too long. I heard a loud argument, then softer discussion, and then things got quiet. About an hour later, Wade came in, looking upset.

“What happened?” I asked.

“His usual bullshit,” he said. “I hate his fucking guts.” He was so upset he was shaking. I pulled him to me and stroked his back, and he snuggled up to me like he always did. Only this time, instead of feeling him melt into me, I could feel rage flowing through him. He fell asleep and did that thing where he rolled around a lot, something he hadn't done since we'd been sleeping together, but finally I was able to get him to calm down and go to sleep. And I didn't get laid.