Gap Year - 50. Chapter 50

 

February 28, 2004

Malibu, CA

 

Will

“What do you mean you watched us?” Zach asked. “You fucking watched us?”

“No, I watched you fucking,” I said playfully, pretending that being there hadn’t bothered me.

“You watched the whole thing?” He was a little unglued, but I expected that.

“The whole thing,” I confirmed. He collapsed onto his back and sighed. I gave him some time to digest things, knowing that when he was done, he’d re-engage with me.

“Was it hot?” he asked, throwing out some humor to try and make this less freaky.

“It was hot, but…” I stopped, not sure how to go on.

“But what?” he demanded.

“He was pissed at you because he had to wear a condom, and you weren’t all that into it. It was like it was just a sexual release for you, a notch up from just jacking off,” I said.

“It was a little better than that, but I get your point,” he said, then got all mad again. “So where were you?”

“In the closet,” I said. “Kind of an odd place for me to be.” He chuckled.

“Why were you in the closet?”

“When the guard went to get you to talk to Curtis Buck, he left his station, so I snuck back there to use the half bath. Like an idiot I flushed it, and they knew someone was here, so I came upstairs to hide. T’s room was the one we stayed in when we visited there as kids, so I picked it. I was going to jump out the window and escape, but you guys came in and I didn’t have time to do that,” I explained.

“Why didn’t you just come out and join us?” he asked seductively.

“It bothered me a little too much to do that,” I admitted.

“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” he objected.

“You weren’t. Remember how it was hard for you to watch me flirting with Travis?” I asked. “This was like that, only a lot worse.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” I said, and kissed him lovingly. “It was my fault I was in that closet, and I deserved what I got. This one is all me.”

He kissed me back then broke it off and shook his head at me lovingly. “It really doesn’t bother me that you watched, but Travis would lose his shit if he knew,” Zach said. “He guards his privacy pretty strongly.”

“He wasn’t cool with it, but I think we’re okay now,’ I said calmly.

“You told him? You told him before you told me?” he asked, his volume way too loud for the bedroom.

“You are almost yelling,” I said firmly, and that knocked him off his outrage pony. “I was in the closet, and after you left, he went into the bathroom. I was waiting for him to leave, but he decided to change shirts, so he opened the closet door and busted me.”

“Was he upset?” Zach asked.

“Yeah. He was losing it big time,” I said. “I felt so bad about it, because I hadn’t meant to be there, I shouldn’t have been there, so this whole fucking disaster was my fault.”

“Well you explained that to him, so give him a little time to get over it,” he said soothingly, pretending to be worried that my friendship with Travis was on the rocks. Like he gave a shit if I ever talked to Travis again. If Travis and I were friends, that would box him in a lot more than he probably wanted.

“We’re surfing together this morning at 8am,” I said, looking at the clock to see it was almost 2am.

“You’re surfing with him in six hours?” he asked. “He usually stays pissed off longer than that.”

“He’s probably still really mad at me, but I think he knows I wasn’t really trying to stalk him,” I said.

Zach nodded. “He trusts you.”

“Has he said that?” I asked.

“Should I ask him during study hall?” he responded, giving me shit for sounding like I was milking the gossip chain like a high school freshman. I gave him an annoyed look. “He knew you were coming to the party and he was pretty excited about it. He told me you guys used to be tight, and that you’d been a good friend. For Travis, that means he trusts you.”

“You said sex with him is sometimes better,” I said, but it was more of a question.

“I don’t think I said that,” he countered.

“Is it?” He frowned at me.

“It can be a lot better,” he said. “He was pissed at me, so I just got a fuck. When we first started messing around, it was kind of bland like that too. As we got tighter, it got better.”

“Does he like to top or bottom?” I asked. He gave me a strange look. “I’m just taking notes in case I get to fuck him.”

“Christ,” Zach said, and rolled his eyes.

“What sets him free when you fuck him?” I asked.

“Can we talk about something else?”

“No,” I said, bugging him on purpose.

“When it comes to fucking, he’s a top,” Zach said.

“Doesn’t like to bottom, eh?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I tried a few times just for fun but then gave up,” he replied.

“Because you’d rather bottom anyway,” I said, and gave him a nice kiss.

“There’s one thing he likes to do that I’m not that into,” he said.

“What?”

“He likes edging,” Zach said. “For him, he’d rather spend a lot of time and blow like it’s a fucking space launch as opposed to getting off quickly.” I thought about how it was when we had sex, and when I was with Zach, we usually didn’t do that.

“Do you?” I asked.

“Not really,” he said. “I like building up to a crescendo, and if I back down like that I have to start all over again, and that just frustrates me.”

“I can see that,” I said. “You like to win. When you back off, it must be kind of like losing.”

He smiled at me. “You do this shit where you jump into my brain and figure things out better than I do.”

“That’s because I love all of you, including your fucked-up mind,” I teased, making him chuckle.

“True that. Can I borrow the truck in the morning so I’m gone when he gets here?” he asked.

“Why would you do that?” I asked. “You told him we fucked, and that we were going to have sex whenever we saw each other. Why would that be a problem?”

“I have a shitload of work to do so I need to get back to campus and get it done,” he lied. I just stared at him, calling him on that total bullshit excuse, until he frowned. “I think he’ll deal with finding out I was here, but actually seeing me here would be tougher for him.”

“Makes sense,” I said. It was kind of what we’d both been dealing with: having this open relationship thing pretty much get right in our faces. If Travis had strong feelings for Zach, seeing him here would be painful. “Unfortunately, the truck isn’t here and the battery in the Ferrari is dead.”

“Then I’ll have to take the Ferrari,” he said. “I can jump start it.”

“If it’s dead you won’t be able to start it again,” I said.

“I’ll drop it off and get it fixed,” he said.

“That’s awesome,” I said. “Thanks.” One less thing for me to worry about.

“I should crash,” he said, but we had so much more ground to cover.

“Are you and Taylor exclusive?” I asked.

“I suppose now you’re going to tell me you have pictures of her fucking someone?” he asked sarcastically. I actually did have pictures, but I chose not to bring that up.

“It was a simple question,” I said. “And I think I actually have a right to know the answer to this one.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to know how badly I’m fucking her over by cheating with her boyfriend,” I said.

“We’re supposed to be exclusive, and I am except for you and Travis,” he said. “She doesn’t know about the two of you. She’s lived up to her part of the deal while I haven’t.” The guilt was eating him up.

“That you know of,” I said.

“Dude, I spend a lot of time with her. If she was fucking around on me, I’d know about it,” he said defensively.

“You sure about that?” I asked.

“What’s your point, Will?” he asked, because he was irritated with me, and because he was tired and hungover.

“Would you rather know she’d been with someone, or would you rather not know?” I asked. His eyes bulged. “Dude, it’s a philosophical question.” It was cool that he took some time to ponder that and got rid of his annoyance with me at the same time.

“I’d rather know, but I’d probably just go down the road and act like nothing happened,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“What’s with all the fucking questions?” he asked, mad at me again.

“I’m just trying to understand your reasoning,” I said.

“If I know she did that, I’d be pissed, but it’s no different than what I did, so it will take away a lot of the guilt I feel for cheating on her,” he said.

“She fucked Vaughan Harvey at the party,” I said. His eyes bulged and his mouth fell open in shock.

“Jesus Christ,” he said. “I almost want to get up and run out of here, worried about what kind of bombshell you’ll drop on me next.”

“You don’t want to do that,” I said, sliding on top of him.

“Dude, I am too upset to fuck,” he said, and grabbed my arms like he was going to toss me off of him.

“That’s fine,” I said noncommittally, which made him relax. “I normally wouldn’t out someone for cheating, but if someone I love is the cheatee, then I think it’s the right thing to do,” I said.

“Cheatee?” he asked and laughed at my word. “Guess it’s the same deal you had with Jeff.”

“The same deal,” I agreed.

“Can I get some sleep now?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“I’m almost worried about what kind of bomb you’re going to drop on me,” he said.

“What did Curtis Buck want to talk to you about?” I asked.

“Did you watch that meeting too?” he asked sarcastically. “No way you could get around his security.”

“I didn’t watch it, I taped it,” I told him.

“You had his office bugged? How the fuck did you do that? He has it fucking swept damn near all the time,” he said.

“Not exactly,” I said.

“I’m afraid to ask what you did,” he said.

“I didn’t tell you the whole story about why I ran away from the guards,” I said. He looked at me, telling me to go on. “After I flushed the toilet and Curtis heard me, I hurried down that hall to the closet.”

“That closet is right next to his office,” he mused. “So you were eavesdropping?”

“I could hear him yelling, but I couldn’t hear him when he was talking normally,” I told him. “I took out my tape recorder and held it against the wall.”

“What if it didn’t record?” he asked.

I reached down and grabbed my pants, pulled out the tape recorder and the first tape, then rewound it. I hit play:

“Well good evening, Zach,” Curtis said.

“Evening,” Zach said.

“Turn it off,” Zach insisted. I did, then looked at him. “You want to know what he said, listen to it. I don’t want to relive that conversation.”

“You’re okay if I listen to it?” I asked.

“It’s a little late to ask me about it now, isn’t it?” he demanded, annoyed with me.

“I haven’t listened to it yet,” I said. He smiled at me, reached over and pulled me into a hug, then lay on his back and held me tightly.

“I’m fine if you do,” he said. “Who else did you tape?”

“Keith Craddock,” I said.

“Dude’s a douche,” he said.

“Always has been,” I agreed.

“Dude, you were just supposed to go to a party, get wasted and have fun, and instead you turn into fucking Sherlock Holmes and blow my fucking world apart,” he grumbled. I chose to take it as a joke and laughed.

“I didn’t mean to do that, it was just like one thing sparked the next, then the next…” I told him.

“Where did you see that dude fucking Taylor?” he asked.

“In the woods,” I said. “Dude, before you get too pissed at her, think about how hot Vaughan is.”

“He’s not as hot as me,” he said, being cocky. “No one is as hot as me,” he joked. He was right, but Travis was close.

 

 

February 29, 2004

Malibu, CA

 

Will

“Are you going to be around later?” I asked.

“Dude, I’m afraid to be around you,” Zach teased. I was hungover and tired, and even sex with him this morning didn’t cheer me up.

“You didn’t seem afraid this morning,” I said, forcing a smile.

“I’ll call you later and let you know how these assignments go,” he said.

“Stef gets in tonight,” I said.

“Cool,” he said, but he was anxious to leave, and to probably get away from me. I got a bowl of cereal and went back up to my room, then plugged the tape recorder into my system, made sure everything worked, then hit ‘play’ so I could simultaneously listen and copy it onto a CD at the same time.

“Well good evening, Zach,” Curtis said, with that fake bonhomie that seemed like part of his personality.

“Evening,” Zach said casually. He sounded really confident, which surprised me.

“I want to talk to you about a few things,” Curtis said, his tone getting meaner. “We’re going to establish a few ground rules.”

“Whatever,” Zach said. This was blowing my mind.

“First of all, I don’t give a shit if it bothers you that I’m tracking your phone. That’s part of the deal. You date my daughter, you get tracked. So you better keep your fucking phone with you.”

“That’s rule one,” Zach said, almost in a smarmy way.

“Rule number 2,” Curtis said, almost snarling. “You quit being a fucking faggot. I’ve got enough information to prove you’ve been spending your spare time sucking dick,” he said.

“Good information to know,” Zach said, as if he didn’t give a shit.

“And this isn’t a rule, it’s a statement. No son of a garbage man is going to fuck with me. I don’t give a shit if you’re the best fucking running back in the country, I’ll wipe you off the map,” he said.

“You finished?” Zach asked.

“I’m finished,” he said, about to claim this as a victory.

“Well I’m not,” Zach said. “You tracked my phone, and that’s not only a crime, it’s a civil suit headed your way. You better lawyer up, asshole.”

“You can’t prove anything,” Curtis snarled.

“My former phone is with the techs as we speak,” Zach said. “Next thing: You are not involved in my relationship with Taylor at all. Unless I hurt her, you keep your fucking nose out of our business.”

“She’s my daughter so she is my business,” he said. “Don’t tell me what to do when it comes to my daughter.”

“It’s a good thing you inherited your money, because you’re dumb as shit,” Zach said with disdain. “Taylor has heard the rumors about me taking a nice big cock up my ass, and she doesn’t believe them. Instead, we’re together because we’re good together, we get along, and I make her more popular than she would have been without me.”

“She’s ignoring it because she doesn’t know,” Curtis said.

“Go ahead and tell her what you know,” Zach said.

“You’re the dumb ass,” he said. “You get outed in college, there is no NFL career for you.”

“Maybe,” Zach said, like he didn’t give a shit. “Or maybe everyone knows what a complete asshole you are and no one will believe you.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Curtis snarled. “You’ll be over.”

“And finally,” Zach said, “my father may be a garbage man, but I’m part of the Schluter family, and while you may be rich, they fucking eclipse you.”

“You should learn to read a balance sheet,” Curtis said.

“I’ll see you around,” Zach said, and I heard his footsteps as he walked out of the room.

I stopped the tape and called Zach. “S’up?” he asked.

“Dude, I want to have your babies,” I said, making him laugh.

“I already knew that,” he joked.

“I just listened to that tape. You were amazing with Curtis Buck. Shit. That was epically brave.”

“You were okay with me claiming to be a part of your family?” he asked nervously.

“Now you’re pissing me off,” I said and he immediately understood that I wasn’t bullshitting about that. Whenever he acted like he wasn’t a family member, he lit my fuse. “You are part of our family.”

“Sometimes it seems like I’m acting all, I don’t know...”

“Dude, you did so well,” I interrupted, because the word he was looking for was gold digger, and I didn’t want him to go there. “I can’t wait to play this for Stef, Grand, and my father.”

“You’re going to play that for them?” he asked nervously.

“Fuck yeah,” I said. “They’ll be proud of you.”

“What if he really does tell the world I’m gay?” Zach asked, showing me that he was lying to Curtis Buck during the part of the conversation where Zach made it sound like he didn’t give a shit about being outed. That was a total bluff on his part.

“I think you deny it and force them to come up with solid proof,” I said thoughtfully. “If they do, then you deal with the situation.”

“With you in my corner,” he said lovingly.

“With me in your corner,” I confirmed.

“I gotta run,” he said. I smiled and was truly happy for the first time this morning. I made sure the system was still working then hit play again:

“Go track down Keith Craddock,” Curtis said to the guard. The only sound I heard was the sound of his footsteps as he seemingly paced around his office.

“You wanted to see me?” Keith asked.

“Yes I wanted to see you,” Curtis said, as if Keith was the biggest idiot in the world. I had to agree with Curtis on this one. “I’m not paying you just to sit around, I’m paying you for results.”

“I’ve spent time with T constantly,” Keith objected. “I’m like his human shadow.”

“You managed to show up late tonight,” Curtis said. “And last night no one knew where the fuck he was. He says he left his phone on the dresser. Where the fuck were you?”

“I had a date,” Keith said guiltily.

“You had a date when you were supposed to be on the job,” Curtis sneered. “Good work ethic.”

“I’m sorry,” Keith said. “You told me I didn’t have to track him all the time.”

“I don’t need you to track him at school, I need you to track him on weekends,” Curtis said. “And that means that you have to stick to him, especially when he’s with Will Schluter and Zach Hayes. He was out there bullshiting with Will about God knows what. Where were you?”

“I got here when the party got going,” he said.

“You got here late,” Curtis said. “I want you to get evidence Travis is fucking around with those two.”

“You mean like a threesome?” Keith asked.

“No you dipshit, with either one of them,” Curtis said, annoyed at Keith’s idiocy. That was about the only common ground Curtis and I shared.

“Why would you want me to do that to T?” Keith asked.

“Because if I have that to hang over his head, he won’t be such a pain in the ass,” Curtis said.

“I don’t think he’d care all that much,” Keith said.

“When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you,” he snapped. “Remember you work for me and ask yourself how much you like those checks.”

“Sorry,” Keith mumbled.

“Keep a fucking eye on him. He leaves his phone at home or in his truck whenever he wants to dodge the tracking device. That’s when you fill in the blanks, so fill in the fucking blanks!” He was shouting at the end of that sentence.

“You got it,” Keith said.

The next meeting, the one with Sierra was awful. He’d basically raped the poor girl. I felt extreme rage, a rage so extreme I didn’t know how to get rid of it, and underneath that, I felt revulsion, extreme revulsion. I hurried into my bathroom and puked my guts out, then sat on the floor and cried.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was 7:45. I pulled myself up and washed off my face, noticing that my eyes were still red. I took a Tums and put some eyedrops in, then went downstairs to grab another energy bar. With my mood the way it was, this was probably a really bad idea. With all of this hidden shit going on in Travis’s life, he needed a real friend, and of his intimate cadre, I was probably the only one who could help him out. I said that like we’d been friends forever, and while we had, we were just now starting to re-spark that flame. This whole thing could blow up in my face and end things between us.

I was going to put my wetsuit on, but I didn’t have time for that, so I threw on some shorts and went downstairs. I walked about ten feet away from the house and looked south. I was wondering why I was so into being tight with Travis. My feelings for him last night had influenced me to be a real dick to Zach, yet they were feelings largely from when I was thirteen. This was just some mirage, some weird infatuation, and it could only upset my world and create a shitstorm for me.

Then I looked south and saw Travis walking up the beach, looking so happy. When he saw me he waved and smiled at me, his wavy blond hair moving gently with the breeze. At that moment, I knew why this was important to me. His good looks were enough to get just about anyone to drop their pants for a fling with him, but that wasn’t the reason. Travis was a good person, a guy with a heart of gold, and he didn’t deserve the shit that was happening to him. I also knew that even though I’d only spent one night connecting with him, that connection was strong, and had the potential to be even stronger.

I started walking toward him to meet him and saw he was carrying his wetsuit. “Hey!” he said enthusiastically, and gave me a big hug, which I returned.

“Hey!” I said, even as I felt his warm body touch mine. “Didn’t know if you’d be able to make it after the party last night.”

“I’m a little tired, but I ended up not getting as fucked up as I thought I would,” he said.

“That’s probably my fault,” I said, feeling guilty again.

“Dude, it’s fine,” he said, then made me look at him. “Seriously.”

I sighed. “I know you’re a private person, that’s why it bothered me so much.” We started walking back toward our house.

“Yeah, I am. I have to be. But I spent way too much time thinking about it last night, and I decided that I was cool with it because it was you.” I put my arm on his shoulder.

“I’m glad we’re good,” I said. “When we were hanging out in the woods last night, it was like our connection was really intense. At least for me.”

He stopped and made me look at him. “It was for me too.”

I smiled and felt myself blushing, so he smirked at me. “At first I thought it was just because I was wasted, but it’s still there, and I’m completely sober.”

“We should change that,” he said, and raised an eyebrow. “Wake and bake.”

“I need to talk to you about a few things first,” I said.

“We’re not surfing?” he asked, disappointed. We both instinctively looked out at the water, which was flat. “OK, maybe not.”

“It will probably pick up in a bit,” I said, even though there was no reason for me to think that.

“Probably,” he agreed.

We were almost to our house when a really unpleasant person appeared in front of us. “Ready to hit the waves?” Keith Craddock asked. He was already wearing his wetsuit and carrying his long board.

“Dude, what the fuck are you doing here?” I asked, so pissed off that he’d show up. How did he know Travis was even here?

“It’s a public fucking beach,” Keith said to me.

“It’s also seven miles from where you live,” I said. “And the waves are usually decent, but they’re not this morning.”

“How was I supposed to know that?” he demanded. He was defensive and that made him bitchier.

“You could have looked at the water,” I said.

“I have to change,” Travis said, and I saw that he was really conflicted. Keith had been his stalwart friend, or so he thought, so he didn’t want to be rude.

“I need to do that and grab a few things,” I said. “We’ll meet you out there in about an hour.”

“An hour?” Keith asked.

“Yeah, an hour,” I said. “I might want to grab something to eat too.”

“I could use some food,” he said.

“I’ll bring you a banana,” I said in a snarky way, then turned to Travis. “Come on.”

“See you in a bit,” Travis said to Keith, then followed me.