Gap Year - 80. Chapter 80

March 15, 2004

Maui, HI

Will

“That was fucking incredible!” Travis said as we paddled through the ‘keyhole’, a gap in the reef that enabled us to get beyond it to the surf. We’d gotten up early to find the surf was rocking, and it stayed amazing the entire time. “I almost don’t want to go in.”

“Maybe the waves will still be good after lunch,” I said. I looked over at him and my expression must have matched his: a huge grin, and cheeks that were flushed from the rush and the exertion of fighting the Pacific.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Travis asked, gesturing at the shore. I followed his eyes and saw a medium-sized tent that seemed to be sheltering a bar and a buffet area. Kimo was laughing as he made drinks, while Alana was pointing out food at the buffet to Crawford, who was most likely flirting with her. John, Ryan, Mike, and Bongo had set up non-electric instruments and were singing. Mike wore his Kalibra band shirt, while the other three were shirtless, all four of them looking stunningly handsome. Everyone else was chilling on lounge chairs. It was the perfect party setting.

“They brought the party to us,” I said. We got out of the water, toting our boards, and as I walked toward our tent, I broadened my view to the rest of the beach. There were three groups near us, and as I studied them, they all looked somewhat annoyed by our festivities. Closest to us was a white family consisting of a man and a woman who appeared to be in their early 40s, along with two girls who must be their daughters. The girls were probably about twelve or thirteen, and they watched the band with almost hero worship. Beyond them was another white couple, only these people were older, probably in their late 50s. It was hard to figure out what bothered them, but they had that disapproving look on their faces that older Caucasian people seemed to master. The final group looked like they were Hawaiian. There was a guy and two women, all in their late twenties, and they had three little kids that were probably around 5-8 years old.

“Shoots!” Crawford said, the first one to spot me as I walked up to the tent. We high-fived each other. “Drinks!”

Travis and I walked up to the bar and Kimo handed us shots, which we downed with no effort. Marie got up from her lounge chair and walked up to me. “This is pretty amazing,” she said as she put her hand on my shoulder.

“No shit,” I agreed. “What a great idea.”

“Try out the food,” she said, gesturing at our buffet area.

“In a minute,” I said. I looked at our buffet and saw that we had tons of food. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” Marie asked.

“I’m going to invite these other people to join us,” I said, gesturing at the three groups.

“I should have thought of that,” she said, all freaked out.

“Dude, no guilt,” I said. “I just happened to notice it before you did. We have enough to share, and it’s bad enough we’re making them listen to the band.”

“Fuck you,” John said playfully.

Marie and I went over to each of the groups and invited them to grab some food and hang out with us. John was awesome, because he made sure to spend some time paying attention to the girls who looked like they were just tweaking out on puberty. “Yo, thanks man,” the Hawaiian dude said as he took a plate of food.

“Enjoy yourself,” I said. Travis and I ate a bunch of food, even as we talked to our new guests. After about an hour, it was time to hit the surf again.

“That was such a good idea,” Marie said. “Even the old white people are having fun.”

I laughed at that. “It’s what your mother would have done,” I said.

She chuckled. “I talked to her this morning. They’ll be here tomorrow.”

“That fast?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I think she was pretty excited to get the invite,” Marie said. “Your father was nervous about showing up. You should probably call him.”

“I left my phone up at the house,” I said, trying to dodge that job so I could hit the waves.

“Here you go,” Marie said, and handed it to me.

“No one likes you,” I said in a smarmy way, making her laugh. I turned to Travis, who had been watching our interaction. “Let me call my dad and I’ll meet you out there.”

“I’ll catch the best wave of the day while you’re dicking around,” he said, then grabbed his board and started running toward the water.

“Asshole!” I shouted after him, then started laughing my ass off when he fell and did a face-plant in the sand. Everyone else was laughing too, but he just stood up, flipped us off, and continued on to the water.

I dialed my father’s number and got Grace, who patched me through. “Hey there,” he said cheerfully. “I figured you’d be surfing.”

“I’m standing here with my board, staring at some awesome waves, so I’m going to make this a quick call,” I said, smiling as he chuckled. “I am so stoked that you’re coming here tomorrow!”

“I was going to call you later and make sure my presence wouldn’t be unwelcome,” he said.

“You can even bring Scott Slater,” I teased. “Is Jake coming with you?”

“There is no way I can get him to tear himself away from the foundation,” Dad said. “He’ll probably work the whole time I’m gone.”

“Glad he’s enjoying it,” I said. “The waves are awesome, and they’re supposed to be good tomorrow too!”

“Go hit them,” he said. “We’ll fly out tonight and see you in the morning.”

“Awesome. Give us a call when you land,” I said, then handed my phone to Marie. “Done.”

“Good job,” she said. She was so hyper-organized, it was handy to have her around. That line of thought threatened to bring up the issue of where I was going to go to college, so I pushed that to the back of my mind.

I grabbed my board and chased after Travis, and fortunately managed to catch up with him before he even went through the ‘keyhole’, the path in the reef that we swam through to get to the other side where the waves were. The afternoon ended up being a total blast. Crawford, Sierra, and Brittany joined us. Crawford and Sierra were just good enough to enjoy the waves, but Brittany was really good. Up until that point, she’d been this kind of cute but boring person, so it was nice to find something about her to like.

We dragged ourselves out of the water in time for dinner, and I was laughing at how mellow everyone was. Travis, Brittany, and I were pretty worn out from fighting the waves, while everyone else had spent the afternoon drinking, so they were pretty much ready to pass out. “Dude, they have no endurance,” Travis said, chuckling at Crawford and Ryan, who were sprawled out on lounge chairs by the pool. We started laughing when Crawford started snoring.

“No shit,” I said.

Marie came out, looked at them, and shook her head. “Wake up,” she said, and gently kicked Ryan.

I got up and led Travis out to the gazebo, deciding to let Marie handle her drunk boyfriend, and to keep us from being tempted to do some evil practical joking on Crawford. “Today was like the best day of my life,” Travis said.

“Dude, it’s not over yet,” I said to him suggestively.

“Guess it could get better,” he said. I was just about to drag him up to my room and fuck him senseless when my phone rang.

“My father,” I said to him, looking at the caller ID. “Hey,” I said, answering the phone.

“Hi,” he said. “We just landed, so I thought I’d let you know that we made it.” I got the feeling that he wanted to see me, or us, and as I glanced around the patio and saw that it was deserted, I decided that it was a good time to indulge him.

“Come by and say hi,” I said.

“Are you sure?” he asked skeptically. “We didn’t come out here to ruin your party.”

“I’m sure,” I said. “Travis and I are just hanging out by the pool, Marie is up and about, and pretty much everyone else already crashed.”

“Alright,” he said. “We won’t stay long.”

“See you in a few,” I said, ignoring his nervousness.

“I thought I was going to get laid, and instead you invite your dad over?” Travis challenged playfully.

“Dude, you will still get laid,” I promised, winking at him. I saw Marie bugging Crawford to wake up. “Starfish!” I shouted. She glared at me, making Travis and me laugh.

She grudgingly walked over to the gazebo. “What, asshole?” We both laughed at her.

“They just landed,” I said, referring to her mother and my father. “I invited them to stop by.”

Her first reaction was to glance back at the patio, as if worried that it was trashed. “Cool. I’ve got a few things to deal with. I’ll drag them back here when they show up.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Dude, Brittany was pretty awesome in the waves,” Travis said.

“Girls can surf,” I said, annoying him by implying he was being sexist.

“I know that, dipshit,” he said. “I think that 360 she did was the best maneuver any of us had.”

“You may be right,” I agreed. Our conversation devolved into a dissection of our waves that day, one that absorbed me until I noticed Marie leading my father and Aunt Claire out to join us. He was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved button-down shirt with huarache loafers, while Aunt Claire was dressed in a casual dress with snazzy sandals. I chuckled to myself, thinking that the old white couple on the beach would have appreciated their wardrobe choices. I jumped up and hurried over to greet them. “Welcome! Good to see you,” I said, then gave my father a monster hug, followed by a slightly less exuberant embrace of Aunt Claire.

“What a warm welcome,” Claire said, teasing me.

“This is Travis,” I said, introducing them.

“Nice to meet you,” Travis said confidently. I knew him well enough to sense his nervousness, but he hid it so well.

“I have heard so much about you,” Dad said, shaking his hand warmly. “The last time I saw you, you were just a punk middle-schooler.”

“And now, here you are, all grown up,” Claire augmented, shaking his hand as well.

“I’m so glad you could make it out here,” Marie gushed. Kimo came over and brought us all tropical drinks.

“I feel like I’m at a five-star hotel,” Dad joked, which was our clue to sit down and relax. “So the waves were good?”

“They totally rocked!” Travis said. “Surf report says tomorrow should be more of the same.”

“I am stoked,” Dad said.

“So Jake was a ‘no’ when you asked him to come with you?” I asked my father.

“I asked him to be polite and he said no just like I knew he would,” Dad said, then smiled. “It is so nice to be in a situation like this.”

“Like what?” Claire asked.

“With Marc, we had to do everything together, so doing something like this, escaping to go surfing without him, wasn’t even an option,” Dad said. “With Jake, he gives me my space and I give him his. I feel like I’ve been freed.”

“That’s good, that’s really good,” I said smiling, so happy for him. “I’m also stoked that he’s fired up about running the foundation.”

“He would have given me my space anyway,” Dad said, weirdly reading my reaction wrong. “But you’re right: it’s really cool to see him so excited about it.”

“Mike is here, along with this dude named Jesse who helped him write up that report on the foundation,” I told them. “He quit during that whole mess with Craig and now seems bummed about it.”

“You didn’t promise him he’d get his old job back, did you?” Dad asked.

I rolled my eyes at him. “No. I promised him that I’d get him an interview so he could talk to Jake about it.”

“That sounds reasonable, especially since he helped us uncover all those issues,” Aunt Claire said. That was pretty shocking, since she’d been fucking the dude who had created the issues.

“How are you doing?” I asked her instinctively.

“I’m doing well,” she said. “I had a wonderful dinner with my children and that helped give me some clarity.”

“I’m glad we could help,” Marie said to her lovingly.

“I’m actually embracing being single again,” she said. “I find that I’m feeling more empowered than I have in a long time.”

“That’s great,” I said supportively.

“Have you talked to Daddy?” Marie asked nervously.

“I had dinner with him last night,” she said. I was surprised by that, and it seemed like Marie was too. “For the first time in a long time, we had a nice time, and actually communicated with each other.”

“How did he handle this new, empowered, you?” I teased.

“I think he is happy for me, although he’s still confused about how things turned out,” she said.

“I don’t understand,” Marie said. Claire looked a little flustered, as if unsure how to handle that question, but my father jumped in to bail her out.

“I think he’s only now realizing what he lost,” Dad said. I could see how the parallels with their situation and his big break up with Robbie in 1999 bothered him.

“So are you guys completely over?” Marie asked. I understood where she was coming from. Her whole focus was on seeing her parents get back together.

“I don’t know, and neither does he,” Claire answered. “What has changed is that we were able to put the animosity aside and start to rebuild our friendship.”

“I think you should sleep with him,” I said flatly.

“Dude, what?” Travis asked, making us all laugh.

“You are definitely Stefan Schluter’s grandson,” Dad joked, shaking his head.

“So why should she sleep with him?” Marie asked.

“To remind him of what he’s missing,” I said.

“But if the relationship is just a friendship deal, won’t that just set him up for devastation?” Marie asked.

“That could happen,” Dad said. “On the other hand, even when Robbie and I were struggling, and I was trying not to kill him, the physical link between us was a connection that sort of forced us to work through things.”

“So if that’s gone, then it may seem to him like there’s no hope at all?” Travis asked, then got nervous. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe I’m butting into this conversation.”

“If they didn’t want you to be involved, they wouldn’t be talking about it in front of you,” Marie said.

“I will agree with my daughter, and also note that you raise a good point,” Claire said to Travis smoothly. “You have all given me a lot to think about.”

“I know how you feel,” Travis said. “I mean, we got here and Will pretty much dumped me.”

“I did not!” I said, totally freaking out. I hadn’t heard his playful tone, so everyone else laughed at me.

“What happened?” Dad asked.

“I was talking to Casey, and he told me that it was possible I was trying to have this exclusive breeder-type relationship when I’m probably wired to have a more open deal,” I said.

“He thinks that monogamy isn’t for you?” Claire asked.

“He noted that I tended to compartmentalize my relationships and they didn’t really impact each other all that much,” I said. “He pointed out my approach was a lot different than the complete monogamy some people are obsessed with.” That was clearly directed at my father.

“Ha ha ha,” Dad said in response to my slam.

“Just saying,” I teased, taunting him playfully.

“And how do you feel about that?” Dad asked Travis.

“I don’t know,” Travis answered honestly. “I mean, it’s always been programmed into me that if you were with someone, that was it, you were with them. So this is pretty new to me.”

“That is understandable,” Claire said to validate him.

“Like I said, I’ve watched you with relationships where it has to be exclusive or you completely lose your mind,” I said to my father, kind of teasing him. “At the same time, Grand and Stef aren’t like that, and it seems to work well for them.”

“I had an interesting conversation with them about relationships recently,” Dad said, referring to Grand and Stef. “They said it’s like ordering a pizza.”

“Relationships are like ordering a pizza?” Marie asked skeptically.

“That was their hypothesis,” Dad said. “If we were ordering a pizza, there are some things that I would absolutely have to have on the pizza, like extra cheese. I like lots of cheese on my pizza. And there are some things that I absolutely cannot stand on pizzas, the most notable being mushrooms.”

“I thought you liked mushrooms,” I said, pretending to be surprised. “What about all those stories about you doing them when you were younger?”

“Not those mushrooms, asshole,” Dad said, cracking all of us up.

“So to use your analogy, the extra cheese is like topping the other dude, because that’s what you like, and the mushrooms are like having an open relationship, because you can’t handle that?” I asked.

“More or less,” Dad said. “When you build a relationship, like ordering a pizza, you have to design it so it fits what’s important to the two of you.”

“For you, having an open relationship would be like adding pepperoni when you have an allergy to it,” I said. “That means it’s a deal-killer.”

“That’s pretty much it for me,” he said, then focused on Claire. “I think the thing with you and Jack is that you need to figure out if you have food allergies that will keep you from building a pizza together.”

“I guess we have to do the same thing,” Travis said to me.

“We do, but what’s been freaking me out is that, continuing that analogy, I’m trying to figure out what toppings I even like,” I said.

“And those preferences can change over time, just like they did for you,” Dad said to Claire.

“Can’t they change depending on the relationship?” Marie asked. We all pondered that for a bit.

“I guess they can,” Dad said. “Why?”

“When I was with Austin, we were totally exclusive, or at least we were supposed to be,” Marie said. There was no missing her bitterness. “With Ryan, we’ve been exclusive, but I don’t think having an open relationship with him is a deal killer for me.”

“That may be more of a reflection on how deep your feelings are for someone,” I said. “Maybe you were more into Austin than Ryan.”

“Yeah, but you’re still the same person,” Travis said. “I mean, if you can’t stand mushrooms, you can’t stand mushrooms.”

“Stef was trying to explain that to me, but you did it just as well,” Dad said, smiling at Travis. “There are some things or rules that you may have to have, or you may not be able to handle it no matter who it is. Those are your deal killers. The rest is negotiable.”

“I can see that,” I said, although all this talk about pizza had made me kind of hungry.

“I want to talk about your father and his plane,” Dad said to Travis, his voice serious and intense. It was freaky how he’d flipped on his total power posture, and that had squeezed all the joy from our conversation.

“Go on,” Travis said, the tension in his voice reflecting all of our emotions.

“It looks quite plausible that the plane burned up due to an electrical problem,” Dad explained. “It’s possible that was intentional, but I’m not sure it was.”

Travis, Marie, and I looked at each other, not a little freaked out. “Explain that,” I said.

“Do you know much about your father’s business dealings, and his current financial situation?” Dad asked Travis.

“I know about Buck Industries, but not much beyond that,” Travis said. “Why?”

“Rumor has it that your father is pretty strapped for money right now,” Dad said. “From what I hear, he’s tapping out on cash. I know this because he’s been scrambling pretty hard to firm up loans to shore up what’s left of his portfolio.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that, either from him or from the reports we get on the company,” Travis said skeptically.

“My understanding is that he was all in on the tech boom and his own portfolio was destroyed,” Dad said. “For the company, the tech stocks are still being shown at their original investment value, not what they’re worth today.”

“You’re saying he’s broke?” Travis asked.

“I’m saying he’s struggling,” Dad said. “I am speculating here, but I’m guessing that he’s banking that the core business of Buck, which is real estate and energy, will surge enough to give him liquidity again. If that works out, he just has to handle interest on loans and potential margin calls until it happens.”

“Tie this together for me as regards the plane,” I said.

“He’s been skimping on maintenance,” Dad said.

Travis looked like a deer in headlights as he digested this, then he completely freaked out. “He wants my money.”

“What?” I asked.

“My grandfather was pretty pissed off at my father before he died, so he put his assets in trust for me, Taylor, and Big,” Travis explained. “The way it’s set up, Taylor and Big each own 30% of Buck industries, while I own 10%. My father owns the other 30%.”

“Why did you get less?” I asked.

“Because most of my trust is invested in other stuff, and it’s managed by a trust company,” Travis said.

“Why was your trust set up differently?” Marie asked.

“I don’t know,” Travis said. “My father sure as fuck won’t explain it to me, and neither will my mother.”

“Does your father control your stock and that of your siblings?” Dad asked.

“Taylor and Big got to vote half their shares when they turned 18; they get all of them when they turn 25,” Travis said. “For me, I get to vote all of my shares when I turn 18.”

“That’s pretty strange,” I said, clueless as to why things were set up that way.

“When I asked my father about it, he told me not to worry about it. He said he’d explain everything when I turn 18,” Travis said. “Only if something happens to me, my money goes to my parents.”

“That makes you super-vulnerable until April 20,” I said, and started to freak out. Travis might have a death sentence hanging over his head until then.

“I cannot believe your father would want to kill you,” Claire said supportively, in a way to calm things down. “I have just spent a short time with you, and I am singularly impressed with you.”

“Thanks,” Travis said. That was some high praise from Aunt Claire. If it had been light enough, we’d be able to see him blushing. I looked at my father, who wasn’t calm at all. If anything, he was more freaked out than me, and he kept glancing at Travis, as if trying to memorize everything about him. His eyes met mine and it was like that flipped a switch, and his shields went back up.

“So what do you do about this?” I asked Travis.

“It looks like, until I’m 18, I need to vanish so I’m not within his reach,” Travis said.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Dad said.

“Well how else am I going to get out of this nightmare,” Travis spat bitterly, then turned to me. “Do you get it now? Do you understand how totally alone and vulnerable I am?”

“Your mother loves you,” I said lamely.

He gave me a really dirty look. “She loves money more.”

“I’m sorry I upset you,” Dad said, and seemed most worried that he’d totally piss me off for freaking Travis out.

“I’d rather know than live in ignorance,” Travis said. “Assuming I get to live.”

“I suspect that you’re safe here, regardless,” Claire said, which was probably true. “We should get to the villa.”

“We should,” Dad agreed, then stood up, the signal for the rest of us to do the same. “We’ll see you bright and early. Scott Slater is coming along.”

“Sounds good,” I said. We said our goodbyes, then I went to walk them out to their car.

“I need to make a few phone calls,” Travis said.

“Find me when you’re done,” I said casually, then guided Dad and Aunt Claire out of the house.

“I hope I didn’t ruin your time here with Travis,” Dad said apologetically.

“I’m glad you told us,” I said, shutting down his guilt. “Travis will freak out a bit, then he’ll work out a plan.”

“I was sincere when I said he was impressive,” Claire said.

“He may be worth monogamy,” Dad teased.

“Not when we’re both 17,” I said to Dad. “But maybe someday.”

“See you in the morning,” they said, then left. I watched their limo drive off, then went back to the gazebo. I was surprised to find Marie still there.

“Some heavy shit,” she said, shaking her head.

“It was,” I agreed. “So what’s going to happen to you and your rock-star boyfriend?”

She gave me a dirty look until she got that I was trying to distract myself by thinking about something else. “I’ll give him a hug and a kiss and wish him luck as he goes off to be Justin Timberlake, then that world will absorb him, and we’ll be over.”

I nodded, because I knew she was right. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” she said. “I knew we’d be going in different directions after high school, and this time I kept my guard up. He is so adorable it would be easy to totally fall for him, but I’ve managed to dodge that bullet.”

“Seems that Travis isn’t the only one who’s impressive,” I said. I pulled my chair over next to hers and put my arm around her, while we gazed off at the ocean, both of us deep in thought.