Poor Man's Son - 11. Chapter 10

 

July 13, 2000

Van Nuys, CA

Will

I felt the tension soar as the plane descended into Van Nuys. The only thing that was making this slightly bearable was that John was with me. We were sitting in the back of the plane, just hanging out.

“Did your parents know we were, uh…?” I stammered to a halt. I’d started my sentence without really thinking about it, and that had taken me to a whole new place.

“Boyfriends?” he asked playfully.

“Are we?” I teased.

“I’m not sure I like you that much,” he teased.

“I’m sure I do,” I said, and leaned in to kiss him. I felt eyes on me, Robbie and Dad looking back at us, so I broke it off. “I forgot we have an audience.”

“They’re into that?” John joked, cracking me up.

“So what did your parents say?” I asked, going back to my original question.

“We had to have this big discussion about it,” John said as he rolled his eyes. “They wanted to know if I was gay.”

“What did you tell them?” I wanted to know that too.

“I told them I didn’t know for sure, but that I really loved you.” There was no stopping my grin over that one.

“And they were cool with that?”

“Yeah, it was no big deal. I mean, they’ve been around it for so long. Hell, my mom’s father is gay, and my dad practically grew up at Escorial, at least in high school. He and your dad were like best buds.”

“Your dad is hot,” I joked.

“So is yours,” he shot back. We started cracking up at that until we were interrupted by a figure standing in front of us.

“What’s so funny?” my dad asked, but in a friendly way.

“We were arguing about which one of us had the hotter dad,” I joked.

“John does. Jack is a god,” he replied.

“See, that’s what I said.”

“I think Robbie has you both beat,” John said, gesturing up front to where Robbie sat, looking confused. “He has that cute grin that makes a guy want to drop his pants.” That made all of us really crack up.

“What?” Robbie demanded from the front.

“Watch this,” Dad whispered. “They were just trying to figure out who was hotter: Jack or me. According to John, we both lose out to you.”

Robbie’s face broke into that adorable grin, and we laughed even harder. “What?” he demanded again, guessing that he was the butt of some joke.

“John says it’s your grin, the one you just flashed us,” Dad said, bringing both the grin and the laughter back. We heard the rumbling as the landing gear came down, and that prompted my dad to return to his seat. I was really enjoying myself until we touched down, and then all of the tension came back.

We got in the limo and sat with our backs to the driver, facing Dad and Robbie. “I want you to be patient with your mother,” Dad said.

“I want you to back me up when she starts making unreasonable demands,” I snapped. He glared at me, and then relented when he seemed to realize how uptight I was. “You know, Dad, she didn’t give Darius a bunch of crap like this. She lets JJ do whatever he wants. Why does she think it’s OK to do that to me?”

“I’m sure she doesn’t think that,” he said.

“Alright then, look at the evidence in front of you, look at the facts, and tell me that I’m wrong,” I said. “Can you?” I asked Robbie.

“She wants them around too,” Robbie observed.

“Is she mad at you for some reason?” I asked my dad.

“No. Why would you say that?” he demanded. I didn’t answer that, because I didn’t want to stir up trouble, but that was something my mom did when she was pissed off at my dad. If she couldn’t get to him, she’d get to me instead.

We got to the house and started to get out. “You can go up to my room if you want,” I told John.

“Dude, and miss the drama? This is like dinners at Escorial.” Just having him here made everything alright.

In the end, it didn’t matter, as my dad stopped me before we went in the house. “Will, give Pop and me a chance to talk to your mother first. We’ll come up and see you in a bit.”

Evidently they wanted to cool her down first, and prep her for what was ahead. “No problem.” John and I went straight up to my room and played some video games. I was so horny I wanted to rip his clothes off right there, but I knew they’d be up soon. As it was, we got pretty engrossed in Dead or Alive 2, so engrossed that the knock on the door almost made me jump.

“Come in,” I said loudly. Dad came in, followed by Mom and Robbie. My mom looked really pissed off. “Hi!” I said cheerfully, and got up and gave her a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek. That kind of threw her for a loop.

“Hi!” John said cheerfully, and mirrored my moves.

“So you decided to come home,” she said to me coldly.

“Just for today,” I said matter-of-factly. “Tomorrow we go back to Paly for the Bastille Day party, and then after that Stef’s taking us to Paris.”

“I’m not sure why you think that after you defy me you should be allowed to go globe-trotting with Stefan,” she said. The coolness in her voice had changed to irritation.

“How did I defy you?” I asked. Dad and Robbie didn’t say anything, which pissed me off, since they should at least be helping me out with this point.

“John, would you let us talk to Will alone?” she asked.

“He’s staying,” I said. “It’s three to one, and I could use a little support.” I shot that last sentence square at my dad, but it seemed to bother Robbie more than him.

“No one is against you,” Robbie said.

“Not how I see it,” I said dismissively. “And you still haven’t told me how I openly defied you.”

“Mind if I sit down?” she asked.

“Go ahead. It’s not my house, and I evidently have no rights here.” That was bitchy and I knew it, but I was getting pretty annoyed with all of them. She ignored me.

“You ran off to Dallas without saying anything,” she said.

I said nothing; I just stared at Dad and Robbie. “That was my fault,” Dad said. “I should have talked to you about it. It was the rush of the moment, and we were all focused on getting them to Dallas.”

“Yes, you should have,” she snapped at Dad. “But that’s nothing new.”

I didn’t want her to get too mad at him, because she’d just take it out on me anyway, so I jumped back into the fray. “So how did I defy you?”

“I wanted you to stay home. Is it so wrong to want to have you and JJ stay here for a day or two?”

“What about Darius?” I asked. “He isn’t here?”

“He’s 18,” she said, although it seemed to bother her that she’d lost control of him.

“I would have been happy to stay here with you if you would have let John stay,” I said.

“I don’t have to negotiate with you all the time,” she said. “It’s enough that I tell you to do something.”

“No Mom, it’s not,” I replied. “I think I’ve earned the right to an explanation, especially when it impacts my life.”

“You think you’ve earned the right? You think you’ve earned the right? How is that?” She was getting a little unhinged, and I was starting to see why Robbie and Dad were acting the way they were around her. This wasn’t like her at all. She was starting to lose it.

“My GPA is 3.95, and I made the honor roll every semester in middle school. I don’t do drugs, other than smoke a joint once in a while and I don’t drink and party like a lot of my friends do. I don’t have sex…much,” I said, leering at John and making him blush. Robbie stifled a snaugh. “What do I do that makes me a bad kid?”

“You just said it. You’re a kid. You’re a kid and I’m your mother,” she said, being dogmatic.

“Not good enough,” I replied.

“I think that if you want people to stay home and be around you, you have to at least acknowledge the sacrifices they make to do that,” Robbie said, intervening. We all looked at him, shocked.

“Because I wouldn’t let him have his friend stay over?” she demanded of him. Her tone was so dismissive, it made John sound like he was some playmate I had when I was seven. And it was worse than that. Her tone was a direct slam at him, minimizing who he was, and how important he was to me. I saw my dad get that, and saw him start to intervene, but it was too late. I felt my temper flare up, felt myself lose my grip on it.

“John is not just a friend, he’s my boyfriend,” I told her loudly. “I love him. Wherever I am, he’s welcome, period, end of discussion. You don’t like that, then you can leave, because I’ve got some packing to do.” I was yelling now.

“Will, calm down,” my dad said authoritatively. John put his hand on my shoulder, and the two of them combined seemed to deflate my anger.

“You know, Mom, when you brought your girlfriend home, I was real nice to her. I really liked her, and I tried hard to get along well with her, although it really wasn’t much trouble because she’s awesome. When I walked into her room in Palo Alto, she smiled really big because she was as happy to see me as I was to see her. Is that how you’re treating my boyfriend?”

“Cute,” she said, and pissed me off all over again.

I got up and went into my bathroom and ripped the mirror off the wall, and lugged it back out into the bedroom, getting some really dirty looks from all of them for my destructive gesture. I held it up in front of her. “You want to know why you have problems? You want to know who’s causing you issues?” I moved to the side. “That’s her,” I said, pointing in the mirror. “Not that dude,” I said, pointing to me. “That dude is more than willing to be here for you, and to show you that he loves you, but that dude is not your whipping boy. He’s not going to put up with you beating up on his feelings, or making decisions that mess up his life just so you can win some big power struggle with him, or with that guy,” I said, pointing to my dad.

“This isn’t about me,” Dad said. I have this ability to raise and arch my eyebrow like Mr. Spock on StarTrek does, so I did that to him.

“Fine, go, do whatever you want,” Mom said, trying a new tactic and pouring on the guilt.

I decided to play it off like she was sincere. “Thanks, Mom,” I said nicely. She glared at me, because she hadn’t meant it in a way as to give me free reign. “I should be back in a couple of weeks.”

“Unless you decide to stay up there permanently,” she said rudely.

“It certainly looks like an attractive option right now,” I told her evenly. We just stared at each other, and then I saw through the bitchy shields she was throwing up, and saw just how hurt she was. I realized that for her to be this big of a bitch, for her to be this irrational, she had to be holding back some pretty serious pain. My heart went out to her, surprising us both. I sat next to her, and it bothered me that she almost recoiled at having me that close. That faded, and the anger we both had faded, and I put my arm around her lovingly. She broke down crying, sobbing, absolutely sobbing, while I just kept my arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I love you Mom,” I told her sincerely. That just made her cry more.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, although for what, I wasn’t sure.

“Come with us,” I told her. “Come to the Bastille Day Party.”

“I can’t do that. Look how big I am,” she said. “I probably shouldn’t even be flying.”

“You can still fly,” I said, and hoped I was right.

“She’ll be there,” Mom said, referring to Tiffany.

“That’s why you should go.”

“She’s the one who left me,” she said bitterly.

“She had good reason, didn’t she?” I asked. “That dude over there,” I said, gesturing to John, “screwed up really bad. Made a huge mistake. A colossal mistake. A mistake so big it’s amazing he’s got the guts to show his face in public.”

“Very funny,” he snapped.

“So for weeks afterward, he kept showing up in our internet room, waiting for me.”

“I wasn’t just waiting for you,” he said.

“Who else goes in there?” I asked, and gave him my Spock brow gesture.

“Fine, I was waiting for you,” he said, making all of us chuckle. “Sure took you long enough to say something.”

“I wasn’t done being mad at you yet,” I told him. “And I wanted to see if you gave a shit enough to keep going in there.”

“Seems to me that I made some pretty idiotic decisions last November,” Robbie chimed in. “Now, my partner is much more stubborn and pig-headed than most,” he said, getting a playful punch from Dad, “so when I finally figured out what an asshole I’d been, he made me work pretty fucking hard to get him back.”

“You got off easy,” Dad said.

“You should go after her, to show her that you love her,” I said.

“Things are different for women,” she said.

“Women are still humans,” I said. “Barely.”

I watched her think about that, and then she smiled. “I wonder what I should wear. You think you and John could help me find something?”

I almost groaned at the thought of shopping for maternity clothes, but that was a small price to pay. “Sure,” I said. “John likes to try on dresses anyway.”

“I do not,” he said, all flustered. Robbie snaughed.

So I ended up making peace with my mom, but it cost John and me an afternoon of shopping with her: ugh.

July 14, 2000

Claremont, OH

Gathan

     

“Fuck yeah, Gathan!” Zach yelled as I plowed into him. We were out at the river, at the same spot I’d been with Will. As much as I liked people to watch me, I was hoping that they weren’t around today. I didn’t want to be seen fucking Zach.

“You like that?” I asked him with a sneer. That pissed him off, which was fine with me. He glared at me, his nostrils flaring, but he didn’t push me away. Instead, his big dick flopped around, leaking like crazy. I leaned in and kissed him roughly. He tried to push me off, then let himself go and pulled me in, almost sucking the breath out of me.

“God,” he said, with a loud moan. “I’m gonna cum!” I pounded on, slamming into him while his orgasm lasted, then pulled out, whipped off the condom, and jacked off, blowing my load all over his chest.

“Gross. You spooged all over me.”

“Not like you were clean to begin with,” I said. I didn’t even wait for his answer; I just waded into the water to cool off and to wash off my bodily fluids.

He ignored me for a while, about ten minutes, and then jumped in the water. After another ten minutes, he got playful, and we ended up horsing around, at least we did until the asshole hit my wound and made me see stars.

“Sorry, Gathan,” he said, but I could tell he didn’t mean it. Zach had a mean streak, and could be a bully at times. I’d knocked him around for it before.

“Whatever, dude,” I said. “I need to get home, my arm is killing me. Let’s go.”

“One more time,” he insisted.

“Dude, you just blew a massive load. You want to go again?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, lying on his back. I liked that position, because he was so fucking hot it was awesome to watch his body respond as I fucked him, and I liked it because he didn’t. He liked it when he was on all fours and I was behind him. That way he didn’t have to look at me, and he could pretend he wasn’t into guys.

I weighed my options. I wasn’t really all that horny, and if I wasn’t horned up, sex with him wasn’t all that good. On the other hand, if I fucked him again, I could get him to leave when he was all pissed off right after he blew. In the end, my hormones tilted the scales, so I fucked him.

This time, after we washed off in the river, we just focused on packing up our stuff, so he was back in a jovial mood by the time we got into the truck and drove off. “Can I have your truck when you leave?” he asked me.

“I’m taking it with me,” I said.

“Dude, you telling me that after you saved his life, Brad can’t at least buy you a new truck? What a fucking ingrate.”

That pissed me off. “I don’t want anything more from him. They’re already doing enough.”

“You’re such a tool,” he said disdainfully. “Get what you can.”

“I may be a tool, but you’re an asshole,” I told him. “That’s a good reason alone not to give you my truck.”

“Fuck you.” Now he was all mad because he didn’t get what he wanted. Good.

“Nope. You’re lucky I’m willing to fuck you,” I said. I switched back to our original topic, him getting my truck. “You’re not even 16.”

“I will be next year,” he snapped, then pouted.

“Then maybe Robbie will buy you your own truck,” I speculated. He looked at me as he wondered about that, and I let him get far enough down that path before I deflated him. “I doubt it though. You aren’t nice to him or Brad, and all you’ve done is cause problems in their family. If it were me, I wouldn’t give you shit.”

“Well they aren’t you,” he said petulantly, then got this evil look on his face. “Maybe they like younger guys.”

“Doesn’t mean they’ll like you.” That irritated him enough that he kept his mouth shut for the rest of the way home. I took a shower when I got home, and ignored the doctor’s directions about keeping my wound dry. I figured since I’d already gotten it wet in the river, how bad could a shower be? Still, I made sure I changed my bandage afterward, then popped a pain pill, and took a long nap. I must have been pretty out of it, because I didn’t wake up until I felt someone shaking me.

“Dude, get up,” Darius was saying. “We’re going out.”

“We are?” I asked him, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. “What time is it?”

“It’s 7:30. You missed dinner.” As if on cue, my stomach growled.

“Food,” I said as I grinned at him.

“Fine. Get ready and we’ll stop at the diner.” He was acting all annoyed, but that’s probably where we’d meet up with everyone anyway. I really wanted to take a quick shower, more to get my hair just perfect, but I settled for just wetting it and combing it before we headed over to the diner. It had been here forever and was considered one of the town’s landmarks now.

The first person I ran into was Mike Marsh. I’d been in four fights with this dickhead, and beat the shit out of him every time. I stared at him intensely, demanding that he show some sign that he recognized me. He only hesitated for a second before he nodded slightly at me. I felt like I was some medieval king, demanding that he swear his oath of loyalty, only in 2000, that meant a slight nod. I gave him an even slighter nod in response. I tried not to get too cocky about that, that I could face this guy down even with one arm in a sling.

I spotted Cord over at a big booth with some of the guys, so that became my destination. “Hero,” Cord said, giving me shit for the article in the paper about my amazing courage. Christ. He’d decided that was my new name.

“Slacker,” I replied.

“Yeah, well not all of us have someone shelling cash out for us to go to Stan-ford,” he said, drawing the last word out to taunt me. This was getting really old.

“Dude, were you accepted there? That’s sweet!” I said, being sarcastic. He had shitty grades. Everyone else chuckled at him.

“Very funny.”

“Oh, I thought the only reason I was going was because someone was paying for it. You mean you actually have to get in?” I asked, pouring it on.

“Yeah. I forgot. You’re Mr. Fucking Perfect,” he said, being bitchy.

“I thought I was ‘Hero’. Now I’m ‘Mr. Fucking Perfect’,” I told him. “Dumbass.”

“At least you’re getting out of here. Ain’t no jobs in this fucking town,” he moaned.

“Even a dumbass can get a job in this town,” I said. “They’re building a big-ass factory and they need people to build it. Then when it’s done, they need people to work in it.”

“Whatever,” he said. “I can’t think about that right now. I have to decide which one of these lovely ladies will win me over tonight.” He was referring to a bunch of skanks at a table near ours.

“Good luck with that,” I told him.

“Now here comes a walking wet dream,” he said. I turned around and saw Kristin Hendrickson walking into the diner. Our eyes met, and she raised her eyebrow. I chuckled and winked at her, thinking that this was like long-distance flirting. “Go over there,” Cord insisted.

“She can come to me,” I said arrogantly. He looked at me like I’d grown a third head. Kristin Hendrickson did that to guys. She was tall, but not too tall: probably about 5’7”. Her tits were amazing, just the right size, not too big and not too small, that went along perfectly with her curvy body. Then on top of that body sat a head that was perfectly shaped, with a perfectly proportioned face, pretty light blue eyes, and thick blond hair. Inside the head was the brain of one smart woman.

We’d gotten to know each other a little bit in honor society meetings, but she usually ran with a different group of people than I did. Her family was rich and she lived up in the hills, so that was her crowd. She usually dated basketball players, for some reason, but only the white ones. I guess either she or her family hadn’t gotten over the stigma of interracial dating yet. I’d thought about asking her out, or hitting on her, but after that thing with Mrs. Fitch, I was a little gun-shy. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a chance, it was just that the odds were barely even she’d give me the time of day, and I didn’t want to risk getting faced by having her turn me down. “Dude, she’s scoping you,” Cord said.

“Quit staring.” I glanced over at her and caught her looking at me. She smiled slightly and looked away. That was about as clear a signal as I could get. “Dude, you are a total dork. Watch and learn,” I said. I got up and sauntered in her direction, ostensibly heading to the bathroom. I kind of looked through her, like I wasn’t aware that she was there, until I got right up to her, and then acted surprised that she was in front of me. “Hey Kristin,” I said, keeping my voice deep, with a hint of huskiness.

“Hey Gathan,” she said, tilting her head slightly. She was so fucking gorgeous, I felt my dick start to rise, and that almost blew my game. “That was really brave, what you did in Dallas.”

“Not as brave as coming over here and talking to the hottest girl in Claremont,” I said.

“How come you never talked to me before, then?”

“I talked to you,” I said. “How come you didn’t talk to me?”

“I was waiting for you,” she said.

“Here I am,” I joked. She laughed, a forced laugh that told me how hard she was trying. She was out for me tonight. I’ll bet she achieves her goal, I thought playfully. “Wanna go outside?”

“Alright,” she said casually. I led her through the crowds, getting some dirty looks from some of the guys. Kristin was the hottest junior, or soon to be senior, in the school. Only the gay guys didn’t want her, and I was willing to bet that even those guys would take a walk on the wild side if she gave them the chance.

We got to my truck and she leaned against it, her back to the truck. I leaned against it too, using my good arm to prop me up, and bringing me really close to her. “You’re in my space,” she said playfully.

“You want me to move?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She looked up, like she was thinking about it. “No, you can stay here,” she joked. She put her hand on my arm, touching my bandage carefully. “Does it hurt?”

“Not when you touch it,” I said. She looked up at me and our eyes met. I was good at this, at the seduction. I’d done this lots of times, I just hadn’t closed the deal except once. I moved in, quick enough so she didn’t have time to think about it too much, but not so quick that I was creepy. Our lips met, tentatively at first, then more intensely, then much more passionately. Damn, this girl was one good kisser. I leaned in, using my body to press hers against the truck. My hard dick pressed against her as I did, but she thrust her hips back gently, encouraging me.

“Let’s go somewhere,” she said, breaking off our kiss.

I smiled and opened the truck door, letting her in. She looked down at my tenting shorts and giggled, and I knew I had to be blushing three shades of red. I got in and started the truck, thinking about how awesome her lips were. She kissed almost as good as Will.