Streak - 11. Chapter 11

September 17, 2002

Atherton, CA

 

Will

 

I went up to the office and signed myself out, since I was leaving school early. My last class was study hall, and that was just an opportunity to do homework. After the nightmare that was 9-11, the school and my teachers had really been easy on me when it came to absences. It was like there was an unwritten deal between us: as long as I kept my grades up and did well, they didn’t bust my ass about being gone. Of course it took me some time to go through the sign out process, and then I had to go get the stuff I needed out of my locker, so I didn’t really end up saving that much time.

I heaved my backpack onto my shoulder and headed for the parking lot, my key fob already out and ready. I saw my car gleaming in the parking lot. It would be hard to miss it, I thought, almost laughing. It’s tough to be invisible in a yellow Ferrari. I hit the fob and it opened its doors and chirped for me, as if to give me an enthusiastic welcome. I’d passed my driver’s test yesterday with flying colors. I’d taken this car, since I’d been driving it the most and it was what I was used to. The DMV probably didn’t get many people taking their driver’s exam in a Ferrari with a manual transmission. It was unique enough that the examiner was nice to me, which was unusual, at least according to the stories my friends at school had told me.

I tossed my backpack in the trunk, which was in the front of the car, wedging it in there with my overnight bag, then got in and started the car up. I smiled, a huge smile, as I put down the top and drove off campus, reveling in the throaty roar of the engine. I headed east on Marsh, feeling on top of the world. I guess pretty much any guy would feel that way if he was driving a Ferrari, but for me, it was more than that. For me, driving meant freedom, real freedom.

I knew I’d had more of that than most of my peers. I’d been emancipated for a while now, and that meant I got to make my own decisions about my own life. But I hadn’t been able to just get up and go somewhere without bugging Pedro or one of the other guys to drive me, or to ride with me. I’d always had to have someone else there, like an appendage, weighing me down. Now I didn’t have to do that. Now I could get in my car and just go, go wherever I wanted to. So I’d decided to do just that, and that’s why I was heading to Lafayette.

I drove across the Dumbarton Bridge feeling the wind whipping through my hair. It was such a great feeling. Even when I got to I-880 and headed north, and the neighborhoods got pretty crappy and industrial, it was awesome. I avoided the worst of Oakland by taking I-580 to Highway 13, and then took that north until I got to Highway 24. I knew this route by heart, but it was so cool to be doing it myself.

I hit some evening traffic on Highway 24, which didn’t surprise me. No matter what time of day I’d been on this freeway, there had been traffic, so it made sense that during rush hour, it would be pretty grueling. I didn’t let it bother me; I just focused on the road ahead of me, and the traffic around me, enjoying some tunes. A dude next to me in a tricked out Mazda leaned out his window and told me I had a hot car. I smiled back at him and nodded. He was right.

I looked at my watch as I pulled into the driveway at Frank and Grandmaman’s house. I’d left school at 3:30, but even with traffic, I’d managed to get here at 5:00. I felt a little rude, since they ate dinner early, around 5:30, so I was showing up unannounced just in time for that meal.

I put up the top and locked the car, then sauntered into their house. They had a really nice place. It only had four bedrooms, but it was big. That translated into all the rooms being really large, especially the bedrooms and bathrooms. In addition, there was a pool and a hot tub in back. The whole place just felt comfortable and welcoming. I thought it would feel more relaxed than Escorial, but it didn’t. I attributed that to Grandmaman, who was pretty in sync with Grand and his attitudes, but that ended up working out well for me, making it seem familiar.

When Grand had intervened to help me take Zach to Europe, he’d said that one of his key motives was to broaden Zach’s horizons. The subtext there was that he was trying to help Zach be more cultured, and while that had worked to a point, I’d noticed a marked difference in his manners since he’d been living with Grandmaman.

I greeted the cook in Spanish. I’d learned a long time ago it was a smart thing to get on the good side of the cook. “You are here just in time for dinner,” she said, pointing out my rudeness. “I am lucky that I made extra food.”

“I think I’m the one who’s lucky you made extra food,” I said, shooting my most charming smile at her, and getting a grin in return.

I found Grandmaman and Frank in their great room, watching the evening news. Frank saw me first. “What are you doing here?” he asked, but in a friendly way. They both got up and gave me warm hugs.

“Now that I have my license, I figured I’d drive myself up here to see you guys,” I said, even though they were smart enough to know I’d come mostly to see Zach. I showed them my license, with my horrible picture. I thought it was funny that my fake ID had a better picture of me than the real one.

“I am sure Zach will appreciate seeing you before he goes to Hawaii,” she said. The team would leave tomorrow.

“I’m hoping,” I said, as I left them and walked back to his room. I listened at the door, and I didn’t hear anything, so I gently opened it and crept in. His room was set up kind of like a hotel room, where you walked into a short hallway, with his bathroom and closet off to the left. The bed was against the wall with the closet, so it was hidden from view when you walked in.

I got to his bedroom and saw him sprawled across the bed on his back, snoring softly. He looked so innocent when he was sleeping, and that almost made me laugh. I kicked off my shoes and climbed into bed with him, being gentle so I didn’t wake him up. Then I moved up next to him, and put my head on his chest. He stirred when I did that, and I felt his arm wrap around me in what must be an instinctive move. Then I felt his whole body stiffen, as he woke up and realized I was there. “What are you doing here?” he asked me, but not in an accusatory way, but in an excited sort of way.

“I wanted to see you before you went to Hawaii,” I said, even as I leaned up and gave him a kiss.

“Someone likes having his license,” he teased.

“Someone does,” I agreed, and showed it to him. He made fun of my picture, which was only fair since it was so dorky. I put it back in my wallet, and then got a little insecure, wondering if he really wanted me to be here. “I hope this is alright?”

“It’s always alright for you to be with me,” he said. God, he knew how to turn me into a total romantic. I was so hung up on him, it was scary. That would have bothered me if he wasn’t just as into me.

“Maybe I’ll come visit more often,” I said. “It was an easy drive.”

“That would be awesome.” He looked at the clock on his nightstand. “No time for a real welcome. Dinner.”

“My timing is good,” I said. We had a really nice dinner, and then we went back to his room and made love. It was as amazing as it always was. I was hoping we could just lie there and enjoy the afterglow, but he still had to pack, and I could tell he wouldn’t be able to relax until after he did. So I helped him out, trying to make it fun, giving him shit about the clothes he should wear. After we got that done, we just relaxed in bed, talking and fucking.

We were lying there when he got pretty tense. “My parents are going to Hawaii.”

“I didn’t think your dad could get off work?”

“He managed to work it out so he could,” he said.

“Are you happy about them coming to see your game?” I asked.

He sighed. “Yes and no. It will be good to see them, but they’ll want a bunch of my time, and I’m going to be pretty busy just with team stuff.” I knew part of that statement was directed at me, reminding me that I wouldn’t get to see much of him.

“I think we all expect that,” I said, so he knew I was cool with it.

“Then there’s all the bullshit I’ll have to put up with from my dad,” he grumbled.

“You know, the first problem sort of solves the second one,” I teased. “If you aren’t around him, he can’t bitch at you.”

“Good point.”

“I know you’ll be busy there, so don’t worry about spending a bunch of time with me,” I said.

He smiled at me. “I probably won’t have too much freedom, but at least you know that’s where I want to be.”

“Well, I got my own room in the same hotel you’re staying at,” I told him in my husky voice. “I’ll give you a key and you can sneak down if you get a chance.”

“I thought you were staying with your family?” They were going to stay at a different hotel.

“I have a room there too,” I said. “I figure that way, it will look like I’m not staying at the same place you are.”

“Thanks for putting up with all this bullshit,” he said, referring to how carefully we had to guard his closet.

“You’re worth it.”

I knew he went to sleep early, so it was no surprise that around 9:00, he yawned. “What time do you have to go back?”

“I brought clothes for tomorrow,” I said. “I figured I’d just leave when you did.”

“I usually leave here at 6:30,” he said, “but I don’t have to do that this week.”

“Asshole,” I said, in a rather loving way.

“I’ll get up for you anyway,” he said, making me giggle at his double-entendre.

“That works, since I have to be at Menlo by 8:00,” I told him.

“That is awesome,” he said. “Thanks for doing this, for coming up to spend the night with me.”

“I wanted to give you a nice send-off,” I told him.

“Will,” he said, to make sure he had my full attention. “I really love you.”

I felt my heart leap when he said that. “I love you too.”

 

September 19, 2002

Boston

 

Wade

 

“Tell Zach we’re sorry we won’t be able to make his game,” I told Will. I was talking to him on the phone while I got ready to go play hockey.

“Dude, it’s all good,” he said. “He’s got a lot of people there already. His parents decided to show up, so that’s really stressing him out.”

“Bummer,” I said, since Zach didn’t have the best relationship with his father. “I have all kinds of shit to do, and when JJ bailed on it, I figured we might as well stay home.”

“He’s not going anywhere unless Alex is going too,” he said. He didn’t sound very happy about that.

“They went out and toured Boston on Sunday,” I said, and told him all about that, cracking him up with how Alex had found all the American patriotic propaganda to be amusing.

“They have a big date tomorrow night,” he told me.

“What?” I didn’t know anything about that.

“Elton John and Billy Joel are going to be at the Fleet Center, and JJ got Stef to pull some strings and get them kick-ass tickets,” he said. “JJ got the tickets, and Alex is buying dinner.”

“How come you know all about this and you’re 3000 miles away, and I don’t?” I joked.

“He doesn’t want to freak you out,” Will said.

“What am I going to do about it?” I asked him fatalistically. “Dude, I learned my lesson with you.”

He laughed at that. “I listen to you.”

“You do, but I don’t think JJ would,” I said.

“I don’t think JJ will listen to anyone where Alex is concerned,” he said. “I was so tempted to give him a bunch of crap about it, but I remembered how pissed off I got when people did that, so I just kept my mouth shut.”

“Probably a good idea.”

“Besides, it’s probably my fault that Alex is hitting on JJ.”

“Alex is hitting on JJ?” I asked, which was pretty stupid, since if they were going out, that should be obvious. “And why is it your fault.”

“Alex came on to me on my birthday,” he said. “Kissed me, and was about to drag me back to his room. I was so ready to go with him, then I saw JJ’s door, and told him I couldn’t do that, because JJ was crushing on him.”

“It’s like he’s a predator,” I grumbled, getting pretty irritated at Alex for trying to fuck his way through our whole family.

“Or maybe he just thought I was hot,” Will said, joking to calm my ass down.

“That could be it,” I said, getting the message. “When Alex kissed you, was he gentle, or was he aggressive?”

“He was all over me,” Will said. “Why?”

“I think he has a Madonna-whore complex,” I said. “That’s where he has a relationship with someone that’s really pure, and pretty chaste. Then he has a slut on the side to really get freaky with.”

“Seriously?” he asked me. “How do you know that?”

“Because when I was with him, I was like his princess. That’s how I got my hockey nickname,” I grumbled. “Matt was the slut.” He laughed at that. “It sounds like he pegged you as a slut.”

“What the fuck?” he asked, kind of outraged.

“He was really gentle and caring with me, and really aggressive with Matt,” I said.

“Dude, whatever,” he said, all annoyed.

“I’d rather be his slut than his princess,” I told him. “Matt got to have amazing sex with him. I just got to go to cocktail parties.”

He laughed at that. “JJ will like the cocktail parties better.”

“He makes a pretty good princess,” I said, thinking out loud.

Will was silent for a bit. “He does. Shouldn’t we tell him about this?”

“Probably,” I said. “Who should do it?”

“Well, for starters, we can’t tell my father about this,” he said. “He will totally freak out.”

“True that,” I said, chuckling. Brad was not known for being calm. “Maybe you should do it.”

He didn’t say anything for a bit. “I don’t know. I think it could be me, Matt, Tiffany, or Stef. I need to think about it.”

“We’ll talk next week and come up with a plan,” I said. I wanted time to think about it too. “Is it OK for me to talk to Matt about it?”

“As long as he doesn’t go postal when you do,” he said.

“I’ll be responsible for calming his ass down,” I said, chuckling. Matt the Volcano. “In the meantime, I have to go play some hockey.”

“Isn’t this the night where you find out who gets to go to Sydney?”

“This is the night,” I confirmed. “I’ll talk to you later.” We said goodbye and hung up, but I was pretty disturbed by our conversation. Brad had all but given me parental responsibility for JJ, letting me make the call on whether he could participate in various competitions. He’d done that so I could keep JJ under control, and not let him run our lives, but that also came with some implied responsibility.

Then I thought about my options, and realized they were pretty limited. JJ and I hadn’t liked each other up until about a month ago, when we came to a détente of sorts. Since then, he’d been as pleasant to me as was probably possible for a diva like him, and having him here hadn’t bothered me like I thought it would. But if I pulled out the parent card and tried to get involved in his deal with Alex, he would probably flay me alive. I remembered how Will had lost it when Brad had tried to exert control over him a couple of years ago. Will had fucked up both their cars, destroyed their wardrobes, then he’d run away. JJ was probably at the same maturity level as Will had been back then or maybe a little less so. I didn’t want to deal with that. I didn’t want to make the same mistake Brad had.

Matt came breezing into the bedroom like a ball of energy. “You ready to go?”

“We don’t have to leave for half an hour,” I said, looking at my watch.

He gave me a dirty look. “I just wanted to get there early.” He liked hanging around the rink with the guys on our team. We’d had a blast with this group, so I could see his point.

“You think you can spare fifteen minutes?” I asked him seductively. It was so funny to see him totally stall, conflicted by the lure of hockey on one hand, and sex on the other. It was funny to watch his expression as he struggled with that decision, then he got a resolved look on his face.

“What did you have in mind?”

I grinned, since he’d chosen sex. I walked up to him and put my hands on his neck, sensuously pulling his mouth to mine. I backed off and gave him my slutty look. “Will told me one of Zach’s secrets, how he does so well in his games.”

“Oh yeah? How’s he do that?”

“Will fucks him,” I said. He shrugged, as if that weren’t a big deal. “He blows his load in Zach’s ass, and Zach said it’s better than steroids.” Matt swallowed hard. “And then Zach won’t let Will make him cum until after the game. He says it’s so hot when he’s out there on the field, and he can feel Will’s load leaking out of his ass.”

Matt was the most amazing sexual partner, and one of the coolest things about him was that he could get aroused pretty easily, but to really get him going, you had to tap into his mind, and I’d just done that. “Fuck me,” he ordered. So I did, making it pretty quick so I didn’t set off his trigger. Fifteen minutes later, we were walking out of the house with me pretty satisfied, and him chuckling as he tried not to let my load leak out of his ass and all over his boxers.

The ice rink was crowded tonight. They had a lot of guys here, because there was serious competition for spots on the Gay Games team. I knew all of the guys but one; this big hulking guy who was standing kind of off on his own.

“Who’s that?” I asked one of the wings, a guy named Wind, because he was really skinny and really fast.

“That’s Hammer,” he said.

“Hammer?” We all had nicknames, and they usually had some meaning.

“Two reasons for that,” he said in a clipped way. “He’s a total dick on the ice, and he’s a construction worker.”

I’m a social kind of guy, so I walked up to him to greet him. “Hey,” I said in a friendly way.

This guy was tall, really bulked up, and kind of arrogant. He looked at me with a hint of disdain. “Hey,” he said, acting like I’d annoyed him. “I’m Hammer.”

“I’m Princess,” I grumbled, blushing as I said it. God, I hated that nickname.

“You certainly are,” he said, and chuckled. I rolled my eyes and walked away from him and skated out onto the ice.

The coaches split us up into two teams, trying to balance us out. They separated Matt and me, which made sense. We were in tune with each other, and since I wasn’t going to Sydney, they didn’t want to give Matt an edge. The funny thing was that we all pretty much knew who was going to make it, and while some guys were on the edge, Matt wasn’t one of them. They put Hammer on my team.

We huddled over on our bench, getting ready for the game to start. “Alright Princess, you’re responsible for shutting your boyfriend down,” Sharpie said. He was our captain, and had a leadership style that was really calm and unassuming, but it worked. I liked him. I didn’t like my nickname, but I liked him.

“Fine,” I said.

“That’s your boyfriend?” Hammer asked, gesturing toward Matt.

“That’s him,” I said, and not in a real friendly way.

“If you can’t handle him, I can,” he said, raising his eyebrows. There was a clear double-entendre there, which pissed me off, but I didn’t show it. Of course.

“I can handle him just fine,” I said calmly.

I was on our first line, and Matt was on theirs, so we skated out for the face off. Truth be told, I liked playing opposite Matt better than being on the same team with him, as long as it wasn’t a really intense game. When it was more relaxed, we had a blast. But this game was not going to be relaxed.

The ref dropped the puck, and Matt won the face off, which wasn’t unusual. He blasted into our zone, but I was ready for him. Our best defensemen, Walrus, forced him toward the boards, and I chased him all the way to them, slamming him into them in a relatively harmless way. But Matt was an intuitive player, and he knew that with both of us on him, that would leave one of their guys open. He passed the puck to one of his wings, and that guy popped the puck into the goal.

“You’re gonna have to stop those in Sydney,” Sharpie said to the goalie, the one Matt had nicknamed Two Tone.

“How about some help on D?” he snapped back.

Hammer came up to him in an intimidating way. “Any goalie worth a shit would have made that save.”

“Fuck you,” Two Tone said, all pissed off.

The next time Matt was on the ice, I was on the bench. I watched as Hammer lined himself up to guard him. The puck dropped, and Matt once again charged into our zone. Hammer was on Matt, but Matt was a way better player than that goon. Still, there was no arguing that even though he was only an adequate skater, with Hammer’s size, he was a formidable defenseman. I watched him with Matt, watched him slash and pull out all the dirty tricks. The referees in this game were really lax, so they let him get away with it. I could feel Matt’s temper flaring.

The game was a good one, but not a fun one, at least not for me. Matt was absolutely on fire, and was without question the most dominant player on the ice. It was actually a little depressing, since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go to Sydney for the games. Matt kept saying he wasn’t going, but the team needed him, and he wanted to go. I resolved to encourage him more forcefully.

Matt kept himself under control until the third period. Hammer was all over him, and hit him with a real nasty crosscheck. I was on the ice when it happened, and could literally feel all of Matt’s controls snap. He pivoted on his skates, and threw one nasty punch at Hammer. That knocked him back, but Matt didn’t stop. He shucked off his gloves and went after him. It was pretty funny, because even though Hammer was massive, Matt was clearly winning the fight. He hit Hammer pretty hard again, only this time he knocked the dude down. That was our cue to jump in and stop it, so I lunged in and grabbed Matt. “It’s over,” I said insistently to him.

“Piece of shit,” Matt spat at Hammer. “You’re not even a good goon.”

“Fuck you!” Hammer said, and got up like he was going to go after Matt again, but we hauled them both off to the penalty box. The rest of the game was pretty uneventful.

After the game was over, the coach called me over. “I understand you can’t go to the Games.”

“I’d like to, but I can’t,” I said. School was tough, and I was pretty much stretched to the limit just playing in our rec games.

“No way you can get off work?” It was really flattering that he wanted me to go bad enough that he was trying to persuade me.

“I don’t work. I’m in my first year of law school at Harvard.” I hadn’t really broadcast that to the team, so most of these guys probably didn’t know that was my gig. He raised his eyebrows, impressed that I’d made it into that program.

“Then you can’t go,” he said, smiling. “Volcano is a sure deal for the team. Since you don’t have a conflict of interest, help us figure out who else to pick.”

That was stunning, quite a compliment, but I managed to maintain my calm façade. “Sure.” So while Matt and the other guys hit the showers, I hung out with the coach and the assistant coach, helping them decide who got to go to Sydney. It was a really smart move on their part, even though it seemed conceited that I thought that, because they had an onlooker’s perspective, but I was out there on the ice with those guys.

“What about Hammer?” The assistant coach asked.

I said nothing, waiting for the coach to speak up. “He’d be good to calm things down.”

“He’s a dirty player,” I said. That bothered me, but it didn’t bother them.

“We have room on our roster for him,” the coach concluded. “We can see how he does. If he pulls too many penalties, he’ll warm the bench. I’ll explain that to him.”

“Sounds good,” the assistant coach agreed. I said nothing.

We took about forty-five minutes to really work through the guys on the list, until we’d finalized our choices. They went to type up the final list, while I went to the locker room to get cleaned up. Matt was in there, waiting for me. “What was he pissed at you about?” I rolled my eyes at him, and his assumption that I’d gotten in trouble.

“They wanted my help in picking the team,” I said. He raised an eyebrow to question me. “You’re a shoo in, and I’m not going, so they figured I’d be objective.”

“You’d be objective even if I was borderline and you were going,” he said to me affectionately.

“You’re just being all nice to me because you’re horny,” I teased. “If I’d made you cum, you’d have a different opinion.”

“Baby, I’d think that about you no matter what,” he said sincerely.

“If you’re trying to butter me up so I’ll get you off, it will probably work,” I joked.

“Dude, that totally energized me,” he said with a leer. “I’ll have to thank Zach for that tip.”

“So you made the team,” I said.

“Wade, this is our deal. Hockey is about us,” he said. “I’m staying home.”

I was stripping off my gear as we talked, and it was cool to see how even after all these years together, his eyes were totally glued on my body. “Hockey is our deal,” I agreed. “But this only happens once every four years, and these guys really need you.”

He grimaced, because he knew I was right. I was really in tune to him and his feelings, and I knew that he really wanted to go. It was only his obligation to me and our family that was holding him back. That’s why I was pushing him to go, because I didn’t want to be the buzz kill that blew this chance for him to experience a global competition. “I’ll think about it.”

“They need a decision,” I said. “There’s a lot of shit to plan.” I went and took a shower to give him some time to ponder the situation. I went pretty fast, because I knew there would be a meeting after this for all the guys that were going.

I came back out, drying off as I did, and saw him sitting in the same place, only he had a look of resolve on his face. He’d made his decision. “You’re sure you’re OK with me doing this?”

I leaned down and gave him a nice kiss. “I’m your biggest cheerleader. Bring me home a gold medal.”

“Will you still love me if I only get silver?” he asked playfully.

“I will love you no matter what,” I vowed. We got dressed and went out to the lobby.

Hammer walked up to Matt, and I felt him tense up. “Dude, what happens on the ice, stays on the ice. We cool?”

Matt gave him a pretty unpleasant look, because he didn’t have much use for dirty players. That was probably even more true because of the bullshit we’d had to put up with from Carl Haupt at Stanford. “Fine,” he said, grudgingly.

“Let me buy you a beer to make up for it,” Hammer offered, flirting with him. I was seething, but he wouldn’t be able to tell that.

“Maybe some other time,” Matt said. “But thanks.” The guy just raised his eyebrows and walked over to where all the other players were.

The coaches had assembled the guys who had made it off in a quiet corner. I was glad I’d missed seeing the looks of disappointment on the faces of the guys who didn’t make the team.

“So if you’re here, that means you’re the best we got, and it also means that you’re making a commitment to go,” the coach said. “If you need to get time off or whatever, you’ve got one week to line it up.”

“What about the cost?” Sparky asked. He played right wing, and was so energetic he was almost hyper on the ice. But he worked at a grocery store as a checker, so he didn’t have much cash.

“We’ll try to do some fundraising to help offset the cost,” he said.

“How much will it cost?” Goober asked. He was a defenseman who got that name because he had a hard-core Southern twang.

“If you share a room, about $2,000 per person, including airfare,” he said. These guys had been all hyped up about going, but faced with that kind of expense, they were wavering. They also were smart enough to know that it would probably cost even more than that.

“That’s some serious cash,” Walrus said, voicing everyone’s opinion.

“I’m hoping that we can raise enough money to cover at least half of it,” the coach said. Everyone was really down about this, about the financial reality of the whole deal. “Before we do that, we’ve got some team expense to cover. That threshold is about ten grand.”

“Shit,” Walrus said. They all looked pretty morose.

“So what’s the total bill for all of us to go?” Matt asked. The coach looked at him strangely.

“We’re looking at probably fifty grand,” he said. The players all sighed. It was really sad to see them go from being excited to being depressed.

“We’ll cover it,” he said, winking at me. I smiled for so many reasons, but the most important was that he said ‘we'd’ do it, not that ‘he'd’ do it.

“Are you serious?” Sparky asked. “It’s $50,000 dude.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Wind said. “You want him to change his mind?” We all laughed at that.

“I’m serious. It’s good.” Matt pulled out his checkbook, and dashed out a draft for $50,000 and handed it to the coach. “See you on Tuesday.”

“Thanks, Carrswold,” the coach said. “And you too, Princess.” I frowned at him, while Matt chuckled.