Streak - 45. Chapter 45

December 24, 2002

San Francisco, CA

Brad

“Are you sure about this?” Marc asked me nervously.

“I’m sure,” I said dismissively. “We’ll make it to LA in time to spend the evening with the family, but we’ll miss the thing at the Mission.”

“It sounded like that was kind of important,” he said nervously.

“Look, I’ve spent a lot of time and money supporting that place,” I explained. “I still do. But my presence at this Christmas Eve event isn’t going to make much of a difference. Stef will be there. He’s the one with all the star power.”

“Seemed important to Will,” he said, and now he was starting to annoy me.

“Well, Will didn’t explain to me why my role there was vital, so I’ll show up at the festivities tonight, since that’s what he’s really focused on,” I said, being bitchy. I was pissed off that he hadn’t clued me in to what the whole deal was, and I reasoned that if he wanted me to be involved, he should explain things to me.

“So where are we going?” he asked, getting that I was done with this argument.

“Telegraph Hill,” I said. He looked at me, a little confused. “It’s a cool part of the City. Jack Kerouac and the artsy crowd used to hang out there, and it still has a little bit of that feel.”

“Will took us through there when we went up to the City that first time,” he noted. “Except for Coit Tower, it wasn’t all that touristy, but it looked like a cool neighborhood to live in.”

“That’s pretty much it,” I said, as I drove up to the condo building.

“What are we doing here?” he asked as I pulled into the garage and parked.

“Come on,” I said, ignoring his question. I led him to the elevators and used my key card to take us up to the penthouse floor. The doors opened up to a spectacular view of the City. There was a large, open great room with an equally large dining room, along with a modern kitchen, but the inside was almost invisible when you took into account the full windows that displayed the entire harbor skyline.

“Holy shit! This place is amazing,” he said, with more of a gasp.

“You like it?” I asked with a grin.

“I like it,” he said.

“Good. I bought it so we’d have a place to hang out when we’re in the City,” I said.

He just stared at me, amazed. “You got us our own place? You don’t like living at Escorial?”

“No, I love living at Escorial, and it’s convenient for work, but on the weekends, this gives us a place to go that’s just ours. And it will be nice for you to have a place that’s ours, so when you’re up here at gallery events you have a base.”

“This is just awesome,” he said, but seemed kind of dazed. I let him mull things over for a bit. “It’s just a little overwhelming.”

“I hope you like it,” I said nervously.

“I love it,” he said emphatically. “You’ve given me a home, our own place. It’s like for the first time in a long time, I actually have roots.”

“Wanna see the bedroom?” I asked seductively. We went into the massive master bedroom and christened the bed, and then I gave him a tour of the rest of the condo. On our way out, I showed him one of the more useful features, located in the garage area. “This is a storage area, but it has lights and power outlets. I thought it might be a place you could do some work, if you needed to.”

“That, combined with that third bedroom, will make an awesome studio,” he said. “You’ll have a hard time getting me to leave.”

“Well, I figured we could stay at Escorial during the week, but if you want to spend some time up here to get settled in, I’ve got a plan to do that,” I said.

“You do?”

I nodded. “I’ll have to commute to Palo Alto, and traffic sucks, but I can get a car to drive me, that way I can work while I’m commuting.”

He looked worried. “I don’t want to put a bunch of stress on you, but it would be kind of nice to be here for at least a couple of weeks. I mean, it’s so new and exciting.”

“I agree,” I said, kissing him. “So that’s what we’ll do.”

“Thanks,” he said lovingly. “And now we’d better get to LA.”

I gave him a dirty look. “Let’s go.”

December 24, 2002

Hollywood, CA

Will

Zach was having a blast, hanging out with Ahman Green, so much that I really didn’t have to worry about him. Instead, I could focus on the other people who were here. Father Tim claimed he had set up this big event both to raise some money, and to let the guys at the Mission interact with some successful people. He said it would help give them hope. It seemed like a pretty cool deal, and the guys seemed to like it.

I was watching the door, waiting for Stef and my father to get here, when Cody showed up instead. He had Alex Danvers with him, only Alex looked completely different than he used to. He’d gained at least 50 pounds, and that had made not only his body round, but his face round too. Some guys handled extra pounds and looked fine, but on him, it was like the weight totally fucked him up. It hung on his face, around his stomach, and it gave him man-boobs. “Hey there,” I said, as I went over to greet them.

“Good to see you, Will,” Alex said abruptly. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go over and say hello to Whoopi.” He gestured to where Whoopi Goldberg was joking around with some of the guys.

“Enjoy yourself,” I said, like I was the host or something. “He doing alright?” I asked Cody, referring to Alex.

Cody shook his head. “The meds he has to take to battle HIV don’t like him. They’re making him fat.”

“Dude, that’s the meds?” I asked, horrified.

“It’s the meds,” Cody confirmed sadly, then changed the subject. “Chip really liked Brent.”

“Dude, thank you so much,” I said to him earnestly. “Brent is so stoked!”

“It’s a win for everyone,” Cody said dismissively, like he hadn’t done me a massive favor. “Where’s your father?”

“He’s supposed to hitch a ride with Stef,” I said. “Should be here any minute.”

“It will be good to get a chance to talk to him,” Cody said, and let his feelings out enough for me to see how totally distressed he was. I’d talked to him quite a few times lately, to set up this deal with Brent, and it was obvious even to me that there was something really bothering him. I hadn’t figured out what it was until I’d mentioned Kevin, and gotten a pretty violent reaction from him.

“You’ll get to meet Marc,” I said, raising my eyebrows.

“Stef told me all about him,” Cody said. “Sounds like your Dad got himself a trophy husband.”

“Marc worships him,” I said. “Dad likes that.” We both cracked up at that, and were still laughing when Stef made his entrance. His arrival aroused a lot of attention: from the Hollywood celebrities who loved to gossip with him, to the guys at the Mission who idolized him, and to the other industry players who respected him for his money.

Despite that, Stef migrated right to Cody and me, while Grand broke away from a group of people he was chatting with and joined us. Frank was too engrossed in the conversation with Zach and Ahman Green, so he and Grandmaman didn’t come over to hang out with us, which was just fine. “How wonderful to see you,” Stef said, ostensibly to all of us, but especially to Cody. “I understand you are going to spend tonight with us.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Cody said nervously, and glanced over toward Alex. “I thought Brad was coming down with you?”

“So did I,” I grumbled, so irritated at him for not making the trip.

“I am not good enough?” Stef asked, pretending to be petulant, and then adopted a normal tone. “He had some business in the City, so he will not be here until this evening.”

“Typical,” I grumbled, then got my mood back under control.

“I’m not sure about tonight,” Cody said.

“You can bring Alex if you like,” Stef offered, which would make things a little awkward, but if that’s what it took, that’s what it took.

“I’ll ask him,” Cody said, still not convinced.

“Or you could come by yourself,” I said with a leer. “Think you can handle two under-aged guys at one time?”

“I’m not seeing that,” he said, but smiled, appreciating the ego stroke, and the fact that I hadn’t let his HIV status stop me from hitting on him.

“Dude, you don’t know what you’re missing,” I said. “Come over tonight. You said you wanted to talk to Dad.” I was almost begging, not because I thought him talking to my father was going to do any good. Dad was so unreliable these days he was all but useless. But it was a good excuse to get Cody to show up.

“Alright,” he agreed reluctantly.

“I will be counting on you being there,” Stef said firmly, which was beautiful, because Cody tried really hard not to piss Stef off, and Stef’s tone told him that if he skipped out on tonight he’d do just that.

“I’d better go hang out with Alex,” Cody said, and vanished.

“Where’s Dad?” I demanded of Stef.

“He called me and told me he had plans in the City and that they would be down this evening,” he said. The fact that he seemed irritated too calmed me down a bit.

“I’d better go let Father Tim know,” I said. “It seemed to be important to him that Dad was here. I don’t know why.”

“I suspect we will ultimately find out,” Stef said, and then he was whisked off into a whirlwind, socializing with everyone. I told Tim about my father, and he seemed disappointed but hid it well.

“They have done a lot of work on this place,” Grand observed. We were in the main hall, where the guys ate and had general meetings. The place had been completely redone, and looked pretty nice. “They even carved out an area over there for a computer lab.”

“That’s pretty slick,” I said, noticing it for the first time. “Tim did a nice job of making this seem pretty cool, but not too cool for a shelter.”

“I agree,” Grand said. “Perhaps it is a good idea that Stef didn’t help him out.” I chuckled at that.

Everyone just socialized for a while, enjoying some finger food and drinks, including beer and wine for the guests. Evelyn showed up; she had been Robbie’s assistant at Anders-Hayes, only now she had a much more exalted role. I spent some time catching up with her until she went over to hang out with Alex Danvers, who was her boss.

Father Tim managed to get everyone’s attention, after a considerable effort, and started speaking loudly over the few people who were gauche enough to have kept talking. “I’d like to ask you all to join me in our chapel for a brief ceremony.”

He led the way across the vestibule toward the place that held so many memories for me. We walked in and I was stunned at how different it looked. Ever since I’d first been in here, it had been pretty tacky, with nasty pews left over from when the Baptists had occupied it, along with worn carpeting around the sanctuary. The walls had been painted over before to hide the vandalism, but they’d still been pretty non-descript. Now everything was different. There was a new altar and a new pulpit, built of beautiful dark wood that matched the new pews, which actually had leather pads on them. The floors were no longer industrial grade stone, but were done in various tiles, mostly marble or travertine. And the walls were re-done, with some pretty mosaics tossed in to make it look better. I stared at the new appearance, totally amazed at the transformation.

We took our seats, with Tim guiding Stef, Grand, Darius, Frank, Grandmaman, and me up to the front where we sat near Evelyn, Alex, and Cody. Cody’s boss, Jackie, was there as well. She was an incredibly tacky lady, but pretty nice in her own way. “Those of you who have been here before will no doubt notice how much different this Mission is. We try to run a pretty Spartan and lean operation here, focusing on helping our residents get a new start in life, but I was approached with a request to renovate this chapel with an eye to dedicating it to one of our more famous members, and I felt compelled to go along with it. I think that it has turned out very well.” That got a round of applause from the congregation.

“Back in 1999, this Mission was all but bankrupt, and a few days from being closed down. But for the intervention of Brad and Stefan Schluter, we would not be here today. We had the honor of hosting some important events for the Schluter family. Since then, they have become an integral part of our family here at the Mission, so it only seemed appropriate to invite them here on Christmas Eve,” Father Tim said. For the first time it dawned on my dull mind that this whole deal was some sort of tribute to one of us. “One of the happiest events at this church was the commitment ceremony between Brad Schluter and Robbie Hayes. One of the saddest was when we also hosted the memorial ceremony for Robbie after he was killed in the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers.” I felt that memory seer through my psyche and felt Darius’ hand grab mine to prop us both up.

“I was approached by Alex Danvers, of Anders-Hayes, and Jackie Diamond, of the Diamond Agency, with an offer to renovate our Mission and to name the chapel after Robbie Hayes.” Father Tim paused long enough for them to stand up and be applauded. “Such a generous offer and such a distinguished honor were impossible to resist. So with the generous financial contributions from those two organizations, and their employees, we were able to transform this space into one more appropriate for the worship of God.” That got more applause.

“Unfortunately, Brad Schluter wasn’t able to be with us today, but two of his sons, Will and Darius Schluter are here, as is Robbie’s father, Frank Hayes,” Father Tim said. The three of us stood up and received applause as well. “With their permission, I would like to dedicate this renovated chapel as the Hayes Chapel, in memory of Robert Hayes.”

Father Tim paused and looked at us, waiting for us to say something. We looked to Frank, who didn’t do anything. Darius just stared at me, demanding that I respond, so I hid my irritation and cleared my throat slightly before speaking. “Thank you, Father Tim, and thanks to Anders-Hayes and the Diamond Agency, for creating such a fitting and nice tribute to Robbie,” I said. I was proud of myself for not stammering.

There was a prayer, and then the brief ceremony concluded. “Nicely done,” Stef said to me, with his evil grin.

“I agree,” Darius said.

“I didn’t know I was going to talk,” I grumbled.

“You did a good job,” Zach said, appearing at my side.

“Thanks,” I said to him appreciatively.

“It’s a shame your father missed this,” Zach said.

“I agree,” I said, only with venom in my voice.

“Just let it go,” Darius said, referring to my father. I nodded, even though it wasn’t as easy for me as it was for him.

We socialized for a while longer after that, and then got into the limos that would drive us back to Malibu. We got there at 6:30pm, with barely any time to freshen up before dinner. I went up to my room with Zach, spiffed up my appearance while putting on clothes that were more casual, and got back downstairs by 6:45 to welcome everyone. The crowd from the Mission assembled pretty much at the same time: Darius, Zach, Wally, Clara, Frank, Grandmaman, Grand, and Stef. I found that I was staring at the door with both apprehension and annoyance, waiting for the other people to arrive and complete our gathering.

First of them to arrive was Cody, who came in looking sheepish and nervous, as if he hadn’t lived here for a long time, and as if he didn’t still have a room upstairs that was his. “Hey,” I said, and welcomed him warmly. “Alex isn’t with you?”

“He had some things to do,” Cody said obliquely, and then he was absorbed in greeting everyone else. I took that opportunity to ask Rosa to remove one of the place settings and chairs.

At 6:55 my father and Marc came walking through the door. I gave Dad a particularly nasty look. “So nice of you to join us.”

“I thought it was,” he said, in just as snippy a way.

“You missed the party at the Mission,” I said coldly.

“I couldn’t make it down until now,” he replied in the same tone.

“It was nice,” I continued. “Anders-Hayes and the Diamond Agency paid to renovate the chapel and named it in honor of Robbie. They had a nice ceremony to do that.” He looked like I’d hit him, so shocking was that. Even as the guilt enveloped him, his external façade got even more like steel.

“I didn’t know they were doing that,” he said, acting all pissed off that I hadn’t disclosed that to him.

“Neither did I, but fortunately, Darius, Stef, Frank, Grand, Grandmaman, and I were there to represent the family,” I said to him, then turned my back on him and went to talk to Grand.

I was still in a very bad mood until Darius walked up to Dad. He gave him a hug, then stood back and looked at him. He cocked his head slightly, and then poked Dad in the tummy, which was hilarious. Dad had been enjoying the good life, and he hadn’t been exercising like he used to, and he’d packed on probably ten pounds. It was pretty rude of Darius to point that out to him, but as mad at him as I was, I found to be hilarious. Darius raised an eyebrow, and then walked away from him, leaving Dad standing there, frowning.

Rosa came out and announced that dinner was ready, and it was funny to see how that further sent my father reeling, to see her here and to see how organized things were. He looked at me, and I gave him a smarmy smile, which was pretty petty, but I was doing my best. I was still seriously annoyed that our last guest wasn’t here, but I decided to go ahead with things. We all sat down, and I made Rosa join us, even though she complained about how she had work to do in the kitchen. She jumped back up to go grab the food, with Darius helping her. Everything was perfect. There was one empty seat at the table, and appropriately enough, it was next to Cody. I didn’t think Kevin would break our deal and not show up, but I wasn’t sure.

We just started to eat when the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” I said, and got up and walked over to open it up and found Kevin standing there. He looked a lot better than he had in his office, but he still had that hollow look in his eyes.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” he said nervously.

“We just started eating,” I said, and gave him a warm greeting. “Come on in.”

“How wonderful to see you!” Stef exclaimed, and got up to give Kevin a big hug. I glanced over at Cody, who gave me a dirty look, and then at my father, who wore a blank expression on his face.

Kevin went around the table, greeting everyone. When he got to my father, we all froze up and paid pretty close attention, clearly putting them on the stage. That would piss me off, but they seemed oblivious to things. “I’m sorry,” Kevin said. “I can try to explain things later, but I really am sorry.”

Dad stared at him, and then smiled slightly. “That’s all you had to say,” he said casually, in what was such a perfect way to handle this situation. That did a lot to start to ease my irritation with him. They hugged each other, and then Dad introduced Kevin to Marc.

That was interesting, because both of those guys had the ability to be bitchy, but instead, Kevin turned on his charm. “This jacket looks amazing on you,” he told Marc.

“Thanks, that means a lot coming from you,” Marc said, shooting his full-wattage smile at Kevin. “I’m hoping you can show me some of the stuff you’re working on.”

“Hoping he can show us,” Stef intervened, emphasizing the word ‘us’.

“I will be happy to oblige both of you gentlemen,” Kevin said, and made a courtly bow, briefly reminding me of the Earl of Bridgemont.

“Dude, you say that to guys all the time,” I teased, getting a chuckle from everyone but Cody.

But the main event still had to take place. Kevin walked over to his chair and paused, even as he looked at Cody, who was staring at him in a way that was definitely not friendly. In fact, it was pretty damned unfriendly, almost a glare. “It looks like this is the only open seat,” Kevin said to him. “I’d understand if you wanted me to trade places with someone else instead.”

According to Stef, the last time Kevin had seen Cody he’d been so fucking snarky, it had really pissed Cody off. But Kevin had approached him in a really nice way, and more or less showed him that he wasn’t planning to be a total bitch, so it was pretty cute to see Cody’s attitude completely change. “I would be honored if you would be my dinner partner,” Cody said formally, just as Kevin had before, even as he stood up and pulled out the chair for Kevin.

“Excellent,” Kevin said.

“You missed a really awesome ceremony for Robbie this afternoon,” Cody said to Kevin. It was a weird topic to raise, but that just showed us all how freaked out he was.

“So did I,” Dad snapped, then looked sorry that he’d said anything. He did that sometime, where he’d just let shit slip out that he didn’t mean to say. I was totally willing to overlook it, but Darius wasn’t.

“Alright,” Darius said, as he stood up and tossed his napkin onto his chair. “We’re going to settle this now, so the rest of us can enjoy dinner.”

“What are you talking about?” Dad demanded.

“You and Will are going to sit here and hurl smart-ass little comments at each other, and it’s going to ruin this dinner,” he said. He was really pissing me off, since I felt like he was selling me down the river after I’d worked so hard to coordinate everything. A glance at my father showed him to be just as irritated.

“I agree,” Cody said, standing up to validate Darius. I really gave him a dirty look, since I’d done so much to engineer this dinner primarily for him, and now Cody was turning on me?

Darius zeroed in on me, and it bugged me that even though I was throwing fire at him with my eyes, it didn’t faze him at all. “You know what a control freak Dad is, so instead of telling him what’s going on, you keep it from him. You know what he’s like. You’re setting him up to fail. It’s like you keep offering drinks to an alcoholic.” I just stared at him, stunned, even as I tried to grapple with what he said. It was even harder to pretend he wasn’t right.

“And you,” Darius said, as he focused on my father, “are all pissed off that Will did this without consulting you. Instead, how about if you stop and think about how cool it is that your son who isn’t even seventeen yet, coordinated this whole dinner, this whole holiday, to try to make things better for all of us. Why don’t you try that?”

I first looked at Zach, who was trying not to laugh his ass off, and that got me so pissed off I almost went off on him, but then I looked across the table at my father, who stood there looking as mad as I was, and suddenly all of this seemed so fucking stupid. I couldn’t help it. I started laughing, and then so did he. We just shook our heads, while Darius and Cody sat down. “That was very impressive,” Stef said to Darius.

“I agree,” Grand said.

“So do I,” I chimed in, and winked at Darius. But Cody was giving me his smarmy look, so I decided to mess with him. I still had everyone’s attention, so I focused on him, like I was building up for some big tirade. “You know, you’re a lot smarter when Kevin’s around.”

The reaction on Cody’s face was hilarious, so funny I started laughing again, and so did Darius and Dad, and pretty much everyone else joined in. Cody looked at Kevin, even as he blushed, but Kevin just smiled at him. “I agree,” Kevin said.

Cody smiled, really smiled, and I couldn’t remember seeing him glow like that for quite a while. “Maybe we should go talk about that.”

Kevin shook his head. “Let’s talk about it now. Here. Everyone’s going to bug you about what happened anyway, so we might as well talk in front of them. I mean, they set up this whole dinner so you and I could decide not to hate each other.”

“That’s pretty much true,” I said to them, since I’d set it up, and I’d pretty much done it just for that reason.

“I don’t know if I can just be friends with you,” Cody told Kevin. It was incredible. The rest of us were quiet, while Kevin and Cody pretended like they were alone in the room. It was like watching a movie.

“I don’t know if I can just be friends with you, either,” Kevin said.

“I don’t know if I can do more than that,” Cody said. “I’ve moved on. I’ve got someone in my life now. And after the way you treated me, I don’t think I can trust you anymore.”

“So you’re saying that you don’t trust me, and that’s why you don’t want to give things another chance?” Kevin asked.

“I didn’t even know us trying again was an option,” Cody said. “And even if it is, I don’t know if I want to go there.”

“Would it matter if I told you that I was sorry for how badly I treated you?” Kevin asked.

“It’s not like you were being safe,” Cody spat, showing how upset this whole thing had made him. “You blamed me for everything, when you were just as bad as I was.”

“The night I broke up with you, that’s the night after I found out I had this, and I’d just heard about the party you’d starred in at Jackie’s, where you bare-backed three separate dudes.”

Cody didn’t say anything, but just looked guilty, then looked angry. “You saying you didn’t do that too?” he demanded.

“No, I’m trying to explain why I was so fucked up about this. It was easy to decide that’s why I was positive and to blame it on you. That way I didn’t have to feel guilty about doing that to you. I clung onto that, because that way, it was your fault, not mine.”

“How do you think that made me feel?” Cody demanded.

“I think it made you feel horrible,” he said. “That’s how I felt when I thought I was the one who gave it to you. I was a coward, and a pussy. I couldn’t handle the guilt, so I tossed it onto you.” Kevin started crying, not sobbing, but there were streams of tears flowing down his cheeks.

Cody nodded. “And that’s why I acted guilty,” he said softly. Kevin let that comment mess him up even more, since he understood that Cody had intentionally taken that bullet for him. “I would have been OK with that, only it cost me you.”

“I’m not OK with that at all,” Kevin said. “I have never been so depressed, and felt so badly about myself, ever. It turned me into a truly awful person. I decided that if I was safe, I didn’t have to tell guys I was positive. I could hide the whole thing. And that almost cost me one of my best friends,” he said, as he stared at my father.

“So what do you want from me?” Cody demanded.

“Do you love him?” Kevin asked. We all knew he was referring to Alex Danvers.

“No,” Cody admitted.

“Do you love me?” Kevin asked. Cody didn’t answer him which was as good as a ‘yes’. “I still love you. I’m miserable without you. I’m self-destructive. I’m toxic. And I think you’re my only cure.”

“That’s a lot of pressure,” Cody said, even as he mulled things over.

“Have you been happy without me in your life?” Kevin demanded. “Do you miss me?”

“I miss you, and I’m not happy without you, but I’m not sure if I can trust you,” Cody answered honestly. I figured that would flatten Kevin, and that he’d give up and walk away, but he didn’t.

“OK,” Kevin said. “So you want to be miserable, or you want to give me another chance to be trustworthy?”

“I need some time to think about this,” Cody said, even as he struggled to digest everything.

“I’m OK with that, with one condition,” Kevin said. Cody raised an eyebrow to ask him to explain. Kevin stood up and held out his hand to Cody. “I think you need to have all the data before you make a decision. Let me remind you of another way we’re really good together.”

Cody grinned, then stood up and followed Kevin out of the dining room. We all stared after them, even as we heard their feet clumping as they climbed the stairs to Cody’s room.

Wally broke the silence, something none of us expected. I was even more surprised when he spoke to me. “You know, I drove my son away by not stopping to appreciate the amazing things he does. So I’m going to try not to do that anymore, and I have to say, that was really a good thing you did.”

“Thanks,” I managed to stammer, so stunned was I. My father stood up, attracting my attention. I watched as he walked over to me, and subconsciously stood up to face him.

“Wally’s right,” he said. “I’m very proud of you.” Then he gave me a hug, one of those meaningful hugs. After that, we focused on eating, and I glanced around the table, happy that my plan to heal some of the wounds in our family had apparently been successful.