The Freshmen - 12. Chapter 12

August 16, 2004

Marousi, Greece

Will

“Good morning,” Jake said pleasantly, as he walked into the dining room where our group was eating breakfast. He tossed two badges on the table, one for Marie and one for Travis. “They agreed to your deal.”

“Awesome,” I said, chuckling.

“Thanks,” Travis said. “It would have been even cooler if you wouldn’t have had to pay for them with a black eye.” My eye had swollen up last night and then this morning the swelling had receded, only to reveal a pretty dark ring. I looked like I was half raccoon.

“I agree,” Marie said sympathetically. “That was sweet of you to think of me.”

“I always have your back, Starfish,” I said, getting a warm smile from her, even though I used the nickname she didn’t like.

My phone rang and I looked at the caller ID. I was surprised to see it was Zach. “Be right back,” I said to our group, then stood up and walked to the other room, even as I answered it.

“How are the Olympics?” Zach asked enthusiastically. My first reaction was to question why he was so fucking happy this early in the morning until I realized that it was nighttime in LA.

“Awesome,” I said, matching his tone. “The men’s 200-meter freestyle is today. Going to be an awesome race.”

“Maybe Phelps will win that one too!” he said.

“I hope not,” I said. “Dude’s a tool. I’m on the Thorpedo bandwagon.”

“Traitor,” he said, teasing me, then got serious. “Thanks so much for letting us use your place in Maui.”

“No problem,” I said. “You had a good time?”

“We had a great time,” Zach answered. “It was really good for Taylor. She’s spent so much time in counseling with shrinks trying to fix her brain, she was pretty overwhelmed. It was like she finally got a break to actually think about all the shit that’s happened.”

“Is she doing alright?” I asked.

“She’s doing better,” he said a bit glumly. “Did Travis get the email she sent him?”

“I don’t know,” I said, grimacing to myself, knowing how Travis would react to a communiqué from Taylor. “He didn’t say anything about it to me.”

“I need a favor,” he said. I just waited for him to go on. “Her counselor thinks that a big key to her getting her shit together is to get to a good place with Travis.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

“Can you see if he’ll help her out?” he asked.

“Dude, I don’t know about that,” I said. I could sense him getting annoyed with me, so I hastily finished my thought. “The last time I tried to do that we got into a major fight.”

“So he’s going to hate her forever?” Zach asked in a really pissed off way.

“If that’s what he wants to do, that’s what he’s going to do,” I snapped. “He’s already put himself way the fuck out there for her. Shit, he contributed half the money to the settlement she got from the insurance company.” I ignored the fact that he wouldn’t actually have to lay out that money, since it seemed like a good idea to let Big and Taylor think Travis and I were just being generous.

“That was nice of him, but that’s not what she needs,” he insisted.

“It’s pretty raw of her, after treating him like absolute shit for years, and getting on board for at least some of the crap Curtis was trying to do to him, to turn around and demand that he have some big meeting of the minds with her,” I said, sticking up for Travis. “He’s gone out of his way to help her get through this latest crisis.”

“By throwing money at the problem,” he grumbled.

“Exactly,” I said caustically.

“Grudges don’t do either one of them any good,” he persisted.

“Look,” I said, getting frustrated. “I’m not going to sit here and have an argument where you take her side and I take Travis’s side. It’s up to him whether he responds to her. I’ve done what I can, and I’m not pushing him anymore.”

“And if it destroys Taylor, that’s okay?” he asked me.

“Not my battle, not your battle,” I said dismissively. “It’s between those two.”

“I can’t believe he’s being such a douche,” Zach said, really pissing me off.

“Alright, try this,” I said, and I was so mad that my teeth were clenched. “Ask Taylor to fork over $25 million to pay Travis back. That’s a pretty grand gesture.”

“That’s not fair,” he objected.

“I think it’s totally fair,” I said. “Your idea, and her idea evidently, is all about taking whatever you can get from him. What do you bring to the table?”

“You make it sound like this is some business transaction,” he said.

“Travis has put himself out there with his wallet,” I said. “She’s done nothing for him.” He said nothing for a bit, and just stewed on my words.

“It’s the right thing for him to do,” he said lamely.

“According to who?” I demanded, a bit too loudly. “You don’t get to sit there in judgment over him, especially after the way you treated him.”

“Well enjoy Greece,” he said in a pissy way.

“Whatever,” I said, and got ready to end the call.

“Will,” he said to stop me. His tone changed to one that was both sincere and pleading. “I’d appreciate anything you can do to help.”

“I’ll think about it,” I grumbled, then hit the end button on my phone. I sighed even as I put my phone away. That conversation was tough, because even though I’d stood up for Travis, it was hard for me to wrap my head around how much he hated Taylor. Deep down, I knew that Zach was right, and that this grudge Travis carried was going to hurt him at least as much as it hurt Taylor, but Travis could be stubborn as fuck, and he wasn’t thinking about this logically.

I went back to the table just as they were finishing up breakfast. “Who called?” Travis asked.

“Zach,” I said, getting a frown from him. “He wanted to thank me for letting them stay in Maui.”

“That was nice of him,” Stef said, while Travis just acted all sulky.

“Let’s go,” I said to Travis, wanting to get him out of here so he didn’t kill everyone else’s buzz with his mood.

Marie had planned to go with us, but she wisely decided to stick with the others, which is how Travis and I found ourselves walking to the Aquatic Center by ourselves. Travis didn’t say anything for a while, then finally blurted out what was bothering him. “It bugs the shit out of me that you’re still friends with them,” Travis said, referring to Zach and Taylor.

“And it bugs the shit out of me that you’re carrying a grudge against them, but it pisses me off even more that we keep having this same fucking argument,” I snapped back at him.

“It’s about loyalty,” he said.

“That is absolute bullshit,” I said, and stopped to glare at him. “Instead of dealing with this, you’re just letting it fester, growing like some virus inside you. And if that’s your deal, I love you enough to put up with it. But don’t you tell me I’m fucking disloyal because I’m not going down that toxic path.”

“I didn’t say you were disloyal,” he said, backtracking in the face of my rage.

“Yes, you did,” I spat. “So why don’t you go back and think about how we’ve been over the past six months and tell me exactly how I’ve betrayed your sorry ass.”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered. I was too mad to deal with him, so I kept on going while he hung back, waiting to see if I’d wait for him. I strode ahead for five minutes then stopped. Travis had flown out here to be with me, a huge gesture that had taken my sadness and turned it to joy. There was no way I was going to let this shit with Taylor ruin our time together. He caught up with me and we started walking together again, only instead of going to the stadium, I led him to the park.

“This is where I got my ass kicked,” I joked. He smiled at me, happy that I was in a better mood.

“I’m here to protect you this time,” he said, getting an eye roll from me in response. We sat down on a small bench for a bit before he spoke again. “I’m sorry I went off on you about Zach.”

“Travis, I am not your enemy,” I said. “I am on your side.”

“I know that,” he snapped. “I just don’t want to deal with Taylor or Zach, so when you talk to either one of them, it pulls them into my life.”

“My connection with them allows them to break down the wall you put up to keep them out?” I asked. I was guessing he’d put up a barrier against both of them, and I was fucking that up.

“Yeah, and I like that wall, and I don’t want it broken down,” he said. “When you talk to Zach or Taylor, you give them a way to get through. I don't want to, I can't shut you out, so that makes me vulnerable.”

I pondered that for a bit. “I can see where that would fuck up your worldview,” I said in a jocular way.

“I react so badly because when that happens, it seems like you’re helping them out, and that you’re not on my side, and I need you to be on my side,” he said earnestly. I could have let that really piss me off, but he was being really open and candid with me, and that demanded that I be patient.

“When I talked to Zach about it just now, it was like we were two lawyers representing our clients,” I said. “He was pleading Taylor’s case, and I was championing yours.”

“So don’t do that,” he said. “I don’t care about what Taylor or Zach think, and I don’t think you should either.” I sighed in frustration, both at being stuck in the middle and in having to rehash the same arguments with him.

“When I talk to you about this, it’s not because I want you to have some big rapprochement with them to make them feel better,” I said. “It’s because I know that this will eat away at you if you don’t deal with it.”

“No, it won’t,” he insisted strongly.

“Yeah, it will,” I responded just as indignantly. “So to the degree that I bring it up, I’m doing it for you, not for them.”

“Not how I see it,” he said dismissively.

“Is that why you didn’t tell me Taylor sent you an email?” I asked. His brows furrowed as he got angry.

“See, this is just what I was talking about,” he said, almost yelling at me. I raised my eyebrow at him, reminding him that I wasn’t about to put up with his shouting at me, and that chilled him out slightly. “If I wanted you to know about that, I would have shared it with you.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked. He got really agitated, so I stood up, and he followed my lead, then we started walking again.

“Because like I said, I want to keep them walled off from me, and if I’d shown it to you, you might have tried to make me respond,” he said.

“I would never make you do that,” I said. He didn’t seem to understand the importance of that statement, so I stopped and made him look at me. “Seriously.”

He grimaced, then we started walking again. “Can’t we just leave this alone?”

“Here’s why this situation bothers me, and goes beyond your issues with them, and morphs into an issue between you and me,” I said. “You’re assuming that if you showed me Taylor’s email, that I’d immediately flame you and tell you that you were being a complete asshole. What the fuck did I ever do to make you think I was like that?”

“That’s not it,” he said in an unconvincing way.

“It is,” I countered. “That’s what I mean when I tell you I’m on your side. And that’s why it bothers me so much, because you don’t think that I will be, and I always am.”

“You know how much this bugs me,” he said. “So why are you pushing me about this?”

I was frustrated because we were going in circles. “Do you think that ultimately you’ll have to figure out a way to deal with Taylor?”

“No,” he said definitively.

“Alright,” I said. He was waiting for me to say more, but I didn’t.

“I left my phone at the apartment. I have to go back and get it,” he said. I was pretty sure if I called him, his pocket would ring, but he was using that as an excuse to go off by himself and think about things, so I let him off the hook.

“I’ll see you at the stadium,” I said, then shocked the shit out of him by giving him a quick hug before I walked away.

I got to the pool and passed through security, then managed to run into Klete Keller. “Nice black eye,” he said to me, snickering.

“Thanks,” I said in a smarmy way. “Even with that, I’m still hotter than you.”

“Right,” he said, then sneered in a nasty way. “You took Gillis out, and that could fuck up our performance, asshole.”

“Gillis took himself out,” I said. “If your performance is fucked up, it’s because you’re a douche.”

“You want the other eye to be as black as that one?” he challenged, getting in my face. He pushed me hard, making me stumble.

“Touch me again, asshole, and you’ll end up worse than Gillis,” I said.

“I’m not afraid of you,” he said, in the same way he’d say ‘as if’.

“Then you’re even dumber than I thought,” I said. A security guard showed up because we’d created a scene. “This dude is harassing me,” I said.

“I was not,” Klete insisted loudly.

“Leave him alone,” the guard said firmly to Keller, which was hilarious.

“Fuck off,” Keller mumbled, and stalked off, showing himself to be the total asshole that he was.

Ian walked up to me, grinning. “What’s that term you seppos use? Shit disturber?”

I laughed. “Sometimes,” I said. “I am so stoked to watch you kick ass today.”

“Tough competition,” he said nervously.

“Not for you,” I said, and gave him a playful nudge, then he went back to his world. I saw Gregor working on his laptop, and even though I wasn’t employed by the Olympic Committee anymore, I went over and helped him out for an hour.

“Thanks, Will,” he said, smiling at me. I went out to the area where we could watch the race, and the air was electric. I saw Travis in the stands, our eyes met and I winked at him, getting a cute grin in return. My gaze was torn away from him when the swimmers started to come out. They took their positions, with all eyes focused on the big three: Thorpe, Phelps, and Pieter Van Den Hoogenband, the Dutch guy. Those may have been who the crowd was paying attention to, but my scope was much narrower. I was focused on one guy only. As soon as they shot off the starting ‘gun’, or whatever the fuck it was, my eyes were locked on Ian Thorpe like they were lasers. The crowd started going wild, cheering and ranting like crazy, and I was right with them. I had never been in an arena that was filled with so much energy. I obviously wasn’t competing, but being here on the pool deck and hearing the roaring crowd, I could see what Zach was talking about when he spoke of the rush he got from playing in front of his fans. It was funny, because despite all the hype and buildup, the race lasted less than two minutes, and when it was over, Ian Thorpe had won the gold medal, followed by the Dutch dude and then Phelps. Klete Keller came in 4^th, with Grant Hackett taking 5^th. When Ian walked into the locker room, he paused to talk to me.

“You were amazing, just like I knew you’d be,” I gushed. “I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks, mate,” he said. He smiled but looked down shyly, then was ushered past me by his entourage. I exited the locker area and saw Travis in the stands. I waved at him, then met him at the security checkpoint.

“Dude, that was an amazing race,” he said, and high-fived me. “Your boy pulled it off.”

“He did,” I said. “It was awesome.” He looked at me indulgently to tell me he wasn’t bothered about my athlete crush.

“I think we are going to go ahead and leave,” Stef said.

“Back to the US?” I asked in surprise. They weren’t supposed to leave for a few days.

“There are a lot of things going on back home,” Dad said. “At work,” he added quickly.

“I understand,” I said. “Besides, with you guys out of the way, we can throw a massive party!”

“Sadly, you will still have to navigate around me,” Grand said. “I am staying for a while longer, at least.”

“Sadly,” I said, getting a fake annoyed look from him. We all walked out to the Suburban limo they had hired. “You already packed?”

“We made that decision before we came over, so we are ready to go to the airport,” Jake said. “I’m sorry.”

That was kind of an abrupt exit. “That’s fine,” I said. “Are you guys going to see JJ?”

“We are,” Dad said.

“Be careful,” I warned.

“Be careful?” Dad asked, completely annoyed.

“This relationship is important to JJ,” I said. “Don’t fuck it up.”

“I’m not going to fuck it up,” he said adamantly.

“We’ll be careful,” Jake said, all but pushing my father aside.

“Thanks,” I responded. We gave them quick hugs, then they were gone. “That was kind of weird. They left all of a sudden.”

“This morning after you left, they started talking about all of these things they had going on at work, and I think they freaked each other out,” Marie said.

“It is no reflection on their desire to escape from you,” Grand said. “At least not more than normal.” Travis laughed at that, while I gave them both fake-annoyed looks.

“I’m going back to the apartment,” I announced, just to move us along. It didn’t take us long to get back there, and it took even less time for me to sequester myself with Travis in our room.

“I want you to read something,” he said, before I could say anything.

“Reading wasn’t what I had planned, but I can work with that,” I said playfully. He opened up his laptop, clicked on an email, and handed the computer to me. It was Taylor’s email to him. “You sure you want me to look at this?”

“No, I just showed it to you and now I’m going to whip it out of your hands,” he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at me. I laughed at him, then started reading. I read it twice, then handed his laptop back to him. “Well?”

“I’m not impressed,” I said. He stared at me, pretty stunned, all but demanding that I explain. “I mean, I feel sorry for her. She obviously had a rough time. She talks about how Curtis groomed her, and what she went through, and how traumatic this has been for her.”

“I don’t get it,” he said. “What was she supposed to write?”

“She started it out with a sort of apology to you, but it sounded insincere, and she didn’t seem to realize how her behavior impacted you,” I said. “It’s all about her.”

“That’s Taylor,” Travis said, shaking his head.

“She talked all about herself and how what happened to her was horrible, but had no perception of what you went through, or what she put you through,” I said. “Until she does that, I don’t really think you have a lot to talk to her about.”

He sat there in a daze, looking at his laptop. “It didn’t really resonate with me, but I didn’t know why until you just explained it.”

“I mean, I’m not a psychologist, so I may be reading this whole thing wrong, but that’s how I’d feel if I got an email like that,” I said, remembering that I wasn’t qualified to talk about this in such a definitive way.

“No,” he said. “I think you’re right. I mean, I’m not saying that she had it easy, but from my point of view, she set things up pretty much how she wanted them, and now that everything’s blown up, she’s playing the ‘woe is me’ card.”

I nodded. “I think she has every right to do that, but it’s more about what’s missing. Where’s the ‘woe is Travis’ card?” I joked.

He smiled at me, then fell back on the bed, pulling me on top of him while he wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” I said.

“I’m sorry I shut you out and treated you like shit this morning,” he said. He looked so sad about that it was just adorable.

“I am on your side,” I said again. “Never forget that.”

“And I’m on your side,” he promised.

August 16, 2004

Tribeca, NY

JJ

“I think everything is ready for them,” Jacinta said to me in a vain attempt to calm me down.

“You did a good job of making the condo look terrific,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said, even though she gave me a worried look. “I will have dinner ready when they get here.” I smiled to thank her.

“I’m going to freshen up,” I said, even though I had no idea what that archaic term really meant. I went into my bedroom and shut the door, then collapsed onto my back and stared at the ceiling. Within the next hour, Stef, Jake, and my father were due to land on my doorstep. I was gripped with fear that they would somehow manage to drive Kris away. My father had called me late last night to tell me they were coming to visit today. Not only did he wake me up with this, they were coming two days earlier than they were supposed to. I’d tried to gently persuade him not to, but he hadn’t taken the hint. Stef had called me right before they were leaving, waking me up in the process, and I’d had no more luck with him. The worst part of this was I didn’t really know what they could do to mess up my relationship, but I figured that if there was a way to do it, they’d manage to stumble on it.

I kicked my feet in annoyance. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? Kris and I as a couple were so new, we were still getting to know each other. Why couldn’t they wait until we were more settled before they came in and rocked my world? I told myself that Kris was awesome and that they’d love him, then I remembered who I was dealing with. My father would probably grill him like he was a piece of salmon, and Stef would flirt with him while mentally critiquing the clothes I’d bought him. Jake would stand on the sidelines looking incredibly hot, as if he was taunting Kris, reminding him of all the handsome men out there he could hook up with if he left my ugly ass.

It was so unfair. They loved Will’s boyfriends, but with mine they did everything to create problems. They’d all but adopted Tony Carbone into our family, even though he had treated Will like total shit over and over again. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they had absorbed Zach Hayes and his redneck family into our clan, even though they were embarrassing bumpkins and even though Zach had physically injured Will. When it came to my boyfriends, they were totally different. They had pointedly tried to drive Alex out of my life. Alex, who was a real aristocrat with a real title, had not been good enough for them. They’d probably go on a hunt after my prince like dogs after a fox. Then they’d achieve their goal: I’d be all alone, with no one to make my existence less miserable. They didn’t care about that. They didn’t care about whether I had any joy in my life. When I’d first met with Dr. Jones, she’d told me they were all toxic and I should eradicate my relatives from my life. That was starting to look more and more like a good idea.

I heard the door open, with just enough noise to alert me someone was there, then heard it close just as quietly. I sat up and smiled at Kris, even as I contrasted him with Carullo, who would come bounding into a room totally making a scene. Kris was wearing the light gray suit I’d just gotten him, and it looked great on him, the color working perfectly with his blond hair and light complexion. Just seeing him transformed my mood and pulled me out of my pity party of self-inflicted misery. “Welcome home,” I said pleasantly.

“I see you’re waiting for me in the bedroom,” he said suggestively.

“They should be here any minute now,” I said, and got mad at my relatives all over again, this time for cock-blocking me. He turned around and locked the door.

“There’s time,” he said in his sexy way.

“They didn’t call me yet, so they’re probably not even on their way,” I rationalized, although I was too horny to even care about them. We had sex quickly, and even though it wasn’t as good as it was when we took our time, it was still fucking awesome. I was laying there, having just collapsed on my back after an amazing orgasm, when there was a knock on my door.

“Mr. Jeremy, your father, Mr. Jake, and Mr. Stefan are here,” Jacinta called through the door.

“Fuck,” I muttered, and jumped out of bed, trying to throw my clothes on at a breakneck speed.

“Jacinta, please offer them something to drink and tell them J will be out in about five minutes,” Kris said. He called me “J”, his German efficiency evidently allowing no room for additional letters. I smiled at him and breathed a sigh of relief now that my need to panic had evaporated.

“I will do that, Mr. Kris,” she said.

“You are incredible,” I said to him lovingly, then turned into the Tasmanian Devil as I hurriedly got dressed.

“I am,” he said, being cocky and cracking me up. I looked in the mirror and freaked out because my cheeks were red from my sexual exertions. “J, they know we have sex.”

“Yeah, but they will tease me to death if they can tell,” I said.

“So,” he said, and shrugged. “You’re not ashamed to be sleeping with me are you?”

“No,” I said grumpily, worked on my hair for just a bit, then led Kris out to meet my relatives.