The Freshmen - 34. Chapter 34

 

September 25, 2004

Cambridge, MA

Will

“I wish I would have blown off acting and just moved here with you,” Travis said. That was a little freaky, and I knew I had to handle this carefully.

“I would love that, but I don’t want you to give up your career for me,” I told him. He gave me a dour look. “You would not be happy just hanging around and waiting for me to come home. Besides, this year I have to be in the dorms anyway, and my schedule is tough.”

He sighed. “Alright, I can see how that’s a thing, but that’s my fantasy.”

“Mine too,” I said. “At my birthday party, which you missed by the way…what the fuck was with that?”

“Look, you are so full of yourself that you had multiple birthday parties. I couldn’t be at all of them,” he said, and elbowed me playfully.

“Alright, well at the birthday party you missed, Riley told me to make a wish when I was blowing out the candles,” I said.

“Was it for me to suddenly appear, naked and hard?”

“No, that’s my dream, not my wish,” I said, getting a fake frown from him. “I wished that four years from now, we’d still be together.”

“I’ll remember to make that my wish too,” he said, and gave me a nice kiss. “Between the two of us, we can make that happen.”

“That’s actually how it works,” I said, giving him shit. “Now we have to get ready so you can meet my roommate, the one that I think has a crush on me.”

“Terrific,” he said. “Why would I want to meet a dude who is lusting after you?”

“If you avoided meeting people who lusted after me, you would meet no one,” I said, being cocky. “He’s a really nice guy, and I want you to help me figure something out.”

“What?”

“His best friend is visiting him. His name is Schaef and he goes to school at Tulane,” I explained. “I think they’re a couple. I want your opinion.”

“So this closet case you’re living with probably has a boyfriend and wants to fuck you too?” he asked, not a little outraged.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” I said. “They’re meeting us here at 11:30. Rosa is going to make lunch for us, then we’re going sightseeing for a couple of hours.”

“Alright,” he agreed.

“Then we’ll have a break so you can recharge, and after that I’m going to take you to campus to meet the rest of my suitemates,” I told him.

“I don’t think I can handle any more than that this weekend,” he said. “I’m pretty much tapping out on being social.”

“I am totally fine with that,” I said. “I especially want you to meet Fab.”

“The dude you’ve been fucking,” he grumbled.

“Exactly,” I said. “I told Marie that he was probably the closest I could get to fucking Stef when he was a young dude in France.”

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Seriously,” I confirmed. “And I don’t know how tonight will go, but we may be able to talk him into coming back here with us for a bit if you want to.”

“The last time we did that was pretty fun,” he said, grinning.

“Just an option, not a commitment,” I said. “Now let’s get ready.”

“Fine,” he said.

We went outside to wait for them, and I let Travis try out my Segway. It was hilarious. He was rocking back and forth, confusing the damn thing, until he fell off and landed on his ass. I stood there laughing at him. “That was a very skillful maneuver,” I taunted.

“Fuck you,” he said, as he brushed off his pants and got on again. This time he started to get the hang of it and was tooling around the driveway when Thor and Schaef strolled up.

“Good morning,” I said cheerfully.

“That thing is cool!” Schaef said, watching Travis on the Segway.

Travis wheeled it over to us and got off. “Hi, I’m Travis,” he said, really throwing the charm at them.

“This is Schaef and this is Thor,” I said, introducing them. I watched keenly to see how they interacted. Schaef was really staring at Travis to the point he was almost ogling him. Thor looked a little bit annoyed and a little bit guilty.

“I have heard so much about you I feel like I already know you,” Thor said.

“I’m legendary,” Travis joked. “I heard a lot of good things about you too.”

“Come on in,” I said, leading them into the house. “I decided that we’re having lunch here. This is Rosa. I’ve known her my entire life. She’s cooking for us.”

“If you annoy her, will she poison our food?” Schaef asked.

“I do that just for fun,” Rosa said. “Go into the dining room and I will bring you lunch.”

“Thanks,” I said, and kissed her cheek. I led them to the dining room table, which had been modified to seat four, and took our seats. We bullshitted for a bit then Rosa brought out an amazing lunch.

“This is terrific, Rosa,” Travis said to her.

“It totally is,” Thor confirmed.

“Thanks, Rosa,” I said. She smiled at me and went back into the kitchen.

“This place is really nice,” Schaef said.

“There are four floors. This main one has all the public rooms. The second floor is where Matt and Wade live. They have an amazing layout. The third floor is for the kids and their mom, and the top floor is the guest level. Both Marie and I have rooms up there,” I explained.

“So you have a love den you can bring people to if you want to hook up?” Schaef asked suggestively, and didn’t seem to notice that he’d manage to irritate both Travis and Thor.

“Right now, it’s only open to the most important man in my life,” I said to Travis lovingly.

“The most important man, but not the only one?” Schaef asked. He was starting to annoy me, but I just decided that he was socially impaired and dealt with it.

“That’s right,” Travis said, and winked at me. “We’re allowed to fuck other people, but we have to tell each other about it.”

“So when you were with Fab, you told Travis?” Thor asked. That pissed me off, because it was almost like he was trying to stir up problems between me and Travis.

“He did,” Travis answered. It was really sweet the way he was handling these questions for me. “It sounded like a lot of fun.”

“Have you been with other guys?” Schaef asked.

“A couple,” he said casually. “I’ll probably have more opportunities when I’m in New York.”

“That city is full of hot men,” I said. “No way you can’t bag a hookup.”

Travis laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

Both Schaef and Thor looked really confused by our relationship, but the fact that Travis had so casually outlined it and showed how cool the situation was made my heart swell for him. “I never thought that a relationship could work that way,” Schaef said.

“Let’s pretend that you and Thor are a couple,” I said.

They both looked panicked, but Schaef spoke first. “We are not a couple.”

“I said let’s pretend,” I said. They nodded, which all but gave away that they were together, because no straight guys would be cool with that kind of scenario. “You’re in New Orleans, Thor is here, and you have this high school relationship where you can’t be with other people. At the same time, there are amazingly hot people all around you, and your hormones are flying out of control. You think that will work?”

“Maybe,” Thor said skeptically.

“It’s called the Turkey Day Dump,” Travis said. “Something Will keeps threatening to do to me.”

“Idiot,” I said lovingly. “He means that you finally cave to the pressure and you end up in another relationship. Then when you go home for Thanksgiving, you end up breaking up with your boyfriend or girlfriend.”

Schaef and Thor looked at each other and were horrified. “That would be tough,” Schaef said. “But some people can do it.”

“I would say a few rather than some,” I said. “Now let’s go hit the town.”

I led them out to the driveway where Jorge was waiting with the Escalade limo. “Where would you like to go first?” he asked.

“I want to see the old ship that’s downtown,” I said.

“We are on our way,” he said, and winked slyly at me to remind me of the fun sex I’d had with him the last time I was in Boston.

“We could have taken the T,” Schaef said.

“This is easier, because we don’t have to wait for the train and we don’t have to cram into the cars with a bunch of other people. Taking the limo is also good because then we have a place to go that's kind of quiet if we need a break,” I explained.

“I’m an introvert,” Travis said. “Sometimes if I’m in crowds it’s overwhelming, so Will always looks out for me and makes sure I have a place to retreat to.”

“That’s really thoughtful,” Schaef said, and eyed me with a little more respect. I was trying to figure out what his deal was, because sometimes he was nice, and other times he was kind of a dick.

We got downtown and explored the USS Constitution, then strolled along the Liberty Trail. I had a good time with Thor and Schaef, and Travis seemed to be enjoying them as well. They were clearly trying to play it cool but it was obvious to me that they were a couple. It wasn’t so much their physical gestures that gave it away, it was the way they looked at each other, and the way they seemed to share an intimacy that only lovers could do. After two hours, though, I was pretty done with it. “I think it’s time for us to go back,” I announced. “I need to get laid.”

They laughed at me, then followed me to the curb where Jorge picked us up. “That was a really nice afternoon,” Thor said to me and Travis. “Thanks.”

“I liked it too,” Travis said. I was trying to figure out how to deal with them. I could say nothing and let them keep up their façade of just being buds, or I could confront them. I opted to be diplomatic and ignore the elephant in the room.

“We’ll see you back at the room after dinner,” I said when we got back to the house, which was their cue to walk back to campus.

“See you in the suite,” Thor said, then they left. We watched them until they got to the nearest intersection, then we went into the house.

“I didn’t need your help in figuring that out after all,” I said to Travis. “But it was awesome the way you helped to explain things.”

“They’re really nice guys,” Travis said, then got more thoughtful. “When you hook up with Thor, be careful.”

I was going to argue about that, but he was amazingly hot and lived in the same room as me. It was probably inevitable. “Why?” I asked.

“Because I think he’s one of those dudes who falls in love easily,” Travis said.

“You’re right; I need to be careful,” I said. We managed to get to our room without being spotted and closed the door with relief. “When you’re here, sleeping with anyone else seems like a waste of a good load.”

He laughed then got more somber. “We’ve got some tough years ahead.”

“I think that the only thing that will derail us is if we let ourselves fall in love with someone else,” I said.

“That’s the risk,” he said. “I can’t imagine finding someone I’ll love more than you.”

“Prove it,” I said suggestively, so he did.

We were laying in bed, enjoying the post-orgasmic high, when he suddenly got all task-oriented. “I want to show you something,” he said, and jumped out of bed. I tried not to be too annoyed at him for being a buzzkill. He grabbed some papers and climbed back in bed with me, then handed the papers to me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“I’m thinking of buying this house,” he said. “It’s in Manhattan Beach, right on the Strand.”

I looked at the specs, then the pictures. “Holy shit. This is like the prime location!”

“I know!” he said excitedly. “I talked to Ryan and John, and they were stoked. The band can use it even when I’m not there.”

“That’s really nice of you,” I said. “Did you put in an offer yet?”

“I will as soon as I get your opinion,” he said. It was really sweet that he was waiting for me to be okay with a major purchase.

“I love it,” I said, then hesitated.

“What?” he asked.

“Kind of weird to live somewhere that’s not in Malibu or the Palisades,” I said.

“Yeah, that was a little freaky, but then I remembered that living at the Buck Mansion wasn’t much fun,” he said.

“There will be so much more volleyball there,” I said. “Did I tell you Fab is on the volleyball team?”

“I wonder if he’s better than us?” Travis wondered aloud.

“Probably better than me,” I said. “With you, it’s a toss-up.”

“Right,” he said skeptically.

“So I promised Niko I’d take him surfing, and there’s supposed to be a beach with decent breaks on Cape Cod,” I said casually. It was funny that I could feel him tense up with excitement.

“Let me know when you go,” he said. “That’s definitely worth coming up here.”

“Just seeing me isn’t worth a trip?” I asked.

“Dude, you know how much I love to surf,” he said seriously, but he was just joking with me. “It’s your turn to come down and see me next weekend.”

I swallowed hard. “That may be a problem,” I said nervously.

“You said you would!” he insisted angrily.

“Stef and Grand are coming to visit next weekend,” I said to him, my eyes all but pleading with him to be understanding.

He looked away from me, a visible sign of rejection. I said nothing, giving him the time to think things through. “You really don’t have any choice,” he grumbled.

“I will make sure no one intrudes on our time the weekend after that, and I will come to New York,” I promised.

“I guess that works,” he said, then smiled to tell me he’d dealt with it. “I’ll come up again. It will be good to see them.”

I looked into his beautiful gray-blue eyes and let myself just fall into them. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.

“You’re welcome,” he said, then kissed me. We hung out in bed for a while, just enjoying each other’s company, which meant we were laughing most of the time. We made love again, then got up and got ready. “What should I wear?”

“What did you bring?” I asked. I didn’t wait for an answer; I just rummaged through his bag and picked out a nice pair of shorts and a rugby shirt.

“Long sleeves?” he asked.

“It was 80 degrees during the day, but it will drop below 60 tonight,” I said.

“Then I’ll wear this polo shirt and take a hoodie with me,” he said.

“You are defying my fashion directives?” I demanded, acting outraged.

“I am,” he replied, smiling at me.

“Alright, I’ll let you set the tone tonight.” I picked out clothes that were similar to his, then we went downstairs for dinner. We had a blast at dinner with Matt, Wade, Tiffany, and the kids. During our trip to Disneyland, Maddie, Riley, and Bobby had gotten to know Travis well, so they treated him like he was part of the family.

After dinner we walked to campus, and I thought about how much I just enjoyed being with him. We joked and laughed, and it was wonderful. He made me happy. “This is nice,” Travis said, checking out the campus.

“I like it, but I’m not thrilled that during the day, this place is filled with fucking tourists,” I groused.

“I’m kind of worried about that,” he said.

“About what?”

“Remember when you and I decided not to go pro with surfing?” he asked.

“Perfectly,” I said, chuckling. “We met that hot dude who was 19, and he kept talking about all the fame and the pressure. We were like, no fucking way.”

“It’s kind of like that,” he said. I stared at him blankly until he realized I had no fucking clue what he was talking about. He sighed. “I’m worried that when I tell you this, I’ll sound like I have an ego from hell.”

“Travis, no one loves you more than me,” I said honestly.

“I think I can be successful with this acting gig,” he said earnestly. “I did a few readings of Palisades because the director wasn’t convinced I had any talent. I was too raw, too inexperienced.”

“But he decided he liked you?”

“He did. After I was done reading, he told me that he wasn’t sure he wanted to direct this show, but if he got to work with me, he’d do it,” he said proudly.

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed, then gave him a huge hug. “That is amazing. I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks,” he said shyly. “So what is my life going to be like if I’m famous?”

“I mean, it’s not like we’re not in the public eye now. We get the occasional shot,” I said, referring to photographers’ taking celebrity pictures. “I think it will be like that but there will be shitloads more of those people and they will be pretty intrusive.”

“It will make it harder to have a normal life,” he said.

“What’s really worrying you about this, T?” I asked, because I could tell that there was a deeper issue there.

“What if the pressure is too much and you don’t want to deal with it?” he asked.

“Did you just seriously ask me that?” I demanded, because he had really pissed me off. “I have been around that shit all my life. If it gets worse, I can handle it. But it really pisses me off that you think I’m such a scumball that I would let that stop me from being with you.”

We sure as fuck couldn’t go into Weld this angry, so he walked over and sat down on a bench. I grudgingly sat next to him, and he moved over to be closer to me. I looked at him in annoyance and moved away from him, but he just grinned, then moved over more so our hips were touching. I moved away, then he waited a bit, and moved back in so we were touching again. The whole time this was going on, he was looking straight ahead acting innocent. He was so playful, so adorable, it was impossible to stay mad at him. He waited until my mood was neutral, then held my hand as he looked in my eyes. “I am sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I said, and leaned in to give him a kiss to seal the deal. “So you’re worried that the fame may totally suck?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t like that shit anyway, and if it’s a lot, it could really fuck me up.”

“I can see that,” I said. “Are you saying you don’t want to do this?”

“I’m not saying that,” he insisted. Now it was his turn to get frustrated with me.

“Or are you planning to just be a sucky actor so no one really likes you,” I teased. He shook his head as he chuckled.

“I was just wanting to ask you what you thought,” he said. He wanted me to tell him everything would work out alright.

“I think the fame will be a challenge, but I think you’re forgetting the rewards,” I said. “To be ultimately respected by your peers, that would be an incredible thing.”

“It would be kind of cool if Ben Affleck told me I was a good actor,” he said.

“Travis, you’re an incredibly tough guy,” I said. “I know you can handle it.”

“And you’ll be there to help me?” he asked.

“I’ll be there with you, and I’ll prop you up if you need me to,” I pledged. “You just can’t get famous until I graduate?”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I won’t be around to make sure you not only look happy, you actually are happy,” I said. He leaned in and kissed me again.

“Let’s go meet the other dudes in your life,” he said, pretending to be grumpy about it. I led him into Weld and up the stairs to our suite.

“This is home,” I said, as I opened the door. Unsurprisingly, the first person we saw was Niko. “Niko, this is Travis.”

“Great to meet you,” Niko said, and shook his hand. “What are you drinking?”

“Beer?” Travis asked, but only to find out if that was an option.

“Come on back,” Niko said, and led us back to the room he shared with Scotty. “There’s the mini fridge with all the beer. Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” Travis said, and grabbed a Stella Artois.

“I invited your cousin and her skank friends over tonight,” Niko joked.

“That’s cool, because Marie wanted to see you,” I told Travis.

We showed him around the rest of the suite. I told Travis that Stef was going to decorate it, and his reaction made Niko even more paranoid about that. Then we spent a bunch of time talking about surfing. The door opened and Scotty came in and joined us. I had just gotten up to make another round of drinks when Fab walked in, looking as sexy as he always did. Travis looked at him, then he focused on me and raised his eyebrows, acknowledging that Fab was hot. Thor and Schaef came out and got into the party spirit. Travis made another funny face at me as if to remind me that we’d figured out they were gay. He was hilarious.

It seemed like after that people just started pouring into our room. Marie and her girls were next, and she spent a bunch of time talking to Travis, but then other friends came in, plus people that Marie and Niko had met and invited. Our room was overflowing, but then Niko decided to play music, so that meant people started dancing. “Dude, you are going to get busted,” Marie warned me.

I was almost too hammered to get her warning, but I managed to somehow understand. “You, uh, talk to Niko?” I slurred.

“You are useless,” she said, and kissed me on the cheek. I went over and hung out with Travis and Fab, if for no other reason than to prevent Fab from luring my drunk boyfriend into his bedroom. While we were bullshitting, I subconsciously noted that the soberer people were running around and hiding our alcohol and throwing old glasses away.

Predictably there was a knock on our door, and when it opened Stuart was there. “That’s Stuart Feinstein,” I said to Travis probably a bit too loudly. “He’s our proctor.”

“So you’re in trouble?” Travis asked me, then laughed.

“Probably,” said. Fab smacked me in the arm and told me to shut the fuck up, so Travis and I lay back into the couch, trying to become invisible. I opened my eyes enough to see Scotty and Marie talking to Stuart, then Stuart pointed at me and, like a complete fool, I waved at him. Fab punched me this time.

“You are going to get us all in trouble by being an ass,” Fab said in French.

“You are being what we Americans call a pussy,” I said to him, then laughed.

“And you are being what we call a douche,” he said. His anger finally got through to me, and actually sobered me up a lot.

“What’s going on Will?” Stuart asked. I hadn’t even noticed him walking over to see me.

“This is my best friend, Travis Buck,” I said. Travis stood up to shake Stuart’s hand, but he staggered a bit then fell back on the couch. “He came out to visit me. He lives in California.”

“You guys are drunk,” Stuart accused, but none of us said anything. “Just break up your party. You can have ten people in here, max, and the music stays off.”

“You got it,” Niko said. Stuart left, and a few of the dorkier people ran out of the room because they were afraid of getting busted, while everyone else slowly started to leave. Of course they were delayed because everyone wanted to talk about the whole encounter.

“I have to pee,” Travis said to me softly. We had both conquered our volume problem.

“It’s right through that door and across the hall,” I said.

“Cool,” he said. He got up and started walking around the coffee table, but then he tripped and landed on an end table. There was a glass on that table that fell on the floor and broke into a bunch of pieces. We were all laughing at him until he sat up and I saw he had a piece of glass stuck in his arm.

“Fuck!” I shouted, and pointed at his arm. I was totally shocked when Sarah hurried over and knelt next to Travis.

“I need Neosporin and Band-Aids,” she demanded.

“On it,” I said, and dashed back to my room. The door was locked, so I pulled out my key and burst in. The lights were out, but I could clearly see Thor fucking Schaef. They looked at me in horror, but my drunk mind managed to work correctly this time. “Neosporin and Band-Aids,” I mumbled. I rummaged through my catch-all drawer that had that shit in it, all the time saying “Neosporin and Band-Aids” like I was a zombie on a mission. I finally found them, then hurried out of the room, locking it behind me. I ran over to where Travis was, and noticed that people were already sweeping up the glass. “Here,” I said, and handed the stuff to Sarah.

She had a towel wrapped around his arm where his wound was. “We need to get him to the bathroom so we can wash this out.”

“Alright,” I said. I hoisted Travis up, then put my arm around his waist to hold him up. It was like he had lost all motor control. Fab saw me struggling and got on Travis’s other side. We led him into the bathroom and Sarah did a really good job of rinsing out his wound, then dried it off, put on Neosporin, and bandaged it up pretty well.

“It’s about half an inch long, and kind of deep,” she said, informing us about Travis’s wound. “You may want to have it checked out tomorrow.”

Now that his wound was bandaged up, Travis seemed to have enough control of his body to speak. “Thank you. You did a really good job,” Travis said, and reached out to hold her hand for a minute.

“You were amazing,” I said to her. She actually smiled, all proud of herself, which was pretty cute.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Let us get you out of here,” Fab said to her. “You are in the men’s bathroom.”

“Good idea,” she said and walked out pretty fast.

“We should go back,” Travis said to me.

“Let’s go,” I said. We left Weld and walked back to Matt and Wade’s house.