Tripod Chapter 36
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TRIPOD
Chapter -- 36
ME: Hey, Uncle. Got a favor to ask
Uncle Noah: Hey there! What's up?
ME: Can you run HIV tests for Darius and me?
Uncle Noah: Of course! Are you worried about something?
ME: NO! But we're getting kinda serious and you know...
Uncle Noah: You wanna go skin on skin
ME: 🫣 🫣 🫣
Noah: Don't be embarrassed! You guys wanna have lunch on Saturday? I'll bring a couple of tests home from the office.
ME: ❤️ Let me check with Darius. Say hi to Jermaine
ME: Hey stud
Darius: Hey stud. Sup?
ME: Free on Saturday @ 12? U know how we talked about getting tested? My uncle says he can do it for us. Then we'll eat lunch in Boystown with him and his hubby
Darius: Yeah! Can't wait until I can let your naked monster roam around my man cave
ME: 🙄 🙄 🙄 Got a better metaphor?
Darius: Can't wait for the cobra to spit into my brown eye
ME: Ugh, getting worse. Try again
Darius: Can't wait for you to park your monster truck in my garage without the car cover?
ME: 🤣 🤣 🤣
And I couldn't wait to have Darius meet Noah and Jermaine. For any gay kid, having gay role models is important. Noah's been someone for me to look up to for as long as I can remember, even before I could admit to myself that I was gay. As much as I love my mom's brother Julio too, Noah and I have always been close. Maybe he knew I was gay before I did. I mean, the subject of sex was never mentioned until I turned seventeen but he was always just the fun uncle who took me to museums, musicals, the zoo, and stuff like that and Jermaine always supported that relationship. I wanted to share him with Darius.
Saturday rolled around and Darius and I took the L down to the Addison stop. We made our way to Noah and Jermaine's condo building on Lake Shore Drive.
Roman the doorman was sitting at his desk looking buff and scrolling through his cell phone. He was wearing a tight, short-sleeved shirt even though it was December and freezing outside. Apparently, the gun show was an all-season event.
He looked up from his cell phone screen, smiled and raised an eyebrow.
"Hi there. Jaime, right? Here to see Noah?"
"Wow, great memory. I haven't been here for two months. How's everything going?"
"No complaints. Christmas is right around the corner and most folks in this building are pretty generous," he smiled. "Who's this handsome guy?"
"This is my boyfriend, Darius"
"Boyfriend? Nice. He's hot. Wanna share?"
"Hey, I can hear you, you know." Darius blurted out.
"Noah's taking us to lunch," I responded. "Maybe some other time."
Roman looked Darius up and down. "Too bad. Let me give him a ring."
Two minutes later we were knocking on Noah and Jermaine's apartment door.
Noah answered dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.
"Come on in!" he said as he scooped me up into a hug. "Darius, it's so nice to finally meet you. You're every bit as handsome as Jaime's said."
"Thanks. What a beautiful apartment. Great views, too," Darius replied.
"But your doorman is just a touch too...friendly," I volunteered.
"Roman? Been there, done him. He's hot, but you're right, no filter sometimes. I'll have a word with him.
We headed into the living room where Jermaine was seated on the sofa. He smiled broadly, stood up, and walked toward me. He hugged me tightly and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"How's everything going? We've missed you."
"I'm great. This is Darius."
Jermaine pulled Darius into a hug and said, "Hi! Welcome to our crazy family."
"I'm happy to be here," Darius laughed.
"So, there's a fun, little Chinese place on Broadway. The food's amazing and the waiters are delicious, too. Sound OK?" Jermaine asked.
"My mouth's watering already," Darius snickered.
"Let's do those tests first. It will only take a couple minutes to draw the blood," Noah said.
"Blood?" Darius asked. His eyes went wide.
"Yeah, the blood test is a lot more accurate and sensitive than the cheek swab. I'll keep the samples in the fridge over the weekend and get them processed on Monday. I'll have the results by Tuesday morning."
Darius suddenly looked pale.
"Are you OK?" I asked.
"I really hate needles," Darius said.
"You? Mr. Confident. Champion wrestler. The guy who saved Tyler's life after he got shot? Can't handle a little prick?"
He shook his head and smiled weakly. "Nope. Just the big ones."
"You can say that again," I laughed. "So, you're not gonna get tested then?" I asked, concerned and a bit annoyed at the same time.
"I didn't say that," Darius responded. "I'll look the other way and maybe you could hold my hand?"
"OK, you can go first and get it over with. I'll be right here the whole time, but how did you hold it together with Tyler?" I asked.
"I guess if was the adrenaline and all the stuff my dad had taught me. I didn't have time to think about the blood, but honestly? Yuck!" Darius moaned.
Uncle Noah led us over to the kitchen table and sat us down. He pulled out two test kits, along with rubber gloves, alcohol swabs, and rubber ties. He slipped on the gloves and gently reached for Darius's right arm. Darius started to tremble. I sat on his left side and slipped my hand into his.
"Look at me the whole time, OK?" I said.
Darius nodded meekly as beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.
"OK, make a fist," Noah instructed.
Darius did as he was told.
I held Darius's gaze firmly, "Think about what we're gonna order at lunch. Steamed buns. Pot stickers. Spicy noodles. All served by hot waiters in tight jeans," I said.
"All done," Noah said, putting a small piece of cotton and a bandage on Darius's arm, then bending the arm at the elbow. "Just hold your arm like that for a couple of minutes."
The color returned to Darius's face, "That wasn't bad at all."
"Next," Noah said.
Darius and I switched places and Noah started the procedure over again. I smiled at Darius, then turned my head to watch, finding the whole thing kind of interesting, like watching one of those medical shows on TV.
Just as blood started to fill the test tube, I heard Jermaine yell, "Oh, shit!"
I turned to see Darius fainting dead away, as Jermaine rushed in and caught him just as Darius fell off the chair, preventing him from hitting his head.
Luckily Noah, seeing what was happening, grabbed a hold of me to keep me from moving.
"Nothing to worry about, Jaime. I'll get to him in a second. Let's finish this first," Noah said calmly.
Once the needle was out and my arm bandaged. We laid Darius out on the floor. After about five seconds he opened his eyes.
"Darius, do you know where you are?" Noah asked.
Darius nodded. "On your kitchen floor making an idiot of myself. Did I pass out?"
"Right on cue," I said. "You OK?"
"Yeah. Now you know why I never hang out at my dad's office on take-your-kids-to-work day."
"Dude, he's a dermatologist," I shot back.
"I know! I can't even watch that show where the doctor pops pimples and takes out cysts. Ugh, needles and bodily fluids just creep me out."
"Not all bodily fluids," I said, turning to wink at him.
Noah and Jermaine let out laughs. Darius screwed up his face and stuck out his tongue. Then slowly stood up.
As promised, the food at lunch was really tasty: steamed pork bao, shrimp shiu mai, spicy chile noodles, and stir-fried mustard greens with oyster mushrooms.
Plus, the waiters were knowledgeable, friendly, and very cute.
"Who's in charge of the Christmas feast this year?" Jermaine asked.
"That would be Barry," Noah volunteered. "He's keeping the menu a secret."
"He's already recruited me as the pastry chef but hasn't let me in on the theme. We still have a couple of weeks," I said.
"Darius, will you be joining us?" Noah asked.
"I haven't been invited," he replied.
"I thought you'd be in California with your grandparents," I said. "Will you be here?"
"Yup. Not really a holiday in my family. We were just in Cali for Thanksgiving, plus my dad's going out of town for a convention in January, so we figured we'd just stick around."
"Then you're invited. I still have relatives for you to meet and I really want you to meet Mr. Choi. He's coming over, too," I added.
"Who's Mr. Choi?" Jermaine asked.
"He's my chemistry teacher. Great teacher. Super nice. He's tutoring Asher. Oh, and did I mention he's gay and hot as hell. Looks like a runway model."
"Well then," Noah interjected, "sounds like this holiday celebration will be a lot more fun than usual."
Jermaine nodded and reached for the chile noodles.
***
By Tuesday afternoon, I still hadn't heard anything from Uncle Noah and had received a text message from Darius asking about the test results. I decided to text Noah.
ME: Hey, uncle. Got the test results yet?
It took Noah about half an hour to respond.
Uncle Noah: It's been crazy in the office today. Flu season. Let me check. I can't text you the results. It's against HIPAA laws. I'll call you in a few.
Five tense minutes later my phone rang.
"Hey, Noah. Well?"
"All good. Negative."
"And Darius?"
"I can't tell you. It's against the rules. I'll call him now."
"Should I be worried?" I asked, feeling a knot forming in my gut.
"Jaime, it's the law. I can't tell you either way,"
"Ugh, OK," I replied.
Ten minutes later my message notification tone rang out on my phone.
Darius: Im good. U good?
ME: 💯
Darius: Rev up the monster truck and leave the car cover home!
ME: YES!!! 🍑💦🍆 🍑💦🍆 🍑💦🍆 GONNA FUCK YOU SOOO HARD.
Darius: Counting on it! 🫶🏻
ME: ❤️U2 (not the band)
***
"Your little brother is a sponge, Jaime," Brandon blurted out at lunch.
"That can be taken two ways, Brandon. Do you mean he's like a parasite who asks for favors and shit from everyone or that he's super smart and a really fast learner?" I asked.
"You know what I mean," Brandon replied. "Braden says that in three weeks, Asher has already gotten through three months' worth of algebra. He just gets it. He loves doing those weird word problems that I always hated."
Tyler jumped in, "'If train A leaves Kansas City heading east at 50 miles an hour and train B leaves St. Louis heading west at 40 miles, but leaves 10 minutes later. In what town will they crash head-on?' Yeah, I remember those."
We all laughed, except Eddie, who was scrolling through his phone with a deep look of concern.
It was December 17, the day that many of the top-tier US universities send their early acceptance e-mails to student hopefuls. The early acceptance process is always a gamble. You tell a university that you're extremely interested in attending, but it can have higher-than-usual admissions standards and more limited slots than the regular admissions process. The advantage is that, if you're admitted, you save time and money sending out applications. You can only apply for early acceptance at one school and if you're accepted, you commit.
No one in our lunch group had any doubt that Eddie would get into his top school. The kid is a freaking genius, after all. He had academic and athletic awards and a GPA well above 4.0 thanks to the advanced placement classes he was taking. His college entrance exam score was close to perfect. But Eddie being Eddie, he still worried that he wasn't good enough, although a few months of therapy had noticeably softened his anxiety.
Eddie had sent his early decision application to MIT. Tyler had no interest in majoring in math or engineering and knew he'd never get into MIT anyway, but Tyler and Eddie had a plan: Tyler would wait until Eddie got his news from MIT before he applied to schools that were within 100 miles (160km) of Boston.
Tyler would have sent off his applications already but his parents had asked him to wait just in case. Most schools have a January deadline for regular-admission applications, so this made sense; he'd be able to send out the applications without missing the deadlines. His folks had no issues with Tyler and Eddie wanting to be close, they just didn't want to waste money on sending applications to schools that wound up not being geographically desirable if Eddie didn't get in.
"Anything yet, babe?" Tyler asked.
"Nope," Eddie mumbled, fidgeting in his seat.
I'd decided to apply for early decision to Northwestern University right here in Evanston. Even though I thought it would be fun to go away for school, Northwestern really offered a perfect combination of majors in radio/television/film and communications. If, as Dad said, I decided to go into public relations, having classes available in both of those areas would be perfect. Even if I decided against PR, either of those two majors did interest me.
Northwestern is also one of the top schools in the country, plus Mom and Dad both went there. Now, with Asher in the picture, there was even more reason to stay close to home. If I didn't get into Northwestern, there were plenty of good schools in the area that I was pretty sure I'd get into. I also had really good grades and excellent test scores.
On the other hand, Darius's future was still up in the air. His top pick UCLA doesn't have an early decision option, so he wouldn't know until March if he'd gotten in. He'd also applied to USC and Berkley but all for regular admission decisions. All of those schools are notoriously difficult to get into, but between Darius being in the running for valedictorian, his excellent test scores, and his athletic awards, he stood a good shot at all of them.
Seán had opted to skip the early-decision process, as had Brandon.
Just before lunch ended, Eddie checked his phone again.
"Oh fuck! Oh fuck!" he screamed.
"How much are they offering you in scholarship money, babe?" Tyler smirked.
All of a sudden Eddie sunk down into his chair looking as if all the air had been sucked out of him.
"'Dear Edward," he began, "Thank you for your interest in MIT. After careful consideration, we have placed you on our waiting list for admission. We will inform you by March 15 if we can offer you admission. In the meantime, we strongly encourage you to continue the application process at other universities."
Amid the boisterous background noise of a hundred-fifty teenagers chattering away in the cafeteria, the stunned silence at our table was deafening.
Tyler swallowed hard, gave a weak smile and reached out to grab Eddie's hand. This was the worst possible outcome for Eddie and Tyler. Eddie had already applied to Cal Poly, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Cornell, and the University of Illinois (U of I). Now Tyler had to apply to schools in northern and southern California, Georgia, New York, and Illinois. Schools in and around Boston were still in the running too, because there was still a chance of Eddie getting into MIT.
U of I would seem to be the ideal choice for both. Unlike Eddie's other choices, it offered majors that interested Tyler and Tyler was likely to get in there. Not to mention that paying "in-state" tuition would be really attractive. But it was Eddie's "safe" school. Eddie only wanted to go there if he got turned down everywhere else, which was unlikely. Not that U of I is a bad school. On the contrary, it's a really good state school, but Tyler would never push Eddie to go to a lower-ranked school if Eddie could get into the best in the country.
Tyler had hoped that with Eddie at MIT, he could go to BU or Northeastern and only be separated from Eddie by a short ride on mass transit but that quick solution was now on ice for three long months.
Sending out applications is time-consuming and expensive, but that was the least of it. Eddie was likely to get scholarship money wherever he got accepted because of his incredible talent. Tyler was less likely to get piles of scholarships and going to school out of state was going to mean tens of thousands of dollars in student loans that would take years to pay off. Tyler's family is not poor. He'd told me that his folks had saved up money for college. But with some tuitions at private universities pushing $50,000 a year now, he didn't think they had that kind of cash squirreled away. The University of Illinois would cost a third of that for Illinois residents.
While the thought of graduating from a university with little debt was certainly a consideration for Tyler, being separated from Eddie was an agonizing option. Tyler is always quick with a joke and maintains a calm exterior but Eddie really is his other half. They'd been together since they were thirteen. Finally coming out as a couple had only strengthened their bonds. Their open relationship only proved that hearts and cocks can operate completely independently. Tyler existed for Eddie and vice versa.
The bell rang and we all stood up and hugged Eddie and Tyler in unison before shuffling off to our next classes. Eddie and Tyler shot off quick text messages to their folks letting them know what had happened.
***
One hour later, as I walked from History to English, I checked my phone and a much-awaited email was sitting in my in-box.
"Dear Jaime,
We are delighted to offer you admission to Northwestern University's School of Communications for the quarter beginning in September..."
I didn't need to read any further. I sent a quick broadcast text message to my whole extended family, plus Darius, Brandon, and Seán.
Me: I'm in at Northwestern!!
Dad: 💯 🦚
Mom: 💯 🫶🏻
Asher: 💯 MAZEL TOV! (Sorry for screaming) 😂
Obviously, the texting lessons had paid off. None of the dreaded thumbs-ups. Dad got extra credit for his proud as a peacock.
Darius: UR AMAZING! Let's celebrate. 🥂🍑 💦🍆
Seán: Awesome! Congrats.
Brandon: So proud little buddy!
Within minutes, the grandparents and uncles also sent glowing text messages.
I decided to talk to Tyler and Eddie in person. Shooting off a text about getting into Northwestern after what had happened at lunch seemed kind of cruel. There were no athletic practices that week because of the upcoming Christmas break.
Me: Meet me at He-Brew after school?
Tyler: Sure. `Sup?
Eddie: No prob. RUOK?
Me: All cool. Thought you could use a friend right now
Eddie: Yup. But any time's a good time to hang with Jaime
Tyler: LOL 🍆🍆🍆 Fo sho!
***
At 3:00 PM on the dot, I raced across the street to He-Brew and splurged on a dozen rugelach and a double espresso. The place was only half full, and I was able to grab the coveted sofa in the back.
Eddie and Tyler walked in a couple of minutes later holding hands. It was hard to miss their looks of disappointment. They spotted me, ordered their coffees, and came to sit down.
"I know this kinda sucks. And I know that there's really nothing I can say to make it easier, but I bought some rugelach and I'm here to listen if you guys feel like talking," I said.
"We'll figure it out," Eddie began, biting into a rugelach and letting out a sigh of satisfaction. "I'm not gonna start to cry. MIT only has a 4% admission rate, after all, and I've been waitlisted. That's pretty damn good. Most kids would be thrilled to get that far. Maybe if this had happened a few months ago I'd be playing the `If I'd only...' game and kicking myself and thinking that I'm a failure. That was the old Eddie. I'm disappointed, but hey, we'll be OK. It's just a little more complicated now, right, Ty?"
Tyler had just shoved a whole rugelach into his face and the slightest of smiles appeared on his previously tightly drawn face.
"Sorry, did you say something?" he laughed. "These cookies are so fucking good. Yeah, we'll work out a plan. It would be awesome if we could be close, and we'll try our best to make it work, but we've already talked about what happens if we have to be apart. I mean, it's not like the 20th century where people wrote letters and paid a fucking fortune to make long-distance calls to landlines. We can do video chats and have virtual sex whenever, right? Thanks for the cookies, Jaime. I feel better already.
"I'm glad. Put me on the guest list for your fiftieth-anniversary party, OK?" I joked.
"You'll be the guest of honor at our orgy celebration," Tyler laughed. "We'll hire a construction crane to help you get it up."
"I've got some news, too," I began. "I wanted to tell you guys in person."
"Well? Spit it out," Eddie said.
"I got into Northwestern."
Tyler let out a scream and all of the patrons turned around to see what was going on. He and Eddie jumped up and lifted me up off of the sofa for a hug.
"I know it's been a tough day for you two. I didn't want to rub it in. I love you guys."
"Hell, Jaime. It's a better day now," Eddie said. "That's fucking awesome. I bet your family's so proud. Second-generation Wildcat. And Asher gets to have a brother at home for his whole time in high school. That kid thinks you're a superhero."
"Straight from the superhero universe, it's Tripod!" Tyler blurted out. "Able to pole vault over the highest buildings with his monster cock, which also doubles as a battering ram!"
Eddie and Tyler couldn't contain their laughter. Even I had to admit it was pretty funny.
End -- Chapter 36 -- "Tripod"