TJ Ch. 14

Robert wouldn't tell us where we were going to be staying, so when I called Scott to let him know I would be in the area Friday night but unsure of where we would be, he told me to call him as soon as we got to the hotel and we could make plans from there. The only thing Robert told us was for us to bring our bathing suits, because there was an indoor pool we could use while staying there. When we pulled up in front of the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, all four of us were excited. The rooms included admission to an indoor water park for each day of our stay including check-out day and all guests staying in the room got passes for the park. I was even more surprised when I saw Scott and Ryan waiting in the lobby both carrying duffle bags.

I ran over to Scott, and he pulled me into a tight hug. I couldn't help it, I started crying a little. I didn't think seeing him again would be so emotional. The memories that were brought back weren't of our fight, but of how he was there for me and held me all night and let me cry on his shoulder the night my parents died. When we finally released each other from the hug I looked at him and asked, "What the hell are you doing here? Are you staying here too?"

He smiled and said, "Earlier this week, I got a weird message on Facebook Messenger from some guy named Robert Kennedy asking me to call him as soon as I got the message. When I called him, he said, 'I know you and Teej were planning on meeting up while we were up in the area. How would you like for you and your boyfriend to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge from Friday night till Monday morning? If you need to have your dad and or Ryan's parents call me, that's fine, just give them my number. After I talked to my dad, he jumped at the idea and he called Ryan's parents and cleared everything with them and then called Mr. Kennedy back and set everything up for this weekend. I found out later, he was so excited because he was planning a weekend getaway for him and his boyfriend across the street at the Gaylord."

I turned to Robert with a huge smile on my face and asked, "We're staying here till Monday? And you invited my friends to join us? Thank you so much!" I then wrapped him in a bear hug and picked him up and spun him around. It wasn't easy, he isn't a lightweight. When I put him down, he went to check in at the front desk. He came back over to us with keycards for our room- all six of us were in one room, what the actual fuck?- and passes for the waterpark. He told us our room number and so we went to the elevator and went up to our floor. On the way up to our floor, I introduced everyone to each other. When we found the room and opened the door, I was shocked. The six of us were in a loft suite with three queen beds!

I looked at Scott, Ryan, and Sean and asked, "Do y'all want us to take the two beds down here and let Josh and Kevin have the loft?"

We agreed to that. I then added to Scott, "That way, you can sleep comfortably knowing that the midget who attacked you is upstairs and not in the bed next to yours."

Josh turned so red, I thought he was turning into a tomato. He turned to Scott and said, "I'm sorry. Not really, but yeah."

Thankfully, Scott laughed it off and told him he deserved it and not to worry about it. Josh turned to me and called me an asshole for bringing it up. Scott looked at me and started to apologize, but I stopped him and said, "You've already made amends for that to me. Remember? It's more than just saying you're sorry, it's proving you've changed and stopped the behavior that led you there. Just keep proving to me you've changed and we're good. Now, let's get changed into our bathing suits and check out this waterpark!"

Once we got changed into our bathing suits, we headed to Robert and Lori's room. Maybe we should have called before showing up at their room, because it took quite a while for Robert to finally answer the door. When he did, his hair was completely messed up and his clothes were a little disheveled. He looked at the six of us and asked in a slightly annoyed voice, "What's up? Why are y'all here?"

Josh snickered and I was trying to keep a straight face but was miserably failing. "We stopped by to see if y'all wanted to go down to the waterpark with us."

Robert rolled his eyes and grunted, "You could've called and asked us. That way I could've ignored your call and I would still be enjoying not having any annoying teenagers around. We'll meet y'all down there in about an hour or so. We were just about to lay down for a nap. Remember I've been driving all afternoon. Goodbye!"

He shut the door without even waiting for a reply. How rude! As soon as I turned around and looked at everyone, we all started laughing. We made our way down to the waterpark and had a lot of fun going down the slides, floating in the lazy river, getting tired as eff in the wave pool, and standing under the huge bucket and having one thousand gallons of water fall on you.

Sean and Scott hung out by themselves talking while sitting at a table by the snack stand. Ryan and I sat back and watched them for a bit from a distance. We couldn't hear what they were saying, but we saw them comparing one of their arms to the other. Both of Scott's were about the same size, but Sean's right arm was still a bit smaller than his left. I looked at Ryan and said, "Sean just had his cast removed at the beginning of November. He's going to rehab to strengthen it back up, but he's afraid it won't be as strong as it was before. Not that that matters since he won't be playing football again. He can't risk another concussion. But with his arm the way it is now, he can't play baseball in the spring. He says he's okay with that, but sometimes I think it still gets to him."

Ryan waited a few moments and then asked, "How did he break his arm, and how many concussions has he had?"

So, I told him the story about how Smith and Pauly manipulated Pauly's cousin into hurting Sean during a game. I told him the whole story about how Pauly finally separated himself from Smith and became one of our really good friends. "He's had a total of four concussions in the past three years. But, the last one he got was on top of one he didn't tell anyone about. He shouldn't have been playing at all with the concussion, but to get one on top of that one put him at a higher risk for permanent damage. But he didn't let losing football and baseball get him down. He was upset at first and lashed out a bit, but it set him on a path. Now, he wants to be a coach after he graduates from college. He'll be on the sidelines tomorrow calling plays working closely with the head coach who is the offensive coordinator."

Kevin and Josh walked up to us just I finished telling Ryan everything. Kevin grinned and added, "We've had an undefeated season thanks to him helping the back up quarterback for the past two years and now he's calling all the offensive plays. He's going to make an awesome coach."

I looked at Ryan and finally asked him the question I hadn't been able to ask Scott. "So, how are things at school for him now? Did his old friends stick by him or are they talking the shit about him they used to say about me? And what has Kimmie been like? I'm sure she's giving both of you shit, lord knows she used to try to make life hell when I lived up here."

"His friends," Ryan growled out with a fierce look, "decided they didn't want to be around him much anymore. Nick started dating Kimmie like two days after he kicked her out of the house, which was immediately after what happened between the two of you. They've been giving him the hardest time. The rest of the group tends to ignore him instead of saying anything to him. But he doesn't let anything they say get to him. He just ignores them, which pisses them off. When I asked him if he missed them or anything he said, 'Not at all. If they were really my friends they would've supported me, not abandoned me.'"

We looked back over at our boyfriends to see them staring at us with dopey smiles on their faces. Sean waved us over and we went and joined them. We had to pull another table over so there was enough room for everyone the sit. About two minutes later, Robert and Lori finally joined us, which meant we had to pull another table over. I looked at Robert and asked in an innocent voice, "So, did y'all have a nice nap?"

Robert looked at me completely deadpan and replied, "I think it was probably the best nap I've ever had."

"Gross! I don't want to hear about how good your nap was. Why do you insist on embarrassing Josh and me in front of our friends?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Teej. I'm telling you I had an amazing nap," Robert said with a smile.

We went for another round on the slides; this time with Robert and Lori joining us. Finally, about half an hour later, we decided to go get ready and grab some dinner. We went right down the street and had some delicious hamburgers at Fuddruckers. Once we got back to the room, we sat around and talked for a while; finally, we decided to head to bed and get some rest. Afterall, Kevin had an important game to play in the next day.

We were woken up by a pounding on the room door. I went to answer it, wearing only my basketball shorts, morning erection leading the way. I couldn't even tuck it up in the waistband, since then the head would show. Maybe I should've grabbed a shirt. Lori and Robert were on the other side of the door, smiling way too big. "Come on, Teej! Get everyone up and dressed. We're going to have some breakfast, spend some time in the waterpark, then get ready and head to the stadium around five. We'll grab dinner on the way over there. Kevin and Sean don't need to meet up with the team and Coach Wilson till seven," Robert encouraged with too much energy.

Without saying a word, I let the door close in their faces. However, I'm sure they heard me when I turned around and yelled, "Alright, you lazy asses. Get the fuck up and get ready for breakfast with the old folks who are waiting in the hall."

Once everyone was moving around and getting ready, after I grabbed a shirt and slid into a pair of jeans, I opened the door again and saw Robert and Lori sitting on the floor in the hallway. I looked down at them and asked, "I'm sorry, did y'all want to come in and wait?" with a smirk on my face.

Surprisingly, it was Lori who answered. "You know sometimes Teej, you can be a little shithead."

I beamed at her. "But that's why y'all love me. Admit it. I keep y'all on your toes."

They followed me into the room and took a seat on the couch. That's when Kevin walked out of the bathroom wearing only a pair of boxer briefs followed by Josh wearing a towel around his waist. We discovered when Kevin turns the adorable shade of red whenever he blushes, it goes almost all the way down to his waist. Josh just walked past them, waved and said, "Good morning Dad and Lori. Give us five minutes and we'll be ready to go." He then walked over to me and said, "You're an asshole. I know you waited till we were about to get out of the shower to let them in."

I tried my best to look as innocent as possible. "I would never do something like that Joshy. I'm surprised you think so little of me. I'm truly hurt."

Sean came up from behind me and wrapped me in a hug. "Josh, he told me he was letting them in because he noticed y'all didn't bring clothes down with you. He is an asshole. But he's ours, and I figure we should just love him the way he is because there are no returns without receipts and I looked the other day and couldn't find it. So, we're stuck with this one."

I turned in his embrace and looked at him with a beaming smile. "Actually, I found the receipt and shredded it so you wouldn't have the option to return me. That's how much I know you love me."

After breakfast, we went to the waterpark again. Only Kevin didn't ride any rides or get in the wave pool. He didn't want to tire himself out too much before the game that night. So, instead, he and Josh stayed in the lazy river on inner tubes for the majority of the day. After riding a few slides with us, Robert and Lori decided to join them.

We went upstairs to our rooms and changed around four and left to eat dinner before Sean and Kevin had to meet up with the team at seven. Once we were at the restaurant, we found Doris, Hunter, Katie, Aaron, and Jacob standing together talking in one group. In another group right next to them was Scott's dad and his boyfriend, and Ryan's brother Pete and his girlfriend. I walked up to Doris and threw my arm around her shoulders and planted a big kiss on her cheek. In response, she whacked me with her purse and tried to get Aaron to arrest me for assault. Thankfully, Aaron told her it was out of his jurisdiction and there was nothing he could do about it. Scott and Ryan were surprised to see their families there and everyone exchanged hugs. When the two groups realized we were all together and everyone was introduced to each other, we headed in and sat down for dinner.

After we left the restaurant, we got to AT&T Stadium about six forty-five. Sean and Kevin left us to meet with the team while we all found seats inside. The games, of course were running late. So, our game that was supposed to start at eight thirty wasn't going to start till probably ten or ten thirty.