Author Note: Hey guys. It's Wednesday. You know what that means ... MATH CLASS. And you know what that means ... new chapter! =)
Thanks to Esther (qaffanfictionprojects) for the bunny, and thanks to Jess and Lynn for beta-ing. Enjoy this chapter! =)
Chapter Five
Melanie paced in her kitchen, phone in hand. She hadn't heard from Gus in two days. Biting her bottom lip, she stopped pacing, and started dialing Gus' number, then stopped.
"What if he doesn't want to talk to me … and hangs up on me?" she asked herself out loud, and began pacing again. "Fuck!" she shouted, throwing the phone across the room, watching it hit the wall, falling to the ground in pieces. Sighing, she picked up the pieces and threw them out.
"Shit, now I have to buy a new cordless phone," Melanie shook her head and sat down at the table. After sitting there for five minutes staring at the wall in front of her, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Gus' number. Closing her eyes, she waited for his answer.
"Hello?" Gus answered. Melanie sighed, at least he answered and didn't ignore it. He couldn't be that angry, could he?
"Gus! Hi, it's mom," she said. Gus said nothing. Melanie cleared her throat. "Are you there, Gus?" she asked, swallowing past the lump in her throat.
"Yeah, I'm here. I'm just not sure that I'm ready to talk to you, yet," Gus said, his voice cold. Melanie felt the chill right down to her bones.
"Gus—" she started, but Gus cut her off.
"No, mom, I'm not ready to talk to you. You lied to me for 18 years. I'll call you when I'm ready to talk to you. Until then, leave me alone," Gus said, and then Melanie heard the click, signaling the lost connection. She dropped the phone on the table, burying her head in her hands.
"What have I done?"
-----
Gus came back into the living room to rejoin Brian, Justin, Jeff, and Alex. Brian looked up.
"Who was that?" Brian asked. Gus shrugged, sitting down on the couch.
"Nobody," he said. Brian saw the look in his eyes and knew that it must have been Melanie on the phone. He rolled his lips into his mouth and nodded, not saying anything. Alex noticed that her new friend seemed upset about something, so she got up from her spot on the floor to go stand in front of him.
"No sad face, Gus. Sad faces aren't fun. Make silly faces like this!" she said, puffing out her cheeks, and pulling out her ears. "I look like a monkey!" she laughed, doing it again. Gus couldn't help but smile at the little girl. Everyone else laughed. Gus picked Alex up and started tickling her. Justin turned to look at Brian.
"Why don't you take Gus, and the two of you go out somewhere?" Justin suggested. Brian shrugged.
"Go where?" he asked. Justin shrugged.
"I don't know, take him for a joyride in the 'vette or something. Do I have to think of everything?" he asked with a smile on his face. Brian smiled as well.
"Brat," he accused lovingly, giving Justin a kiss on the lips before standing up. "Hey, Gus, you wanna go somewhere?" he asked. Gus glanced up from his spot on the couch where he was tickling Alex.
"Somewhere, like where?" Gus asked. Alex jumped off the couch.
"I wanna go! I wanna go!" she yelled. Justin grabbed her.
"Not today, baby. Papa and Gus need to spend some time alone together," Justin said. Alex pouted.
"But I wanna go!" she whined. Justin rolled his eyes. They had themselves a drama queen. Jeff stood up from the recliner he was sitting in.
"I'll play with you, kiddo," he said, taking Alex from Justin. Brian gave him a grateful smile, then turned to Gus.
"So what do you say, sonnyboy? You wanna go for a drive with your old man?" Brian asked, ignoring the way Justin snickered when he said 'old man'. Gus shrugged, nodding.
"Sure."
-----
"…49, 50! Ready or not, here I come!" Jeff called, uncovering his eyes and looking around the room. He saw the obvious bulge in the curtain and the little feet underneath it and smiled. "Hmm … where could Alex be?" he asked, smiling at the giggling that came from behind the curtain.
"Alex likes hiding under the couch," Justin said, coming into the room and sitting down at his easel. Jeff glanced over and smiled, nodding.
"Oh, she does?" Jeff asked, getting onto his knees and glancing under the couch. "Nope, not there," he said. Justin shrugged, smiling.
"Hmm. I guess you're on your own, then," he said as he pulled out his paints and brushes and removed the cover from the canvas he was working on. Jeff glanced over, surprised to see the portrait of Alex and Gus.
"Wow … that's amazing," he said.
"Thanks … I've been working on it for a few weeks," Justin said.
"How? I mean, to my knowledge, you haven't seen Gus since he was a baby."
"Gus is a carbon copy of Brian. I just got out Brian's old high school yearbook and went from that," Justin said. Jeff nodded, looking at the canvas.
"Gus is going to be so hot once he bulks up a bit," he said, thinking about how lanky Gus was. Justin raised an eyebrow as Jeff looked at him. Jeff laughed. "If you hadn't noticed, I'm gay," he informed Justin.
"Oh, and Gus?" Justin asked. Jeff shrugged.
"Straight. I used to have a huge thing for him, but now we're like brothers. It'd just be weird," Jeff said. Justin laughed.
"I wonder how Brian's going to feel about having a straight son," Justin joked. Jeff smiled. Just then the phone rang, and Justin excused himself. Jeff stared at the painting for a few more moments.
"Okay, okay … now, where could Alex be hiding?" Jeff asked out loud, glancing back at the curtain, but there was no more bulge, and no more little feet. She must have changed hiding spots while he and Justin were talking. "Is she … behind the curtain?" he pulled it back, no Alex. There was giggling coming from the closet. He smiled, checking every hiding spot before the closet.
-----
Justin went into the kitchen and picked up the cordless phone in there.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Justin! Hey, how's it going?" came the voice of Daphne Chanders, his best friend. He smiled, sitting down at the table.
"Daphne! Hey, things are going good. How about with you?" he asked.
"Eh. Things are things. All I'm doing is working."
"Yeah, well, you're the one who wanted to be a doctor."
"I know. And I love what I do. I just miss the free time," she laughed.
"I've got plenty of that … I'll give you some," Justin joked.
"Shut up. So, what's new? How's my girl?"
"She's great. Actually, you'll never believe what happened. You know the trip we were planning next week?"
"Yeah, you were going to Toronto."
"Right. Well, we're not going anymore."
"What? Why? Did Melanie find out what you guys were planning and put the kibosh on it? I didn't think Brian would let Melanie dictate what he can and can't do."
"No, no, nothing like that. I answered the door the other day, and Gus was standing on our doorstep."
"No way! Holy shit! How could you not tell me that?!"
"I'm sorry … we've spent the past few days catching up with him and getting to know him. Brian's out with him right now."
"So … how is he?"
"He's good. Confused. We found out that Melanie's been telling him that Brian never wanted him and that's why he's been the absent father for all those years."
"Oh my god. That's horrible!"
"I know, Gus is trying to grasp that, but I'm not sure he's grasping it too well."
"Poor kid. What does Alex think?"
"She thinks Gus is just her friend. I mean, how do you explain to a five-year-old that you have a brother that you haven't seen once? We're just letting her and Gus get to know each other, and once Gus decides he wants to tell her that he's her brother, he can. I mean, it's his call."
"Wow. This is a lot to take in."
"You should visit soon. I know Alex misses mommy," Justin smiled.
"Maybe I'll stop by on my day off this week. Listen, I'm on call, and my pager just went off. I have to call the hospital. But I'll talk to you soon," Daphne said.
"Alright, Daph … talk to you soon," Justin said good-bye and hung up. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost dinnertime, and he didn't really feel like cooking for just him, Alex, and Jeff. He headed into the playroom and saw Jeff lying on his back with Alex up in the air.
"Daddy! Jeff made me an airplane!" Alex yelled, laughing as she held out her hands. Jeff laughed, putting her down on the floor.
"That's great, Al. You want pizza for dinner? I don't feel like cooking," Justin said, sitting back down at the easel.
"Ooh! Yay! Pizza!" she yelled, jumping up and down and clapping. Jeff laughed.
"I don't think there's anything that disappoints that girl," Jeff stated. Justin laughed, nodding.
"I think you're right," he said, turning on the cordless and dialing the local pizza joint.
-----
Brian and Gus sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Brian cleared his throat and began talking.
"So … I mean, the last time I saw you, you were still in diapers. I'm sure a lot's changed since then," he said, glancing over at Gus, who had a smile on his face.
"Yeah, um, lots has changed since then," Gus agreed.
"Like what? I mean, I'm sure your favorite thing to do isn't crawling around on the floor anymore. What kinds of things did you do up in Toronto?"
"Well, Jeff made fun of me all the time because I was really into my schoolwork. I did a lot of studying and stuff like that," Gus informed Brian.
"Really? What kinds of grades did you make?"
"I got mostly A's and B's."
"Oh yeah? Did you apply to any colleges?" Brian asked. Gus nodded.
"Yeah, I applied to a few up there, and a few down here. I wasn't sure how this whole thing was gonna go, so …" Gus admitted. Brian raised an eyebrow.
"You applied to colleges in Pittsburgh?" Brian asked, and Gus once again nodded. "Which ones?"
"Um, Carnegie Mellon."
"And did you get in?"
"Yeah, I got a partial scholarship," Gus said proudly. Brian glanced over at his son. He decided that it was time to tell him about the college fund and checks.
"Gus, since you were a baby and your mom moved you to Toronto, I've been putting money away for you for college," Brian said. Gus looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I've been putting together a college fund for you for 18 years. And … I want you to have it. That's Justin's and my birthday present to you," Brian said, reaching into the glove compartment and handing Gus a logbook of how much money was there. Gus opened it and Brian swore his eyes were going to pop out of his head.
"Dad … holy shit! I can't take this … it's way too much money!" Gus said, staring at the total on the bottom of the log. Brian shook his head.
"Gus, that money's been in there and belonged to you since you were a baby. The account's in your name. There should be plenty there to help you pay for whatever college you want to go to," Brian said. Gus was speechless.
"I … I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything, kiddo. Happy Birthday," Brian said with a smile. Gus glanced at him and smiled, shaking his head.
"That's a pretty fucking big birthday present," he said, closing the logbook and putting it back in the glove compartment.
"And, if you do decide to go to Carnegie Mellon, and you don't want to do campus housing, I just want you to know that you're always welcome at our house, Gus. It's your house now, too." Brian glanced over at him and Gus nodded.
"Thank you, dad. For … for all of this. And for the checks you sent … I knew about those."
"How'd you know about those? Did Mel tell you?" Brian asked, surprised. Gus laughed out loud.
"Are you kidding me? Like she'd want me to know that you didn't hate me. I found a check one day written out to me, and then I found all the information. Mom was keeping them all in an account for me. I don't know if she was ever going to tell me that they were from you, or if she was going to lie about that, too. But that's the money I used for this trip," Gus admitted. Brian shook his head.
"God, she's such a fucking …" Brian trailed off, remembering that Gus was in the car. And unlike her, he wasn't going to talk trash about her with Gus in the car, even if he was almost 18.
"So. I'm hungry. Let's stop somewhere and get something," Gus said, in an attempt to change the subject. Brian laughed.
"We can go to the diner," Brian suggested. Gus shrugged.
"Sure, why not?" Gus smiled. Brian nodded, then took off towards the diner.
End Chapter Five
09-28-05