Chapter 23: Viva Las Vegas.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters.
AN: Please leave a review. I actually looked up the menu for the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings to get the prices of the food, so the prices are accurate.
Connor's POV:
After the shooting at Anchor Beach they closed the school down for a week. During the following week, the funerals were held, and a small memorial was put up in the courtyard of the school. Jude and I would barely leave each others side. I was suffering from nightmares, in which Jude didn't arrive in time to save me, or it was Jude in my place and I wasn't in time. Every night, at least once, Jude or I would wake up in frantic tears and call the other on the phone.
Most shocking was the return of my grandfather, and his cautious acceptance of my sexuality, as well as my relationship with Jude. When asked why he was there, he responded by saying that he had been in town to talk to my parents, as well as to apologize to Jude and I for his behavior at the family dinner years previously. Apparently my grandmother had screamed sense into, and dragged him to a more progressive church. With her help, and help from his new church, he was able to let go of most of his old prejudice and realized how big of a mistake he had made. It felt good to know that he didn't hate me or Jude. I couldn't help but laugh and nearly cry in happiness when he gave both Jude and I a hug.
When school was allowed to resume, it was only a week until spring break. Jude and I entered the school with the rest of our group to stares and applause.
Word had got out of our actions during the shooting, and the story spread like wildfire, and Jude and I found out that we weren't the only ones in our group that took action.
During the shooting, while Jude and I fought our way out, Taylor and Daria had helped a group of twelve seventh graders escape, after they had helped Jeremy and Austin escape with Jax, before escaping themselves. Ritchie and Wynston, who were in the Gym at the time, had taken down one of the shooters with a couple of baseball bats in defense of fifteen of their classmates.
People hugged us all, and thanked us.
The week quickly passed, and spring break had finally arrived, and Brandon, Jesus, my Uncle and I had conspired together to make it the best that it could possibly be. We had been meeting in secret once a week to plan the trip that we all hoped would become legendary. Something to replace the memory of the ordeal we had suffered through just a week before.
We forgot, however, somewhat on purpose, to mention our plan to Jude.
We knew of course, that upon the reveal of our plan, he would be one of three things.
I predicted that he would be skeptical. Jesus said he would be outright against it, while Brandon thought he would be all for it.
He was of course, as I had predicted, skeptical.
"Okay." He said, "Let me get this straight... we, as in the four of us, are going, with approval from moms, my dad and Adam, to Las freaking Vegas for a week."
Jesus, Brandon and I nodded enthusiastically.
"How, in the name of all that is holy, good and pure, did you manage to convince them to approve this plan?" Jude asked skeptically.
"Well," Brandon said, " You're responsible. They know that the three of us won't get into any trouble, and that we can keep Jesus out of trouble. You two are eighteen now, so you're both old enough to go gambling in the casinos."
He gave Jude a pointed look. Jude responded by cracking open a can of Mountain Dew.
"And Connor's Uncle Evan and Grandpa Alex are paying for the trip." Jesus continued, "So most of Moms' worries are put to bed."
"I still can barely believe they've booked us suites at the Bellagio for the whole week. Grandpa is trying really hard to make it up to me for taking so long to accept me being gay." I said, "Plus Uncle Evan told me that he's giving Jude gambling money."
"Haha, he knows it's a safe investment." Jesus joked, "Five bucks says that at the end of this trip, Jude'll have enough money to buy a brand new car."
"Or he wins one from somebody." I joked.
"I'll take that bet." Brandon said, and we shook on it.
"Oh hahaha." Jude deadpanned, "You three are fucking hilarious. Absolutely side splitting, you are,"
"Jude, you know it's true." I said, "Do you know how much money he's giving you to gamble with?"
"Oh I don't know, $50?" He said sarcastically.
"Nope. He's giving you three thousand dollars." I said.
"Haha. Very funny." Jude said, taking a drink from his Mountain Dew.
"Know what else is funny?" I asked, "I'm not kidding."
Jude's eyes widened to the size of satellite dishes, and he spat his mouthful of Mountain Dew across the room. Jesus swore as he dove out of the way of the geyser of citrusy soft drink.
"Are you fuckin' serious?" Jude sputtered in shock, wiping his mouth.
"Yep." I said, "All he wants in return is for us to bring him back a souvenir from that pawn shop that was in the history channel show they canceled last year."
"Okay, I can do that. Moving on. How are we getting there?" Jude asked.
"We're driving." I said, "Jesus doesn't trust airplanes, and Brandon and I both hate heights as much as you hate Nickelback, so driving is pretty much the only way we're gonna get there. Jesus and Brandon are taking the SUV. You and I are riding in my Cadillac."
"You got the air conditioning fixed right?" Jude asked, "Because I am not riding into a desert in a forty year old Cadillac with no air conditioning."
"Yeah, it's fixed," I said, "Your dad fixed it for me free of charge."
My car is an ancient Cadillac Brougham Sedan that I bought with my own money for $500 when I turned sixteen. It took a long time to get it in proper working order. I loved my car.
Jude had worse luck with his when he had it.
Jude's car had been an old Toyota Camry that Stef and Lena bought him for his sixteenth birthday. It had only cost $300, and since it was cheap, it was on its last legs when he first got it. He had only had it for three months when it died. We were leaving the beach one day, and the engine and transmission gave out. Well, when I say gave out, I mean the engine block had a crack in it and was spitting chunks of metal as we coasted to a stop in the middle of the street, and then caught fire. They had to scrap it. Jude, in a fit of irritated rage, put a propane tank in the trunk before they sent it through the car crusher. It exploded. Literally. We were lucky not to get arrested. Even mentioning that car was enough to earn oneself the patented "Jude Foster Epic Bitch Face Of Death". That's actually Jude's name for it.
"When are we leaving?" Jude asked.
"About that..." Jesus said.
"We're leaving in twenty minutes." I revealed, "So you might wanna pack."
Jude's eye twitched.
"You mean to tell me, that you're only giving me twenty minutes to pack for a seven day trip to Las Vegas?" He asked crossly.
"No," I said, "I'm giving you twenty minutes to pack for a weeklong trip to Las Vegas WITH my help."
He rolled his eyes, and we set about packing.
Sure enough, twenty minutes later, we were on the road out of San Diego.
"How long of a trip is it to get there?" Jude asked.
"San Diego to Vegas is about 332 miles, if you take I-15 all the way there, so about 5 hours."
He winced.
"Don't worry, we'll stop a couple of times." I assured, "For gas and food and stuff. We'll stop in Primm and Goodsprings. Did you know that if you take a map of New Vegas from Fallout New Vegas, and lay it over a map of real life Vegas, the places are the same?"
"I think Jeremy's mentioned it a few times." Jude said, "Never knew it was true. That's actually pretty cool."
"I'm kind of excited to see some of the places." I said.
"That's why I'm wearing this." He said, showing off the Pip-Boy that came with the Pip-Boy edition of Fallout 4, which was firmly attached to his arm.
"I've got mine in a plastic bag in the trunk." I said, "I'll put it on when we get to Goodsprings."
Ever since Jeremy introduced us to Fallout when we first met him, Jude and I had become obsessed with the games. We each owned the original Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4. Jude joked that Fallout 4 was an early 15th birthday present to himself, since it came out November 10th 2015, just days before Jude turned fifteen. All three of us preordered the Pip-Boy edition of the game, and stood out in front of a GameStop for over thirteen hours to get it. The novelty of owning the Pip-Boy never really wore off, and Jude, being the secret nerd that he is, tends to wear his a lot... even in public. I liked to wear mine too, but not as much as Jude does. We both said that we would wear them when we visited some of the game's real life locations.
"Jeremy said he wanted us to take some pictures at all the different places." I said, "He wanted to come with us, but his dad wouldn't let him come. He's been extremely protective since... you know. He said to bring him back pictures and a souvenir."
"Well Jeremy did get shot in the shoulder." Jude said.
Conversation fell quiet after about twenty minutes, and Jude fell asleep. I couldn't help but sneak peaks at him out of the corner of my eye. He was sleeping peacefully, but I couldn't help but feel a little worried about him. In a two week span, he ran into his rapist, shot his rapist, then got involved in escaping a school shooting. That's a lot for one person to go through in such a short amount of time.
In a few hours we arrived at the California/Nevada border, and stopped for gas. The whole time, Jude stayed asleep. We continued down I-15, until we pulled off and drove until we were in Goodsprings. We pulled up in front of the Pioneer Saloon, and I shut the car off. I reached over and gently shook Jude's shoulder.
"Hey, wake up JJ." I said softly, "We're in Goodsprings."
He sat up in the chair, and blinked the sleep out of his eyes.
"Have a nice nap?" I asked.
"Uh huh." He said, "M'hungry."
"That's why we stopped here." I said, "Eat and take pictures. Come on, Jesus and Brandon already went inside."
We both got out of the car into the sweltering heat of Nevada. Jude stretched, emitting a loud groan as he did so.
I was glad we were both wearing tank tops and short with sandals or we would burn alive. I walked to the trunk of the car and opened it. I ripped open the plastic bag and extracted my Pip-Boy and put it on.
In front of us was the saloon and right next door was the general store.
"This is uncanny." Jude said shocked.
"It's really similar to the game." I said, "I heard it was close, but holy shit."
We went inside, and we quickly found Brandon and Jesus and sat down at the table. The waitress serving us handed us each a menu.
My eyes drifted down the list.
Jude snorted.
"There's a steak on here that's 36 oz, costs a hundred dollars and takes an hour to cook." He said.
"Wonder how many people have ever tried to eat that." Brandon joked.
"At least two a week." The waitress said, "Nobody has ever finished it though."
"That's fricken nuts." Jesus added.
"I'm just gonna get the cowboy burger." I said, "It's cheapest. Only $9.99."
"I'm gonna get the Lasagna dinner." Jude said, "It's $12.99. I wonder how big these portions are gonna be."
"The burger I'm getting is a half pound of meat, or that's what the menu says." I said.
"We may not have to buy food again while we're here." Jesus joked, "If the portions here are big enough, we can just heat 'em up in the microwave at the hotel. I'm getting the Chicken Tacos. It's only $7.99. Cheapest thing on here, I think."
"I'm getting the Western Dog." Brandon said, "Quarter pound hot dog. Didn't know they made 'em that big."
Jude and I caught that at the same time and couldn't resist.
"Insert innuendo here." We chorused.
The waitress cracked up.
"Nice one." She said, "And what'll you have to drink?"
"I'll have a beer. Bud Light if you got it." Jesus said.
"I'll just have water." Brandon said.
"I'll have water too." I said.
"I'll have a Coke." Jude said.
The waitress nodded, jotting down everything in her notebook.
"Drinks'll be right out."
"Thanks very much." I said as she walked away.
She returned not five minutes later with our drinks.
"Enjoy." She said.
Jesus's eyes followed her as she walked away.
"Dayum." He muttered.
Jude snorted.
"Pick your jaw up off the floor, put your eyes back in your head and wipe the drool of your chin."
"C'mon little bro, she is fine as hell."
"You do realizing you're talking to me right?"
"Yeah why?" Jesus asked.
"Well, you're talking to your little brother, who is gay, about how hot a waitress is. Just thought I'd check to make sure you knew who you were talking to." Jude deadpanned.
Jesus and Brandon stared at him in shock.
"What?" Jude asked irritably.
"Nothing. It's just... that's the first time any of us have actually heard you say those words." Brandon said gently.
"Yeah, you always hated being labeled that." Jesus said.
"Yeah well... it's not something I should be ashamed to say." Jude said, "I'm gay. I'll admit it, and I'll accept the damned label that comes with it. I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of the man I love. I wouldn't change anything if I could."
"I'll drink a toast to that." I said, raising my glass. The others did the same thing.
"Cheers." Jude said.
About twenty minutes later, our food arrived.
"Okay, this isn't as bad as I expected." I said, looking at the size of my burger.
"Your eyes are bigger than your stomach, Connor." Jude said, "I don't know if you'll be able to finish the whole thing."
"Five bucks?" I challenged.
He reached into his wallet and pulled out a five dollar bill, setting it on the table.
"You're on." He said.
I took a five dollar bill out of my wallet and sat it on the table.
As it happens, I should have followed one of the Adams-Foster family rules.
Rule #10: If you're gonna gamble, make sure the person you're gambling against is somebody OTHER THAN JUDE.
Twenty minutes later, I sat there glaring at the quarter of my burger that remained on my plate, taunting me with its deliciousness while my stomach ached in protest.
Jude sat next to me, looking supremely smug, folding and unfolding the two five dollar bills.
"You should know better than to bet against Jude." Brandon said, "Even if it's something silly, he never loses."
The waitress approached the table.
"Will you be paying separately or with one bill?"
"Separately." I said.
After we paid our bills, taking care to leave an exceptional tip, we left the Saloon and went into the general store to get a souvenir. As we walked in the door, I stepped on something. I reached down and picked it up, barking a laugh as I did so.
"What?" Jude said, looking at me weirdly.
"Hahaha." I laughed, "Look what I just found on the floor."
I held up the bottle cap for Jude to see. He snorted.
"Oh my god." He said, "That's awesome."
We bought Jeremy a deck of cards for his collection. After taking about 50 pictures, we got back in the cars and headed back toward the I-15. We stopped in Sloan and took more pictures, before finally heading on towards the city.
We left San Diego at 3:00pm. We drove for five hours before we hit Goodsprings, where we spent about an hour. We spent an hour in Sloan taking pictures.
It was 10:00 at night when we saw the city.
"There it is." I said, "Las Vegas."
"It's amazing."
Indeed it was. The neon lights of the glistening city lit up the night.
"I've seen pictures, but..." Jude said.
"Yeah, no kidding." I agreed, "This is something else."
We looked at each other and grinned.
"This is gonna be fun." Jude said.
"What's the first thing you're gonna do tomorrow?"
"I'm gonna take Jesus's advice and hit the casino." Jude said, smirking mischievously.
"Oh dear god." I said laughing, "I think they were joking when they told you to clean out the casino vault Jude."
He uttered a laugh that I could only describe as devious.
"Well... I do need a new car." He said through his laughter.
I joined in on his laughter as we passed the famous sign.
This next week was gonna be the best any of us had ever had.
AN#2: Please leave a review.