Graduations & a Wedding : Part V
Before he left for New York that Saturday morning, Nick had an early meeting with his mother and Sue Sylvester. He had been concerned when he had heard that they would be working together that the two of them would clash, or that his mom might have succumbed to the pressure that Sue could exert on those around her. Instead, he found his mom looking more energised than she had since the time that the family had moved to Ohio from Illinois, and fully in control and up to speed with everything that was going on. As Nick stepped into the campaign office she greeted him warmly, offered him a coffee, and when he declined, ushered him at once to the door of Sue's office to show him in. Having done so, she made to leave again, but not before she reminded her that she had another meeting in ten minutes with a representative of the Women against Trump campaign. She then walked out, making a call on her phone, and as she shut the door, she had started asking about the latest polling numbers.
"Your mother, it turns out, is a powerhouse when it comes to organisation and motivating people. She has been out there, all day, every day, kicking ass on my behalf since my candidacy was confirmed. I think that the fact that it is your low life father that we are fighting against is an excellent motivating factor. She knows all of his weak spots; only last week she snuck into a venue where he was due to be having an important session with his key backers, and removed all of the Demerara sugar sachets…" Sue began.
"Because she knows that he will only drink coffee with Demerara sugar; he refuses point blank to use white, as his mother was of the opinion that only poor people did so, and they, the Duvals, were above that. I am guessing that it was a morning meeting, so he would not take tea. He would have reacted pretty badly, so it was a shrewd move on my mom's part," Nick replied, with a slight grin.
"From what my sources tell me, Smythe had to physically restrain him, and his language was pretty choice. The fact that the media might have shown up uninvited just before that, and that a couple of their microphones picked up the whole tirade was unfortunate for him as well. What is a pity is that so far, neither of the organisations in question has had the guts to broadcast the tape, but I will persuade them in the end."
"I have no doubt that you will, when the time is right and when it will boost your polling numbers most favourably."
Sue smiled and nodded. "Sweet Porcelain was right when he said that you had a smart head on those diminutive shoulders. He said that you had the ability to see when a small personal sacrifice might be necessary to ensure that your father loses a little bit more of his support. Thanks to your mother and her parents, I have a good group of volunteers going door to door. The fact that a few of them have been pretending, unknown to me, to be from your father's campaign, is getting us a good cross-section of opinion out there. Now before you worry yourself about the legality of that, they are all wearing badges that say 'Republican' on them. I am a Republican candidate, so strictly we are not lying to anyone, are we?"
"No, I guess that much is true, but I don't imagine that Smythe senior would see it that way…"
"If he starts to complain, then I might just have to hint to him that I know that marriages two and three might not have been strictly legal…" Sue smiled as Nick's jaw dropped. "I have a source, and they have given me the leverage that I need; albeit actually using that one will be the very last resort. I'm taking it by the expression on your face that young Sebastian has not shared anything on this with you? In that case, neither have I…"
"Okay, I guess we will just leave that one there for now. I am more curious about what you said about personal sacrifice…"
"Our surveys have shown us that there are a large number of dedicated supporters of Mr Trump, therefore quid pro quo your father, that agree with all of the homophobic rubbish that some people spout, but are totally opposed to violence against young people. They are mainly women, and we think that we could swing those votes to my campaign if they found out about the violence in your father's past."
Nick tensed up, and his face fell. "You mean what happened on the day that I came out, don't you?"
"It has been mentioned to me, yes. At this point I have to say that both your mother and your grandparents were opposed to my even bring this up with you. However, I believe that you are a realist, and you are strong. It would be a last option move again, but if it meant the difference between him or me winning that seat in Congress, would you consider doing it; telling the world that for all of his claims to be a good family man, that has been betrayed by a wife and children brainwashed by the liberals and their agenda, he actually engineered the destruction of his own family by lashing out at his son, whose only crime was to fall in love with another boy… As I said, our research shows that around 20% of your father's voters would come over to me, and with polling the way that it is, those votes could be enough to secure the seat in our favour."
Nick closed his eyes, took a breath, then replied. "I would need to speak to Jeff, because doing that would place both of us under the media spotlight. I'm not saying no straight off, but it is just hard… We could consider coming clean about something else to the media however. I mean, wouldn't it be terrible if the media found out that it was his son that nearly broke Twitter when he kissed his husband in Times Square, live on national television, on New Year's Eve…"
Sue laughed in spite of herself at the way that Nick's eyes had twinkled as he had uttered those words. "Ah, yes… That was of course what caused all of this to happen in the first place; when he recognised you and decided that he wanted to deal with you once and for all. If you are happy for me to use that little bit of information next time we are at a meeting together, then I could use it to give him a bit of a showing up. In fact, given that the clip of that moment is still available online, I could even arrange for there to be a large screen in the room, on which I could play that clip over and over on repeat…"
"That should be ok; Jeff and I both knew that when I asked you to challenge him we would be exposing ourselves to the whole media circus. If we can keep my husband as far out of the spotlight as possible though, I would be grateful. He handled all of the stuff that came with The Judging Angel well enough, but if we started to get into the more personal stuff; if they dragged up events in his past, then he could get hurt, and that is the last thing I want."
"Yes, I had heard about his drawing. Porcelain showed me the piece about him in the New York Times and I have to admit that you married a man with real talent - and you can tell him that from me. You have my word that I will do everything in my power to see that he is protected. After all, the two of you are every bit as a adorable as Klaine were; it is sickening to watch sometimes, although I have to admit that your kiss was the highlight of New Year's Eve for me. Your father, however, will probably try and find some way of dragging you both in, and use you as an example of everything that has gone wrong with this country."
"I know that… If he does manage to hurt my Jeffie, then it will be my mission to ensure that he is destroyed personally."
"If he takes the gloves off, then so do we; but until he does, we will try and keep you, Jeff and your sister out of it. Your mother is worried that he will attack her and Cooper too, and I think that she might well be right about that…" At that moment, the lady in question knocked on the door, and pointed at her watch. "It would appear that our time is up, Nicholas. I wish you a safe trip back home to New York. I will keep you updated on both our progress, and on anything that our opponent attempts to do."
With those words, Sue walked out of the room, leaving Nick with his mom. "Her heart is in the right place, most of the time, and she is not nearly as scary a person to work for as I anticipated; in fact, I would say that I am feeling more energised about everything in my life at the moment than I have done for some time. Now, I must go and get on; give Jeff my love, and tell him that your grandparents and I will be making a trip to New York next month to see his creation in person." She leant forward and gave Nick a quick hug, then was gone, leaving Nick shaking his head and smiling.
He checked his watch, and realised that he needed to hurry to the airport if he was to make his flight in time. Jeff and Mike had gone ahead at his insistence, so that if he was delayed and missed it, they would be on time for work at least. He had called a cab in advance, and it was waiting for him outside Sue's campaign headquarters when he stepped outside. He climbed into the back, and as the driver already knew his destination, relaxed as they sped off into the traffic.
"So, that woman, she is the second Republican candidate for this congressional seat, right," asked the driver as they drove along.
"Yes, she is. She is quite the lady," said Nick in reply.
"So I've heard, and given that the other guy, Duval, sounds like a complete douche if I am honest with ya, and the Democrat is just an idiot, I will be voting for her."
"That's good to hear. She needs all the support she can get."
"Well, my nephew just came out as gay; he is getting a hard time at school, and that douche seems to think that is ok? If I ever meet him, I'll punch him. You ever met him?"
"Unfortunately, yeah - he's my dad." There was a moment of awkward silence, and then Nick spoke again. "He has never forgiven me for being gay, so feel free to hit him. I often want to, trust me… Best thing you can do is vote for Sue; encourage your friends and family to do so too. And if you'd like a poster or anything, just call up her campaign manager - my mom."
The cab driver just stared at him in the rear view mirror for a moment, and then laughed out loud. "You know kid, I think I will. If his family aren't backing him, then nobody else should be." Nick nodded, then sat back and let the town roll by…
He made his flight by the skin of his teeth, running down the air bridge at the last second, apologising to the cabin crew as he walked on board. "Don't worry about it," one stewardess whispered. "Your husband told us what you were doing - and for the record, most of us are with Sue…"
Nick took his seat next to Jeff and fastened his seat belt as the plane prepared to leave. He glanced across to the window seat where Mike sat, and when he did so, Mike saw something in Nick's eyes that told him he was worried about something. He made a note that they should have a quick chat about things soon, when Jeff was otherwise engaged. He would do whatever he could to help Nick out…
As the plane carrying Nick, Jeff and Mike back to New York took off, Flint, Beats and Ethan were just preparing to leave Dalton for the airport. They had woken up to discover that Niff had been and gone. They had shared breakfast in the refectory with Jasper and Brad; the two younger men had arrived together, and many made the assumption that they were a couple. As they were quick to point out, they were just very close roommates. Jasper might well be gay, but he had his eyes firmly set elsewhere; he was currently seeing a med student that he had met in a bar one night, and had just immediately clicked with. Brad had been there at the time, and had approved of the young man too, announcing to everyone that was listening that he was the perfect match for his best friend. A few months later, he had been introduced to the med student's younger sister at a party they had all been attending; and well, things had progressed from there. For her sake, Brad had finally managed to wean himself off the cigarettes he had been smoking secretly since before his arrival at Dalton; although he still had terrible cravings at times, he had not smoked for the last three months. He had managed to give up before that, but the stress of the top secret mission to disappear Wes' birth data at New Year had caused him to crack.
The news that he had given up had been greeted warmly by all of his fellow Warblers; it had been an open secret in any case after Wes had graduated. The fact that everyone knew about it had given him the courage to stand up to Hunter when he had tried to blackmail him with the information, and he had walked away from the Warblers; his lead had given Jasper the courage to follow him out the door, his last act being to out himself to the other boys in the Senior Commons. The only thing that troubled both of them about their lucky escape was that they had not noticed that things were going badly wrong with their friends in those dark days; they had only realised to their horror that something was badly wrong when they had been dragged into the chaos of the night when Nick and Jeff had been attacked, and everything had come spilling out thereafter.
The fact that they were now dating a brother and sister between them had brought them some laughs, but it pleased them too. Whilst their relationships lasted, it meant that another of Dalton's bromantic couples remained connected, and if things went long term, as they both hoped, then their connection would be cemented by marriage vows in time. At the breakfast table that morning, the topic for discussion was the incredible generosity of Jeff, and the way that he had provided so many of their friends and acquaintances with a new home. "You guys are really fortunate that you are able to take up his offer of a new place now you are graduating. It's moments like this that make us wish that we had elected to study in New York too," said Brad as Jasper nodded in agreement.
"Trust me, if you did live in the city, then he would have offered you somewhere too," said Flint. "That is how our Starling is; he wants all of his friends to be every bit as blissfully happy as he is with Nick. If either of you in the future do come to live in New York, then I am certain he would offer you a place to stay. If you want to come and visit, then he would offer you a room. Heck, if Gordon had owned a property in Chicago, he would have offered you it; he did that with the house he owned in DC for Trent and Rory." Beats and Ethan nodded in agreement with their friend's statement.
"Well, who knows where life will take us?" said Jasper. "For us, a lot will depend on what our partners want. The same goes for most of us though. All of us seem to be pretty loved up these days, except for Thad, obviously, and well…"
"Me?" said Ethan. "I am quite happy on my own right now."
"The only thing that would have made yesterday better would have been if Drew had been here, but then I guess that it is a long way to come from England, just for the day," mused Brad.
"Yes, yes it is," said Ethan, "and I think that he and Lucy will have quite a bit on their plates right now in any case. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment, I need some more coffee."
Ethan got up and walked away, leaving the others to stare at his rapidly retreating back. "Was it just me, or did he sound rather touchy there? He more or less hissed out her name…" whispered Jasper.
"No, it wasn't just you… Between us, I don't think that he has spoken to Drew in a few months," said Beats quietly. "Reading between the lines, I think that Lucy might be the reason why all communication has broken down; I think she is the cause of the problem. I mean, she wasn't exactly friendly towards any of us at Sebastian's wedding…"
"Downright rude would be a better term to be honest! I tried to chat to her, and she just looked at me like I was rubbish, then got up and stomped off to where Drew was talking to Ethan," confided Brad.
"I guess that we are all very close to each other, and that is a lot to get used to for an outsider," reasoned Flint. "But yeah, I am sure that Drew isn't nearly as close to Ethan as he was anymore, but that is a fact of life as we leave our school and college days behind. I mean, in a couple of weeks, Beats and I will be living in separate houses…"
"The difference is that we will still see each other every day as we are living next door to each other, and that will make the separation easier. At least Ethan will have you around to keep an eye on him, and stop him from getting too down." Flint nodded as Beats stopped talking; he had noticed that Ethan was on his way back, but all of them spotted that he was not bringing coffee back with him. Their earlier conversation must have touched a raw nerve, and he had just needed to get away. Flint's heart broke at the thought of what his friend had to be going through; he had known that he missed Drew - they all did - but it was obvious now that his sense of loss was far greater than he had thought, and had been exacerbated by being around so many other people that were so happy with their closest friends.
"I changed my mind about the coffee when I got there," Ethan said as he returned. "I decided that I could just get one at the airport; after all, we will have to head there very soon…"
"I suppose so," said Beats with a sigh. "We do have a very busy few days ahead of us. We have to pack up the house, and of course, Flint and I have the newbies Preppy Boys to check up on too…" With that, they all quickly finished up their breakfasts, then said their farewells. They had to leave the place that all of them saw as a second home to head back to their lives, at least until next year…
After they had watched Alan and Callum perform on Saturday night as if they had been doing the job for years, and not for just over a week, Beats and Flint headed home in the early hours of that Sunday morning knowing that they would have to get up again after a few hours, to start making serious inroads into the process of packing up the house, and begin the hard work of deciding how to divide up those items they had accumulated together. Beats was of the opinion that as Elliott had pretty much everything they would ever need, Flint should keep the majority of it, but he said that he would only do so if Beats allowed him to pay for them. As the two of them bickered, Ethan shook his head, musing that this must be what it was like to be around a divorcing couple.
In a way, it was like a divorce from each other, after a long time together. He refused to get involved in the dispute, even though he was tied in; after all, anything that Flint acquired for his new home would be there for him to use too. His own packing was well under way; he had less to sort out after all, as he had travelled lightly on his way back from England, out of necessity. He did it methodically, and he was glad of the fact that it kept his mind off the fact that whereas the Harpers and the Wilsons would be in town on Tuesday for their son's graduation, his own folks would not be; as was usual for them, they had another more pressing engagement. There would have been a time when such a snub would make him cry, as he had done in Drew's arms when they failed to show up to his graduation day at Dalton, but not now. He was far tougher these days. As he said, he had come into this world alone, and if he had to go through life on his own, then that was ok; he would survive. In any case, he was sure that Wes at least would come to watch the moment that he finally got recognition for all of his hard work.
Beats and Flint had found a nice hotel for their respective parents to stay in, although it was in New York, not in Princeton. The hotels in town had been either fully booked or trying to charge them prices that made their eyes water, given the quality of the accommodation that they offered. In the end, it had come down to either Philadelphia or New York, and the latter had won out; they could get them tickets to see a show on the evening of graduation after all, and that had been a big selling point to both sets of parents. The hotel they had chosen was well known, and as such, they did not have to head to an airport to meet them on their arrival. However, their packing had gone well and so they ended up heading to Newark in any case; the flights from Kansas and Ohio would arrive within a few minutes of each other by chance. Both sets of parents were delighted at this surprise, and were also happy to meet with each other again. It was suggested that they could share a cab into town to save expenses, and they readily agreed. At the last minute, Beats and Flint decided that they would follow them into town, albeit taking the train, and would collect them from the hotel and escort them to the Spotlight for dinner that evening. The Harpers had seen the place back in February, when they had come to New York after Beats was admitted to hospital; but for Flint, this was his first opportunity to show his parents the business that he had invested in. He wasn't quite certain what they would think of it, and he found himself calling up to warn them that he was bringing his folks in. Michelle had laughed, and has promised him that all the staff would be on their best behaviour, had agreed to put a reserved label on one of the best tables for six, and had guaranteed him full availability on all the kosher items on the menu. She knew better than not to do so; the reputation of Mrs Wilson proceeded her….
As it turned out, Flint's mother was so pleased with the fact that the hotel had given her a full upgrade to a mini suite, with a kitchenette and a view towards the Chrysler Building, that she was all smiles as they arrived at the diner. Flint looked in through the windows to see all was well; he caught the eye of Jeff, who nodded, and ran off to warn the others. It was the young man himself who ended up coming to meet them as they walked in the door, and then escorted them to their table. Mrs Harper recalled Jeff from meeting him at Dalton, and when Beats casually mentioned that he was making a name for himself as an artist, largely thanks to a little drawing entitled The Judging Angel, he suddenly found himself the centre of attention; his fame had spread even to Kansas, and Mrs Wilson was full of praise for the image he had created, which she had seen in a copy of Vogue. Eventually Jeff managed to find time to hand over the menus, although by then he was crimson, then beat a retreat. He was barely out of earshot when Mrs Wilson gasped as she saw just how many kosher items there were on the menu. Things had got off to a very good start….
By the end of their meal, Mrs Wilson was singing the praises of everyone and everything about the place. She had been introduced to Michelle, and had spent a good few minutes telling her how excellent the food was, that the atmosphere was spot on, and how she would return home to Kansas and urge all her friends to come and visit the place whenever they came to the city. As she went on, Mr Wilson leant over to Flint and whispered in his ear "I think that your mother might like your choice of investment; I know that I think that you made a very wise choice in this place; a very wise one indeed." Such words from his father left Flint grinning from ear to ear.
After they had finished their meal, the party was just about to leave when the door to the diner opened to admit Rachel, who had arranged to meet Sam there before they headed back to Bushwick. As Flint had decided that Funny Girl would be more to his mother's taste than Kinky Boots, it was her show that his parents would be seeing the following night. It was obvious that his mother had done her research into the show as on seeing Rachel enter, she had gasped, and turned to Flint to whisper urgently "That's her! The talented young lady we will be seeing tomorrow night! So you actually get real Broadway stars in your diner. I am so pleased…"
Flint decided it was best not to point out that technically it wasn't his diner, or that Rachel was actually one of several people that he was partner in the business with. Instead, he contented himself with saying "Hey Rachel! Have you got a minute to say hi to my folks? They are coming to see you tomorrow night."
As Rachel came over, always happy to greet someone that was coming to see her performance, Mrs Wilson's day was made complete, particularly when Rachel produced a spare playbill from her bag, and signed it for her on the spot. She then arranged that they could all come backstage after the show and meet the rest of the cast…
Flint was overjoyed at the look on his mom's face, until Beats leant forward and whispered in his ear "You will be in debt to Rachel for this one for a long time. Sooner you than me…" Mrs Harper overheard every word, and had to try hard not to laugh at the expression that appeared on Flint's face.