Chapter 35: Guys' Trip

ARTIE

At first, when Kyle had suggested his idea to ease the tensions between him and Sebastian, Artie had thought the older guy was crazy. Bringing his step-brother with him to his dad's house for the weekend– and thereby forgoing what was supposed to be three days spent with family and recharging his social battery– was not exactly Artie's idea of a good time.

But as much as Artie hated to admit it, Kyle did have a solid point. Sebastian was family now, too, so he couldn't just get rid of him that easily. Maybe he and Sebastian really did need to spend a little bit of time together to move past whatever they'd been going through lately. Hell, it worked in the spring, after they'd spent weeks in a feud between their glee clubs that had ended up affecting both their school and home lives. Once the parents had found out about that, Nancy and Harrison had sent all four of the siblings off on a weekend of bonding– consisting of bowling, mini golfing, and movie nights– and it mostly did the trick. Sure, they had one or two major, blowout arguments between the four of them over the course of three days, but what kind of siblings didn't squabble now and then? Especially while enduring that kind of forced proximity. Artie tried to convince himself that maybe Kyle was right– to have no choice but to spend time together and talk in a low-stakes environment until they understood one another's point of view was exactly what he and Sebastian needed.

Truth be told, Artie was a little worried about Sebastian and more than a bit hesitant to let him out of his sight. Artie would be lying if he said that he wasn't alarmed by the fact that Seb had fled to a bar after their argument the other night. As someone who tended to get anxious regarding underage drinking in general, it worried him. Not that Artie would ever be that guy and act all high and mighty, telling others what they can and can't do, or use himself as a sort of martyr for the cause, but Artie loves Seb and tries his best to look out for him. From what his mom had told him, Sebastian had a habit of feeling lonely whenever he gets left behind for the weekend, and his summer's been pretty uneventful so far– what with the fact that he had no real plans for the present or any clue of the direction he wanted to go in for the future. Luckily, starring in Artie's short film and taking up the job at the ice cream place had seemed to give Sebastian a sort of renewed purpose, which made Artie happy to see, but he still thought it would be nice to get him out of the house.

Artie knew that it was more than a bit unusual for the son of another man to be visiting the dad of his step-brothers, but when had their blended family ever been conventional? Plus, having Sebastian at just an arm's length away for the weekend gave Artie the peace of mind of knowing that he wouldn't try to go behind his back to confront Blamtina while he was gone. A win-win.

Coach Sylvester had scheduled one of the Cheerios' infamous car washes– yes, the ones where the cheerleaders paired bikini tops with their uniform skirts– for that Saturday. Artie wasn't sure what there was for them to be fundraising for, since the team was buoyed by several very generous boosters, but he guessed that maybe some of the girls liked that day of soapy team bonding and showing off their bodies. Truth be told, Artie used to enjoy that particular event as well, but now that his barely-out-of-middle-school sister was on the team, the whole idea made him both nauseous and ashamed of his former self. All that being said, Ella would be unable to make the trip out east with them for the weekend. Griffin was coming, though, so Artie was choosing to think of this as somewhat of a guys' trip.

Shortly after Artie had arrived home from his physical therapy session on Thursday evening, he approached Sebastian with the idea. The two boys were in Artie's bedroom– Artie was starting to pack as Sebastian was picking his brain while beginning to brainstorm for his college essay– and to absolutely no one's surprise, Sebastian needed very little convincing to agree to come along.

"You don't think it's too much?" Sebastian had wondered as he was sprawled out on Artie's bed and staring at the screen of his laptop. "Like, shouldn't I pick just one piece of childhood trauma to focus on?"

"I kind of like it the way you have it now," Artie told him, laying out his clothes for the weekend. "I think both your mom's passing and leaving your home country have had a part in shaping who you are, don't you?"

"I guess so," Seb replied, not sounding too thrilled. "I just don't want it to look like I'm fishing for sympathy points from the admissions department, you know?"

"Definitely, believe me. I'm thinking about that pretty much constantly– how to dodge other people's pity." Artie began to carefully fold his clothes and set them inside his duffel bag. "But I think that in a situation like this, it's a little different. These schools want to get to know you to see if you'd be a good fit for their university, and sometimes that requires getting a little bit personal. At least, that's what Ms. Pillsbury told me."

He had paused for a moment before posing the question to Sebastian that had been in the back of his mind all afternoon. "Hey, what are you up to this weekend?"

"I don't know," Sebastian mumbled with a shrug. "You're all going to be gone, right? Then probably nothing."

"What about your friends from Dalton? You're not going to hang out with them? I feel like you haven't seen them much this summer."

"They all live pretty far away," Sebastian reminded him. "Closer to school. Plus, they're all busy with family vacations or teaching little kids golf lessons or whatever. You heard them when they came over at the beginning of the summer. They've all got plans."

"Well…" Artie began, folding a red polo shirt on his lap. "Do you maybe want to come with us to Akron?"

Seb's facial expression was blank as he turned his gaze from the screen of his computer to face Artie. "You want me to come with you guys to your dad's?"

"Well, it's just me and Griff going. El's got some Cheerios thing," Artie explained. "We'll probably go to my dad's game on Saturday. I don't know what we'll do other than that, but I'm sure it'll be pretty low-key. My dad's not really a fancy guy…"

While Artie was notorious for being easy to read when it came to the way other people could observe his emotions and inner thoughts by the way they were clearly displayed on his face, he didn't necessarily have the same gift when it came to other people. He had a difficult time reading Sebastian, who was still sitting there on Artie's bed and quietly staring back at him, in a bit of what may have been disbelief.

"Only if you want to come, though. You don't have to," Artie began to stumble over his words, wondering if this was a completely horrible idea and instantly regretting asking in the first place. "I just thought that, you know, maybe…"

While Artie couldn't be quite sure, he thought he may have seen the corners of Sebastian's mouth twitch slightly, almost as if he was trying to hide a smile. "Alright. Sure, whatever. Sounds fun."

Sebastian had then excused himself to go pack his own belongings for the weekend since they would be leaving as soon as Seb's shift at the ice cream place ended the following afternoon. As he was leaving the room, Artie noticed that Sebastian seemed a bit lighter than he'd been when he entered. Sebastian, Artie guessed, wasn't quite as indifferent to the invitation as he was pretending to be. He'd just tried to play it cool so as to not come off as overeager right away. After noticing Sebastian's carefully hidden excitement about being included in the trip, Artie was certain that Kyle's suggestion to bring Seb along to Akron for the weekend wasn't such a bad one after all.

The ride from Lima to Akron was almost exactly two-and-a-half hours– barring any traffic– so the boys wanted to get a head start in order to get there before rush hour impacted their travels. On Friday afternoon, Griff and Artie loaded up in Griffin's truck with Griff driving and Artie riding shotgun. The three duffel bags were in the bed of the truck, and the dissembled parts of Artie's chair took up half of the back seat. They just needed to head to Main Street Ice Cream Shop to pick up Sebastian and then they'd be on their way.

"Please let me honk, Art," Griffin pleaded with his brother, who had already told him not to do exactly that. They were waiting in the gravel parking lot for Seb's shift to end, and even though they'd been early to pick him up, they were now teetering on the border of being late since Seb had yet to run outside to meet them.

"No, you can't do that," Artie repeated. "He knows we're here. He's probably just wrapping up. We're lucky that his boss even agreed to let him leave early today. Usually, he stays until the end of the night to close."

Griff gave an unsatisfied 'hmph', but didn't say anything more about wanting to lay down on his horn to force Sebastian to hurry up, and the universe seemed to reward him for that. When Sebastian finally did appear in the doorway of the employee exit, he came bearing gifts: plain vanilla for himself, chocolate for Artie, and a cookies and cream milkshake for Griffin (so that he could easily enjoy it while driving).

"It's about time you show," Griffin told him, though Artie noticed he didn't seem as annoyed anymore, now that he knew there was dessert involved.

"I know I'm a little late, sorry," Sebastian acknowledged, dishing out the treats he'd brought with him after climbing into the backseat, squeezing in beside the parts of Artie's chair. "But this was why. Technically, I'm only allowed one free cone per shift, so I had to make the others while my boss wasn't looking."

They put the issue to rest then, and instead, focused on enjoying their (stolen) goodies and arguing over who got to be in control of the radio. The three very opinionated young men all had different tastes in music, and none of them intended to give in to please their brothers.

"Here, why don't we just make a playlist?" Artie– the closest thing to a peacemaker of the three– suggested. "We can each pick, like, ten songs, and then we'll shuffle it. Then we'll all get to hear the songs that we like."

Artie took the liberty of developing said playlist, adding his favorites first, then taking down Griffin's suggestions before passing his phone back to Seb. While that made for a very… diverse and eclectic… playlist that ranged from Eminem, to Michael Jackson, to the Spice Girls, to The Beatles, to Lady Gaga, to Griff's favorite country music artists, it served its purpose of placating each of them and curbing any arguments.

It took some major self-control on the boys' end to avoid pulling over at any of the rest stops along the way to fuel up on fast food, especially when– as Artie had predicted– the roadways began to get more jammed, prolonging their journey. The ice cream that Seb had snuck for them managed to hold them over as the promise of steak and chicken fresh off the grill was enough to keep them driving toward their destination.

Grilling was a sub-type of food that was almost exclusive to visits to their dad's house. Harrison wasn't the grilling type, and neither was their mom. Grilling was off-limits to Artie since it was positioned at too high of a level for him to manage it safely, and while Griff was somewhat of an amateur at it, nothing could compare to their dad's special technique. Artie's mouth was watering just thinking about it.

Art's house was the second one on a small cul-de-sac, and as soon as it came into view, Griffin not-so-subtly began to announce their arrival by honking the horn. Once or twice may have been tolerable, but the twenty-one-year-old did it a handful of times more than that (probably feeling the release from being told that he couldn't do so earlier), causing quite the ruckus.

"Griff, quit it," Artie complained, slugging his brother on the arm. Even he was struggling to hide a smile, though. "You're gonna disturb the whole neighborhood."

He couldn't be annoyed for long, though, because all of the noise had indeed gotten his father's attention. As Griffin put his truck in park and turned off the ignition, Art Abrams appeared on the home's front stoop with his dog Buck beside him, his tail wagging a mile a minute with his mouth open wide, making it appear like he was smiling.

"You made it!" the elder Art Abrams exclaimed.

Griffin climbed down from the driver's seat and was enveloped in a hug by their father, meanwhile, Artie really had no choice at the moment but to stay put and wait for his father to come to him.

"Artie Man!" Art exclaimed, coming around to the passenger side of the truck where his middle child was sitting to give him a strong hug of his own. "It's been a while!"

"I know," Artie acknowledged, unable not to feel the slightest bit guilty about that. Sure, his dad had a pretty hectic schedule in the summer since he traveled so often for work, but Artie had been keeping himself pretty busy, too. It wasn't until his father said something that Artie realized he hadn't seen him since before the Fourth of July. "It's been way too long."

"What's been going on?"

"College applications, hanging out with Quinn, and working on this short film have kept me pretty busy," Artie replied.

"Later on, I definitely want to hear more about this movie you've been making," Art told him. Artie smiled and nodded. His dad had been the one to ignite his love of films and filmmaking all those years ago. Artie was thrilled to get the chance to talk his dad's ear off about it– cinephile to cinephile. "How was the drive?"

Sebastian seemed to be busying himself with the task of pulling the pieces of Artie's chair out of the back seat and assembling it in the driveway as the Abrams boys caught up with their dad. Artie had never known the cool, smooth, and charismatic Sebastian Smythe to be awkward or shy, but he hung back a little bit now, seemingly not wanting to intrude on this reunion between father and sons.

"It was fine," Griffin answered, with a shrug. He was kneeling down beside Buck, letting the black lab lick his face enthusiastically. "We hit a little bit of traffic merging onto I-71, but other than that, pretty chill. Just hungry."

"Well, good, you're just in time for dinner," Art replied. "I just lit the grill."

Once Seb had attached both of the wheels to the frame and set the cushion in place, he pushed the chair over to the passenger side, beneath where Artie was situated, and locked the brakes in place.

"Thanks," Artie told him, flashing him an appreciative smile, which was met with a sideways smirk from his step-brother, who just shrugged and stuck his hands in the pockets of his shorts. As Artie prepared to begin his descent from the passenger seat of the lifted truck down to the seat of his chair waiting below, he turned to his father. "Dad, you remember Sebastian from the wedding, right?"

"Of course!" Art said, giving Sebastian a hug of his own because that was just the kind of guy he was. "It's nice to see you again."

"You as well," Sebastian replied, appearing– at least, to Artie– to loosen up a little bit as he began to feel more and more comfortable in this admittedly strange environment.

Buck– seemingly over Griffin, and noticing that Artie was occupied at the moment– decided to say his version of a 'hello' to the teenager he didn't know just yet by jumping up onto Sebastian and attempting to kiss his face.

"Whoa!" Sebastian exclaimed with surprise, backing up from the rather large dog and narrowly avoiding being slobbered on.

"Hey, down!" Art called, grabbing Buck's collar and pulling him down. "Sorry about that. He's friendly, I promise. Are you a dog guy?"

"Never had one. I think I'm more of a cat person," Sebastian said. After a brief hesitation, Seb apprehensively leaned down to pet the dog, who nuzzled up to him appreciatively. His tail was wagging so fast that his entire back half was wiggling. "What's his name?"

"Buck," Art replied. "Like the Buckeyes. You an Ohio State fan?"

Artie knew that Sebastian wasn't that big of a college football fan, and when he glanced up from placing his feet on the footrest of his chair, he could see the uncertainty written all over Seb's face. "Um…"

"By association," Griff answered for him, taking off the Ohio State hat he was currently wearing and setting it on Sebastian's head before throwing an arm around his shoulders. "We're working on it."

"Nice. Well, why don't you boys head inside," Art said, clapping his hands together to get the attention of the energetic dog, who then bounded up the collapsible metal ramp and through the front door. "The meat should be just about done thawing. I'm gonna go ahead and throw it on the grill."

On the inside, Art's single-story, two-bedroom home in Akron looked exactly as you'd expect a single guy in his fifties' home would look. The leather couches in the living room were worn from years of watching Spielberg and Scorsese flicks and football games, and upon entering, they were immediately greeted by the sound of the ESPN sports commentators that ran on an endless loop on the television. Aside from framed photos of his children (of which there were many), the house was very minimally decorated. The layout– while not as much of an open concept as the house back in Lima– had just enough available space for Artie to navigate without too much difficulty.

Once they were inside the home's small foyer, Art put a hand on Artie's shoulder and stopped him. Artie glanced up at his father curiously.

"Would you mind giving me a hand in the kitchen? The bread's ready to be tossed into the oven, and then maybe you can throw together a side salad with that strawberry dressing you make?" he asked hopefully. "I'm going to grill some vegetables, too, but I figure us fellas have pretty big appetites. I went ahead and bought everything you should need at the grocery store, but you know that I don't know how to make that kind of stuff. Not as good as you, anyway."

"He's right about that," Griffin added with a smirk, taking Artie's duffel bag from his lap. "Here, I'll take this and show Seb to the bedroom." Artie opened his mouth, but Griffin held up his hand to silence him, seemingly able to predict what he was about to say. "And I'll hang your clothes up in the closet the way I know you like them. No wrinkles."

Artie smiled and nodded, surrendering his belongings to his brother before making his way to the kitchen where he found that the fridge was stocked with beer, soda cans, the ready-to-be-baked bread, and the ingredients for the strawberry spinach salad that Artie was known to make during the summer. He was touched by the thoughtful ways his father had thought to prepare for their visit.

At one point in time, Artie had thought it was going to be too difficult to bear traveling back and forth between houses to spend time with both of his parents. The divorce had been hard enough on ten-year-old Artie as it was. But by now, the ranch-style house in Akron had become just as much his home as the one he'd grown up in. He had even come to appreciate the quaintness of it, even though it lacked a lot of the more extensive accessibility accommodations that the Lima house had.

His dad's bachelor pad was the perfect location for a guys' trip, and Artie couldn't wait to get the weekend started.