This is the final installment of Homefront. I hope that you all have enjoyed the story, and as always, feel free to send me an email with any questions or comments. The address is dhthewriter@yahoo.com. Also, to read this and other stories that I've written, as well as get advance notice/information about future stories/works, join my yahoo group on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter.
The usual disclaimer applies, and happy reading!!!
David :)
Homefront Chapter 12
It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Eudora. Sure, it was hot as the blazes of hell, as a local might have said, but it was beautiful none the less. At Seth and Jenny's house, the women were already up and moving around, albeit slowly. On the night before Jenny's wedding, after the rehearsal dinner, Becky, Janelle, and Linda had brought her and some other ladies back to their house for a party that would have made most of the guys blush. The stripper arrived at eleven or so and given a show that made Jenny wish that Seth was there, for his oral abilities more than anything else. At 11:55, the ladies let her call him one last time before midnight.
At his party, Seth was drunk off his ass and laughing as the stripper that Jimmy and Ron had hired for him was trying her best to get a bigger tip from Matt, who had already told her that he was very happily married to the man of his dreams. He'd already given her a C-Note, but she wanted more, it seemed. Their conversation ended with sweet `I Love You's' at exactly 11:59 by the watches on the Moms' wrists.
The next morning, they all woke up in a haze. The women were drinking coffee in the kitchen as Linda and Becky both told stories about losing their virginity in that house. "May many more virgins be deflowered here then," Janelle, still a little drunk, said as they toasted tapped the rims of their coffee mugs together. Jenny woke up in her pajamas, waddling down the stairs and into the kitchen as the moms sat there.
"Y'all. I thought about it last night, and I'm not sure that I want to walk down the aisle by myself," Jenny told them as she relished the fact that she could sit there in the tank-top that she'd worn to bed along with a pair of Seth's boxers.
"OK. Your dad's not coming, he said," Janelle said.
"Oh trust me. I don't want him here," Jenny told the woman who'd given her birth. With a smile, she continued. "I'm thinking about asking Nick, even though he's already my Gentleman of Honor."
"Awww..." Janelle thought she would start crying but Becky and Linda, who were sitting on either side of her, instinctively put their hands on her shoulders. "Y'all. Thank you so much," she said, looking between the ladies who had become better friends to her than anyone had been since Patrice passed away.
At Ron and Linda's, Ron had been awake for a little while, sipping coffee when Matt rolled from the bed on the third floor and fumbled his way to the kitchen. "I have a weird feeling about something," he said as he took a juice from the fridge, shaking it as he walked toward the table to sit with his dad.
"Did some lady make me give her a motorboat last night?" Matt asked as Ron smiled.
"Son," Ron said to him, "it was just as weird for me to watch!"
"Damn..." Matt shook his head as Ron laughed.
It wasn't long before Matt's absence in the bed woke Nick as well. He took his morning piss and then started to walk from the room when his phone began to ring. He answered it, hoping that the caller wouldn't yell at him as his head was pounding.
"I need a favor," Jenny said.
"What's that?"
"I've changed my mind about something, and only you can help."
"Uh oh..." Nick smiled.
"No. Nick... I want you to walk me down the aisle," she told him.
Nick, beaming with pride, sat on the side of the bed for a second as they talked. He accepted her request, promising to try his best not to fall over on the way.
"If you do, Nicholas, I'll kick your ass right in the chapel," Jenny smiled.
"Yes ma'am," Nick said.
Their conversation came to an end a moment later, and Nick made his way downstairs in a pair of gym shorts that Matt had left over there at some point in the past. "Baby. I'm gonna have to give you head in a little while," Matt said as he rounded the corner.
"Not that I'm opposed to that, but why?" Nick asked after Ron stopped laughing. Matt told him the story as Nick wondered where he'd been while it was going on. He fixed himself a cup of coffee and then sat at the table, telling Matt and Ron about Jenny's phone call the moment before.
At around ten, the ladies went out to get their hair done for the morning at around the same time that Jimmy and Seth were getting to the other house, joking about having to walk over since they were still drunk. They arrived to find Matt and Nick working on breakfast together, having showered already and taken care of a couple of other, personal things, before dressing in gym shorts and t-shirts and returning downstairs. At eleven, as the girls were returning to the house after finish their things, the guys went to get ready. Given the number of bathrooms at the Harper abode, each guy had their own room. Matt and Nick went upstairs to get dressed, to what had been Matt's room for so long.
"So I did something," Matt said as they walked into the room together.
"Oh no... what?" Nick grinned at him. "Was that that we just did in the shower a preliminary `I'm sorry' for something?"
"No..." Matt answered, a grin on his face. "That was just because you were so damn hot that I couldn't control myself."
"OK. Good," Nick told him as he walked into his old closet and opened a door, pulling from inside a huge suit bag and setting it on the bed. He turned to Nick and smiled, presenting it to him in what he called `The Barker's Beauty Pose'. Nick walked over, having a feeling that he knew what it was, but not saying anything until he opened it and saw it. "Matt. Seriously. You can't keep spending money on me like this."
"I promise I won't... all the time," Matt told him, "but Nick. You have been so good to me, not just in the last few weeks, but since we met. If Pa were still here, he'd have bought it for you himself."
"Matt. I love you," Nick said. "And I really love the uniform. In fact, I think I'm gonna wear it today."
"Good," Matt said.
"But you have to stop spending a ton of money on me," Nick smiled. "While it is nice, from time to time, to be spoiled a little bit, I don't want people thinking that I'm with you for the money. And sometimes, I want to do the spoiling. Like the trip, I wanted to give that to you. Call me selfish, but I didn't want that to be our trip. I wanted it to be your trip, a trip that I was able to give to you."
"I know, Nick," Matt told him, "and I don't think I go too overboard. A uniform isn't that expensive."
"Not for you, but it would have taken me months to pay that off," Nick told him.
"So I have an idea," Matt said as he wrapped his arms across Nick's shoulders.
"What's that?"
"Why don't we have a weekend each month where I can spoil you, and then a weekend each month where you can spoil me? The rest of the time, we'll go about our business like normal," Matt told him.
"I can handle that," Nick told him, understanding that it was as much a compromise for Matt as it was for him.
"K..." Matt smiled. "So put on the uniform, and I'm gonna go put on the tuxedo."
"You know that these things don't often leave room for the imagination," Nick told him.
"Why do you think I bought it?" Matt winked as he walked into the closet to get his things. Nick just shook his head as he pulled it from the bag.
Within just a few minutes, they were both dressed and headed downstairs. At around the same time, at Seth and Jenny's, a man dressed in all black was coming up to the back door of the house, as he'd been instructed to do. Knocking, Linda was the first down and went to answer it. She invited the man in and told him that they were still getting ready upstairs.
It wasn't long before Seth and the guys were leaving the house, on their way to the Wedding Chapel that had been constructed on the campus of Parsons University. As they were arriving, Jenny was walking down the grand staircase in her dress, the train dragging down the steps as all the women on both sides of the family were standing there, admiring her for all her grace and beauty. As they walked outside, Janelle and Jenny climbed into the car that Matt had ordered for the day as his gift to Seth and Jenny. The other women climbed into their own cars and headed, behind the limo to the chapel.
They arrived to find that all the guests were already there, waiting on the show to start. The guys were standing at the back door to the chapel, waiting in those final moments before the show started. Linda volunteered, as the ladies stood outside, to go in and tell the guys that they'd arrived. As they'd already decided, Seth crooked his arm and escorted her to a seat on the front row. She was his Othermom, his godmother, and a woman in whom he had immense respect. After she was seated, he took his place in front of the altar, with the Episcopal Minister who was officiating the ceremony.
A moment later, Matt took his `Othermom' on his arm and escorted her down the aisle to the front row, where she would sit beside her best friend, her sister, through the ceremony that would, no doubt, make them both cry. He took his place beside Seth just a moment before the Dads escorted Janelle down the aisle. That part was Linda and Becky's idea, and as they made sure that she was seated on the front row opposite them, they sat next to their wives, ready for the show.
Nick walked outside to find Jenny standing in front of the chapel wearing a long, cream-colored dress. When she saw him, she cried, for he was wearing a formal uniform. He smiled, for that was his sister getting married that day. She'd always been more than a cousin to him, and, in that moment, it shined through.
"You look beautiful," Nick told her as he kissed her cheek.
"And you look so handsome," she said as she wrapped her arm around his neck. "You know. The two of us are quite lucky."
"I know," Nick smiled, knowing that she was referring to Seth and Matt in that moment.
"So let's go see our husbands," Jenny smiled a second before Nick crooked his arm and she took hold of it. Together, they walked up the couple of steps to the door of the chapel. As they'd agreed, Nick gently knocked on the outer door one time, and the usher standing on the other side signaled the organist that the bride was ready.
The usher then closed the door to the chapel itself and opened the door to let Jenny and Nick come inside. He helped her pull in the train before closing the sturdy wooden door. He then walked to the inner door and, with another usher working the door opposite him, turned the knob and then slowly opened the door. For both of them, time seemed to stop as Sherice, at Seth and Jenny's request, began singing "Ave Maria" in the style of Schubert.
Those in the room stood as Jenny walked inside, her hair done around a tiara with no veil in front of her face. Janelle started to cry, wishing that her sister were there to share that moment with her. Patrice would have been so proud of the man that Nick had become, all on his own. She would have loved Matt, and she would have adored hanging out with Becky and Linda.
Linda and Becky both looked to Seth and Matt, who looked so gallant standing there, looking how Granddaddy' and Pa' might have looked at the latter's wedding. Of course, they would have adored Jenny, for she would have been able to keep up with two, self-professed perverted old men.
A moment later, as Matt stood in his place, Seth walked to the bottom of the altar. With a very proud smile on his face, he took Jenny's arm from Nick and the two, together, walked up the couple of steps to the altar as Nick took his place beside her, as her `Man of Honor'.
For a half hour, the Episcopal service continued as Matt and Nick stole glances at one another. At a point in service, Sherice performed Christina Aguilera's "The Right Man" at Jenny's request. Matt was almost brought to tears as he looked at Nick to find that, indeed, he'd found the right man, that man who was meant for him, to make him happy on more than just a physical level.
Before Matt knew it, the pastor was asking the couple to stand from their benches and face one another. "Ladies and Gentlemen," the old man said as Matt looked directly at Nick, who was looking directly back at him. "I present for the first time, Mr. Seth and Mrs. Jennifer Bentley. Seth, you may now kiss your bride."
Seth wasted no time and dipping her and kissing her, quite proudly, on the lips. There were only a couple of dry eyes in the place as the kiss seemed to stop time for everyone there. Matt was holding back tears, while Nick reached up and wiped his from his eyes. Matt smiled a little bit as he realized that his man was acting the same way he had at their wedding in Canada a few weeks earlier. When he realized that Matt was watching him, Nick smiled and gave him a look. It was as if, in that moment, Nick told him that he better not say anything about the emotional response. When Seth was finished, the two stood in front of the crowd. Jenny had this look on her face, telling all the people there that they then knew why she was marrying him: his oral prowess.
Arm in arm, the two walked from the chapel out the door. Matt and Nick followed a moment later, just before the parents walked from where they'd been sitting, again with the Dads escorting Janelle from the opulently decorated building on campus. The pastor invited everyone in attendance to the reception, which was being held on the Grove, a ten-acre area on campus that, during football season, was filled with people that had come from far and wide to cheer on the Patriots of Parsons University.
One could tell the people that were and weren't attached the university in some way, though, for all those that were chose to walk to the reception, rather than drive. Nick and Matt were among those who walked, slowly sauntering past buildings old and new, past landscaping that was amazingly vibrant in its shade and life. Dr. Bishop, having been asked to photograph the day's event, was close behind them, watching as the pair walked in perfect step with one another. Nick was shorter than Matt by a few inches, but they both had a very masculine air about them. At one point, he noticed them talking about something. Both guys were smiling, as he could tell from their profile. He noticed something in both of them, though.
There was a way that they looked at each other. It was respectful, filled with the emotions of both of their entire lives. They made each other laugh, heartily on one occasion that he noticed. If he was anything like his grandfather, Dr. Bishop knew Matt to be a good guy, a Liberal by Mississippi standards, who would do what he could to help a serviceman out. He knew Nick well enough to say that he tackled any task with a degree of professionalism that most students couldn't imagine, even some of the veterans with whom he worked each semester. The fact that their love was as obvious as it was surprised him a little, but at the same time, it warmed his heart. Of course, it pleased him any time one of his vets was able to return home from the service and find someone to whom they could completely give themselves.
As the party continued, Dr. Bishop snapped as many pictures of all of the guests as he could. At one point, though, he took a break to enjoy some of the food that had been brought in for the occasion, choosing to sit temporarily at a nice sized table where Nick was sitting by himself. Matt wasn't far off, but he was talking to some older people that Nick had earlier been introduced to but whose names he couldn't remember for the life of him.
"This seat taken?" he asked Nick.
"No sir," Nick said as he prepared himself to stand. Dr. Bishop told him not to get up as he sat down next to him.
"So I noticed that you and Matt were walking together," Dr. Bishop started as he took a sip of the tea that he'd fixed for himself in the crystal glass provided by the caterer.
"Yes sir," Nick smiled.
"So are y'all together?"
"Shouldn't you not be asking and me not be telling?" Nick responded.
"DADT doesn't apply to either of us anymore," Dr. Bishop told him. "You've been discharged, and I've been long retired from the Navy."
"You're..." Nick inquired.
"Yes, and partnered to the same person for nearly two decades," Dr. Bishop smiled. "He's still in the navy, though. Just got a few more months before his own retirement comes through."
"Congratulations," Nick smiled.
"I should be saying that to you," Dr. Bishop noted by returning Nick's gesture. "I noticed the rings."
"Yeah..."
"So when?"
"A few weeks ago, after graduation, we went to Toronto. Got married on the observation deck of the CN tower as it was rotating the view of Toronto," Nick told him.
"Sounds very romantic," Dr. Bishop smiled.
"It was," Nick smiled as he looked over to find Matt chatting with someone. "How much would you charge me to do some pictures of me and Matt, for Linda?"
"Nothing," Dr. Bishop smiled.
"Dr. Bishop..." Nick started to protest.
"Seriously. When I got out of the Navy, I came back to Eudora. I'd gone to school at Parsons, thanks in part to Mr. Landry. He helped pay for my graduate school, and wouldn't accept any money in return. He even helped me get the job that I've got now, so with that being said, I owe the family... your family... that much at least."
"OK..." Nick responded. "But you realize that this means that I'm gonna owe you something."
"Nick. Graduate with the best GPA that you can, and that will be considered payment in full."
"My goal is a 4.0," Nick told him.
"Good. Keep that in mind!" Dr. Bishop said as he finished the refreshing glass of Southern house wine and returned to his prescribed duties.
A while later, Matt got back to the table and sat in the same seat that Dr. Bishop had been in for a little bit. Nick told him about the picture sitting, informing him that it was going to happen on one of the weekends when Nick was spoiling Matt. Matt agreed, telling him that he'd had to come up with something good for his first weekend, something that would top that. They laughed and joked until after the cake was cut, which, by itself made them laugh to no end as Seth and Jenny both smashed cake into each other's faces.
After that cake, though, it came time to partake in the odd family tradition wherein the Best Man chose the song that the couple first danced to. Matt walked over to the DJ's stand, on the edge of the huge `dance floor' that had been constructed just for the event.
"So I have known the groom," Matt started, "since we were in the womb together. Our parents even used to joke that Seth, whose birthday is only a few days after mine, couldn't let me be out of the womb too long without him. Since those amazing March days in the mid-80s, though, he and I have been through a lot together. There have been some really good times, and there have been some where we've had to lean on each other more than we were able to be leaned on. Seth," Matt said, raising his glass of champagne, "you are my brother, despite the fact that we're not related by blood, and I am honored to be here, with you, today. Jenny, only a woman of your caliber, of your gaul, of your beauty, could make him settle, and I'm sure that there are some in the world who wanted you to get a sainthood for that!" The crowd laughed as Seth, jokingly, extended his middle finger. No one could see, it, though. "Othermom. Seth just shot me the bird."
"DID NOT!"
"DID TOO!" Matt smiled as their moment of childishness came to an end. "But anyway, Jenny, welcome, officially, to the familia. I speak for all of us when we say that we, like Seth, fell in love with you the first time we met you." She blew him a kiss which he accepted with a smile. "So, it's at the point in this little soiree where we're all gonna stand back and watch the couple dance together for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. It's been a tradition in our families since our maternal grandfathers got married that the best man chooses the first song that the couple dances too. When I got married a few weeks ago, Seth surprised me by picking a really sweet song, and so that kinda turned up the heat for me. But I did it, I found a song that will keep me out of trouble with Jen but that is also a really pretty song to boot. It's by Mariah Carey, and it's called "There for me"."
The DJ immediately began to play the song as Seth and Jenny assumed the position for their first dance as a married couple. Matt stood there for a second, long enough to hand the microphone back to the DJ and thank him. He then walked over to where Nick was standing and put his arms across his broad, muscular shoulders. Nick responded, as they stood there and happily watched them, by putting his arms around Matt's waist.
Before the party was over, they slipped away to where the limo was parked and began decorating its darkly tinted windows. The driver joked as they debated whether to write `Just Married' on the back window or if they should do something funnier. In the end, they opted for the regular thing, since most people probably wouldn't understand the dark humor behind something else. They did, however, get some unlubricated condoms and blow them up like balloons, attaching them to the antenna on the front of the car with the assistance of the driver, who'd seen so much done to his car that it was unbelievable.
"What did y'all do?" Jenny asked as they came back down.
"You'll find out!" Matt told her, a naughty grin on both of their faces.
"Trust us..." Nick added.
"Oh God!" she said as someone else came up to tell her just how beautiful a bride she was.
As the party came to an end, Nick and Matt had taken the responsibility of making sure that everyone had plenty of birdseed to throw at the couple as they climbed into the waiting car. After they were gone, everyone else left campus, with Matt and Nick headed to the condo that they shared. It had been a long day, and both of them were tired from having been out in the sun all day. With that, they took a quick shower, together, and dressed in some cool clothes.
Nick walked into the living room as Matt was sitting on the sofa, his computer sitting in his lap. "So what should we order for dinner?" Matt asked.
"I'm in the mood for some Italian," Nick said as he grabbed the remote and turned on some movie.
"Me too, but we're so talking about two different things," Matt joked.
"You're always in the mood for my spaghetti," Nick said as Matt snickered. "So what are you ordering?"
"Alfredo for you," Matt smiled, "and some meatball marinara over linguine for me."
"Sounds good," Nick said as he looked at Matt. "I love you, Matt."
"I love you, too," Matt smiled. "What prompted that?"
"Do I have to have a reason to tell you that I love you?" Nick joked.
"I'm just playing with you, Nick," Matt smiled as he finished the order. He closed his computer back and placed it on the coffee table.
The previous year, for them, had been filled with ups and downs. As Matt snuggled up against Nick, whose feet were resting on their coffee table, they realized that life hadn't been as bad as either of them had thought. Matt was able to talk about his grandfather without getting upset; Nick could acknowledge his past, even celebrate it, without it making him physically ill. In so many ways, the chance encounter fourteen months earlier had changed who they were. They were stronger because of the other; they were more confident because of the other; they had lives that, while forged by the fire around them, were beautifully sweet, cosmically correct... perpetually, perfect.
-=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=- -=-=-
Homefront Epilogue
For almost a century and a half, the Saturday after Thanksgiving has been reserved for the annual football game between the Patriots of Parsons University and the Wildcats of East Mississippi University. It was, by far, the biggest game of the season, and, in even numbered years, Patriots fans would come home, to Eudora, from all over the world to see the game.
Like everything in that town, though, there was a party before and a party after the fact. Whether winning or losing, Pats fans would don their crimson and blue and celebrate just because they could; Parsons had, after all, never lost a party. Matthew Harper and Nicholas Russo were no exceptions to that rule. On the morning of the game, 2038, they woke up at their mid-sized, four bedroom, three bath house at around 5 in the morning. They showered, dressed as everyone else would be dressed, in khaki pants, a nice shirt, and shoes that were both comfortable but nice. After packing things into their car, they drove onto the campus of Parsons University, parking beside what, twenty five years after it was last used for that purpose, was still called `The Old Law School'.
From the back of the SUV that Nick drove, Matt pulled two large canopies that would cover their spots on The Grove, a ten-acre tree-lined part of `God's Country' where the most up-scale pre-game festivities in the country would be taking place. Nick grabbed some collapsible chairs, fitting three in each hand, and the duo walked to the two plots on the grove that they'd coerced two of their goddaughters, Nicole and Mary, into camping at the night before. The two freshmen, still asleep in tents that had been hastily put up the night before, were among so many that had stayed on campus that night to make sure that the next morning, their families had places to spend the morning before the game.
"Wake up!" Nick said as Matt smiled and they set their things on the edge of the plots cordoned off by yellow `caution' tape that their older brother and his best friend had thought would be funny to put around their plots when they were claimed on Thursday night.
"Girls!" Matt called just before they heard rustling coming from both of the tents.
Mary was the first to emerge from the tent. Like her mother, Jenny, she was short, but she had long blond hair in the same shade as what her father's had been at that age. Nicole, on the other hand, took a second. As Mary yawned and hugged `The Otherdads', there was some rustling in the second tent. It was obvious that the other of the twins wasn't in there alone. She emerged first, managing to get them to turn as the man with whom she'd spent the evening left the tent. She was tall, like her father, and had his smile, but she had her mother's jet black hair and dark, alluring eyes.
"HEY!" Matt said as he turned to see who the guy was. "I'm Matt, Nicole's godfather," he said to the tall, lanky, rock-star looking kind of guy with a tattoo on his neck.
"Hi. Roger," he said as he tried to scoot away without having to give too many details about who he was or what it was that he was doing there.
"Nice to meet you. Are you a student here?"
"Um..." he looked at Nicole, who was mortified, "No. I go to EMU."
"What's your major?" Matt inquired as Mary and Nick tried to keep from laughing.
"Um... Music," the guy said.
"Ah! Nice!" Matt said as he looked at Nicole.
"Rog... Just go," she told him.
"OK..." he said as he quickly made down the path known as `The Walk of Champions'.
"Uncle Matt!" Nicole said.
"Sweets," he smiled as he put his hands on her shoulders. "Better me than your dad."
"OK. I'll give you that!" she conceded.
"OK," Nick said as he gave them each a fifty dollar bill and the keys to his truck. "Y'all go get some coffee and go get cleaned up."
"Thank you, Uncle Nick," the girls said as they hugged him tightly.
"This is why you're our favorite uncle," Nicole joked with Matt.
"I'm gonna remember that in a few weeks when Christmas comes around!" Matt said as the girls grabbed their backpacks and rolled up their sleeping bags. Taking their things with them, they said quick goodbyes as they ran to where Nick's vehicle was parked.
Before anything else could be done, they had to get the tents down, which they were able to do, and replace with the red and blue canopies, quickly. They pulled the chairs from their bags and set them up around the perimeter before taking down the caution tape and sitting there for a moment to enjoy the chilly, still dark, morning air.
Matt could remember, as a child, sitting on the Grove with the family and their friends. It was a great time when `the big people' would sit and talk. He and Seth would often sit on the ground and figure out some game to play as they struggled to comply with their mothers' instructions that they not mess up their clothes. As adults, they had a great time just talking and hanging out with other Parsons fans on those amazing Saturday mornings. He could remember the feelings he felt as an alum, on his first Groving weekend after graduation. Even though he was from Eudora and he'd been around the university his entire life, it still felt different to be there and not be either a student or a future one.
Nick didn't have the fortune of growing up in that town, but by that time, most of his life had been spent there. He was there because of Matt, mostly, but it was also the school from which he'd gotten his BS in Sociology and his PhD in the same subject with a concentration on family structures in societies. His Masters degree he earned technically from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, but he'd taken all of the courses online. He and Becky were close, and she'd waited until he got hooded before accepting her retirement and a part-time instructorship, teaching introductory classes only.
Together, they'd shared a million memories of that place. Nick could remember his first grooving experience and how Ron and Linda were introducing him as Matt's friend. The next year, they were proudly showing off their son-in-law. Both of them could recall Seth and Jenny's wedding and reception, but even more powerful memories of their second wedding and ensuing reception after Mississippi's gay marriage ban was struck down by the Supreme Court were also on their mind.
At around seven, their peaceful remembrance of bygone times was broken with the arrival of the rest of the Bentley clan. Seth was carrying two folding tables as Jenny carried a couple of trays of food. Their youngest, Rebecca Janelle, or RJ, as she was called, was carrying a couple of plastic bags that had drinks inside.
As with Matt and Nick, time had been kinder to them than some. Matt was still tall and skinny, but his brown hair had started to turn grey. Nick's hair was still black, but it wasn't as thick and luxurious as it had once been. Both guys still ran three or four times a week, so they were in decent shape. Seth still had a head full of blond hair, just like his mother, and the smile that had plunged a million ladies into his bed still worked its magic on one woman every day. Jenny's hair was still black, but there was a little bit of gray in some places. She blamed it not on her children, but on Seth. Her personality had changed little, though. She was still a fiery lass who wouldn't take shit off anyone, but she still had the kindest soul.
As they reached the spot, Nick took one of the tables from Seth while Matt took the trays from Jenny. RJ, still half asleep but cleaned up and dressed appropriately for the day in a nice pair of dress pants and a blouse, sat in the chair Matt had set up for himself and yawned. Her brown hair, hair that everybody joked that she got from her uncle Matt, was pulled back into a ponytail.
"Shit!" Jenny said as the guys finished setting up the table. "RJ! Run to the car and get the tablecloths out."
"Mama..." she whined.
"Mama..." Jenny mocked her as she looked at Matt and Nick. "Don't laugh!"
"Yes ma'am," they said in tandem as Seth just stood there, quietly working, and shaking his head.
"So which one of my girls had somebody with them when y'all got here?" Jenny asked.
"Nicole," Nick answered.
"Was he hot?" Jenny asked her cousin.
"Matt?" Nick grimaced.
"She could do better," Matt said as Seth turned.
"If I didn't have this head of beautiful blond hair, it would be grey because of them!" Seth joked as RJ walked back up.
"Dad," she said. "Don't lie. Everybody knows you wash away that grey." Matt and Nick tried not to laugh as Jenny smiled.
"You're causing the most, little girl," he smiled as she handed her mother the red and blue table clothes. Matt took one from her, and Nick took the other, each spreading them out over the tables. Jenny and Seth then took it upon themselves to begin setting up the food, leaving it covered for the moment. The drinks that RJ had been carrying were placed on the opposite end.
"You didn't happen to get my phone did you?" Jenny asked RJ.
"No ma'am," she said.
"OK. No worries," she said as she reached for her keys. Nick handed her his phone, though, which was never more than a few feet away from him.
She called their other daughter, who was still at the house, and asked her to bring a couple of other things that she'd left. The phone argument that ensued between them was heated, and when Jenny got off the phone, she looked as though she were about to cry. "My mom would be laughing right now," she said she tried to shake off the icy relationship with her third daughter, Iana, named after her favorite singer, still, in the whole world.
Of their five children, Kyle was the oldest, at 21. Mary and Nicole followed him, at 19. Then Iana was seventeen, complete with all the trappings of a senior in high school, and RJ was 14 and already giving them problems with boys. All of them, though, had healthy physical drives. Kyle was gay, and, like his father before him, used his years at Parsons to bag as many people as possible. Mary and Nicole had started the trend for the girls, losing their virginity in ninth grade. Seth was hoping for one girl that was a prude, but RJ's rapid growth in the chest area was shattering his dreams. He and Jenny both understood that they couldn't stop their daughters or Kyle from having sex, but they made sure that they understood, early, the value of protection. On more than one occasion, he'd told them that they better not bring a grandbaby into his house before he turned sixty. Kyle, jokingly, told him not to worry about getting one by him.
Kyle wasn't the only boy in the mix, though, as his best friend was a key fixture in their combined worlds. His name was Daniel Patric Harper, or Danny, as he was called. At 21, he'd given his fathers some headaches, but they were still beyond proud of him and what he'd accomplished in life. When they decided that they wanted a family, they considered adopting, but Jenny, upon learning of the news, came up with another plan. Since they thought that she couldn't have children, she offered up some of her eggs. They would be fertilized by Matt and then placed into a surrogate. Matt wouldn't go along with the idea until Seth gave his approval. Matt knew that he wanted to have children, to carry on his family's name, and so he didn't want his best friend, his brother, to feel left out.
They took the necessary steps to get the eggs fertilized but then put them in stasis until a suitable host could be found. When they did find her, the impregnation took place right away, and she found herself carrying the guys' child, a child that was genetically related to both of them. About two months later, Jenny and Seth found out that around the same time Jessica was getting knocked up by a turkey baster, that Jenny was with child. All three of them babied both ladies for the term of their gestation.
Jessica was the first to go into labor, in December of 2017. Just three days before Christmas, Nick and Matt's lives were forever changed with the arrival of their 9 lb, 10 oz, 22-inch-long baby boy. Jessica, having served as a surrogate for several other couples, asked to hold him once before the necessary legal arrangements were put into place.
Of course, the grandparents were all there, all five of them, as were the godparents, Seth and Jenny, who was so swollen and bloated that she could barely move. Janelle said that he looked like Nick had looked, with a head full of black hair and dark, dark eyes. Ron joked, at the baby's first diaper change, that he could tell that he was related to Matt.
Less than two weeks later, though, Danny was given a built in best friend when Kyle Andrew Bentley graced the world with his presence. Over the years, all the parents and grandparents had some tough questions to answer, but they did so in such a way that actually made the boys, who had both decided at the age of five that they wanted to play football for Parsons, honor their heritage. It was because of Matt and Nick that Kyle was never forced to live inside a closet, and it was because of Seth and Jenny that Danny, who was straight as a board, had people from whom he could ask questions when he didn't understand something that his Dads couldn't explain.
Despite the fact that they made the best team-within-a-team, and that they were the absolute best of friends, they were as different as night and day. Danny was a quarterback with an amazing arm; Kyle, on the other hand, was a wide receiver who, in four years of playing for Parsons, had run more yards and scored more touchdowns than anyone living could remember. Danny was quieter than Kyle was, just as Matt had always been quieter than Seth. Danny had always preferred to have one woman at a time, compared to Kyle, who was all about getting laid as often as possible by as many people as he could find. Being that he was a rather athletically good-looking guy, though, that wasn't really very hard. They were both political science majors, but while Kyle was preparing himself for Law School, Danny was hoping to find his dream job working behind the scenes on political campaigns. Both were passionate in their opinions about the events of the day, such as the American military presence in post-Communist China and the issue about whether the American Public Health Service should be expanded. Where Danny took the more typically liberal viewpoint, Kyle was rather conservative in his views of how things should be handled. They were still the other's wing-men though, and wouldn't have ever let anyone do anything to the other, again just as Matt and Seth had been with each other.
The parents were proud of all the kids for what they had or were going to accomplish, but the grandparents would tell anyone who would listen the kids' life stories, making them out to be gods among men. When the five of them got to the Grove at around nine that morning, it was obvious that the dads had been dipping into the sauce already. Janelle had joined them in a toast to the game and the day, but she wasn't in trouble with the Moms, who were dressed nicely, just like everyone else, but wearing crystal pins that displayed the numbers 12 and 67, Danny and Kyle's numbers respectively. Janelle, who, despite her status as an alumna of EMU, had become a fan of Parsons first because of her daughter and nephew and then because of her grandchildren, who were two of the most impressive players in the team's history.
They'd brought with them some more food and some coffee, but the dads had also managed to sneak in two two-liter diet coke bottles that had been premixed that morning with whiskey. It was the whole `sampling for consistency' thing that had gotten the two men, in their late 70s by that point, in trouble.
By ten, the twins had gotten back and Iana had arrived to join them. Nick gave Iana and RJ a fifty dollar bill just to make things even between the sisters and all so that Seth and Jenny wouldn't see. Not to be outdone, the grandparents each gave the girls some more money before Seth and Jenny realized just how much they'd racked up in a couple of hours.
At eleven, two more people came to their little pre-game party. The first was Amaia, a Latin goddess with long, luxurious black hair and huge tits that drove her on-and-off boyfriend, Danny, insane. Born in Brazil, she was multi-lingual, speaking Portuguese first and then English, Spanish, and Italian. She wasn't the first or only girl that he'd ever been with, but he'd been ruined by her when they met during their junior year. Kyle knew that they would end up together, for they were a perfect match, but Danny wasn't quite sure of it yet. With her, though, was Jason, a nerdy sort-of guy with a head of hair clipped closely to his head and medium brown skin. He and Kyle had met a few months earlier, and despite Kyle's self-imposed title of man-slut, Jason had managed to help him settle down a little bit. They were friends, above all else, that got together every now again for a romp in the sheets that satisfied them both on more than just the physical level. The parents and grandparents liked them both, though, for they seemed to be perfect compliments for their boys.
By that time, the Grove was already filled with people. Parents of the other football players had an open invitation to stop by and join them for a drink and light noshing, as did so many other people. At noon, Becky and Linda gave up and let their husbands break open the "Diet Cokes". For all the adults, they filled blue and red Dixie cups. Iana and RJ asked for some, and even though Dan had afforded that to Seth and Matt decades earlier, Big Daddy' and JimJim' weren't going to tempt fate, as they'd already gone above and beyond what their predecessors had done for their sons.
A little while later, Sherice, Matt's choir-mate and still close friend by virtue of the fact that her son, up to college, had always played football with Danny and Kyle, came up. "So I was reading online," she started, "on some football rumors site that there is talk that the Heisman might make its way to a Parsons player."
"Are you serious?" Matt asked, knowing the gravity of what that trophy was.
"Uh huh," she said as Matt began beaming with pride. She reached up and hugged him as Nick walked over, sensing that Matt might need a moment for some reason. It was a good thing, though, and as Matt told him what Sherice had said, Nick too beamed with pride. They decided not to say anything, though, as they didn't want to tempt fate all too much. If he did win, it would mean that all those years of his hard work would more than pay off.
In just a few minutes, a couple of hours before the game was to start, the team left the Student Union and walked through the Grove and Circle on their way to the Stadium. There were cheers from everyone, but Danny and Kyle seemed to notice that their families were cheering louder than anyone else. After the team passed, everyone but the Dads, Jimmy and Ron, went to the Circle for several other pre-game traditions. Jimmy and Ron had volunteered to stay behind and watch the game on a small, solar powered TV that they'd brought with them. It was commonly known among them that they were staying behind to drink, though.
After they got finished in front of the Lyceum, the whole crowd moved toward Barth Stadium. For decades, Linda and Ron, along with Becky and Jimmy, had purchased a box from which to watch the games in comfort and luxury. They had that year, and the whole group had used it, but for that game, Nick had managed to get a cache of tickets for the Faculty section so that they could be among the masses watching the game. Their shakers ready, they walked onto the stadium and found their seats. Amaia and Jason were with them for that game, as the other games they'd come to were with the family in their box as well.
They found their seats just before the first of several game day traditions started, the presentation of the Egg Trophy. For longer than anyone there could remember, a member of the Parsons family, the people that had founded the university in 1848, walked onto the field with the starting quarterbacks from each team. A fourth person, usually an alum, carried the huge trophy that, for the previous three seasons, had been housed in Barth Stadium as a perk of Parsons' consecutive victories. Danny had started each of those games, even his freshman year, when the QB who was supposed to start got injured in the game against Alabama the previous week. He was the first Freshman to start the Egg Bowl for Parsons and he was the only QB in the match-up's history to start all four.
Some words were said by someone before the Quarterback for EMU turned to a rather small section of people dressed in Maroon who began banging drumsticks against cowbells. In kind, the Parsons fans made a uniform sound in their direction that would have reminded anyone of a feral cat or something. The next part of the tradition was known as the `Hotty Toddy'. Usually, it was started by someone famous with ties to the University, but Danny, whom everyone in that place knew by both face and reputation was handed the mic and his face put onto the megatron that was on one end of the field.
Matt and Seth looked at each other, proudly remembering how their grandfathers, in their first trip to the Square on a Thursday night before the game, had made them do the cheer for anyone that would listen. They could remember people being impressed by it, but they just thought it was cool because it was the only time they got to say a dirty word without getting in trouble.
"ARE YOU READY?!" Danny called into the microphone, starting up the cheer that had drive many a Parsons team to victory.
"HELL YES! DAMN RIGHT! HOTTY TODDY GOSH ALMIGHTY! WHO THE HELL ARE WE? HEY! FLIM FLAM BIM BAM, PARSONS BY DAMN!" everyone in the place cried, almost deafeningly as a sea of crimson and blue shakers put `the pussies from the east', with their pitiful little cowbells in their place.
The game started with Parsons electing to first receive the ball. Danny completed a pass to Kyle, who set the tone for the game by breaking through EMU's defensive line and easily scoring a TD in the first minute of the game. By halftime, Parsons' defense had only allowed them to score once, but EMU, playing poorly during the first half, had allowed three touchdowns already. All of the extra points were secured, making the score 21 to 7 as the guys went off the field.
After a great half-time show by the band, the guys returned to the field, where both teams began to play like they were losing but wanted to win. EMU had stepped up its game, and Parsons had responded in kind. They staved off the score, holding it at 21 and 7 until the last quarter. Somehow, Parsons' defense had allowed them to score two more touchdowns at the opening of the final term of the game.
In the final moments of the game, as EMU fans were cheering to their own perceived victory and Parsons fans were letting their boys on the field know that they were with them all the way, Danny went back on the field to take control of things. He exhausted their final time out to introduce a new play: "Kyle likes the pile". Everyone on the team laughed, for they all knew that Kyle was gay. It didn't matter, though, as times had begun to change and Kyle was one of the leaders on the team and an amazing player.
A moment later, Seth and Matt looked at each other. They, along with Nick and Jenny, recognized the play that was being formed on the field. Coach Cox, a former Auburn star who had accepted the Head Coach position at Parsons a few years earlier, trusted Danny enough on the field to let him do what he wanted to do in what was, more than likely, the final play of the game.
"I'm really glad my son likes to be piled on by guys!" Seth said as he and Matt laughed.
On the field, where no one could hear, Kyle took his position and began taunting the EMU guys. It was all a part of the play in which he would use their own fears of a `football-playing-fag' against them. "I'm gonna fuck all y'all tonight, and all of y'all have to decide who's gonna be first." As they'd planned, it somehow made it down the line, and the EMU team, cocky that it was going to win the game, robbing Danny of his fourth victory and the possibility of the Heisman, changed their position. In all but a couple of plays, Danny had passed to Kyle, and they assumed that he was going to do it again. When he was comfortable a few seconds later that the team's center had his back and that EMU's defense was focused on Kyle, Danny called the play. He faked the pass as Kyle took the on-field pile up, leaving him wide open after the center took out the only person covering Danny. With a certain wind behind him, pushing him, Danny ran as fast as he could, crossing the line just a millisecond before the buzzer sounded, ending the game.
For Matt and Nick, Seth and Jenny, time stopped. Linda, Becky, and Janelle were all crying. The girls were cheering as loudly as any other Parsons fans, Amaia and Jason included. On the Grove, the Dads, along with some other people that had crowded around as they screamed and cried the Pats onto victory were beyond elated.
Like all the other fans, they went onto the field a moment later as Danny proudly held up the Egg Trophy for all to see. It was staying in what Parsons fans considered to be its rightful home for another year. Matt and Nick made their way through the crowd to where Danny was kissing Amaia much as they kissed each other. When he saw the two guys, though, Danny left her for a moment and went over to them. Matt was Dad, and Nick was Pop, but to him, they were both his life. Growing up, he'd faced ridicule from other, crueler kids who made fun of the fact that he had two dads, but Danny had always told anyone who dared tread on his world that he was lucky to have two dads that loved him as much as Matt and Nick did. He'd been interviewed on TV several times, and he'd credited them for helping him to become that most awesome man that he was.
Matt looked at Nick, who was beaming with pride as Danny walked over to join some other fans. For three decades, they had had so many amazing moments, and that one, with their baby leading his team to victory, was one of the best. Danny wouldn't have ever had the chance to be there, though, if it hadn't been for that single night at Blind Jim's, when Seth and Jenny left them to their devices as they went off to consummate their relationship once more. They wouldn't have been there if it weren't for Corey and Patrice, for Dan, for families that loved them unconditionally and accepted them for who, and what they were. With those things in mind, Matt leaned over and kissed his man passionately. Despite the fact that he still had more money than any other single person in town, Matt was a simple teacher, having devoted his life to sharing his passion for music and language to generations of students. Nick had worked his ass off to have been named Professor of the Year' for the previous two years. Together, they were a force that could be stopped by no man, no entity, no thing on God's green Earth. Together, they'd raised their son to be a champion, a hero among those and so many more people, a role model for little kids who would, like Pa' and `Granddaddy', like the Moms, like Matt and Seth, Jenny and Nick, and like Danny and Kyle, grow up living the mantra that "there was but one university, and it... is Parsons."