Chapter 56: New Partners

March 22, 1981

I answered our phone line. “Hello?”

“Hey, Steve! Got a moment?”

“Yeah, Mike. What’s up?”

“Andy called. He’s got a potential new member of the group.”

“Should I read between the lines?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a ‘yes’.”

“Good for Andy! You want me to do the interview, right?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I told Andy to bring Cal here a little early.” I had vague memories of a Cal. Very vague.

“No problem! I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Thanks, Steve.”

“No problem. Bye, Mike.”

“Bye.”

I went next door. “Hey, Ang!”

“Hey! Whazzup?”

“Mike called. Andy’s bringing someone for study group.” Her eyes looked the question. I nodded. “Mike believes so.”

“Cool! New people are always good. You talking to him first?”

“Of course. Mike refuses.”

“You’re the guy, Steve.”

“So I hear.”

She stuck out her tongue. I stuck out mine. She wiggled hers, I wiggled mine.

Angie and I got to study group early and hung out with Mike and Sarah. Right around 1pm, Andy and another guy rode up. I’d definitely seen him; he was hard to miss.

Andy is not a small guy. Taller than me, solid, strong. Not as big as a lot of players, since he’s a receiver and can fly down the field, but big. The coaches were talking about moving him to tight end. He’d made the obvious risqué joke about that a couple times.

Cal was bigger. Shorter by just a little, but big. Strong. I was pretty sure he played linebacker. I was very hopeful we’d get along in the interview.

They got off their bikes, looking nervous. Cal, especially. It could’ve been ridiculous on a guy that could eat me for lunch, but it was endearing. He gave Andy a few looks.

I headed right over, offered my hand. “Hi. Cal, right? I’m Steve, and behind me is my sister Angie, and that’s Mike and his girlfriend Sarah. Mike’s the host of our little merry band. Well, his step-mom, Rita, is. You’ll meet her. You’ll like her. She’s cool people.”

“Hey, um ... yeah, I’ve seen you, Steve. And Angie, and I used to know Mike. Hi, Mike! Sarah, nice to meet you.” He was soft-spoken and seemed shy. I would be, too, if I was constantly on guard for people who’d hate me and could make my life shit with a single word.

“C’mon, we’re heading downstairs to talk. You’ll see.”

“OK. Um ... see you in a bit, Andy.”

We went in. I’d already prepped Rita. Not about the one thing, though; she’d see that herself if Andy and Cal wanted her to. Or not.

“Oh, hi, Honey!” She bustled over and hugged a blushing Cal. “It’s always nice to have new folks around here. I know Steve’s got some questions. You’ll like him, he’s a peach. But they all are!”

I grinned. “Thanks, Rita. You are, too — you know that!”

“Everybody keeps tellin’ me that, and I hate to argue!”

I laughed, and Cal managed a nervous, but real, laugh, too. We walked down and I lead him to the billiard room, grabbed a chair, and smiled to him. “So, pull up a chair, and tell me about yourself...”

“Well, it’s a, um ... study group, right? Andy didn’t tell me a whole lot, but I got the feeling there’s a reason he wanted me here. He said you were great people, and smart, and hey, I do fine, but I could sure use people to study with.”

I quizzed him a little on classes, grades. He’d fit in. I was sure he shared classes with a few in the group. And we both knew that’s not why we had an interview first.

“OK, so, I’ll get to the second part, and the part you were waiting for.” He smiled a bit, but the nerves were back. “Grades and studies come first with our group. But we’re also quite social. We’re good friends, and we hang out together and do stuff. We value this environment we’ve built where everyone can be themselves and not worry about it.”

He got a little blush on that, but nodded gamely. He wasn’t going to just tip his hand, of course.

“So I’ll go over a few things. Rules, or principles, or whatever. First, and biggest, is privacy. What I mean is, well, if you’re completely yourself, and you’re a high school kid, probably there’s stuff you really, really don’t want your parents to know. I’ve got things like that. Some people’s are a lot bigger than mine, but mine are bigger than you’d think. So, we don’t tell anyone, unless it’s cleared first. Now, Angie and I talk about damn near everything, and everyone knows that, but we keep it between ourselves. We’ve got another group of siblings; same thing applies. But friends outside the group? Nope. What happens within our group stays within our group, even if it’s a big, juicy secret. The girls go with it, too. That seems to be harder for them than it is for the guys.”

“Yeah, I see that in my big sister. She’s on the phone all the time, and sometimes I hear what she’s saying and I’m thinking ‘Damn, I thought girls were the dainty, polite ones!’ Stuff I couldn’t imagine saying about other people.”

“Right,” I grinned. “I hear Angie, too. But it’s not about the people here unless she’s talking to the people here. Anyway, so ... the thing is, suppose someone blabs to a parent. Well, their secrets will come out, too. And so on. It’d tear the group apart and ruin a few lives. I mean, really ruin, in a few cases.”

“Um ... yeah. I get that.” He was very interested. Of course.

“The second rule is respect for each other. Which, kinda, means we follow the golden rule. I mean that broadly. You treat people like you’d want to be treated if you were them. So no, ‘Hey, I want to meet cute girls, I’m only going to introduce people to cute girls.’” He chuckled. “And you take people as they are. Again, I mean that broadly, and I’ll just be blunt. No one in this group cares if a guy and a girl like each other. And no one cares if a girl and a girl like each other. Or a guy and a guy. Or two guys and a girl. And pretty much whatever combinations go from there. I mean, god knows, as much as my parents would have issues if they found out I’d been intimate with a girl — if I had — that’s peanuts compared to what would happen if some people’s parents found out they liked someone of the same sex.”

He’d tensed — as expected — but then relaxed. I was pretty sure I’d convinced him. He nodded, thinking a minute. “So, if, for instance, there were gay girls or guys in the group and people figured that out, no one would care? Or say anything? Or ... well, you know?”

“Not the way you mean. It’d be more like, ‘Hey, Fred, where’s your boyfriend today?’ We won’t play blind. We’ll just act like we don’t think there’s anything wrong, because there isn’t.”

He shifted. He’d gotten some confidence. “Look, someone’s gonna say it first. Andy and I...”

“Yeah. I got that. I’ve known Andy’s situation for a while. We’ve all been rooting for him to find someone.” He blinked. “I’m glad he has, and I hope you’re good for each other.”

“He didn’t tell me...”

“He couldn’t. Respect for the group, right? If he said, ‘Hey, Cal, the group welcomes gay people,’ well, you’re not in the group. And now you know something that could be dynamite if you wanted to blow us up.”

“Damn! You’re right! I hadn’t put it together that way! That’s why he was all mysterious, but encouraging. I mean, hell, you’ve gotta get really good at keeping secrets, you know. It would piss my parents off no end. But Andy? He’d get a beating and then get shipped somewhere where he’d get more beatings and they’d try to brainwash him. And the team? Half the guys probably don’t care. But that just means you only have to watch your back against 50 percent of them. And they have lots of opportunities to jump you. I mean, we’d be out. I couldn’t even fault Coach. It’d rip the team apart.”

“I get that, and that’s why I danced around it. Why would you open up to me if I could fuck up your life with a stray comment? I’m glad you trusted me with your secret.”

“I trust Andy. He’s in deeper shit than I am if we fuck up. If he trusts you, I trust you.”

“I’m dancing on the edge of things I can’t say, but you know there’s a plan to help give you a bit of cover.”

“Um ... yeah. Some girls he knows that’ll date us. Well, will pretend to.”

“Mel and Cammie, yeah. Mel’s a charter member of the group and Cammie joined a while back. As Mel’s girlfriend. Cammie and I are good friends.”

“So they’re like... ?”

“Holding hands, smooching. Stuff any couple would do unless there was a reason to worry.”

“Weird world. Good, but weird.”

“The third rule is respect for the group. Say, someone — Andy — wants to bring someone in — you. We need to talk first. Then the group votes. A no vote gets a big discussion. Any more than that and they’re out, because, if we can’t be comfortable, it’s no good. We’ve only turned one person down and that was unanimous. Beyond the question of admission, it means that if it comes down to taking heat yourself or screwing the group, take the heat. Anyone can opt out of attending, but not trash the group in the process.”

He nodded, nervous again.

“I think you’ll fit in just fine, so don’t be too worried about that. The last two rules are pretty easy by comparison. Fourth is studying. We are a study group, after all!” I laughed; he did too. “And the fifth complements that — ‘Work hard, Play hard’. We’re social, too, and we enjoy doing things together. So those are pretty simple.”

He nodded. “Yeah, those are easy enough.”

“We’ve got a written sheet of rules we’ll have you sign, after the vote. Which, again, I’m pretty sure will go just fine. I’m going to talk to the group. I’ll talk to you after; there’s one thing — which Andy knows, of course — that I can’t mention until you’re one of us.”

“Mysterious!” he chuckled. “But I’m a lot more relaxed now. People can be so judgmental. I can see y’all aren’t.”

“Go find Andy back upstairs. I’ll be up after the vote.”

“Cool!” He offered his hand. “It means a lot to have a straight guy just accept me without a second thought. It’s rare.”

“Which is idiotic, and I hope it’ll change. I really think it will. Slowly, but surely.”

“I hope so, too.”

He headed upstairs. I gathered everyone, went over my thoughts. Obviously, Andy backing him carried weight. Just as obviously, they’d rejected out of hand someone Angie was backing. After discussion, we voted Cal in unanimously — and Angie made a point of apologizing for inviting Max.