Jaiden – Chapter 12
Gregory A. Patrick
The end of Spring Semester is literally 22 days away on May 18. Final exams will have been taken and final grades will be posted. That is the day we will also have to move out of the dorm apartment.
Since I brought my truck from Alabama, Jaiden and I will have no problem getting our belongings to his home in Abingdon.
Dad has already told us there will be a graduation party in Mobile and both families will be descending on Orange Beach at Mom md Dad's home.
There will be a formal dinner for everyone after which Jaiden and I will check into the classiest, most historical hotel in Mobile. We have no idea where that trip will be until my car is delivered to the hotel's parking garage. When we see that car, everyone will be gone and Jaiden and I will have complete privacy. The rest of the next two week's instructions will be in the glove box.
Jaiden and I have been planning our wedding, what we will wear, the cake we want. We have already decided against an open bar because neither Jaiden nor I consume any form of alcohol.
We are going to Abingdon this weekend to look at Tuxes, but we have pretty much decided. The style is what we have to decide on.
We can get a very classy hand-tailored black Tux at Phil's Formal Wear for a very reasonable price.
Unlike the New York stores selling handmade tuxes for 5K and up. Phil says he is only out to make a living and not a killing. And besides, he is a truly nice guy who, like Jaiden and I, loves everybody until they give him a reason not too and then he keeps on loving them despite themselves.
We have an appointment with Phil at 10:30 am on Saturday and when that is over, we are going to lunch with Mom Reynolds at the country club. It seems that on Saturday mornings, the country club serves Jaiden's favorite Prime Rib and steamed Asparagus. Poor guy, he is salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs just thinking about it.
Mom Reynolds asked, "Well, did you young men pick out a tux?" Jaiden said, "we looked." Actually, we did find a tux we both liked and we were measured and Phil is now making our tuxes, but we weren't going to give away our choice until the night of the graduation – and our surprise wedding!
We are going to spend the rest of the day seeing some on Jaiden's best friends and then take a trip with them to the east side of Holston's Lake to see the sun set. Then it is home to Jaiden's for some "alone" time.
Since we'll have the basement apartment if we want, we are going to unload our stuff there until the end of summer when we move onto the LECOM campus. We get to get up every morning to the sun rise over the easterly mountains. At night, we get to see the sunset over the westerly mountains.
When we got to class on Monday, we learned that because of our 4.0 GPA in every class, and because we had had not missed or been late to any classes, Jaiden and I would be exempted from our last semester finals. We could leave campus early or stay on campus until gradation day.
Jaiden and I decided we would take most of our belongings home and then return to campus to spend our last few days with Charley and Dale. Mom told Jaden and I that if it wouldn't be too hard on Charley and Dale, they could spend the time before the trip to Alabama with us at the house.
We got back to campus to write our Valedictorian speeches and get them approved by the Dean's office. Part of the rest of the time would be athletic exercises between the sheets while our roomies and most of the rest of the dorm are in classes.
Tuesday morning, we packed the truck with everything we could and just left the clothes we would need until graduation in the apartment. We headed to Jaiden's to drop everything off. We would have dinner with Mom Reynolds Tuesday night and head back to campus Wednesday morning.
After dinner Tuesday night, Jaiden and I retired to the basement where we stripped off every piece of clothing, jumped into bed for our first round of bed exercises. If you can think of it and visualize it, we promise you we did it.
Jaiden was laughing pretty hard as he watched me walk to the picture windows. "What's so funny Jaiden?"
"Peyton, we must have overdone everything last night because when you walked across the room to the picture windows, you walked like you had been riding a horse for three days. It was and still is hilarious!"
"Ok, babe, just remember, you have to get out of bed and walk over here too."
When Peyton finished his statement, he got out of bed and joined me at the picture windows to watch the sunset over the mountains. He didn't walk like he had been riding a horse for 3 days, it was more like he had been riding 5 days straight. He turned red in the face from embarrassment when I started laughing and said, "5 days for you!"
After our "athletic" endeavors between the sheets, we both needed a shower before going to bed.
We got back to Wellstone at lunch time, so we stopped by our usual celebratory restaurant and got our usual all meat pizza. Tony came to the table and asked what we would be doing before we came back for Fall Semester.
Jaiden and I looked at each other and I nodded to Jaiden to take the lead on the answer. "Tony, we won't be back Fall Semester." "And why not?" "We got kicked out of Wellstone." "Please explain what you mean by `kicked out'."
"Well, the administration learned that we got accepted to medical school at LEMCO in Lake Erie, Pennsylvania and made us appear in the President's office last Saturday morning at 10 am. When we got there, they had us take a litany of exams which they computer scored after we finished all of the exams. 30 minutes later the President came back with all the scored exams."
He said, "gentlemen, I hate to have to tell you this: You passed all the exams with the highest scores ever at Wellstone and, as a result, you will not be coming back to campus Fall Semester, you have cleped all your remaining classes and you will graduate at the end of this semester." "You have to be kidding me!" "Nope, it's true. We start medical school on September 3rd."
Peyton looked at Tony and said, "Tony, pick your chin up off the floor." Tony was apparently shell shocked. What we told him next left him even more perplexed.
"Not only that, Tony, Jaiden and I will be the first Co-Valedictorians in the history of Wellstone University." All Tony said was "WOW!"
"Tony, not only that, Jaiden and I will be getting married in two weeks in Orange Beach, Alabama." Tony sat there with tears welling up in his eyes. It must be the clean mountain air causing so many teary situations, that's all Jaiden and I could surmise.
"Don't worry, Tony, you'll be getting an invitation to the wedding. We'd love to have you if you can make it." "Make it?" Tony said, "I will be there with bells on." As when he found out Jaiden and I were engaged, our pizza and drinks were on the house." And by the way, we will be having a surprise wedding at the graduation party. Our parents have no idea it will happen then. Here is the address of Peyton's parent's house and Peyton's and my cell numbers for when you get there. We will meet there and go to the restaurant for dinner.
We went back to the dorm and Charley and Dale were there. Since we would be gone in two weeks, we just sat and talked about how great things had turned out for all of us. Jaiden asked Charley and Dale if they were going to be able to attend the wedding. Dale said they'd try, but he knew his Dad wouldn't help finance the trip due to his homophobic ideals.
Jaiden told them not to worry about the cost of coming to Orange Beach, that would be arranged for them. They both lived within a relatively inexpensive flying distance. He got the information they would need to purchase airline tickets. We told Charley and Dale they could go with us to Jaiden's home at the invitation of his mother and then fly to mobile for the graduation party. We didn't tell them we would be getting married at the dinner.
Friday would leave us one more week before graduation, giving our Valedictorian speeches, and our return to Orange Beach.
When Charley and Dale finished with their classes, they made a slow walk back to the apartment. When they got there, nothing was said about the trip.
We went to dinner together for the last time at Wellstone. Jaiden's mom deposited some money in his account and told him to take everybody to Ruth Criss' for a night out before everybody left school to head home. That wasn't all, she paid for the airline tickets for Dale and Charley.
When Charley and Dale came in, we told them we had reservations at Ruth Criss' at 6:30. Their eyes almost popped out of their heads when we spoke of the dinner surprise. Little did they know what else was coming.
Darryl once again took care of all the arrangements and made sure we had somewhat of a private table in a corner. We got there at 6:15 and were seated at precisely 6:30. Darryl had already taken our order for 4 New York Strip steaks with sides and salads. Jaiden knew what dressings Dale and Charley liked, so he had taken care of that too.
When we sat down, we had plenty of time to talk. Jaiden said, "Dale, Charley, do you think you can make it to the wedding?" "Dale said he didn't know, that he still had to find the money to pay for the tickets. But Dale and Charley said they would love to go with us to the Reynolds home at the end of the semester."
Jaiden pulled out the round-trip tickets and gave Charley and Dale their respective tickets to fly out of Abingdon and return to their home towns. Dale got emotional and Charley was dumbfounded and couldn't say anything. Dale looked at Jaiden and I and simply asked, "Why?" Jaiden looked at him and said, "brothers always take care of their brothers, and, we were not going to let you miss the graduation party."
Dale put his head in his hands and didn't look up or say a word until the food arrived. With tears in his eyes and a frog in his throat, he tried to say thank you but the words wouldn't come out. Jaiden and I knew what he was trying to say, so we looked at the two of them and said, "Dale, Charley, we know what Dale is trying to say, so, you're welcome. We love you two too much to let you miss out on the party."
When we all got back to the apartment, Dale was emotionally spent, so Jaiden just held him and let him get everything out of his system. We turned on a movie on Cinemax and watched that until bedtime. We got up, gave each other a hug and said, See y'all in the morning."