BRIAN

I wait to see what Marilyn is going to tell Jen. I don’t think Mother Taylor needs to know everything.

“Are you planning on going back to a man who would try to send your son to one of those places?” She tell her.

“No, but…” Marilyn interrupts her.

“Well the only other option is divorce.” Marilyn tells her.

“Jen, make sure to get a good lawyer. Craig isn’t going to want to help you.” I tell her.

“Mom, make sure that Dad has to put money away for Molly’s college.” Justin tells her.

“Honey, he wouldn’t refuse to support you and Molly.” She still hasn’t grasped what Craig is like.

“Don’t worry about me, Brian and I worked out college. Dad is going to try to make it hard for you to support Molly.” Justin tells her.

“Justin, we put aside money for you and Molly to go to college. We started putting money aside when you were born, it’s in an account in your names, with me and your father on them.” She tells us. What happened to those accounts? Justin never saw a dime.

“Jen, you're on the accounts?” I ask her.

“Yes, both Craig and I, until the kids reach eighteen.” She tells me.

“Can you withdraw from the accounts, without penalty?” Ted asks her.

“They were just regular savings accounts. I put in my inheritance from my grandfather. Craig put money in there regularly. It’s not huge, but would have seen Justin through Dartmouth.” Jen tells us.

“Jen, get the money out of those accounts right away. Craig could do it, and leave nothing for Justin and Molly.” I tell her. I never could figure out how such responsible parents never thought to save for their kids futures. 

“Do you really think he would take the money?” Jen asks me.

“Mom, Dad isn’t going to be happy when you don’t go home and play the obedient wife.” Justin tells her.

“I could go ahead and put the money in an account for you, Justin.” She tells me.

“Jen, I already put aside money for Justin. Use the money in his account to get you and Molly out from under Craig.” I tell her. 

“It’s for Justin, I wouldn’t feel right taking it.” She tells me.

“Mom, I don’t want you to have to worry about how you're going to take care of Molly. Take the money, I’m working for Brian and we worked out a schedule so that I’m paying for my college. I don’t plan on going to Dartmouth, so it’s not going to be as expensive.” Justin tells her.

“Oh God, I’m about to end my marriage.” It must have really just hit her.

“You are about to end a farce. You should never have let Dad turn you into a housewife. You were always saying you wanted a career. With the money from my account you could go and get a Real Estate License, like you want.” Justin tells her.

“Should I go and get the money out now?” She asks me.

“Take Ted with you, he can help keep you from doing something that will alert Craig.” I tell her.

Ted grabs his things and ushers Jen out the door. Daphne was sitting in a chair spinning around. When Jen walked out, she stopped and looked directly at Marilyn.

“So how did you know Craig threatened Jen with a divorce?” She asks Marilyn.

“It’s what someone like him would do.” Marilyn starts to look warily at Daphne.

“If you knew him, I’d say you were right, but since you don’t…, try again and this time make it more convincing.” Daphne tells her.

“Justin and Marilyn talked about parents who can’t accept their children.” I try, but this girl’s IQ and Justin’s are the same.

“Brian, do I look stupid? You do understand that if Justin had a confidant other than me, he would have told me about it. Since I’ve never heard of you Marilyn, I doubt Justin confided in you.” She tells us.

“Jesus, I should have been watching you. You could run the world one day.” Marilyn tells Daphne.

“I could, but I’ll leave that up to the fakes and liars, I want to do something to help people. Want to tell me why you are predicting Craig is going to leave Justin alone. How about you tell me Brian, why you looked surprised when Jen mentioned Justin’s college fund? Justin, how come you are suddenly giving your mother advice on how to get out of her marriage without losing her shirt? Brian, you practically told her that Craig is going fuck her over. Unlike Jen, I’m not worried about my marriage, or Craig trying to fuck over Justin, so I heard you, even if she didn’t.” Daphne questions us all.

I look to Justin. I’m not even going to try to outsmart her, she’d have me for lunch. He shrugs. 

“Brian and I came back from another future to relive our life.” Justin tells her. 

“Yeah, pull my other finger. I’m going to get home, come up with something better. Later.” She walks out of the building. 

I turn and ask Justin, “Why didn’t she ask you anything?” Everybody else has.

“She’s a scientist, they only believe in what they can prove. Plus, she doesn't care, as long as I'm okay.” Justin tells me.

“She will eventually question it, but in her case she doesn’t need the whole truth to defend her best friend. Let her live her life the way she is going to.” Marilyn tells us.

“Well, now that we got all that out of the way, care to tell me why you didn’t warn us about Craig?” I glare at her.

“Jen needed to see Craig wasn’t going to love her son. Justin was fine.” She tells me.

“Only because I don’t trust the bastard.” Justin tells her.

“If there was a chance you were going to be hurt, I wouldn’t have left you and Brian in the dark.” She tells us.

“I don’t fucking care if he was okay, you tell us shit like this. It never happened the last time.” I tell her.

“Craig was scared to touch Justin after he crashed into your Jeep and tried to beat the shit out of you in front of half of Babylon. Now that there is nothing to keep him from possible jail or a lawsuit, he had time to think up other ideas. Do you honestly think he could only come up with military school?” She tells us.

“Any other crazy ideas he has, you don’t hold back, for any reason.” I tell her.

“Um, not that Craig isn’t important, but what about Michael?” Justin asks her.

“Brian throw the party. With Emmett moving out, Michael is going to need someone to take care of him. David is going to come, because he hasn’t given up completely on having a twink to take care of his home. Just don’t turn the party into Astroland and Michael will show David he should take a chance on him.” She tells us.

“David doesn’t seem tolerant of Michael’s tantrums.” Justin tells her.

“David was married to a debutant, he sees Michael as something to mold. His only reservation is that Michael is in love with Brian. Let David see Michael willing to do anything for him and off to Portland he goes.” She tells us.

TED

Jen is still in shock about everything that happened today. Justin told me that his father tried to make it his fault the marriage ended, but Jen is blaming Craig.

“Do you think I was naive to believe that you love your kids no matter what?” She asks me in the car.

“No. If I had children, I would hope my partner could love them no matter what.” I tell her.

“I can’t even say I’m surprised any longer, Justin told me what Craig was going to do. I didn’t want to believe that the man I married could be such a jackass. Oh sorry, I shouldn’t have been so crass.” She blushes.

“Jen, if you're going to hang out with us, get used to hearing all sorts of shit.” I tell her.

“I think I got the idea at the party. Has Lindsay returned?” She asks me.

“No, Lindsay runs away when people don’t kiss her ass.” I tell her.

“What about Gus? He’s not even six months yet, wasn’t she breast feeding him?” This is what I get for talking to women.

“I’m not sure, maybe talk to Mel? Right now, Brian isn’t happy that Gus is in daycare.” I tell her.

“I don’t blame him, Gus loses bonding time by staying with strangers. Do you think they would let me help them? I could take night courses and Mel and Brian could keep Molly in exchange.” She asks me.

“Talk to them, I think they would love someone in the family helping.” I tell her. 

We pull up to the bank and I tell Jen we are going to pull out all but a hundred dollars in each account. I want there to be money left, because the bank has to contact Craig if we close the accounts. I was glad she banked at Brian’s bank, it makes doing this easier. I see Elaine, my personal banker, and steer Jen to her.

“Ted, it’s great to see you. I heard about you starting a new business. Congratulations.” She tells me.

“Thanks, it’s been an exciting new experience. Actually, we are here because Jen needs to change some accounts, her husband is divorcing her and she wants to safeguard her children’s college funds.” I tell Elaine.

“If we close the accounts, we have to contact your husband.” Elaine tells Jen.

“Ted suggested leaving money in the account, but moving most of it into a new account.” Jen tells her.

“Elaine, her husband is going to try to take her to the cleaners. We want her to be able to support herself, and for her kids to be able to go to college, without them having to struggle.” I tell her.

“Are you on all the accounts your husband has?” She asks Jen.

“I should be.” She tells Elaine.

“How bad do you want to screw your husband?” Oh God, I forgot Elaine’s ex left her high and dry.

“I just want my children taken care of.” Jen tells her.

“Honey, take care of yourself too. He can leave you barely able to take care of yourself, unless you strike first.” She tells Jen.

“Elaine, we wanted to leave a hundred in each account and put the rest in an account with only Jen’s name on it.” I tell her. 

“We can leave five dollars, it’s all the account requires.” She tells us after looking at the account information.

“Jen, why did you and Craig put the money in regular savings accounts?” I don’t get it, the interest isn't that great.

“Craig wanted to be able to access the money if we ran into problems. Truthfully, I wasn’t really worried about it when we started Justin’s account, we were happy.” She tells me.

“Honey, the time to worry is while you're still happy.” She tells me. 

“Ted, would you be willing to oversee the accounts?” Jen asks me. 

“I could offer you advice.” I tell her. I mean, she really doesn’t know me.

“I want the money out of Craig’s reach, if I put you on the account with Justin and I having access, he couldn’t try to recoup it, could he?” She asks me.

“If it’s in my name, no, because it is no longer your money. Jen, I’ll do it if you want, but that’s a lot of faith to put in someone you don’t know. I could run off with the money.” I tell her.

“Brian is trusting you with his future, you must have done something to get that kind of faith.” She tells me. I never thought of it that way.

“If we're going to do this, you are going to learn how to invest, I want you to know what’s happening and why we are doing things. You aren’t going to take a backseat in your life any more than I am in mine.” I tell her.

“Deal.” She tells me.

JUSTIN

Emmett was at the end of his rope with Michael. He wanted to see if Ted would let him stay at his place. Ted was still helping my mom, so I figure Emmett and I could go do something, because Brian wasn’t handling the kidnapping attempt well.

“Emmett, why don't we let Brian work and go do something.” I tell him. 

“Baby, it's too early to dance our troubles away.” He tells me.

I think it’s time for Emmett to meet his future.

“I wanted to go look at Carnegie, they are having a career day. I wanted to look at the school Andy Warhol went too.” I tell him. 

“No messing with Ben.” Brian tells me. 

“We can look at the eye candy, if he ends up with Michael it's such a waste of hotness.” Emmett tells him. 

“Just don’t do anything that is going to change too much, Justin’s kidnapping attempt worries me.” Brian tells him. 

“WHAT? Who tried to steal our baby?” Great, thanks Brian.

“He’s MY baby, remember that. And I’ll let Justin explain that to you, have fun now..” I’ll get him for this.

“Start talking, because I need to know.” Emmett tells me.

“Let’s go and I’ll tell you on the way.” I scowl at a smirking Brian. At least he isn’t pissed enough to go after my sperm donor.

EMMETT

You know, when Baby has an idea, it’s definitely worth doing. We were standing next to the football field watching some seriously fine asses.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the view, but why are we here? I thought you wanted to look at the art school here.” I ask him.

“Like I didn’t already do that. I wanted you to see your Ironman.” Justin tells me.

“Which one is my future honey?” I ask him.

“The quarterback, Drew Boyd.” Justin tells me.

“You mean the one kissing the blonde bimbo?” I ask him.

“Yes, but he doesn’t think he’s gay, just that he likes a little ass on the side, you know, gay ass.” Justin tells me.

“I put up with this?” I ask him.

“You eventually tell him to shit or get off the pot, he gets off the pot. It’s still years, according to Brian, before you two get your shit together. I wasn’t here for that.” Justin tells me.

I sometimes forget that Justin didn’t live to see what happened.

“Well, you're going to be this time, maybe it will work out differently.” I tell him. 

“Enjoying the view?” We hear from behind us.

“Shit.” Justin says silently, as Ben walks over to us.

“We were just touring the campus.” I tell Ben.

“Are you interested in going here?” He asks Justin.

“It’s one of the colleges I’m considering.” Justin tells him.

“No PIFA. Being an artist, I think it’s a good bet.” I tell Justin.

“You're an artist, you know Andy Warhol went to this school.” Ben tells us. Way to campaign for students.

“What do you do here?” I ask, even though we know.

“I teach gay studies. If you have time I could show you around, my name is Ben Bruckner.” He tells us.

“Justin Taylor and Emmett Honeycutt at your service.” I tell him.

“We were about to go, maybe some other time?” Justin tells him.

“How about I give you my number? We could meet and discuss your future, maybe I can convince you to give the college a try.” Ben smiles a little too much at Justin.

 “I’ll talk to my boyfriend about it, and if Brian thinks it’s a good idea, we’ll call.” Justin couldn’t make it any plainer.

“Do that, I think you’ll be happy to choose Carnegie.” Ben took the hint and starts walking toward other people.

“Was he hitting on you?” I ask Justin.

“It sure felt like it, but Ben was always so boring, great to look at, but well, he wasn’t Brian.” Justin tells me.

“How the hell did Michael manage to land him?” I really want to know.

“It’s the mystery of the ages, I never got it.” He tells me.

“All that hotness wasted on the whiny bastard.” I say, shaking my head. I guess I’m still pissy about Michael.

Justin nodded and turned back to look at the football field. I was still watching Ben walk away, damn the man is fine. 

“Emmett, look out.” Justin tells me.

I turn in time to catch a football. I’m so glad the rednecks taught me something in Hazelhurst. I was standing there with the ball still in my hand.

“Look Baby, I caught it.” I tell him 

“Yeah, but look who’s coming to get it.” Justin tells me. Holy shit, I get THIS later.

“Hey, can we get the ball back?” Drew Boyd asks me.

“Oh, yeah, here you go.” I toss him the ball.

He looks me up and down and gives me a look I remember from my hometown. I watch as he walks away and starts making out with the barbie. 

“Emmett, he isn’t going to be with you for a few more years, remember that, before you flame out right here on the football field.” Justin tells me.

“Well, I hope he plans to work for it, because I’m not going to make it easy this time.” I tell Justin.

“Good, because I don’t want you to have to deal with his indecision. You let him get away with anything.” Justin tells me.

I don’t care what Marilyn says, Justin and Brian are right, following the same path leads to the same results. I don’t want to waste time on bad decisions.