Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

“I’m gonna go throw on a pair of jeans,” Jordan announced, heading straight for our room while the rest of us were heading towards Henry and Linda’s room. Eric and Tanya were heading to their room with the boys to change into regular clothes and get Levi and Parker into their pajamas before seeing everybody. Marc, Lindsay and I sat in the room, and then Marc ran to their room to get something for Lindsay. Linda cleared her throat for a moment, before looking at me, and I had an odd feeling about what she wanted to ask me about.

“Um, Cam, I was just wondering,” she paused for a moment and I looked up to see her looking uncomfortable, and she was about to continue when Jared burst into the room. He’d shed his suit for a pair of sweats and a Checkers T-shirt and flopped onto the bed next to Lindsay and I.

“I’m back, where’s everybody else?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“They’re getting changed,” Linda answered, and sat down, appearing to have ‘forgotten’ she was going to ask me a question. I was pretty sure I knew what she was going to ask, but Linda wasn’t the type to bring something even remotely ‘confrontational’ up in front of other people, she was too sweet for that.

“Oh, got it,” he nodded, before elbowing me lightly.

“So, think you can hook me up with some tickets to your game next week?” he asked me, and I sighed.

“Oh, I don’t know…” I trailed off, watching him in my peripheral as a pout immediately came over his face.

“Oh come on, please? I have next week off and I really want to watch you guys play,” he begged, and I saw Linda’s half-smile at her son’s insistence. After a few more minutes of his begging I caved, and let him know that it really wouldn’t be a problem for me to get him some tickets.

“Thanks Cam! You’re the best,” he told me, wrapping me up in a hug. Linda and Lindsay laughed both laughed at him while I had trouble breathing for a few moments as he squeezed a little too tightly.

“Jared, let Cam go! He can’t breathe!” Jordan hollered at his little brother as he walked into the room, and after a moment and giving Jordan a sour look Jared did as he was told. He then proceeded to stick his tongue out at his brother, arms crossed and looking a lot like Parker. Linda shook her head at us, grinning to herself as the rest of the crew filed into the room. Parker ran over and crawled up onto my lap, having realized that we were all going home tomorrow and that we’d all be split up.

“Come home wif us?” he asked, his eyes wide and his best puppy-dog pout on as he looked up at me.

“I can’t bud; we have a game on Tuesday,” I told him, and saw his lip quiver, and saw the look in his parents faces at his impending bad mood.

“Pwease?” he begged, and I hugged him.

“I would if I could Park, you know that,” I told him, and he let out a long sigh, burying his face against me.

“I know,” his voice wavered, and I rubbed his back, wishing we could’ve went with them for a day or two to keep him from being so upset.

“We’ll see you when we go down to Raleigh to play, okay?” I said, and Parker eagerly nodded, wrapping his little arms around my shoulders and burying his face against my neck.

“That be fun,” he agreed, and Tanya smiled softly at him, holding a sleeping Levi in her arms.

“So Jared, are you going to go to Pittsburgh with the boys then?” Linda asked, and Jared nodded. She asked the question quietly, hoping her grandson wouldn’t hear it, but Parker heard anyways, looking to his uncle in disbelief that they kept this news from him.

“Me too! Me too!” Parker insisted, and Eric sighed.

“No Park, you have to come home with mom and me,” he said, and Parker’s face fell, nearly in tears again.

“Pwease daddy? Pwetty Pwease?” he asked, leaving me only long enough to stand in front of his dad and hold him as he begged for permission to come to Pittsburgh.

“Parker,” Eric hated telling his son no, especially when he knew that saying no would result in the little boy being in tears.

“Well, maybe he could come back with us for a few days; I mean, Jared’s coming with us, so there’d be somebody to watch him when we’re at practice and at the game. Then Jared could take him home Thursday,” Jordan piped up, and Parker perked up immediately.

“Me go wif Unca Jay! Pwease? Pwease?” he asked, and Tanya looked to be considering it.

“Well, it’s not like we’d have to worry about him being by himself,” she allowed, and Parker lunged back at me, hugging me tightly.

“Yay!” he crowed, and while everybody seemed to think it was a good idea Eric didn’t look convinced. I knew that Parker was a huge part of his life and that he hated being away from his son, so the idea of Parker coming to Pittsburgh with us wasn’t sitting right with him, especially if he or Tanya couldn’t come with him. Parker hadn’t been anywhere without his parents; even if he was at his grandparents for a weekend Eric and Tanya were at the most only fifteen minutes away in their house at Thunder Bay.

“You okay? If you’re not okay with him coming to Pittsburgh he should go back to Raleigh,” I said quietly, and he shrugged.

“I don’t know. I don’t have a problem with him going; I know that between you, Jordy, Jay and Becka he’ll be fine, but…”

“You just don’t want him out there without you or Tanya?” I suggested, and he sighed.

“Ease up Eric; he’ll be fine. Don’t be such a killjoy for the little guy,” Marc said, and the look Eric shot him could have killed.

“Just wait until your kid gets here; you’ll know exactly what I mean,” he snapped at his younger brother, and I sent Marc a look that I hoped he would interpret as treading carefully; Parker was a pretty touchy subject for the eldest brother.

“Come on, he isn’t going to be by himself, relax a little Eric. Are you gonna get like this when he starts Kindergarten?” Marc pushed, and Eric glared at him before clenching his fists, and I knew he was moments away from cuffing his brother. This went unnoticed by the rest of the Staal clan, and I wished I wasn’t in the middle of a family disagreement.

“No, that’s different. When he goes to Kindergarten he isn’t going to be five-hundred miles away from either of us,” he hissed back, and I gave Marc a light kick, hoping he’d get the hint pretty soon.

“Marc, he’s just being a dad, give him a break. Would you want your baby five hundred miles away from both you and Lindsay for three days?” I asked, and Marc shrugged.

“I don’t know, I mean…” he trailed off as it sunk in to him. Then both of them were quiet, and I shifted awkwardly, wishing somebody else would realize that the two eldest Staal brothers were nearly at each other’s throats and I wasn’t the person to be in the middle of them. I looked at the other bed, and watched Jared keep Parker occupied, sitting beside Tanya and Lindsay, Levi was watching everybody with his bright blue eyes, his grandparents watching him and making faces for him to giggle at. Jordan wasn’t in sight, and I looked around before realizing that the bathroom door was closed, which explained his absence in the main part of the room.

“See what I mean? It’s different when you put yourself into that spot and it’s your three year old going five-hundred miles away from you and his mom,” Eric grumbled, and Marc shot him a look, while still looking a little unsettled.

“Eric, Marc, what crawled up you’re a—” Jordan cut off his saying when Linda, the girls and I all gave him a pointed look so he didn’t swear in front of his nephew, who was very prone to imitating words he heard from his uncles, good, bad, or otherwise.

“Huh?” they both asked in perfect timing with each other, and Jordan rolled his eyes at them. He’d walked into the room without saying much of anything, and I hadn’t noticed his entrance.

“Seriously? You’re both looking like you’re in misery, and Cam’s stuck in the middle of two wild dogs waiting to attack head on,” he told them, making a point of sitting on the bed next to the three of us and helping to relieve some of the tension on this half of the room that had gone unnoticed by the remainder of the Staals.

“Marc’s just being insensitive,” Eric grumbled, and Marc rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath but keeping his eyes glued on the floor. I sighed, and gave Jordan a tiny shrug when he looked to me for an explanation. I would explain later, just not in front of everyone, not when the two older Staals didn’t seem to be offering up the information either.

“Whatever,” Marc rolled his eyes, before standing up.

“I’m going to bed,” he announced, walking out of the hotel room. Lindsay looked at her sister-in-law and mother-in-law before getting up and following her husband out.