During the third week of me watching my 10-year-old buddy, Gavin, Father got an invitation to attend a seminar in Atlantic City, NJ. He decided he would invite both me and Gavin, with it understood that Gav was going to be my responsibility during the visit.
"If he messes up," Dad told me, "Then that reflects badly on you, and you will be the one to pay."
"But Dad....!" I whined.
"Matt, you want to be in charge, then you need to take responsibility," Dad lectured. "If Gavin behaves, then that will be a feather in your cap. If he misbehaves, it will then be a belt on your butt."
A BELT! EEEK! I had never gotten the BELT before.
"Daddy!" I whined. "Please! Shouldn't Gavin get punished if Gavin does something wrong?"
"Your friend is only 10, son," Dad pointed out. "If you had friends closer to your own age, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
I know....I know....this wasn't fair, but fair isn't really what Dad was all about. HELL! It didn't even make sense, but Dad wasn't really about making sense either. Anyway, he knew that Gavin's parents were deadly against Gavin getting spanked, and I'm sure part of Dad was concerned that they might be able to sue us if that were to happen.
So, even before the trip, I knew the consequences of either me or Gavin screwing up. I was also pretty certain that SOMETHING would happen (a weekend in a strange city is awfully tempting for two boys), and that THIS time Dad would not be against spanking me in front of my buddy, since we were staying in the same room and all.
The first day went well....nothing to report. Gavin and I spent most of the time in the pool that first night. and then watch HBO and "Skinamax" until the early hours. Neither of us heard Dad when he came in, but the next day I could smell that he had been drinking, and pretty much guessed that he had been gambling.
Then, on Saturday we did the pool again. It got boring, so we went to the game room. That was fun until we ran out of money.
"They should let kids gamble," young Gavin said rather gruffly.
"I know."
"Wish we could go surf the net somewhere," he sighed again. "This sucks."
"We should think of something to do."
"Let's go down to the next pier over?"
"Nah," I said. "The weather sucks, and Dad would kill us....I mean, ME, if anything happened."
We debated on if we should swim or go to back to the room. Eventually I decided to go back to the room and change, and he was going to stay and splash around in the pool. I was only gone for about ten (ok....maybe twenty) minutes, but when I got back to the pool area, Gavin was gone.
Oh _s_h_i_t_!
I looked everywhere for him. There weren't that many kids in the pool, and he wasn't one of them. I looked in the public bathroom and in the hotel snack bar. No where. I even ran back to the room, but there was no sign of Gavin anywhere.
_s_h_i_t_! _s_h_i_t_! _s_h_i_t_! I knew better! I knew I should have stayed with the little creep....
As I went back to the elevator, thinking of what I would say or do next, suddenly I saw the little creep coming out of the elevator, with hand fulls of quarters.
"Matt! There you are!"
"Where the hell have you been, Gav?"
"The Casino....look at what I got!"
"No _s_h_i_t_!" I said so loud that it echoed down the hallway. "You won that."
"Uh-huh," he said grinning. "Cool huh. And no one caught me!"
"You could have gotten us into so much trouble, Gav!" I said. "How much did you get?"
"About fifteen dollars!" he said laughing. "Let's go back to the room, divide it up, then we could go back to the arcade."
"After you change," I said, exerting my little authority.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Babysitter....after I change!"
So, we went back to the room, counted the quarters, and he changed. We then went back down to the arcade, as I chided him about not going into the casino part again. I was feeling relieved that he hadn't been caught, but I didn't want him to risk it any more. He agreed, and the rest of the day went on without any complications. It wasn't until that night that we met with Dad in the hotel dining room that all hell broke loose.
There we were, the three of us sitting around talking about baseball and TV and stuff, really have a nice time, when two large security guards came over to the table. They handed a picture to Dad and asked if this was his son. Dad looked at the picture and his face reddened as he glanced up first to Gavin then to me.
"No, he isn't my son," he said, showing a security picture to both of us. It was Gavin, in his wet swim trunks, standing right behind an old woman. "He's my son's friend. You boys want to explain this?"
Before we had a chance, the security guard chimed in, surprising even me, by saying, "It seems your boys were in our Casino this afternoon, stealing money from other guests of the hotel."
"WHAT?!" I said. "You said you won that?!" I screamed at Gav, tears coming down my cheeks. "Dad, I was up in the room changing, honest!" I pleaded. "I didn't have any idea what he was doing! I thought he was in the pool."
Coolly, Dad looked at the guards and asked how much had been taken, then handed them a $100 bill and they left, glaring at us the entire time.
"Boys, I could have been arrested for your actions, do you understand?" he growled at us.
"Yes sir," we both said.
"I want you both to go to the room," he said. "Gavin, you will be grounded to the room without television for the rest of the trip, and Matt...."
"Please Dad...." I began to whimper.
"I think you know what to do," he said, standing up from the table. "I will be upstairs in about a half hour. I want you to be ready, understand?!"
"Yes, sir," I said. This was just so unfair. Little did I know how much more unfair this whole trip would be getting!