** The following tale is fiction and contains consenting sexual material involving teenaged boys.
If this kind of material is illegal where you are, if you are underaged, or if material of this sort offends you,
you are urged to turn back RIGHT NOW.  Otherwise please enjoy.

** As with all celebrity stories, this one is no different.  I do not know the members
of Dreamstreet, I've never met them, so this story is meant to imply nothing about their
sexual orientation.  This is FICTION, which means not real, so all you legal
types can mellow out and read.  That is why you're really here anyway, right? :)

** And if you're in the mood, drop by my website, The Chamber
http://www.geocities.com/the_hellein/chamber.html

As always questions and comments are very welcome.  Please send them to: twisted_dreemz@yahoo.com
 


Chapter Five <The Great American Concert>

    I thought five o'clock was never going to roll around.  The first couple of hours after Drake and me got to Great America went by fast because I got to help out with setting up for the concert.  But when four o'clock hit, and I had to take my seat with all the other gathering concertgoers, I swear that I looked at my watch and it said 4:00 and when I looked at it again thirty minutes later it said 4:01.

    My seat had been reserved front row and six seats off the center to the left.  The place was already almost full by the time I got out there and the majority of the audience was female and ranged from age five to probably a couple of years over me.  There were parents as well as other guys, with some of them looking exactly like the guys did who were in line at the FYE meet and greet.

    And you want to talk about creativity.  There were girls with their faces painted up like they were at a football game.  They had the member, or members, of the group they liked written all over.  Then there were the posters ranging from big huge things that looked like they took a week to create, and the small subtle ones that probably got put together five minutes before leaving the house.  That's not mentioning the shirts, or the pants, or the other little paraphernalia they'd created.

    I was sitting next to a girl who probably would've gotten an instant rise out of me if was into girls.  She had her black hair cut short to where it was just below her ears and soft brown eyes.    She filled out her pink tank top respectably and had what looked like a killer body.  I guessed her age somewhere between 14 and my age.

    The girl was there with her boyfriend, who actually looked pretty okay with being  there.  He was a skinny guy dressed in the full line skater wear.  Dark colored short pants that hung loosely off his waste, but had a belt on with metallic designs all around it, and a dark blue shirt with some kind of logo on it.  His hairless face made him look young and innocent, but his green eyes held a gleam in them that betrayed it all.  His blond hair was everywhere, looking like it hadn't meant with a comb or hair care products any time in the past week.

    The two of them were next to another girl, who was black and rivaled the girl sitting next to me as far as looks went, and her less enthused boyfriend, who was also black.  He had more meat on his bones than the boyfriend of the girl sitting next to me, and was dressed in kind of a preppie style that I had never seen on a black guy, with the ironed khaki short pants that went just past his kneecaps.  A tucked in black short sleeved shirt that had a zipper on it that ended about six inches from the top of the shirt.  And a gold chain that hung around his neck and sat out sparkling on the black shirt.  He had a fair face with the darkened fuzz off a moustache above his lip, but nothing at the chin, and what I figured were hazel eyes.

    The girl sitting next to me must've been keeping her eye on me or something, because when she saw that me and the girl next to me weren't saying anything to one another she said,
"Hi."

    I smiled.
"Hello."
"Is that your girlfriend next to you?"
"No."

     She gave a look kind of like she was expecting that answer, but was still surprised that she got it.
"Really?  You're here all by yourself?"
"Well...kinda.  A friend of mine invited me.  He travels on the road with the group."
"Wow!  Really?"
"Uh-huh."

     Her face changed suddenly like something had dawned on her.
"Wait.   Does this mean you know Dreamstreet?"

     I hesitated on the answer for a second, not sure if I should tell the truth or not.  I figured it couldn't hurt anything, and went with the truth.
"I've met `em a few times."

    She single handedly re-wrote the definition of enthusiasm by the expression that came on her face when I said that.
"Really?"

     Then she shook her head.
"No."

     Then she recanted.
"Really?"

     Her reaction got a laugh out of me and I nodded my head.
"Yeah.  Really."

     She called the attention of her boyfriend by tugging on his arm.
"Stop it.  You're making my arm excited." he gave his attention to her.
"Nathan, this guy knows somebody who travels with Dreamstreet.  They invited him here tonight.  He's actually met the guys..."

     Her attention came back to me.
"Right?  You said you met the guys?"

     I nodded.
"Uh-huh."
"Oh my god!" she said to her boyfriend, Nathan, and then came back to me. "Are they nice?  I heard Jesse is mean and Chris is full of himself."
"Yeah.  Just regular guys.  If Jesse is mean, he wasn't when I was around.  And Chris didn't act like he was full of himself."

     Her attention went back to Nathan.
"I knew that was a lie.  And you were saying that they were all stuck up and didn't care about their fans."
"Hey, I was just going by what I knew." Nathan defended himself.

     He leaned out a little so that he could see me around his girlfriend.
"But you really do know them?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"

     Goodness.  Was it really that hard to believe?
"Yes, really."

     Nathan thought for a second.
"Heather, switch me seats and let me talk to him for a little bit."
"Why?" she questioned him.
"Does everything have to be twenty questions?  Just switch me."

     Heather rolled her eyes and got up to move.  Nathan slid over next to me in her seat and she didn't bother with sitting down and remained standing, looking at the stage.
"Look, I don't know you and you don't know me, and that's why I hope you don't kick my ass after I ask you this.  Is there any way you can get my girlfriend backstage to meet the group, or some autographs or something?  She's really into these guys and she tried to win the contest they had yesterday, but she missed like one question and lost." he asked me in a low voice.

    A question like that probably would've made a person who was used to (and tired of) hearing it a little aggravated.  Me?  I thought it was cool.  I mean it might not seem like it, but that was serious power to be able to possibly hook a fan up with an autograph or get them backstage to see their favorite group.  And if I were straight I probably would've been thinking about all the ways I could put that power to use.  ...On second thought, no I wouldn't have.
"It's just a simple question, man.  No ass kicking necessary.  I don't really know how all that works, so all I can say is that I'll try." I answered him truthfully.
"Hey, dude, a try is better than nothing." he accepting, smiling brightly, revealing his clear braces, and extending his hand out to me.

     We shook and he re-introduced himself to me, and I introduced myself to him.

     After Nathan and me settled our proposition, I found out that the boyfriend and girlfriend couple who were sitting next to Nathan were actually friends of theirs, like I'd originally thought.  They were Natalie and Tommy, and Natalie was equally enthused about me knowing Dreamstreet.

     All five of us got to talking about this and that, until before we knew it two announcer-type took the stage and the crowd got rowdy.  There was a tall, skinny white male and a nice figured female who looked like she was mixed with black and white.  Both of them were dressed in short pants and shirts that had a radio station logo on it.
"What's up Dreamstreet fans!" the female yelled to the crowd, getting a deafening response back.
"Whoa!" the male announcer said, covering his ears.
"The announcers are now deaf!  I guess I don't have to ask if you're all excited, right?"

     Another deafening estrogen saturated cheer answered the announcers.
"I heard that!  Well, I'm your wild hostess for the night, Delayna, and you all know my crack-headed assistant here, Matt Cross."

     A lot of the girls in the audience seemed to.  He got a pretty good amount of  cheers.  He just held out his arms and basqued in the attention for a moment.
"Alrighty then!  Before we get this thang started, we've got a little surprise for you all.  It seems that since this concert sold out so fast, there will be an encore performance next Saturday right here at 5:00 pm sharp.  The guys are planning a completely different show from the one you'll see tonight, and rumor has it that not only might they perform some new songs that are going to be on their upcoming second CD, but that a surprise guest may drop by to perform with them." Delayna announced.

     Matt got an evil grin on his face.
"And you'll never guess what I have in my innocent little hands."

     If that would've been a bet, Matt would've lost with flying colors.  Another wave of screaming and cheering swept over the audience and up to the stage.

    Slowly, Matt withdrew his hands from behind his back and was holding two tickets in each hand.  The cheering and screaming intensified.  Him and Delayna let the noise go on for a little bit longer before he spoke again.
"Mid-way through the show we're gonna have a little contest, and that's how we'll determine our winners."
"But right now, we're gonna get off the stage and let the guys you're all waiting for take over.  Ladies and gentlemen, Dreamstreet!"

     The energy from the audience hit its major peak at that point.  Heather, the girl sitting on the other side of me, and Natalie were all on their feet holding up their posters and screaming at the top of their lungs.  Nathan looked over at me and then over at his friend, Tommy and made a goofy face and did a jerking off motion with his fist.  All three of us cracked up laughing.

    I've always said that greatness of a concert is measured by the audience's response.  The more pumped up the audience is, the better the performer (performers) seem to perform.  The audience was DEFINITELY pumped up, and that's why I think the guys put on one of the best shows I'd ever seen.  No, they didn't have all the pyrotechnics, or the sets, or the live band that all the bigger boy bands and acts had.  But they interacted with their audience, sung their hearts out, and danced their assess off.

     Ask any girl or any guy with an orientation like mine and they'll agree with the theory that there's something hormonally invigorating about watching five good looking guys twist, turn, step, jump, and gyrate all over the stage while they sing seemingly directly to you.  It was a good thing my pants were baggy and naturally raised in some places.  Because I had rosewood hardness going off and on downstairs.

    Most of the time my eyes were on Chris's slim, toned and tanned form.  The more he danced, the more the white wife beater he was wearing stuck to his sweating body.  It got to the point to where you could see the dark nipples of his pecks underneath, hard as can be from the stimulation of the fabric moving over them

    But a few times Greg caught my attention, especially when he unsnapped the shirt he was wearing and exposed us all to his tight, smooth sweat glistening chest.  The girls lost their minds when he did that and I know a lot of them probably got wet on the spot.

    Jesse almost one-uped them both.  In one of the songs he ran his hand down his chest and his fingers slid under the top of his denim jeans and looked like they were going for gold.  He caught himself a split second after his middle finger and the one next to that had slid past and removed them like it had all been part of the routine.

    As promised mid way through the show, Delayna and Matt came back out and conducted the contest.  Taking a que from Fear Factor, they brought out a 10 gallon aquarium that had black paper all around it keeping what was inside hidden.  The fans (the majority were girls, but some guys got picked too) were chosen by one of the Dreamstreet members to come up and stick their hand in the aquarium and find one of three containers that was inside.  Only one of the containers had the tickets.

     The first girl thought she was She-Ra Princess of Power and stuck her hand straight in.  She let out this long piercing scream two seconds later and snatched her hand out, saying that she felt something slide past her hand.  Delayna and Matt told her it must be her mind because there was nothing but the containers in the water.  Thinking maybe what they said was true, she put her hand back inside, and snatched it out again, positive that there was some thing alive in there.  She couldn't take it and settled for getting hugs and an autographed poster from the guys.

     It took twenty, yes, twenty fans to come up there and do the contest before it was finally over.  Girls were screaming, making faces, "eeeewwwing" and "uuuuuhhhing" as whatever it was that was *not* in the tank made its presence known to them.  The six guys who got up there grinned and bared it, but only one of them got the right container with the tickets.  He held them up and said they were for his sister and pointed to her in the audience, sending her into a screaming/cheering fit.

    The other fan to win was a girl about my age.  She was so excited she forgot how to breathe for a moment and started hyperventilating.  They calmed her down enough to send her back to her seat with her winnings so that she could enjoy the rest of the show.  All the fans (with the exception of the male ones) who participated got hugs from the Dreamstreet guys.

     It was getting dark by this time and glow sticks, necklaces, and bracelets were tossed out for the audience to put on, shake, or twist, or whatever.  The black lights were turned on for the remainder of the performance and the guys wore clothes and makeup that made them look like glow in the dark mutations of themselves.  On the last two songs, "Dream On" and "Someone To Hold Me", the regular lights came back on and the guys called up the winners of the contest the radio station held yesterday at FYE and sung to the one (or ones) that were their number one fans.

    Chris was the lead singer for "Someone To Hold Me" and while he sang to the girls who'd taken him as their number one crush, I listened to the words and started thinking back on the short time me and him had spent together.  I thought about when he gave me back my poster at FYE, and how I'd seen more of him than probably his own parents had in awhile at my house after we'd went swimming.  I thought about him teaching me how to do the steps for "It Happens Everytime" and how he wasn't shy about getting close up on me, and our quick conversation as I left the Hotel way earlier in the day.  I couldn't help but smile big inwardly.  I knew exactly how those girls felt up there with him.  They were getting their personal piece of him that would stay with them forever.

*  *  *  *  *  *

     The concert started at 5:00 and ended at 7:00 with the audience cheering for an encore.  The guys had sung in full all of the songs off their album so they couldn't do an encore unless they were going to come back out and repeat one of the songs they'd already did.  I guess they were all hoping that if they cheered loud enough that they'd come back and sing some of the new stuff.  Personally I was hoping they would.  Delayna and Matt ruined that idea when they came back out and declared the concert officially over.

     I didn't know if I was going to get my head chomped off for doing it, but when I tell somebody I'm going to do something I believe in keeping my word.  So when Delayna and Matt came back out I got up and made my way backstage.  I expected security to meet me with a fierce attitude.  Instead they told me they knew who I was and for me to hang tight for a minute.  Drake would be on his way out in a bit.  I was going to ask them if they could ask him about getting a few autographs when Drake appeared behind them.
"Wow.  Perfect timing." he said.
"Drake, I have to ask you something.  Please let me know if I'm out of line for asking it, but a couple of guys asked me if I could get autographs for their girlfriends and I told them I would try." I went for it, getting more and more afraid of his reaction with every word that came out of my mouth.

     All he did was laugh and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Haven't even known them a good two days yet, and already the groupies found you.  I'll tell you what.  They're getting ready to bring the winners of that contest they had yesterday back here.  Why don't you go and get the guys and their girlfriends, come back here, and they can go back with them?"
"Really?  It's cool?" I wasn't expecting him to be that all right about it.
"Sure.  Just don't get comfortable with it.  Okay?"
"Promise."

    Nathan and Tommy were thanking me like crazy when I came back and told them the news.  I only told them and not Heather and Natalie.  They didn't get the picture until we started walking over toward the backstage entrance and they saw the security guards and Drake.  They stayed pretty composed...for about a second.  They were kissing and hugging their boyfriends, thanking them for being so thoughtful.  Then I got hugs from both of them and kisses on the cheek when they found out it was me who'd hooked it up.

    Drake managed to get everyone calmed down enough when it was time to go back and meet the guys.  I went with them, but stood off to the side with Drake and the security guards.  We talked about the about the concert while the girls and the guys had their moment with Dreamstreet.  I was regular about it and told him it was better than I was expecting.  The energy was really high and I liked it when concerts were like that.  I also told him that there was some serious eye candy, which was a definite perk.  He just smiled and agreed, saying that there were some clean good-looking girls out there.  He didn't have to know that I was talking mainly about Chris.

    The backstage visit lasted for a little over an hour, which put the time at 8:00.  Chris, Greg and the others all went to take showers and get into some non-sweaty clothes so that they could hit up what rides they could before the park closed at 12:00 am.  The showering facilities were in another part of the park, so once again I had to stay put until they got done and came back.

    During that time I got to meet some of the behind the scenes people. I met the setup crew that was responsible for setting up everything concertwise, and the tech group who handled the sound and lighting for the concert.  Lastly I met a woman named Claudia, who turned out to be the group's choreographer.  The Greg and Jesse had made mention of me to her and we got into a short conversation about my liking of dancing.

    She was a very nice and straightforward person and knew exactly why I kept my talent a secret.  She told me that pre-determinations came along with anything a person did in the world and that I shouldn't let them keep me from doing something I liked and had talent in.  Then she asked me if I could show her a little bit of what I knew.  After five minutes of redness, nervous giggling, and all the other usual things that come along with being put on the spot by a complete stranger, I chose to show her the "It Happens Everytime" routine I'd learned.

    Claudia had with her the same CD Player that we'd used to practice the routine with earlier.  She was on her way to drop it and some other things off in the car when she saw me and Drake.  As much as I didn't want to do the routine in front of Drake (after the way I'd talked about boy bands back in the car) I sucked it up, and when the music started, I did the best I could.  I wasn't flawless like I wanted it to be, but it was good enough for both Claudia and Drake to ask me how long I'd been rehearsing the steps.  I told her it took me a couple of hours to get it down, but that I really hadn't had the time to practice it.  Both of them agreed that I had the raw talent and that in the right hands it could be crafted and shaped into something very beneficial.  Claudia told me that she knew a couple of people that were capable of doing that for me if I ever wanted to give it a shot and that I should really consider it.

    By this time Chris, Matt and the rest of the guys were back and ready to do whatever damage that could be done in the three and a bit hours left until the park closed.  They asked what I thought of the performance and I told them the same thing I'd told Drake, adding in that I thought the whole black light thing was pretty creative.  Matt took credit for the idea.  He'd come up with one day after seeing Batman Forever while they were on the winter tour with Aaron Carter but wasn't able to use it until today.

    Drake and another woman named Alyssa released us out into the park, with a couple of normally dressed security guards tailing us.  The park was still in heavy population mode, so they had to be there for the obvious reasons.

    The first ride we went to was called Demon.  It was a steel sit down roller coaster with plenty of twists, turns, and loops to snatch its riders through.  Since I was there, there was no odd man out.  Everybody would have somebody to sit next to.  Jesse claimed me before anybody could say anything and I really didn't mind.  It wasn't like Demon was the only ride in the park.

    Chris and the guys decided to go out as they were and not in disguises, so every last girl seemed to know who they were and was looking and pointing, but weren't sure if it was really who they thought it was.  It only took one girl to ask if they were Dreamstreet to get the yes that revealed how many fans they had in line, which was quite a few.  The guys were regular and friendly about it and that caused some people who weren't fans to start talking to them, complementing on how they were treating their fans.

    Because I was with them, the fans started asking who I was.  Even though I was just their friend most of them were interested in me and started asking me questions like how long had I known them, if I lived there in town, was I in the entertainment industry, and countless other things.  We even had some girls say that if I could sing, I was cute enough to make a sixth band member.

   We got similar reactions and statements from pretty much every ride we got in line for.  This was an everyday thing for them, so it was probably routine by now.  For me, it was completely new and I was loving every minute of it.  So this was what it felt like to be in a boy band?  Man, if I were straight, I know I would've been in heaven.  I had all kinds of girls calling me cute, saying they thought my voice was sexy, and sending all sorts of other compliments my way.

   The only rides we got to hit up before the park started winding down was a wooden roller coaster called Grizzly, a ride called Drop Zone that pulled you like 200 feet into the air and then let you go in a freefall, and a water ride of which the name escapes me.  I never got to ride with Chris on any of those rides, except for Drop Zone where he was sitting on my left and screaming his ass off like the rest of us when we dropped.  But he was always next to me in line or when we were walking to the next ride.  We'd be talking with the rest of the guys and then get sidetracked on our own conversation, while they'd be talking about something else.  We'd fall behind naturally and would hurry to catch up as soon as we realized we were falling back.

     God, being around him was a such a blessing. I couldn't let go of the notion that all of it was some long form dream that I was going to wake up from at any moment.  I was in love with everything about him. His confident and sometimes shy smile, his mellow voice, and his warm eyes.  But it went beyond looks.  Both of us liked a lot of the same things and shared the same views and feelings as one another about stuff.  We clicked like two gears that fitted together and turned one another to make an engine work.

    Being around him was also serious torture.  It was like a lion being trapped in his cage and seeing a butterfly come flying into the cage and back out.  If that lion were free, he would care less about that butterfly.  But to watch it do that over and over again would slowly drive the lion insane because he could never know that freedom again.  That's what it was like living with my sexuality.  It was the cage, I was the lion, and all the guys that had ever gotten my attention were the butterflies.  Chris was the most beautiful of them all and unlike all the others who'd flown into and out of the cage he'd come in and rested on my paw for a minute.  Although he was right there for me to be close to and to admire, it was just a matter of time before flew away like all the rest.

    One of the security guards was nice enough to go and get us all bottles of water from one of the stands near the Drop Zone line.  He gave them to us when we got off and were debating on whether or not we were going to try and make it to one more ride or not.  All of us tore into the water and I was about halfway through mine when Chris held me back and suggested we use our remaining water to douse Frankie and Greg off.  Both of them were talking about these girls we'd seen in the last line and he figured it would be a good prank.

    Matt saw us falling back and figured out we were up to something and fell back to join us.  He liked Chris's plot and agreed to take Jesse, who was equally interested in the girls Frankie and Greg were talking about.  I chose Greg, and Chris took Frankie.  He still owed him for the pushing into the pool incident at my house.  With our plan in motion, all three of us crept up to our unsuspecting victims and attacked.
"Hey...!!" were the objections of Frankie and Jesse.
"What the..!!" was Greg's objection as the three of lifted up shirts and inserted open water bottles into the tops of the backsides of their pants and forced as much water as we could out.

     The curses and screams and reactions that came out of them could've won us the 1 million dollars on America's Funniest Home Videos easy.  All three of us were laughing so hard that we almost couldn't run when they came after us for revenge.  Even the security guards and some of the nearby people were laughing.

     Since the park was nearer to closing the crowds had dissipated a lot, so it made it easy to out maneuver Frankie, Jesse, and Greg.  Chris, Matt and me were all together at one point, but somewhere along the trip he took a left and Chris and me took a right and we lost him.  Frankie and Greg were still with us though, we could hear them shouting at us.  At the last possible second, Chris grabbed me by the hand and snatched me over to the left where the empty line for the Observation Tower was.  Both of us zigged and zagged through it and somehow made it on just before it started.  We were already up and off the ground by the time Frankie and Greg made it to the ride and were probably shouting all sorts of bad things at us.  We couldn't hear.
"Yeah!" Chris cheered holding up his hand for a high five.
"Oh yeah!" I agreed, holding up my hand and we slapped them together.

     We stopped for a second to make sure we weren't making fools out of ourselves in front of actual people and saw that the ride was completely empty all the way around.
"It's too bad this ride doesn't have an escape hatch or something.  You know they're gonna kick our asses when we get back down." Chris said.
"Maybe not.  Maybe we can lead them in here and make it past them and out into the park before they have a chance to catch us." I suggested.
"Sounds like a plan, man.  I'm glad you're on my team."
"Same here."

     The ride got up to its highest point and came to a stop, rotating slowly to reveal a nice view of the entire park and the surrounding area.  Chris and me leaned up against the safety bar and gazed out of the window, taking in the view and catching our breaths.

     My eyes drifted over to him, watching as the fabric of his shirt moved rhythmically as he inhaled and exhaled.  They moved up slowly, stopping on his partly open lips that were pulling the air in and letting it back out.  Sensing he was being watched, he turned to me and smiled a bit.
"What?"

     I looked away quickly, feeling my face warm up with embarrassment and shook my head.
"Nothing."

     I was hoping he didn't know I was checking him out.
"No, seriously man.  What?" he urged me.

     I forced myself to look back at him to see a serious, but still friendly look on his face.
"I...I..." I wasn't sure what to say.

     He turned to face me completely, causing me to do the same, placed his hand gently on my shoulder and whispered in the most seductive voice my ears had ever heard,
"Just say it."

     Oh my god.  Oh!  My! God!  That was it!  That was all I could stand and I couldn't stand anymore of the torture.  The lion had just found the key and was definitely about to unlock the cage.

     As if like two magnets both of us moved closer slowly together.  I could feel the warmth of his breath against my face as he drew closer to me and I to him.  My breath was coming out in quick short gasps and my heart was beating faster than it had back in the room after my wood-popping incident.  This was not happening.  No way!

     Suddenly, Chris froze and backed away from me with a confused and sort of disgusted look on his face.
Dude, what the hell...!"

    He spoke like he had just been snapped out of a trance and realized what he was doing.
"Were you trying to kiss me?" he asked.

     A huge lump of fear rose up in my throat and I tried my best to look appalled at the mere suggestion.  My mouth betrayed me.
"No.  No...I..."

     With that same look still on his face, he nodded,
"You were, weren't you?  You were trying to kiss me!"

     If I could put into words how I felt at that moment I probably wouldn't.  Just trust me when I say that its one of the worst feelings a person can ever feel.  All the life felt like it was suddenly sucked out of me, leaving behind a hollow, empty shell.
"Aw shit!  I should've known!  A guy who doesn't have a problem with a boy band hanging around him, or vice versa, is either related to a member of the band or...a freak like you." Chris started to tear into me, just like I knew he would if he ever found out the truth.

     Seriously fighting back tears and trying to keep from breaking down on the spot, I asserted what strength I had left and stood up for myself.
"You don't need to talk to me like that." I told him.
"You were checking us out, weren't you?  At your house when we went swimming?  You were checking me out." he continued.

     And suddenly it was like "hold the fucking phone for a minute".  Okay, for sure now he wasn't riding in the same boat as I was and that was fine.  My bad for thinking so.  But it didn't give him the right to start disrespect me or my feelings like he was doing.
"So?" I responded to his accusation.

     Now he looked shocked and disgusted.
"And you even admit to it?  How sick is that?"

     His words and his reaction were only making me more and more angry.   So he wanted to stand here and read me my rights?  It was time to reverse the tide.
"You know what's sick?  People like you who don't know the first thing about what it's like to be this way, but you think you're fucking experts on the subject.  Going around here judging us, calling us names, trying to say that we choose to be like this.  Let me tell you something, I didn't choose this.  It chose me.  And for you to stand here and treat me like suddenly I'm not a human being anymore is totally fucked up!  I thought you'd be a better person than that."

     He stood there almost like he was going to throw a punch at me at any second, but strangely almost like he was taking in what was being said to him.
"I did like you.  A lot.  And yeah, I did try and kiss you.  Because for one second I thought that maybe, just maybe we might have the same thing in common.  But I don't have a damn thing in common with you.  Not anymore." I finished what I had to say to him and left the floor open for any comeback he had for me.

     The ride started coming back down from its peak location, jarring us a little bit.  Neither one of us took our eyes off of one another, though.  He didn't know that I had a lot of fury inside me and that I didn't have a single problem with taking it all out on him if he kept on going.  It was good old-fashioned fury too.  The kind that builds up over the years and waits for moments like these to come out.  For every time I saw a person get put down or treated wrong just because they were gay.  For all the times I joined in with my friends when they did it just so they would never figure out the truth about me.  For all the guys I'd stared at and lusted over, but could never have.  And newly added, for my heart which was now broken like it had never been broken before because I was stupid enough to let my guard down and believe for a second that maybe my dreams had come true.
"You wanna quit staring at me like you're gonna come over here and kick my ass?" Chris broke the silence in an aggravated tone.
"After you." I invited, speaking with the anger I felt.

     We stood staring eye to eye at each other until he looked away and out the window.  I looked away myself, staring at my translucent reflection in the glass as the ride arrived back in its station.

     As soon as it stopped, I was walking toward the exit.  I needed to get out of there.  The ride attendant unlocked the door and opened it, giving me the message that the park was now closed and for me to have a good evening.  Frankie and Greg were waiting right there for me and Chris with sinister smiles of payback on their faces.  When they saw the look on my face, the smiles went away and turned into looks of concern.

     They spoke to me but I have no idea what they said.  My mind was on a one-track mode of thinking and it wanted me away from all of them as soon as possible.  I was confident that Chris was going to tell them what had happened and I did not feel like hearing anything they had to say and having to unleash my anger on them like I had on him.

     I was a good ten feet away from the ride when I heard,
"Brenden!  Hey, wait up!"

     And I didn't.  I kept on walking back to the place where the concert was held.  That was where Drake and Alyssa told us to come when it was time to leave.  The sound of footsteps of someone jogging to catch up with me let me know I'd have company in a bit.  It was Frankie.
"Hey, man.  What's wrong?" he asked.
"I don't really feel like talking right now.  Please go away." I spoke without the anger, or the oncoming sadness in my voice.  It was sort of monotone.
"...Are you sure?"
"Positive, thanks."
 

     I expected him to follow me, but he didn't.  He stopped and I continued walking to my destination.  It looked like the zookeeper had seen the lion get the key to the lock on his cage and was able to replace it with a brand new one just in time to keep him from getting that sweet taste of freedom.

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