The Reunion Show – part 10
If you’re not 18 or older, blah,
blah, blah; you shouldn’t be here.
If you don’t like these types of
stories, blah, blah, blah; you shouldn’t be here.
Constructive criticisms are
welcome also at: mlogan6969@hotmail.com. If you would like
to join my Yahoo! group we'd love to have ya! You'll find it
at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/logans_lit/
***
Hello chilluns. I’d like to
make a suggestion at this point. If you have a website where you
download music like Bear Share or Music Match or whatever I’d suggest
downloading a song called “Inside” by Vertical Horizon. It’s on
their latest cd called “Go” and if you listen to the lyrics and the
music itself, I think it’s Mike’s and Scott’s song. If this were
a movie I could see “One Of You” (also by V.H.) playing during the
credits. Great band. Give it a go and see what you
think. Or you could go to V.H.'s website www.verticalhorizon.com.
There's a player that has all the songs from "Go" on it.
Mark
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“Want some sausage, Scotty?” I
asked, taking it out of the refrigerator. He turned and smiled at
me.
“Maybe later,” he said.
“Um…kielbasa?” He burst out
laughing at this.
“You’re a piece of work, Logan,” he
said.
“You wanna piece of what?” This
time we were being loud and goofy for the others’ entertainment.
But I could hardly breathe. It
looked like he and I wanted the same thing: each other.
Seven weeks of waiting? Oh God,
can I do it? I asked myself. Can I wait that long? It’d be
a long, hard wait. I-yi-yi!
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No time to worry about that
now. We all headed out to see a movie and then grabbed some
dinner at Chili’s. It was really fun just hanging out with
everyone and I was glad that I had decided to participate in the
show. Telling my parents that I was gay was really a huge burden
lifted. I
should have known that they’d be ok with it. Even
though I was raised going to church my parents never really were
stringent Christians, meaning they didn’t take everything in the Bible
literally. Usually people who do will live their life strictly by
one part and not another perhaps more difficult part. Know what
I’m saying? Yeah, you do.
I guess, too, that the crowd I was
with had me pretty relaxed. We were all in our late 20’s and
since none of us were raging maniacs everyone seemed to have a cool
attitude towards me. While we were eating, a few people asked me
questions about me being gay. At first I thought it was bizarre
that they’d ask but then figured, if you meet a mechanic and you don’t
know what mechanics do then you’d ask him questions, right? Sure
you would.
Deanna had the most
questions—surprise!
“So Mike how many guys have you
dated?” she asked during dinner.
“Well, not a whole helluva lot.”
“What, are you picky?” Charlie, who
was sitting next to Scott, asked with a grin.
“Yeah,” I said looking at Scott
quickly “I’m fairly picky. Some guys just don’t do it for me.”
“What kind?” asked Freddie.
Poor onion farmer.
“Guys who—“
“aren’t like Scott!” Deanna
interrupted and everyone laughed. I gave her one of my mean
Italian looks and kicked her under the table.
“Oof! I was just kidding.
Bastard.”
I laughed at her.
“I’ve dated a few guys but none of
them lasted more than two or three dates. I’m a bit of a loner, I
guess,” I said with a smile.
“But you’re working on that, aren’t
you Logan.” Scott said.
He was sitting a bit diagonal from me
so I slipped one of my knees between both of his, not trying to be
overtly sexual. I just wanted to touch him. “Yessir, I am.”
“Where do you normally meet guys?”
Jessica asked.
“On reality television shows.”
Everyone laughed at this. I chuckled too. “I don’t
know. I meet plenty of guys at church, but usually they’re
married. Plus we’re at church, so what am I gonna do,
right? Usually it’s a friend of a friend sort of thing.”
“You go to church?” from Deanna, who
looked somewhat surprised.
“Yeah.” Duh! “Don’t you know
any guys who go to church?”
“Well yeah,” she said, “it’s just I
don’t know many gay guys who do.”
“Oh well. I can sort of
understand why, but there’s a lot more than just the ‘abomination’
thing
mentioned in the Bible. We can’t all agree with everything all
the time. If we did we’d all be myrmidons,” I said.
“What’s that?” Samantha asked.
“It means ‘mindless followers’.
I just can’t take one or two sentences out of the whole Bible, which in
my opinion and understanding, was written by many men over a long
period of time, and turn my back against church.”
“Really.” Scott said.
“Well yeah. I always find peace
whenever I read something from Psalms. Sometimes ya gotta take
the bad with the good. I mean,” I sort of laughed “that’s
life. Plus my church has an awesome band. I used to only
like traditional church music, but they’re a great band and being there
while
they play live really gets me on my feet.”
“But you like to drink—isn’t that
sorta hypocritical?” Tracy asked.
“How could it be? I’m not
telling anyone else not to drink. And I don’t normally drink like
I did last weekend. There’s lots of nice people at my church and
I like to sit and talk. I’m a regular yenta,” I said and they all
laughed..
“What if they found out that you were
gay?” Scott asked.
“I don’t know. I bet I could
cause a stir if I dressed in drag and danced with the preacher on his
front lawn.” They again laughed at this. “I’m sure that
there’d be some who wouldn’t care for me, but I’m not ‘in your face’
with my sexuality. Never have been. ‘Cause it ain’t
nobody’s bidness!” I smiled. Scott pressed his knees
together, holding mine in place. I looked at him and
winked. He just smiled back.
After dinner we went back to the
studio and just hung out some more. Not a whole lot to do.
Scott wasn’t saying much. I knew he was nervous about his
baby-raper step dad coming. Well, maybe not nervous, but
anxious. I stuck by him pretty closely all night.
The next day was pretty
routine. It was really pretty out while Scott and I jogged over
to the park. We decided to give me a break from the workout
machines for a day, which I was glad for. However we didn’t
really talk that much. Me, because I didn’t feel the need to hear
my own voice; Scott, well understandably he had other things on his
mind so I respected his space.
The afternoon flew by. Everyone
was supposed to be there between 6:00 and 6:30. The families
scheduled that night were Deanna’s, Tracy’s, Freddie’s and
Scott's. Mine were to come with the others next week. They
were going to bring Grandma too, so that should be fun.
Seriously, my grandma is the biggest hoot you’ll meet. She’s
Dad’s mother and shares our sense of humor. Runs in the family.
Before we knew it 6:00 had rolled up
and we heard the doorbell ring. There was a huge commotion as
Deanna answered the door and introduced us all to her parents.
Her mom was just as big as a spaz as Deanna—surprise! Her dad
seemed like a really nice guy, though.
Freddie’s parents arrived next.
“Y’all don’t look like onion farmers,” someone said to them. They
looked really “uptown” as Grandma would say, he in a really nice suit
and she in a nice cocktail dress. “We live here in town near
Buckhead. Freddie’s the farm boy,” his dad said smiling.
“And he’s doing a fantastic job running the place!”
Tracy’s folks arrived next, and boy
were they quiet. They had come down from Helen, where they moved
after Tracy graduated high school to run a bed and breakfast.
Again, they both seemed like really nice people—when they talked!
All of the parents got a tour and
everyone was having a nice time. I could tell that Scott was
still a little antsy. I don’t care what he said, the guy was
nervous. To tell you the truth, I still didn’t understand why his
mom and step-dad were coming at all.
We were all standing around (in some
cases sitting) eating some of the wonderful food that had been catered
to us by the show when the doorbell rang. I looked at Scott and
saw the blood drain from his face. I brushed passed him and said,
“Let me get this.”
I opened the door and said “Hi y’all
doin’? Y’all come own in!” Yes, I said “own.” In some
situations I lay on the country accent a bit much. “I’m Frank
Black”
he said extending his hand, but I just interrupted him and gestured
over to the food saying “Please, help yourself to some food.”
Scott’s mom came in looking a bit primed. I’m surprised she
didn’t hiccup. If she had her head may have fallen off.
Scott leaned over to give his mom a
kiss on the cheek, and stood back up with his hands in his
pockets. “Frank,” he said.
“Scott,” he said back.
“Y’all, this is my mother Sandy and
her husband Frank,” he introduced them to us all. I made sure to
keep my eyes on Frank. Sandy never strayed far from the punch
bowl. Frank was trying to make the rounds and you could tell he
was a charmer. I guess you’d have to be if you're a child
molester.
I swear I only took my eyes off of
him for one second, but about an hour after they arrived I saw no sign
of Scott or Frank. Uh oh. Sandy needed a wheelbarrow to get
her over to the couch. I checked out the bedrooms: no Scott
or Frank. Then I asked Deanna where they had gone.
“Who?” she asked.
“Scott and Frank.”
“Oh. I think they went
upstairs.” Oh shit!
“Thanks hon.”
“Hey, is everything alright?” she
asked.
“No. No I don’t think so.” I
grabbed a couple of drinks and ran up the stairs. When I got
there I could see the two of them on the balcony, and you could hear
them arguing with each other even with the doors closed. Frank
was
standing nearest the door with an empty glass in his hand.
I opened the door with one hand while
I balanced two drinks in the other. “You didn’t have to do that”
Frank said, reaching for a glass.
“I didn’t,” I said as I walked on
past him, handing the drink to Scott. “Y’all doin’ alright?” I
asked, looking at Scott.
“We’re just fine,” Frank said.
“Actually Mark we were in the middle of something, if you don’t mind.”
“Actually I don’t mind, and the
name’s Mike,” I corrected him. “I think I’ll stay.” He just
glared at me.
“What, you need a protector now,
Scott?” Frank asked. If looks could kill then Scott’s dagger-like
eyes would have done the trick.
“The only time I needed protection
was when I was living in your
house.” Oh shit. So that’s
what I had walked in on.
“Seems like Scott doesn’t like me to
talk badly about his brother Johnny,” Frank said to me with a sneer.
“You made him what he is today,”
Scott hissed at him.
Frank laughed. “Please.
Look how great you turned out.” I looked over at Scott who’s eyes
were wild with anger. Time to step in, I thought.
“Really Scott, Frank didn’t rape me
and I turned out gay.” As I said this I turned to look at Frank,
raised my eyebrows and nodded toward him.
“You’re a faggot,” he stated more
than asked.
“Actually Frankie, we like the term
‘gay’.” I smiled really big. I’ll be the first to
admit that I know how to antagonize someone, at least someone like
Frank.
“You suck cock?” he asked.
I shifted my weight a little and
said, “Why, you interested? Oh wait a minute” I said, throwing my
hands in the air and turning towards Scott, “you can’t be
interested! I’m over the age of 13!” At this Scott looked
down at me. I couldn’t really read his eyes.
“Fuck you, pillow biter,” he growled.
“Pillow biter!” I laughed out
loud. “Is that all you got? Shouldn’t you be attending a
NAMBLA picnic or something?” I asked, “or maybe Neverland Ranch?”
I had forgotten that Scott said
Frank’s temper was really short, but remembered really quickly when he
hurled his glass through the air at me, yelling “FUCK YOU.” It
all happened so fast and Deanna had to tell me later what
happened. Apparently the glass hit Scott as I ducked and then he
rushed at Frank, who grabbed him by the shirt, spun him around and
slammed him really hard into the glass door. The window
spider-webbed around where his head hit it and he put his hands to his
head, squinted his eyes shut and slid down to the floor.
I took my glass and threw it right
into Frank’s face where it shattered. Then I tripped him onto the
floor, stood over him and just started beating the shit out of his
face. I kept hitting him, thinking about how he’d hurt Scott—not
only just then on the patio but when Scott and John were boys.
Over and over I punched him in the face until I felt arms behind me
pulling me back into the studio. Frank stood up and went to
charge me but I kicked him really hard in the gut and then in the
face. That was all she wrote. I tried to get away so I
could get back to Scott but the others were holding me back.
Someone had called the police and an
ambulance, and they arrived in no time. Frank ended up being
arrested for assault. Deanna, Freddie and Charlie had come
upstairs not long after I did and saw the whole thing happen. I
sat there with Scott, who was still unconscious, while the paramedics
strapped him onto the gurney and made their way downstairs.
“Sir,” one of the medics said, “you
really need to get to the hospital and have the glass taken out of your
hand.” I looked down. My hands were a mess, all cut and
bloodied from the drink glass. Oh, and let’s not forget the
pummeling I gave Frank. Deanna agreed to take me over to the
hospital.
We got to Piedmont Hospital and it
took about an hour or so for the doctor to see me. Luckily the
glass didn’t cut too deeply and I didn’t need stitches, but there were
still some shards that she picked out. I didn’t care about
me. I needed to see Scott. Deanna asked around and found
out that he had come to and was going to be kept overnight for
observation. Apparently he had as light concussion.
“Where is he?” I asked. The
nurse pointed us to the room.
Deanna and I headed in and my heart
sunk. They had his bed up so he was almost sitting and his head
was bandaged from the tops of his ears up. “How ya doin’ hon?”
Deanna asked.
Scott smiled an exhausted smile and
said, “Now this is an
Excedrin headache.”
I grinned as the tears welled up in
my eyes. Deanna looked at me and said, “I’ll wait outside.”
I watched her go. After the door shut I grabbed a chair and sat
it beside his bed. I put my hand on his forearm and said, “How ya
doin’ pal?”
“Oh man,” he groaned. “I’ve
been better. But at least they gave me some demoral a minute ago.”
I grinned at him. “You’ll be
out soon then.”
He looked down at my hands which were
bandaged. “What happened to you?”
“Oh this?” holding them up.
“They had a date with Frank’s face.”
“Wow. How’d the date end?”
“I sent him home early,” I
smiled. “How’s your head?”
“Ok. I told you he’d fuck
things up,” Scott said.
“What happened?”
“He started talking shit about
John.” You could see the demoral starting to take effect.
“He always does because he knows it always gets to me.” I shook
my head slightly. “I told him I’d had enough…to get out…he’d
ruined us enough as kids, why’d he have to keep the shit up. He
laughed and said I was crazy.” He was getting sleepy pretty
fast. “Mike,” he said with his eyes closed, “you’re so brave.”
“Nahhh,” I whispered, “just a bitter
young man.”
He smiled a bit at this, but then the
corner of his lips curled down. “I didn’t tell him to stop.”
“What?” I asked. Tears started
rolling slowly down his cheeks.
“I didn’t tell him to stop,” he
whispered. “When I was young…”
I leaned a little closer and said
softly, “You were just a little boy.”
The tears rolled down even more and
he said in a whisper, “I just wanted him to love me. I just
wanted him to love me.”
“Shhhh, that’s what we all want,” I
said.
Scott opened his eyes a bit and
looked at me. “Maybe I am
crazy.”
“No,” I smiled, “you’re sane.”
He let out a deep breath and said,
“You need to get back to the studio.” At this point the tears
were rolling down my cheeks.
“No. I’m right where I’m
needed.” I held his hand up to my lips and kissed it. I put
it down and watched him drift of to sleep, my heart aching for him.
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Alrighty already! What’d ya
think?
Let me know, fellas.
Mark
mlogan6969@hotmail.com