JUSTIN

I wanted to experience gay life and found my answer in a one night stand. The next morning I asked him when I could see him again. Brian told me I could see him in my dreams. I wanted him to tell me he would see me tonight. His friend smirked at me, he was such a little weasel. I stood there and decided it was his loss. I was going to become famous and tell him when we met again that he could see me in his dreams.

Eight Years Later

“Jackson, get your butt down stairs, we're late.” I tell my son.

“Dad, you always say we’re late but we always get to school on time.” Jackson tells me.

“I have two back-to-back meetings before I show up at your school for parents day.” I tell him.

“Are you going to bring a copy of your new book? I told everyone you would.” Jackson tells me.

“I told you I would, and I always keep my promises.” I tell him.

We leave the house and I stop by McDonalds to get breakfast. I keep promising myself Jackson’s diet will improve, then we end up eating a Big Mac. Daphne told me Jackson and I could probably eat fatty foods every day and never gain a pound.

We get to the school and Jackson barely lets me stop the car before he jumps out and runs into school. I shake my head at him. He was excited to go to the new school. We finally moved back to Pittsburgh. My mom divorced my dad six years ago and wanted me to come home then, but I had just started a career writing children's books and I didn't want my dad near Jackson. I was lucky my illustrated children’s books were top sellers. I was also achieving success with my painting. I thought my life was over when I found out I was a freak of nature.

After Brian left me at the curb in front of school I decided to go on with my life. I had all these childish fantasies about him regretting letting me go. It was four months later when I found out Brian had left me with a surprise package. I graduated without having to tell my father he was going to be a grandfather. I went to Dartmouth, not for school, but to be far enough away to have the baby without my father finding out. Daphne came with me, we used the money my father was sending to finance my life. I was working anywhere I could to make money and taking classes at a community college to keep up with my education.

My mom only found out because I had a bad reaction to the pain meds the hospital gave me, I should have listed all my allergies. She flew up and met her grandson. She wanted to tell my dad. I asked her if she thought a homophobe would welcome his gay son’s baby. She told me it would be different since Jackson was here. It wasn’t. Instead he cut me off and told me he didn’t want me to talk to my family anymore. I wanted to tell my mom “I told you so”, but I had a child to raise.

I had enough saved to be okay for a couple of months. I wanted to tell Brian about Jackson, but decided he probably wouldn’t care, and in my one night stand stupidity, I never got his last name. It was weird that I never bothered to get his full name. I mean, we got naked together and didn't even introduce ourselves beyond first names.

I got lucky, because I was drawing a book about children having adventures in a small town. I used it to read stories to Jackson. Daphne brought her Aunt Mary to visit and Mary told me to let her shop my book to her publishing company. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. The first book was a hit and I used Jackson’s life to write the others and added Brian’s son Gus into my stories. I wanted Jackson to hear about Gus without telling him he had a brother.

My doctor told me that men were having babies more often. I thought I was the only freak of nature, but it apparently it’s some change that has been happening. He told me I could go on birth control. The genius who figured out men were going to need it forgot to tell us men we could get pregnant.

We lived in New Hampshire for Jackson's first eight years, but I wanted him to be able to see my mom. I warned my father we were moving back and he told me he didn’t care. Dad had gotten remarried and had a new improved son. He told me Alex plays football and isn’t a pervert like me. I told my dad to have a good life. It’s still funny to me that Mr Morality has a ten year old, since he only divorced my mom six years ago. I guess being straight means he gets a pass on being an adulterer.

Jackson scored high on all his placement tests, but I didn’t want him pressured the way I was, so I started him in Kindergarten. I ended up placing him in second grade a month later because the teacher told me Jackson was being disruptive out of boredom. Jackson was already ahead of the second grade class. My mother suggested sending him to an advanced school. We finally found a school that taught children who were genius level. I use to crow about my 1500 SAT’s, now I look like an idiot compared to my son.

I was supposed to meet Sydney Bloom at his gallery. My agent told me if I was going to live in a place with the name Pit in it, she was going to find top galleries for my shows. It’s funny that I actually make more money off my books than my paintings, but I am more famous for my paintings. I paint under the name JJ Taylor, because I write under the name Justin Taylor for my children's books and now Cole Taylor for the young adult books. My agent wanted me to separate my works from each other. She didn't want the fact that I wrote a children's series to make it harder to sell young adult books.

I got to the gallery and a blonde woman tells me Sydney is busy and she would keep me company. She is gushing about showing my work. I think people make too much of my art. She tells me that she just married Sam Auerbach. I tried to sound impressed, but Sam is a perv who hits on women stupid enough to believe they’re his muse. She tells me that they would love to have me come to dinner at their house. I told her I had a son, was to new to town, and didn’t trust just anybody to watch him. She tried to convince me her son would be there and they could make friends. I really wanted to tell her I’d rather eat dog crap than listen to Sam talk about himself. Luckily for me Sydney came out and rescued me from the overzealous woman.

Sydney told me he was sorry he didn’t greet me but he was also in the process of finding new help and had an interview that ran over. I told him it was fine and asked how many paintings they were expecting for the show. Sydney suggested fifteen to twenty. I had that many in my vault at home, so I invited him to come over and pick what he wanted from them. I told him that if they weren’t what he wanted I would be working on more. I got up to leave when the blonde accosted me again and tried to get me to come over to her house. I smiled and told her I’d call when I had a free evening. She shoved a card in my hand. Lindsay Auerbach was the name, no job listed and her cell written in. What a strange woman.

I was driving to my second meeting with my new accountant. He was willing to meet at some diner on Liberty Avenue. I almost told him I’d rather meet somewhere else, but Liberty is a big street so I agreed to it. I pulled up and looked at the diner, it was definitely a greasy burger joint and my stomach was happy to go in. I plastered a smile on my face and pushed the door to get in.

“Hello, Sunshine.” A woman in a red wig greets me.

“Sunshine?” I ask.

“Well your smile could brighten any room. Have a seat and I’ll get you a menu.” She seems really nice.

“I’m actually supposed to meet with Theodore Schmidt.” I tell her.

“Teddy, your date has arrived, and you should see the ass on him.” The woman yells to a guy sitting in a booth. He gets up and stares at me. Well, with that intro, I couldn't go anywhere but up.

“I’m Justin, hello Ted.” He is just staring at me. I was going to walk into the bathroom and check if I had something on my face.

“Oh sorry, you just really look familiar.” Ted tells me.

“Well I lived here eight years ago, but sorry, I don’t remember meeting you.” I tell him.

“Don’t worry about it, maybe you just look like someone I've met. You wanted to set up accounts here in Pittsburgh?” Ted ask me.

“I need to transfer all my accounts here. I want to be able to centralize my life.” I tell him.

“I can do that, I actually work for Kinney Advertising and we added a financial planning section a few years ago.” Ted tells me.

“Well you have a great track record for investments, otherwise my mom wouldn’t have pointed me in your direction.” I tell Ted.

“Let me get you the forms and I can email anything else you need. We can meet whenever you have time.” Ted tells me.

“I have to go to my son’s school for parents day, so I’ll call you to arrange a time.” I tell him.

“If you want to meet people here, you could go out with me and my friends, we go to Woody’s every night. Unless you're not gay.” Ted tells me.

“Yes to being gay, and I’ll think about it. Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.” I tell Ted. It might be nice to have friends. He’s still looking at me like he’s trying to place me. Maybe I remind him of someone.

I got up to leave and almost get run over by a woman and her daughter. I keep her from falling to the floor. She tells me thanks and sits with Ted. I look at my watch and see that I need to get to the school.

TED

Why does Justin look so familiar? I know we’ve never met, but I know I’ve seen him before. I watch as he keeps Mel from hitting the floor. I still swear I’ve seen him before. I’ll remember eventually. Right now I have to keep Mel from killing Michael. Not that I care about Michael, but Jenny doesn’t need to visit Mel in prison.

“Do you know what that asshole did now?” Mel fumes. She is on the warpath.

“Which asshole? And good afternoon Jenny.” I figure Jenny gets enough crap with the parents at war.

“Michael. He thinks he should have custody of Jenny. He and Ben think it would be better for her to have two parents to take care of her.” Mel tells me.

“Mel, don’t let the stepford fags get to you.” I tell her.

“He’s claiming that Lindsay and I fighting was harming her.” Mel tells me.

“Michael just wants to impress that group of assholes he hangs out with.” Deb tells her.

“They all are willing to testify that Michael is a perfect parent. He claims that Leda isn’t a good role model for Jenny.” Mel tell us.

“Well, you can claim that Ben’s HIV status isn’t safe for a four year old. I hate for you to have to do it, but they aren’t giving you a choice.” Deb tells her.

Michael burned all his bridges with us after letting his new friends treat everyone like garbage. They made fun of Emmett, claiming that he was the reason people look down at gay people. I hung out at a hedonistic den and helped to encourage gay men to turn their backs on respectability. Michael was trying to encourage Brian to date one of his new friends. Brian told him he had taste and trolls weren’t on his radar. Monty made the mistake of telling Brian how to live his life. Brian told them if living like you lost your balls was the answer, he’d rather go to his hedonistic den. Michael told Deb that unless she was invited to his house, she needed to call first before visiting. Deb told him unless he grew a pair that Monty didn’t have in his pocket, don’t come to her house.

To make matters worse, Lindsay decided dick was her new favorite thing. She tried to convince Brian they should get married. Brian told her to put down the crack pipe. Lindsay gave him an ultimatum, if he didn’t make them a family, Sam would. Brian told her she could have Sam’s dick because his was not on offer. Lindsay told him to kiss Gus goodbye, because now the boy would have a real father. Lindsay didn’t expect the fight Brian put her through. He brought up everything, including the teacher she was going to marry so he could get a green card. Sam told Lindsay to let Brian have the kid, they didn’t have time for it. Lindsay still fought to get visitation. We all think it was to make Brian have to see her.

BRIAN

I wanted to catch Ted at the diner, so we could go over the presentation he would have to give. Gus is playing soccer this afternoon and I promised to be there. Lindsay has been putting Gus through an emotional ringer. I’m trying to keep her away from us. She's like a vampire trying to suck you dry. I looked up in time to see a very fine ass; too bad I don’t have time to explore that. I watch the guy get in his car and have to admire his taste, it’s a classic Mustang. He turned to look at traffic, I smile at him as he turned and looked at me. He looked surprised, then tore out of the parking lot. Must be in a hurry.

I look in the diner to see Mel talking to Ted and decide it can wait. Mel and I are okay with each other, but she wants me to talk to Mikey for her. I told her Mikey is no longer my friend and I don’t want anything to do with him. He tried to use Gus to set me up on a date with some asshole. Mikey thought having children made us compatible. I told Mikey I don’t want anything to do with his new life. Mikey tried to act offended. I told him I wanted to have my friend back. Mikey waited in my office and told me all I had to do was fuck him. I told him to go fuck Ben. They deserve each other. Ben started the whole downfall by convincing Michael they needed to move to a place where people respect you. I asked Ben if they respected the fact that he liked to be tied up during sex.

I call Cynthia and tell her to make sure Ted is ready. She tells me Ted has been handling it like a pro for years now. I have time to grab Gus a burger before I head to St James Academy to watch Gus play.