JUSTIN 

Brian called and told me Lindsay came by and agreed to leave Gus alone. She was going back to Sam and they are moving to Paris.

“Maybe she'll try to fix her problems.” I tell him.

“Until she loses her mind again.” Brian tells me. 

“Brian, take the gift and run with it.” I tell him. 

“We need to talk about your optimism. In the real world you have nutballs like Lindsay and Michael.” Brian tells me. 

“You mean in your dysfunctional life there are nutballs. All I did was get knocked up by you.” I tell him. 

“How are the plans going?” Brian asks me. 

“Project ‘embarrass the upstanding gay men of Stepfordville’ is finished, just waiting around now.” I tell him. I grabbed another donut.

Looking around, Natalie set up the screens to flash scenes of Michael and Eli, then Brett added animals mating as a parody to the icky Michael sex. I almost wish we'd added a charity for head examinations, these guys need one. Brett had his crew interview the neighborhood, he wanted to use the responses and pair them up with Michael and Eli’s comments. It started out with just voice overs and led over to Michael and Eli laying in bed. It’s amazing how well Brett was able to put it together so fast. Natalie argued with Ben to change it from ‘Oppression’ to ‘My New Start’. She told Ben it went with the charity and Ben’s theme, Ben finally agreed. Emmett decorated the club in Rainbow flags and had the confetti changed from metallic silver to a variety of colors. 

I was sitting around sketching the scene in front of me. I painted the “Streets of Liberty” to stay in Natalie’s theme. She was on the fence about auctioning it, she thought I should do a series for my show in New York next month. I agreed to work with that idea in my next set.

Brian and I were going to take the boys out to an early dinner and my mom volunteered to keep them overnight again. She wanted to make Friday night her standing date night with the boys. She asked whose idea it was to tell the boys we were exercising, we pointed at Emmett. Emmett told Jen she was trying to protect little ears. 

Brian called and told me he was waiting outside, he didn’t want to see his club turned into a Pride Float until he had to. I waved and ran before they asked me to pick up anything. Brian and I picked up the boys and took them to the diner. 

“Dad, I need to get a Solar Panel and potatoes.” Jackson told him.

“I have potatoes at home.” I tell Jackson.

“I need more. I need at least two hundred potatoes.” Jackson tells me, “Um, I also need some copper wire, and a meter for electrical current.” Jackson tells me. 

“Is there some reason you need these items?” Brian asks him. 

“I wanted to show that potatoes could carry as much current as a solar panel, I was going to attempt to jumpstart a car, but I didn’t think Dad would let me. So instead I was going to wire it into a lamp, watching it brighten will show the same thing.” Jackson tells Brian.

“Do you need it tonight?” Brian asks him.

“No, but I wanted to get it set up by Sunday. Gus agreed to help me wire the potatoes together.” Jackson tells him. Gus is nodding. 

“You do this in your part of the garage, I don’t want potatoes all over the house.” I tell both boys.

“I know Dad.” Jackson tells me.

“Justin, the guys on the team wanted to know if you’ll bring stuff for the game on Sunday?” Gus asks me.

“Drinks and snacks or sandwiches?” I ask him.

“Aunty Anne said all the parents were going to start bringing stuff too, so if you don’t mind they wanted the sandwiches you brought last time.” Gus tells me.

“I’ll arrange for the sandwiches and Justin and I will bring them.” Brian tells Gus.

We finish eating and take the boys to my mom’s house. Brian drives us to the loft and tells me he had some clothes delivered for us to wear tonight. I thought my sweater and cargo’s were fine. 

“If we have to go, we dress for it.” Brian tells me.

I look in the bag and pull out tan leather pants and a blue half shirt. I shrug, if he want’s to show off my ass, he deals with the consequences. Brian wears jeans, a black sleeveless tee, and a shirt unbuttoned over it. I twirl in the outfit and Brian grabs a long shirt to wear with the outfit, you know, in case I get cold tonight. 

Brian tells me we’re going in the back entrance, he didn’t want to deal with Michael until he had to. We watch from the monitors in his office as people start filling the club. I see Michael and his group come in, I think he brought the whole neighborhood. I snicker at the idea of the neighbors descending like zombies when they hear what Eli and Michael really think of them. Brian and I finally go down to the stage and wait.

Daphne takes the stage.

“Good Evening and thank you for joining us for a good cause tonight. We are here to raise money for “My New Start”, a charity that will help young men and women get off the streets and begin a new life. I would like to first thank the ‘TK Foundation’ for purchasing the property which we will be breaking ground on on Monday. The houses that currently reside on the property will be replaced with a one large building. “My New Start” will be open to young men and women whose families have abandoned them for not living in the closet, but Out and Proud. We want to offer these children and teens a chance to finish school and be less likely to turn back to the streets. I hope everyone will dig deep in their pockets and help this new foundation become a success. The waiters will not be taking tips tonight, but will instead add that to any donation you generously give. Thank you and enjoy the evening.” 

Natalie takes the stage.

“Just a small speech so we can start getting everyone drunk and donating. JJ Taylor has generously donated a painting tonight that embodies the reasons we are here.” Two men walk out and put the painting on an easel. “Anyone who wants to bid on the painting will need to go the south bar and put their bids in. The person who wins will be contacted tomorrow morning. Thank you JJ for allowing your work to help a great cause. We also have various movie memorabilia  located throughout the room that were donated by Brett Keller and will be available for auction. Bidding for these items will also be at the south bar.

The music starts up and everyone is looking at the items and begins walking to the bar to put bids in.

BRIAN

I watch Michael’s friends all piss themselves to bid on one of the items. I can’t wait till Monday, when they figure out the street urchins are going to live across the street from them. Justin told me when the film starts he wants to be standing on the catwalk and far away from Michael. Daphne and Natalie come giggling up to us.

“TK Foundation?” I ask Daphne.

“I wanted it to sound official.” Daphne tells me.

“Daphne and I want  to stand on the stage so we can jump in like a mosh pit when the movie gets to the the good part.” Natalie tells us.

“How about we just watch from here, you get to see all the action.” Justin tells them. The girls boo him. 

“Brian, I’ve been looking for you. I guess you have to play hubby dearest to poor little Justin.” Michael says to us.

“Natalie, you know I didn’t believe them, but shit Michael, you do whine.” Daphne tells him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Michael sneers.

“I’m the bitch who is going to kick your ass if you don’t get some manners.” Daphne sneers at Michael.

“Brian, are you going to let them talk to me like that?” Michael asks me.

“Daphne can you at least kick his ass down stairs, I don’t want to try to get blood off the stairs.” I tell Daphne.

“You got it Brian. Well whiny man, want to see if I can kick your ass?” Daphne asks him. 

“Brian why don't you come and hang out with the adults? Obviously Justin only has children for friends.” Michael says to me. 

Justin smiles and takes off the shirt. He tells the girls it’s time to show the queers how to dance. I watch him walking away and want to kill Michael. That’s my ass, and now I’m going to have to kill a few hundred men. Michael is still talking, but I walk away to catch up with Justin. Justin grabs Emmett and they start dancing together. I watch men stare as Justin closes his eyes and begins to move. I move in behind him and we start dancing together. I turn him so we can grind. Justin dances like he fucks, every move is for maximum effect. 

MICHAEL

I watch Brian and Justin practically fuck on the floor and decide that I can do better. I walk up to Ben and tell him to dance with me. Ben tells me to ask my boyfriends, Paul and Eli. I laugh and tell him to stop teasing. Ben walks off. I stand there and have to watch all the men stare at Brian and Justin. Eli tells me we should slip into the backroom. We walk to the backroom and try to get guys to join us, but no one would. We walk out of the backroom an hour later and see Monty standing at the bar watching us. Shit, he looks pissed. The music stops finally and Brett Keller and Ben walk on the stage. 

“Good Evening, I wanted to come up tonight and thank all the people who helped with the short film we made to end the evening with. Everyone is invited to stay and dance the night away, and remember all the money from tonight will go toward “My New Start”. Brett waves and walks off the stage.

“I just wanted to dedicate this to Michael and Eli, two men who have always proclaimed gay men can have monogamous relationships. Enjoy the short, this is for you two.” Ben smiles at me and walks behind the stage.

I stand in the front. All the guys were smiling that Ben wanted to dedicate it to me and Eli.

It started with Paul, being asked what he feels is the biggest misconception about gay men.

“That we don’t care who we sleep with.” Paul answers. 

“Paul will give up his ass to anyone.” I hear through the speakers. Eli said that after Paul left one day. Everyone laughs, Paul turns and looks at Eli.

“Monty, does monogamy take the spice out of the marriage?” 

“I think you invent your own spice and you don’t need other men.” Monty tells the interviewer.

“He thinks pulling out his dick is foreplay. I want to tell Monty the ten minutes it takes for him to cum isn’t worth taking my shirt off for.” Monty turns to look at Eli. 

It keeps going and at one point the voice becomes me. I watch as the people we made fun of are surrounding us. Then I see Ben doing an interview.

“Was it easy to get in a relationship being HIV positive?”

“I always told anyone beforehand that I’m positive. I never want to lie and possibly harm another person. I was lucky that my partner saw me as a person and not a disease. Our neighbor Eli is always there to tell everyone HIV shouldn’t mean being treated differently.” Ben tells them.

“I can’t stand to let Ben touch me anymore.” I see me and Eli on the bed.

“Ben is hot, but I get what you're saying. I can’t figure out how you could let someone who was so careless about his health touch you. It makes my skin crawl every time he comes near my kids. I want to carry sanitizer and clean the kids whenever Ben hugs them.”

“I must have scrubbed the house with bleach every time he touched something.” I almost tell everyone they left out that my mom didn’t want me to marry Ben, but they all look pissed.

I hear someone gasp and look up to see me and Eli wearing the fucking tails and then it changes to animals mating. The film starts moving faster and everyone gets to see the people we fucked around with in the neighborhood. I started trying to back out of the crowd. I bump into Ben.

“Michael enjoy your life. I wanted to give you one last thing. In the envelope is a bill of a sale on our house, you have till Monday morning before they demolish it. You can keep the marriage certificate, because here in the US it’s as useless as you have been as a husband. Oh yeah, I signed Deb’s house back to her, since you were only acting like a total dick, kicking your mother out of her home. Hope you find a job or you might need to ask your mother for a room at ‘My New Start.’ Brian wanted me to mention one thing before I go. STAY THE FUCK OUT OF HIS LIFE. Now it’s time for my new start. Good luck, Monty doesn’t look happy-go-lucky tonight.” I watch Ben walk off and turn to see everyone staring at me like I’m scum. I look up and see Brian and Justin walk down the stairs and out the door. 

I look at Ted and Emmett and they shake their heads at me. My mother walks up to me and I sigh in relief. I have someone.

“Michael, I changed the locks so you might want to throw away your key.” Ma tells me and walks away.