Chapter 19 - Aero Zepplin
Justin was still sniffling and shaking more than a half hour later. Brian didn’t really know what to say. He felt like a total shit - still - and would have happily done anything to make it up to the boy, but he simply didn’t know what exactly to do. Comforting crying twinks was so far out of his normal comfort zone that it didn’t even have a zip code. And he’d been pathologically opposed to apologies since the age of about ten due to his own shitty childhood. But he knew he had to do something - he already missed the easy camaraderie they’d had as short a time ago as that morning.
“Sunshine . . .” Brian finally broke the silence and then once again faltered because he couldn’t come up with one single word to follow with. Clearing his throat, Brian bravely gave it a second try, “Justin, I want you to know that . . . Fuck! I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, Sunshine. Please bear with me. I guess I just panicked, you know. I’m in a metric fuck ton worth of shit and I thought . . . well, that doesn’t matter, but . . . I don’t even know what to say to you right now, Sunshine. Basic human emotions are not my strong suit . . .”
Brian’s monologue drifted off as Justin continued to sniff in sadness and betrayal. Brian could see that betrayal clearly every time he snuck a peek over at those expressive tear-filled blue eyes and saw the boy’s defeated posture. He needed to have Justin understand what was going on. He decided it was time to tell the boy the truth.
Taking a deep breath, Brian continued, “Justin, I need you to listen to me and try to understand what I am saying without panicking. Please.” At Justin’s nod of agreement, Brian began to speak, “The hospital thinks that I’ve kidnapped you and apparently they called the police. According to my friend, Cynthia, there’s an arrest warrant out for me - which means that they’re looking for us. The people at the hospital are claiming that you are dangerous to yourself and others. I left you at the bus station . . . well, it was mostly just to protect my ass, but it was also because I didn’t want to be the one to have to turn you back over to the authorities at the hospital. I thought that by leaving you at the bus station, it would be an opportunity for you to go where ever you wanted and be your own person. At least that way, you’d have a chance to decide what YOU want to do. Of course, as I was driving away, I realized that you were probably too scared to take advantage of that opportunity and then the thought of you being all alone and scared, really unnerved me. I realized that I . . . well, I care about you, Sunshine. I don’t want anything to happen to you. We seem to get along pretty well, you know. And, you . . . fuck it, you seem to fill a void that I didn’t even know was there in my life. So, that’s why I came back . . . I don’t know how we’re going to fix this shit we’re in . . . But I do promise that I will do whatever I can to help you and . . . and . . . and I won’t just abandon you ever again. But, I can’t promise that you won’t have to go back to the hospital for at least a little while until I get everything sorted out. I know that sucks, but I don’t know what else I can do . . .”
“I was so scared at the bus station, Brian, but I knew that you would be back for me. I just knew it. I listened to my gut just like you told me to.” Justin earnestly told the guilt ridden brunet, “But, Brian, I really don’t want to go back to that hospital. I didn’t like it there. I want to stay with you. You . . . You make me feel safe and happy . . . and I never felt that way before. Ever.”
“Justin, can you please forgive me and know that I will never do anything like that again? I promise.” Brian wanted his blond to know that he was serious about this - and he would never make a promise he couldn’t or wouldn’t keep.
“I forgive you, Just Brian. Now, we need to fix this cluster fuck.” Justin said with determination.
Brian was completely startled by this declaration and the boy’s unprecedented use of so much profanity, although he was also just a bit proud of him at the same time. It also made Brian aware that Justin understood exactly what was going on and, even if he was afraid, he was ready to do what needed to be done. Brian just hoped he COULD fix it - and he silently vowed to do whatever he possibly could to make it so.
“Yeah, Sunshine. We’ll fix this clusterfuck. Somehow.” Brian stated with a smirk as Justin grinned one of his sunshiney best in Brian’s direction. All was right between them again.
Once the wild wanderers had finally put the rustic charms of Missouri behind them, they crossed over into the Prairie State. Illinois was more of what they’d seen so far times ten. There were cornfields, cornfields, and more cornfields on top of that. But there were also lots of rolling green hills and big farmhouses decked out to display the occupying family’s middle-America, small town pride. Brian was NOT looking forward in the least to stopping in any of the miniscule hick towns surrounding them - he’d had his fill of homophobic encounters to last a lifetime. Meanwhile, Justin - who’d finally regained some of his usual cheerfulness - was again immersing himself in his Devil’s Box, soaking up as much information about the area as he could.
“OH. MY. WORD. Brian, I wish you could see this. It turns out that Illinois is a very interesting state,” Justin exclaimed excitedly
“Somehow, Sunshine, I find that hard to believe. But then again you can’t go by me . . . the only place I’ve ever been in the state is Chicago.” Brian was so relieved that the rapport they previously had was back. He’d never admit it out loud, but he really did enjoy these verbal documentaries that Justin frequently dispensed.
“That’s too bad, Brian. If you had gone to Champaign you could have visited the U of I campus and seen a Fighting Illini game - isn’t that a funny name: ‘Illini’? Or you could have gone to Peoria to visit the whorehouse Richard Pryor grew up in. I once saw that actor - Richard Pryor - on the television, but then my mother made me change the channel because she said he was a godless heathen. Ooooo . . . did you know that the Chicago Bears were once the Staley Bears?” Justin was animatedly recounting each of these facts as they caught his attention. “The team was organized in the city of Decatur - I wonder who ‘Staley’ was? Oh, and it says here that the ice cream sundae was invented in the city of Evanston as a way to get around religious prohibitions against going to soda fountains on Sunday’s after church.”
Brian had to smile at the kid’s enthusiasm. Honestly he couldn’t see what was so amazing about any of these things, but if it made Justin happy he wouldn’t deny him.
“It says here that Lincoln’s tomb is in Springfield. We’re not that far away, Brian, can we go see it?”
Well . . . there were always exceptions.
“I don’t think so, Justin. The only way we’re going to see anything related to good old Abe, will be by way of reaching in our pockets and pulling out pennies or five dollar bills.”
“Well, okay . . . I’ll just look at the pictures then. It’s kind of a pretty looking monument. See?” Justin swiveled the monitor around so that Brian could just barely see it when he craned his neck around for a quick peek.
While Brian wasn’t really interested in wasting any more time on tourist traps like some creaky old monument, he had noticed that it was getting close to dinner time. Although he’d relented about trying to find some way out of dealing with the legalities of Justin’s situation, he was more determined than ever to make some serious miles and get back to Pittsburgh where he thought he had at least SOME chance of fixing all of this. Brian’s main concern at the moment was trying to stay as far off the law’s radar as possible. However, he figured that they could at least take a little time out to have a good dinner, especially seeing as they hadn’t had any lunch other than the free samples back at the Superstore in Lincoln.
“Justin, I know you want to see more of the sites, but we really have to keep moving along. I tell you what, though, why don’t we visit Springfield long enough to have a little dinner?”
Well, it wasn’t exactly Lincoln’s tomb, but Justin was happy to stop for a taste of the local fare.
“Sure Brian, we can go to this place called Carter’s. It says here that they have the best Walleye in town. Mmmm . . . I can’t wait to taste it.”
“What the fuck is ‘Walleye’, Sunshine?” Brian really was NOT sure about letting the imp choose where they were eating - the kid would probably have them eating out of a shack off the highway somewhere.
“Well, I’ve never had it,” Justin admitted candidly. “But according to everything on the Devil’s Box here it’s the best fish ever made in the entire Mississippi River Basin.”
Brian gave a preemptive groan - he could already imagine the type of greasy, deep-fried gunk he was going to be subjected to - but he figured he owed it to the kid after everything else today, so . . . “Fine. Tell me how to get to this Wondrous Walleye Emporium of yours, Sunshine.”
“Just go straight down I-72, enter town on Dirkson Street and turn down South Grand Avenue.”
And before Brian knew it, he really did find himself standing in line outside an olive drab painted shack, right off the side of the main drag, waiting his turn to order greasy fish plus his choice of two sides and a cold non-alcoholic beverage. Yep . . . this is what he got for letting the crazy blond mental patient choose their dinner accommodations.
Once they’d put in their order Brian and Justin seated themselves at one of the none-too-clean picnic tables set up in what was probably once a parking lot. Justin didn’t seem to care about the unsanitary state of the table. He just plopped down and immediately struck up a conversation with the young, thin, caramel-skinned man sitting next to him. It seemed that, as long as Brian was around to give his self-confidence a boost, the younger man didn’t have any qualms about talking to strange people. After shifting around on the uncomfortable seats for five or ten minutes while he listened to the conversation, the young lady behind the window was calling for them to pick up their order, so Brian got up to take care of everything.
“Here you go, boo . . . you want some hot sauce to go with that?” the young lady asked Brian cheekily.
“I think I’ll pass on the hot sauce, but I’ll take some extra napkins if you don’t mind.”
The brash young lady handed Brian a handful of napkins. Brian winked at the attractive young woman, spreading his charm around just because he could. Then he grabbed the tray full of food and carried everything back to the table where his adventurous blond was waiting.
“This food looks great! I bet it tastes even better.” Justin smiled brightly before diving headlong into this new culinary delight. For the next several minutes all Brian heard out of the boy were a series of almost erotic moans, indicating the height of Justin’s ecstasy over his food. “Oh, Brian. This is SOOOOOOOO good. This is waaayyyy better than even the Devil’s Box said. Try it, Brian. Try it! It’s not greasy at all and the fish is moist and flakey and kind of sweet. Mmmmmm. It melts in your mouth.”
Brian took a look at his plate of fried fish. It did smell delicious. He had to agree that it didn’t look greasy from the outside and even the fried Okra looked edible. Certainly much better than what he’d get at the Liberty Diner, where the fish platter practically swam in an ocean of grease. Brian picked up a small piece and took a tentative bite of his food.
An uninhibited moan of pleasure slipped from Brian’s throat, “Well, fuck me . . . this is fucking delicious!”
A half hour later, Brian had not only finished his own order of Walleye, Fried Okra, and Creamy Cole Slaw, but he’d split a second order of fish with Justin. Brian truly had never in his life eaten anything that delicious. It no longer mattered to him that it was served out of a shack off the side of the road. It was food for the gods and it deserved recognition as such.
Going back up to the window where the nice young lady took orders, Brian handed over his card. “Is the owner available by any chance,” Brian asked on a spur of the moment whim. “I happen to be in advertising and I would love a chance to talk to him or her. I have never been so impressed with a meal in my life. And I think I could do great things for your little business here.”
“Actually, my Daddy, Clifford, is the owner. He works mostly out of the Decatur location, though. My Aunt Lula manages this site. She’s also the cook . . . Hey, Aunt Lula!” The girl hollered over the noise of the simmering steel pots and pans and the hissing fry vat. “There’s a guy here with a card who says he can do great things for you.”
Two minutes later, a rather buxom older woman shuffled over, wiping her hands on a towel as she came over. “Well, hello, Honey Child - you be one fine looking young man. And what’s this about you doing great things for me? Hopefully it’s with those sweet lips of yours,” the woman winked as she wet her own lips in an obvious invitation “Mmmmnm. You look tastier than a plate of my catfish, Honey. Course, we’ll have to make sure my husband, Jimmy, don’t find out about any of these great things - I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t approve. Hahahaha!”
Brian Kinney - a man who regularly engaged in public sex, who wasn’t averse to public nudity and who had engaged in so many wild sexual escapades that he couldn’t even remember them all - found himself actually blushing at the lustful way this woman who was old enough to be his mother was looking him over like he was the next item to be served up on her menu. “Ma’am. The name’s Brian Kinney. I’m in advertising. And since I’m not all that keen on taking on your husband, I’m glad to say that what I was proposing had more to do with sheets of paper in a magazine or newspaper than sheets of cotton in your boudoir. But, it could still be great for both of us. . .” Brian goodnaturedly flirted back, including a saucy wink of his own.
Brian and Lula spent the next hour and a half sitting on the picnic benches outside the restaurant and talking business while Justin busied himself drawing some more. It turned out that Carter’s already had a second location in Decatur and the owners were thinking of expanding even more. Brian didn’t normally work with such small enterprises, but he was just so impressed with his meal that he figured he could make an exception - and it wasn’t like he was overly busy right then either. Brian scrambled a little but managed to come up with two or three rather exciting advertising ideas right there while they were talking. Justin, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation, got involved and sketched out some rough samples using Brian’s ideas. Lula was duly impressed and simply raved over their extemporaneous brilliance.
After a while it also came out that Lula’s cousin was a big wig working for Shaw’s Catering - which happened to be the management company that oversaw another restaurant chain that just happened to have multiple restaurants all over Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan. Lula was so pleased with the ideas that Brian had come up with right there on the spot for her little business that she offered to pass his card on to her cousin. Brian promised to get something together for Lula and Clifford as soon as he made it back to Pittsburgh.
Before they could make good on their escape though, Lula hustled back up into the kitchen and rifled through a pile of papers underneath the register. When she emerged again, she was holding out a card of her own. Brian took it, noting that it was a guest pass offering the bearer a free drink at some local bar called ‘Zoobabies’.
“My son Trevor is a bartender at that there club. I have a hunch it’ll be your type of place. You give my Trevor that and tell him his Mama said to treat you guys nice or he’ll be in hot water come Sunday dinner. Now, I gotta get back to work. It was real nice meeting you two boys and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for our advertising.” And then Lula was gone and Brian and Justin finally managed to get themselves off that picnic bench and back over to the RV.
Brian looked at his watch and noted that it was now getting on towards nine pm. So much for his desire to push through and get home as soon as possible. He looked at the guest pass in his hand and was really tempted to just toss it and hit the road. They could at least get a few more hours of driving time in. But, not only had Lula been nice, she also had that contact with Shaw’s, and Brian could use every possible contract lead he could get. He didn’t want to offend Lula by not taking her up on her hospitality. So . . . it looked like they were going to this club. At least long enough to make an appearance. He just hoped he wouldn’t totally gag at having to spend some time in the typical breeder club you’d find in this kind of podunk burg. But what the hell - he’d do a lot more than just show at some breeder club in order to win a lucrative account for his fledgling business. And then, maybe, after their appearance, they could drive for a few more hours afterwards?
When Brian and Justin pulled up in front of Zoobabies, Brian’s first thought was that this was definitely no Babylon. Justin, on the other hand, was feeling a bit anxious - there seemed to be a lot of people milling around and they were all being rather loud and rowdy. The noise coming out of the building, although muted by the walls, seemed incredibly loud to him. He really wasn’t sure he was going to like this place all that much. He already felt klutzy due to the uncomfortable shoes that Brian had made him put on before they left the RV. Justin inched his body even closer to Brian’s and clung to the taller man’s arm with a fierce grip. Brian merely patted Justin’s hand reassuringly and kept walking towards the building’s entrance.
The first thing Brian noted was that the alley apple building was in serious need of an overhaul - the old bricks were crumbling a bit in places and definitely in need of a power washing - the parking lot was as narrow as a needle, and the cars adorning it held little promise that anyone half-way decent looking was in attendance. But when they stepped inside, the scenery was completely different. The tables, chairs and bar were all fashioned from polished cherrywood. There was italian marble tiled flooring throughout the quaint little establishment. It was nice enough, Brian thought at first, although it looked pretty much like any club anywhere. Once he’d got a better look around him, however, Brian felt a smile break out on his face and his body relaxed. Now THIS was more like it!
Behind the huge bar that took up an entire wall of the building, there was an immediately visible glass and chrome display case containing a panoply of various types of lube, dildos and boxes of condoms. From what Brian could see, there were more dildos displayed behind the bar than bottles of liquor. That, in and of itself, seemed to portend good things. When Brian turned around and surveyed the clientele, he was almost ready to go back and kiss Miss Lula! She’d sent them to a gay bar! Probably the ONLY gay bar in the area, considering they were in the middle of nowhere. He knew there was a reason that he really, really, REALLY liked Miss Lula! Now Brian was even more committed to making her ad campaign the best it could possibly be.
Once he knew what he was looking at, Brian felt right at home. He grabbed Justin’s hand and led him through the throng towards the middle of the bar. As they passed by the dance floor Brian noted that it was small but functional. Of course there were the usual throng of hard gyrating bodies grinding against one another, which in Brian’s opinion was a very welcome sight. Brian was only slightly impressed, considering the fact that he’d been in bars like this hundreds of times. Justin, though, was looking around himself in awe. It was just like the dancing place Brian had taken him to that first night they’d met. The flashing lights and glitter raining down on the patrons seemed magical. All the beautiful men seemed to glow like dirty angels losing themselves in the music and the joyous atmosphere. The pounding beat of the music was calling to him. Justin couldn’t wait to shake a tail feather on the cozy little dance floor. He hoped that this time they’d get to stay longer and do more fun things than they had at the dancing place back in Pittsburgh.
“Come on Brian! Let’s dance,” Justin was bouncing on his toes and tugging on Brian’s biceps - all his anxiety forgotten now that he’d felt the driving beat of the music - trying to urge his boyfriend forward. Brian wasn’t quite ready to bump and grind, much to Justin’s disappointment. Instead, Brian guided the boy over to the bar where he took advantage of the free drink card and made sure to tell Trevor that Miss Lula had sent them. Trevor gave Brian a big luscious, white toothed grin and made sure they got the top shelf stuff for their free drinks.
Justin made a face at the awful tasting stuff that was served to him in the small tumbler. He’d tried a sip or two of the beer that Brian had been drinking throughout the week - which had providentially been part of the RV’s stores - but hadn’t liked it much. He decided he liked whatever this was even less. Brian laughed and instead ordered the boy a Coke, which Trevor supplied with another grin. Justin slugged the drink down and then turned to watch the dancers, his toes tapping to the beat, added to the occasional uncontrollable bouncing wiggle when the kid just couldn’t stand NOT to move any longer.
Eventually, Brian took pity on the boy’s obvious enthusiasm, grabbed his hand and led the kid out to the middle of the dance floor. Justin was deliriously happy. This was even better than the dancing he’d done back at the wedding in Portland. It felt so free. He closed his eyes and simply let the music take over his body, content to feel Brian’s hand on his waist or neck or arm, just so long as he knew Brian was still there protecting him. He didn’t even mind the unwieldy shoes he’d been forced to wear. It took a couple of song rotations before the twosome started to work up a sweat. When Teena Marie’s Square Biz started to play, they just couldn’t hold back anymore. Brian pulled Justin’s body in close to his own, grinding their hips together, holding Justin tightly and then kissing his lips with a hard-driven insistence. At first Justin was a little shy about Brian kissing him in front of all these people. But, when he looked around and found that they weren’t the only ones doing boyfriend things, he was able to relax a little and go with the flow. They danced and flirted shamelessly with each other - hands roaming, teasing kisses and shy smiles - all while giving their bodies a thorough workout.
After that, they danced and danced and danced, seemingly forever, only stopping to hydrate with bottles of water every so often. Justin thought about trying to warn Brian about how, according to his mother, this kind of dancing would lead to pregnancy . . . but decided that was probably another of those things Brian would tell him was complete bullshit. So Justin kept quiet and simply enjoyed the dancing. Much too soon, the club was beginning to close and it left Brian and Justin wondering what to do next. Honestly, there wasn’t much else they could do other than going back to the RV and calling it a night. The problem with that idea was that all the belly rub-style dancing he and Justin had been doing had both of them extremely turned on.
Justin, for one, didn’t want this night to ever end. He was a little worried about why dancing like this had made his willy so hard - it hadn't ever done that before when he had danced alone back home. He was only slightly reassured that it wasn’t something he’d done wrong when he noted that Brian’s willy was just as hard. The untried boy was also unsure why he felt all those squiggly feelings in his gut - like there were caterpillars inside trying to worm their way out. He didn’t know what to do to make the squiggly feelings stop and he didn’t know if he liked them. The only thing that seemed to quell the squiggling was when he pressed himself tightly up against Brian. But that only seemed to lead to other inexplicable feelings, like making his body feel all tingly and feverish. It was very confusing. Justin thought that it was a lot like what happened to him when he and Brian did those boyfriend things that Brian had been teaching him. He really liked learning all those things. Maybe this kind of dancing was sort of a boyfriend thing too? If so, he wouldn’t mind doing more of it.
Brian couldn’t believe that he’d just spent a whole evening in a gay club and hadn’t yet fucked anyone. That had to be a first. He knew he couldn’t leave Justin, though. Especially after what had happened earlier in the day. However, he could tell by the flushed look on Justin’s face that he wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with his own unquenched desire on his own. The boy was as fully aroused as he was, possibly more. Maybe Justin was finally ready to push himself a little further than the experimental experiences they’d shared so far. Brian decided it was time to get his randy little blond back to the RV. And then Brian would see what other ‘boyfriend things’ the brave little boy was in the mood to try.
