The Gang's All Here - Maybe

 

The fire was lit and the guys were positioning themselves on the floor of the loft in front of it. Brian had warned Justin that he had something to tell him. He had added that he just might want Justin's advice. That had really surprised Justin – not because Brian hadn't often taken Justin's advice previously – but because Brian had admitted this time that he might want it. Justin was intrigued.

"OK Twink," Brian warned him again when they had achieved their usual positions. "This is not funny and you are not supposed to laugh – or smile – or grin – or anything like that. Got it?"

"I think I've got the message," Justin said. "You are gonna tell me something funny and I am not allowed to laugh. Whatever you say, Bri. Justin Taylor is prepared to stay solemn through it all. Tell away."

"My graduating class is having a reunion," Brian told him.

"That's not funny, Brian," Justin seemed puzzled. "Classes all have reunions. What might be funny is if you wanted to go. You talking about your college class?"

"Nope," Brian went on, "High school – and no jokes about which reunion it is either. Mikey's all excited about it."

"You mean he's planning to go?" Justin wanted to know. "I'm a little bit surprised. You guys never talk much about high school. I didn't think you liked high school all that much."

"We didn't," Brian agreed. "But we did know some kids that we liked. One of those guys was Bruce Simon. He was the big man on campus – the star quarterback and the senior class president and his girl friend was the best looking girl in the class so I've been told. Bruce was like an All-American in football in college – Ivy League too…. He was always kind of friendly at school. Of course there were no gay people in our high school class. We liked him…."

"And he married his beautiful high school sweetheart and they're living happily ever after…." Justin finished his sentence for him.

"Nope, Baby," Brian was smiling now. "Turned out Bruce was gay. We never knew of course. He went to law school and he's now a big corporate attorney in Chicago – married a physician – male – who would have been the best looking guy in our class but he went to high school in Montana. I saw his picture once."

"I'm a little bit confused about where this is going, Brian," Justin wondered. "Are you telling me that you want to go to this reunion? If that's what you're telling me then I am surprised."

"That isn't exactly what I'm coming to, Kiddo," Brian told him. "At least not yet. Bruce called me the other day. I think I saw him a couple of times since we graduated but I was surprised all right. He knows I'm kind of a success here and he wants me to be on the reunion committee. He's chairman and a lot of the committee is out of town. He wants somebody who's still in the Pitts to be on the committee – somebody he can trust to handle the local stuff in person and he thought of me. They'll all be in town from time to time but they want somebody who lives here."

"So what did you tell him?" Justin was genuinely interested now.

"I told him about you," Brian answered, "And I told him I wanted to talk to you about it. I told him I'd get back to him in a couple of days. This is really the first chance I've had. We've been busy."

"You wanted to talk to me about it?" Justin was quizzical. "So I guess you thought I'd say you should do it and then you could blame me if you change your mind later. Well you can't blame me this time, Mr. Kinney, because this is definitely not my fault."

"Yeah it is," Brian squeezed the twink closer to him. "Before you came along, I would have just laughed in his face right over the telephone. No chance I'd have been interested. Anyhow, you are here and I didn't laugh in his face and…."

The discussion broke off at this point with no decision made. It was a while before the guys got back to thinking about the reunion.

"Brian," Justin came back to the subject. "You gotta decide this yourself. I think you should do what you want to do. I'll support whatever you decide and help however I can if you decide to do it. And I'll even take part of the blame if you say 'yes' to Bruce and then change your mind – but just part of the blame."

"But you do think I should do it, don't you?" Brian deduced.

"It might be better to say that I think you want to do it," Justin amended the question. "If you didn't want to do it, I probably wouldn't have ever heard. ."

"Yeah you would have," Brian seemed sure. "Mikey is all gung-ho about this reunion for some reason or other – and he wants to go - and he would have tried to get you to work your magic on me."

"But it doesn't seem that I need to work any magic at all, Honey," Justin smiled at last - figuring it was now safe. "You seem to be a little bit gung-ho about it too."

"Well I guess I will tell Bruce I'll work on the committee," Brian concluded. "If you think that's OK, that is. But I don't know if I'll want to go to the reunion when it happens next year. You don't have to worry though. If I go, I'll ask you to be my date."

"And I'll probably accept – if I don't have another date for that evening," Justin allowed with a smile.

"Well I guess if you do have another engagement I can take Linz," Brian smiled back at him. "She was in our class too, you know."

"I imagine you'd be able to take Linz all right - over Melanie's dead body," Justin laughed. "So I better save the date when I find out what it is. Actually, Brian, I'm kind of glad you want to do this. You'll be great at it. And you'll have a good time at the reunion too, I bet."

"You'll see to that?" Brian predicted.

"I will indeed," Justin confirmed. "To the best of my considerable ability."

"Maybe I better also tell you this then, Sweetheart," Brian revealed. "Bruce said something about chartering the Gateway Clipper for a river cruise the night before the big reunion – and that event might just be for class members – with no significant others invited."

"Whatever the committee decides, Brian, Sweetheart," Justin grinned slyly. "Ben and me and Melanie can get together that night and have a wild old time for ourselves. Don't worry 'bout us."

"Yeah," Brian grinned back at him. "That sounds like a really wild time all right. I'll be worried about you though that whole night while I'm having fun on the Clipper."

"Better you should worry about me the next night, Mr. Kinney," Justin cautioned him, "When I get my chance at that good looking doctor of Bruce's, who would have been the handsomest guy in your class if he hadn't lived in Montana. You know what, Sweetheart, maybe he'll join us outcasts the night before while you guys are on the Gateway Clipper."

"And maybe he won't either," Brian decided. "Maybe I'll just forbid you to socialize with the good doctor – his name is Clark by the way – when I am not present."

"You're jealous, Brian," Justin cajoled while brushing his hair against Brian's cheek. "You're jealous. It's OK for you to be jealous, Honey, but I hope you do know that you're the only guy in the world for me."

"Yeah I know that, Baby," Brian told him, "And that's why I'm able to do all this stuff. So you can have your fun and take Clark with you while we’re cruising the three rivers. Have a good time, JT. Just save the last dance for me."

Justin cuddled himself closer to the guy he loved more every day. "Don't I always?" he whispered into Brian's ear.




 

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