Aftermath

 


It was a cool fall in Pittsburgh and the guys were glad for the warmth of their fake fireplace. They were sitting on the floor of the loft enjoying the flickering flames and the eerie shadows that leaped about the loft, illuminating a few of the Halloween decorations which had not yet been dismantled and returned to storage.

"You're not mad about anything that happened this Halloween, are you, Bri?" Justin asked the guy who had encircled him with his arm and who certainly didn’t look like he was mad about anything.

"I guess you mean 'Am I mad about you not having the decorations put away yet – three days after the fact'?" Brian surmised.

"Nope," Justin replied quickly. "That isn't what I mean at all. You were the one who made me and Malcolm and Hunter go crazy with a lot of extra stuff this year. I don't know what you were trying to prove but I told you it would take a while to get all that stuff taken apart. We'll finish it up tomorrow but I want to remind you that you haven’t done a thing to help clean up either."

"And you wanted me to help?" Brian countered just as quickly.

"No, we didn't actually," Justin had to laugh. "We're satisfied to forego your assistance but we're not ready for you to be mad about how long it's taking either."

"Well then," Brian wondered, "What am I allowed to be mad about?"

"I guess it would be all right for you to be a little mad about scary movie night," Justin allowed. "It did get a bit crowded."

"Yeah, it did," Brian agreed, "But it wasn't anybody's fault that Abelard and his three pals from OSU showed up for Halloween. We had to invite them to come, so I guess I shouldn't be mad about that."

"Yeah, but it used to be just you and Mikey," Justin continued, "And then me, and then everybody else, and then this year I added Jason and Brandon and…."

"Things change, Baby," Brian philosophized, "And, you know something else, I don't care about the other guys but I wouldn't even want to do it any more if you weren't there."

That brought the conversation to an abrupt pause – even though it clearly was not over, but it was over for a while.

"What did you think of Abelard's friends, Bri?" Justin eventually decided to return to the topic under discussion.

"Well, I thought Felix and Paul were pretty much OK," Brian replied, "But I still think it's not a good idea to have straight guys around here."

"I guess you mean Cecil," Justin was smiling. "You left him out. He wasn't trying to be mean or obnoxious or anything. He thought he was being funny when he climbed up on Abelard's lap."

"Yeah, he did," Brian admitted, "But straight guys have such a weird sense of humor most of the time."

"Not like us," Justin laughed. "When they decided to come back for Gus' party here the next night and we went out to get them costumes…."

"So I picked out a jackass suit for Cecil," Brian interrupted. "A perfect fit it was too. And it suited him fine. Now that was really funny."

"Yeah but you also picked out the camel outfit for Abelard," Justin provoked.

"Well you never told me that Gus' favorite animal was the camel so it's your fault," Brian complained. "I don't care if Gus liked Abelard's costume the best. He liked my King Kong costume too – and your crazy platypus costume scared him. Scared me too."

"I guess you don't want me to remind you who decided on a platypus costume for me in the first place, do you?" Justin reminded him. "It certainly was not my idea to be a platypus."

"OK, Twink," Brian seemed amused. "So this year I pick out some costumes and maybe they don't work out all that well. So what did you expect? Brian Kinney can't do anything right."

"Poor unappreciated Brian Kinney," Justin sympathized, with maybe mock sincerity. "I hope we're not going to go through that old 'nobody loves me' bit."

"Well nobody does," Brian echoed. "Seems to me sometimes like nobody does."

"Well maybe somebody does," Justin told him. "I actually think that somebody does."

"If it's the right somebody, I guess that's OK then," Brian decided reluctantly.

Justin took some time out from the conversation at this point to try to answer that supposition – and apparently succeeded. Again the conversation resumed after a while.

"Nope," Brian replied to the earlier question. "I'm not mad about anything that happened this Halloween at all. You did all the work and I got some of the credit. It was my intention really to thank you – after you got all the Halloween stuff put away that is – but I guess I can thank you now and if you don't get all the stuff put away, I'll do it myself."

"You don't need to threaten me at all, Mr. Kinney," Justin told him. "We planned to finish all that tomorrow and we will. Maybe I'll bring Jason over too just to make sure we have enough manpower."

"Twinkpower, I think," Brian laughed. "Don't you mean twinkpower?"

"Way better than manpower, I think," Justin came back. "Twinkpower rules - and you better know that, Kinney."

Brian just smiled at that – very possibly in agreement – and they stared for just a few minutes at the fake flames.

"You know what, Baby," Brian resumed the chat. "If that Cecil guy comes here in December to have us pick out Christmas gifts for him, I want you to get him some really bad stuff. That'll fix him. Serve him right too."

"Brian Kinney," Justin remonstrated, "That is a terrible thing to suggest. Do you think us semi-professional shoppers don't have a strong code of ethics. Well we do. There's no way I could ever do anything like that. I will have to do my best for Cecil, just like everybody else – even if you don't happen to like his sense of humor. If you want Cecil to get lousy gifts, you'll have to help him pick them out yourself."

"Sure," Brian grouched. "If I help pick them, they're sure to be bad stuff. Brian Kinney has no taste. That's why nobody loves him."

"Gee whiz, Bri," Justin responded. "Didn't we go through that earlier in the evening? I thought I already showed you that maybe at least one somebody loves you."

"Maybe we did – and maybe you did," Brian told him, "But I don't think I remember it."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to do it all over again," Justin decided. But he didn't seem at all put off by Brian's poor memory.
 

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