All Squared Away

It was well after midnight when the denizens of the loft kind of staggered into that loft – way too late for any fireside chat – under normal circumstances that is – but then circumstances were not usually normal in the loft.

“Turn on the fireplace, Bri,” Justin suggested in his most insistent tone. “We need to talk.”

“As soon as I get this flannel shirt off, Sweetheart,” Brian told him. “I don’t like flannel shirts – too hot.”

“Just leave it on, Kinney” Justin smiled at him. “Unless you have a hair shirt you can put on. That’s what you really deserve. You are an evil person. You’re lucky I’m even talking to you.”

“Yeah, I guess I am lucky about that, Baby,” Brian agreed. “But maybe it’s bad luck we’re talking about here too …”

The guys soon settled themselves into their usual positions – Brian with his blue flannel shirt opened all the way down the front but still on – as a kind of compromise. Justin did not resist when Brian put his arm around the kid so Brian figured the situation was well in hand – or al least capable of being handled.

“Now you said you wanted to talk about something ….” Brian said, “And so here we are….”

“Sheila,” Justin interrupted. “I guess we should start off with Sheila, Kinney. You danced with her almost as much as you danced with me tonight – and Sheila is a female too, Brian – in case you didn’t even notice.”

“Yep, I noticed,” Brian admitted. “And a straight female too – which is maybe the best kind of female …. But she wasn’t making a play for me or anything….”

“Quit trying to change the subject, Brian,” Justin insisted. “You went behind my back with that straight female and became like an expert square dancer and you never told me either. You were trying to trick me I guess….”

“I was not trying to trick you at all, Baby,” Brian defended himself. “Maybe I was trying to surprise you though – like a lot of times you try to surprise me – but I would never try to trick you – like you would never try to trick me….”

“OK, BK,” Justin sounded unconvinced though he had a grin on his face. “Don’t try to throw any of the blame for this on me. All I did was ….”

“Arrange for me and Brandon to have the same pattern in our flannel shirts maybe,” Brian finished Justin’s sentence in a way Justin had not intended.

“That was a complete accident, Brian,” Justin pointed out defensively. “Me and Malcolm went to Nifty Shoppe over at the Waterfront and picked out that shirt for you – you wouldn’t go. They’re pretty exclusive at Nifty Shoppe – you know that – and they said they were the only place in town that had that pattern and the blue was so right for you …. It just seemed to say ‘Brian Kinney.’ Malcolm thought so and so did I….”

“And I guess the red one just said ‘Brandon Keane’ to you guys,” Brian laughed. “So you sent Jason over to Nifty Shoppe too. Brandon said that Jason picked his…..”

“Dammit, Kinney,” Justin stopped him. “Now you are making me really mad. You think I sent Jason over there - which I didn’t. I found out later that Malcolm told Jason where we got your shirt so maybe….. But what makes me really irate is that you think I’d have picked out red for Brandon. Well for your information, Brandon would have looked like - perfect in the purple – but red was not right for him at all. I’m surprised at Jason – even if red is Jason’s favorite color….”

“And maybe you know how Phil Stern got the same pattern in green?” Brian continued. “Or how Al Walters ended up with the brown. I bet everybody at the dance thought Big Lots had a clearance sale on that pattern….”

“I don’t know anything about that, Brian,” Justin smothered a laugh. “But I bet nobody at the dance would have noticed at all - if you guys hadn’t pulled that trick of exchanging shirts every half hour or so.”

“Your fault too, Honey,” Brian accused him. “Me and Brandon were just gonna exchange ours – like for a little joke - but when you saw me in the red one – you ordered me to get rid of that shirt so - I just switched to Phil’s green one – and things just moved on from there ….. But here I am in the blue one you picked out for me. I wouldn’t want any other shirt if I could have the one you picked out ….”

“You are so full of it, Kinney,” Justin laughed. “And slick too – but you aren’t getting out of this all that easily. Remember we were talking about Sheila before your clever digression….”

“Sheila is a friend of Kim who works at the office,” Brian explained, “As you have already found out I’m sure - since Cynthia was at the dance too. I don’t remember exactly how it all happened but Sheila volunteered to show me some square-dancing moves and I guess I was like a natural at it and the rest is history….”

“Well you must have spent a lot of time with Sheila to get as good as you are,” Justin groused. “Almost as good as me. And I did offer to coach you myself….”

“But I didn’t want to spend my time with you messing around with any old square dancing,” Brian squeezed the twink. “Messing around maybe – but not square dancing though…..”

This led to a time-out in the discussion – maybe not as long as usual due to the lateness of the hour – but long enough nevertheless.

“You know what, Baby,” Brian eventually returned to the subject at hand. “Me and Sheila only had maybe four practice sessions. But they were kinda fun. Sheila says there’s this big square-dancing club in Pittsburgh. I was surprised. She’s a member and she thinks I should join. Of course she’d want you to join too ….”

“Cut it out, Brian,” Justin laughed at him. “You might just be pushing this a bit too far. And I might just decide that I want to join that square-dancing club and I don’t think that’s what you really …..”

“OK, Sweetheart,” Brian conceded. “I guess you’re right. I’ll quit if you’ll quit. So our discussion of the dance is over?”

“Well you did dance a lot with Sheila,” Justin maintained. “Like every time I turned around there you two were….”

“But, Baby,” Brian interjected. “So I danced a couple of times with Sheila. But I saved the last dance for you – like I always save the last dance for you ….”

“And just why would you want to do that, Mr. Kinney?” Justin snuggled himself closer to the big guy next to him. “Why would you always want to save the last dance for me?”

“Maybe because I don’t want you to forget who’s taking you home and in whose arms you want to be?” Brian conjectured. “Although it’s not like – actually taking you straight home at all. Like tonight for example - we had to stop at Gino’s for spaghetti on our way home – even if you were all mad and upset.”

“Well a person can be all mad and upset,” Justin reminded him, “and still be hungry…..”

“So if you’re not all that mad and upset now,” Brian presumed, “maybe I can finally take this beautiful blue flannel shirt off?”

“Actually, I’ll be glad help you get it off, Kinney,” Justin volunteered. “If you can finally shut up about that dumb old square dance – and pay some attention to me – I’ll be glad to help.”

That led to a brief pause in the conversation – which allowed for some other activities to commence. But the subject that would not die – did not die easily.

“Hey, Kiddo,” Brian remembered. “You said purple would have been the perfect color shirt for Brandon tonight. Too bad nobody wore the purple….”

“You know what though, Bri,” Justin whispered in his ear as he tightened both of his arms around Brian’s neck. “Mikey and Ben weren’t there because Mikey didn’t feel so good and was throwing up. Well if Ben had come….”


 

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