Glee For All

The guys had been sitting on the floor of the loft staring at their fake flames for half an hour. Not much had been said up to this point. Silence just might have been the way to go - but ….

“OK, Taylor,” Brian pointed out. “I think you’re mad about something. You weren’t mad when we came home from the concert last night and you didn’t seem to be mad this morning, but something tells me you’re mad now.”

“Nope,” Justin replied.

“Then you must have a sore throat,” Brian presumed,” “Want me to call Dr. Marshall? He can prescribe something over the phone I bet.”

“Nope,” Justin replied again.

“OK, Baby,” Brian gave up. “If you don’t want to talk, we can just sit here. That works for me. If and when you want to say something, I’ll be glad to hear what you have to say.”

It was a while before Justin said anything but eventually he did speak.

“Brian,” he announced. “You were ogling that guy in the glee club last night.”

“There were 42 guys singing their heads off in that glee club, Sweetheart,” Brian told him. “If I was ogling only one of them, that doesn’t seem like a high percentage to me. There must have been 41 of them that I wasn’t ogling then – not that I’m admitting anything.”

“Yeah – right – Mr. Ogler,” Justin came back. “You know exactly which one I mean too. That really cute blond twink, second from the end on the left side of the third row. I saw you.”

“You were sitting next to me – looking the same direction as me – and you could not only tell I was ogling somebody – you could tell which one I was ogling,” Brian expressed amazement.

“Yep,” Justin replied.

“Well if you have to know, Sweetheart,” Brian told him. “If I was gonna ogle anybody in the Pittsburgh Gay Men’s Glee Club, it would have been that dark guy on the right side – the one with the moustache and the flowers on his tie.”

“There wasn’t anybody like that on stage, Kinney,” Justin observed tartly. “You’re making him up. The nearest to that description would be the guy between the bald guy with the dark glasses and real tall guy who would have been bald except for the toupee.”

“So maybe you noticed the glee clubbers too, Baby,” Brian decided. “Maybe you were ogling a few of them yourself while I was all wrapped up in the music.”

“I have an artist’s eye, Brian,” Justin explained. “I’m supposed to notice stuff.”

“OK, Baby mine,” Brian laughed. “The very next time the Pittsburgh Ugly Old Women’s Chorus has a concert, we’re going – and we’ll see how your artist’s eye works then. Bet it won’t be as keen as last night. That’s probably why you wanted to go in the first place – to do a little ogling yourself.”

“That’s mean, Brian, and you know it,” Justin complained. “I bought those tickets because it was a benefit for a worthy cause and Ted was selling them. We were supporting a worthy cause. We were not out on a scouting tour. We were supporting those gay singers and the charity too.”

“I got it, Baby,” Brian chortled. “I got it now. I know what you’re mad about. You were talking to Ted today and you found out he tried to sell me tickets and I told him nobody would ever drag somebody he loves to hear the Pittsburgh Gay Men’s Glee Club. So then he sold you the tickets and you dragged me – and that’s why you’re mad. I’ll pay him back for blabbing. I will.”

“Well that would have been enough to make me mad, Kinney,” Justin laughed. “But it just so happens that I did not talk to Ted today and I didn’t know any of that till just now – so when I get over being mad about what I’m mad about now, I’ll still have something else to be mad about. It pays sometimes to have stuff in reserve.”

At this unlikely point in the conversation, there was an unexpected lull. A keen observer would not have guessed that Justin was mad about anything – much less would that keen observer have guessed why he was mad.

“I’ve got it,” Brian broke the silence with a cry of discovery. “I think I know why you’re mad, Baby – and you’re not mad at me at all. You’re mad because that guy I was supposed to be ogling was a blond twink and you didn’t know him. I can see now why you might be mad. A beautiful blond twink that you didn’t know. Maybe Justin Taylor is slipping some as he ages.”

“Roger, Brian,” Justin half-clenched his teeth. “Roger Dowdell. His name is Roger Dowdell. He’s over at the Institute – in music – not vocal music either – he plays something or other. Ethan says he’s pretty good. He’s kind of dating Evan – you don’t know them – but Roger has a roving eye – and he noticed you….”

“Geez, Baby,” Brian was in awe. “You can even tell when guys on stage notice members of the audience. That artist’s eye is really something. Wow….”

“Cut it out, Kinney,” Justin commanded. “It’s just that I happened to call Roger today to tell him about how much we liked the concert – and before I could tell him that, he asked me if I noticed the guy sitting next to me.”

”Wasn’t there a woman on the other side of you, Baby?” Brian seemed amused.

“Yes there was, Kinney,” Justin agreed. “Which is why I knew it had to be you that he was talking about. Roger asked me if I noticed you – and you know what that means?”

“Yeah,” Brian replied. “It means he doesn’t know about your artist’s eye – or he’d have known you noticed me.”

“Dammit, Brian Kinney,” Justin retorted. “Roger said he didn’t know what you looked like. He had heard about you of course – I guess everybody there has - but he didn’t know what you looked like. You know what else he said – he said he heard that you don’t like to go out much – that you’d just rather stay around here all the time – and like never go out. So he thought I was alone at the concert – and he said he made eye contact with you too….”

“Well maybe he did, Baby,” Brian squeezed the kid just enough to reassure him. “But I did not make eye contact with him. And no ogling either. Of course I noticed him. He would stand out anywhere. He’s a beautiful blond twink all right. He’s just not my beautiful blond twink.”

The pause in the discussion at this point was much more understandable than the earlier one – and just about as long too – but it did not conclude the discussion either.

“You know what, Baby,” Brian told Justin. “It’s really your fault that some of the guys at the Institute don’t recognize me when they see me. You don’t allow me to go over there all that often. In fact, you don’t allow me to go over there as often as I do. If you’d….”

“Darn it Kinney,” Justin protested. “If you’re not trying to make everything look like it’s my fault. I would never do that to you and you know it.”

“My humble apologies, Honey,” Brian responded. “I don’t know why I do that. You’re right though. You’d never do anything like that to me.”

“Well the words are right but the sarcasm is obvious,” Justin smiled at him. “So I’ll accept the words and ignore the sarcasm. That’s what I’ll do since I know how you are.”

“So you’re not mad about my mad affair with Roger any more, I hope?” Brian continued.

“I guess not, Bri,” Justin allowed. “Maybe I did overreact just slightly. But now there’s that stuff about you telling Ted that nobody would drag somebody he loves to hear the Pittsburgh Gay Men’s Glee Club...”

“Cut it out, Baby,” Brian told him. “I think I’d like to do something else right now. Can we possibly postpone that problem till another night – preferably pretty far in the future?”

“Yep,” Justin replied.

And that did finally end the evening’s conversation.
 

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