Scared of His Shadow

Justin did not like the knowing look on Brian’s face as they sat themselves down on the loft floor with the fake fireplace blazing away in front of them Not at all.

“OK, Brian,” he finally decided to bite the bullet. “Do you have something you want to say?”

“Why would you think I had anything to say, Sweetheart?” Brian smiled at him, increasing Justin’s concern geometrically. “Have you maybe done something that I would want to ask you about?”

“Have you been over to Mikey’s or something, Kinney?” Justin replied tentatively - with a seemingly unrelated question.

“Now that is a seemingly unrelated question, Baby,” Brian smiled at him again. “But I’m not afraid to answer questions. I’m not scared to answer questions because I’m completely innocent. So yeah, I was over at Mikey’s today but I didn’t see Malcolm or Hunter over there - so that ought to save you another question.”

“Damn it, Brian,” Justin growled. “I have told Malcolm and Hunter like a hundred times that what happens at the Institute stays at the Institute – and they have to go blabbing everything to Michael and he has to tattle to you right away. It’s like a big spy network. And so you always know like – everything that goes on there.”

“Naw, I don’t either, Taylor,” Brian pointed out. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on over there that I don’t hear about – and wouldn’t want to hear about either. Just occasionally there’s some extraordinary event that’s worth hearing about. Geez, Kiddo, with this one you could have made the 6:00 news….”

“Yeah,” Justin had to smile in spite of himself. “I guess I could have - but the news media do not have the vast numbers of field operatives that you do – like – watching my every move.”

“Probably because they don’t know just how newsworthy you really are, Honey,” Brian explained. “But your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell them.”

“Well Groundhog Day is coming up, Bri,” Justin gave up. “And Malcolm’s friend Duane has a groundhog suit – and like - nobody ever saw a groundhog suit before – so he brought it in and Malcolm wrote up this little Groundhog Day skit and they put it on for some of us. I wasn’t in it or anything. It was like – too silly for me to get involved.”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard, Honey,” Brian laughed. “Which is why …”

”Cut it out right now, Brian Kinney,” Justin demanded. “I was not supposed to play the groundhog and anyway the suit was too small for me so Anthony Dennis had to be the groundhog cause he was the only one that the suit fit – but I wasn’t gonna be the groundhog anyhow…”

“But apparently your mature reserve was not enough for you to refrain from trying on the head of that groundhog after the skit was over, Baby?” Brian observed. “And that’s how you got the aforesaid groundhog head stuck on your own beautiful blond brainy head – and then you couldn’t get it off.”

“Well it’s not on my head now, Kinney,” Justin informed him coolly. “So I must have gotten it off all right – seems to me…”

“Yeah, I guess you did,” Brian admitted. “About an hour later I hear – and with the help of those friends of yours in the costume shop over there. Geez, Baby, what if you had got the whole costume stuck on you – since it was so small - and they couldn’t get it off and you had to come home with it on – and you had run across a groundhog hunter on the way back to the loft? I might be sitting here in front of this wonderful fireplace – all alone.”

“Which is exactly what you’ll be doing anyhow if you keep up this mean-spirited inquisition, Brian Kinney,” Justin told him. “You know how sensitive I am. Here I run into a little problem and all you want to do about it is laugh. And it wasn’t all that funny either.”

“Yes it was, Baby,” Brian completely disagreed. “And if it had been somebody else’s head stuck in that groundhog costume, you would think it was funny too.”

Justin responded by moving suggestively closer to the big guy next to him. “Well are we done with this now, Mr. Kinney, so that we can move on to something else?” he whispered in Brian’s ear.

“Pretty soon, Sweetheart,” Brian surprisingly resisted the assault. “I better tell you – like Malcolm is gonna borrow the groundhog head so I can see it. I’d like to maybe…”

“You think I’m gonna put that thing on again, Kinney?” Justin laughed. “Like I’m gonna get myself stuck in that thing again. No way, BK. You can have a lot of fun with this if you have to – but you’ll have to settle with imagining how it looked. Sorry about that.”

“Well I guess you’re right about not sticking your neck out again, Baby,” Brian concluded. “But you’re wrong about me having to rely on my imagination though. There are some pictures….”

“Some creep took pictures?” Justin was dumbfounded. “Gee whiz, Brian….”

“Hey, Baby,” Brian reasoned. “You were stuck in that thing for forty-five minutes with about 100 people around – and everybody in that Institute has at least one cell phone that takes pictures. There are probably thousands of pictures floating around. Anyhow, Mikey showed me a few on his computer that Malcolm took and I’m picking up a few prints at Wal-Mart tomorrow. They’re already done but I can wait. No need for a special trip. There’s always tomorrow. Now I think you said you had something else on your mind – besides the groundhog head that is….”

“Well maybe I do – or at least maybe I did – yeah, maybe I do….” Justin agreed - and they proceeded to some unrelated activity – all of which gave Justin some hope that the groundhog subject was finished. But it wasn’t at all, not yet.

“Guess there’s no use in me getting the groundhog head then, Baby,” Brian presumed in resuming the discussion. “Not if you won’t model it….”

”Well we could still get it if you wanted to try it on,” Justin suggested. “That would be an idea. I know where it is actually. If Mikey was trying to get it from Duane for you, Duane doesn’t have it so you wouldn’t be able to get it. Jason kinda borrowed it to show to Brandon so he has it. We could get it from Jason though - if you really had to see it. See - you wouldn’t have been able to even find it if I hadn’t told you where it was…”

“The truth is, Baby mine,” Brian laughed. “That I did know where it was – but if we wanted to see it we might have to take Jason too – because last time I heard, Jason had tried it on to show Brandon and he couldn’t get the head off either…”

”Are you kidding, Kinney?” Justin semi-gasped. “You have to be kidding. Jason isn’t that dumb….”

“Considering who else pulled the same stunt, Sweetheart,” Brian grinned. “Maybe we should give Jason the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn’t you have to suppose that smart people could get their heads stuck too? I have one very smart person in mind…..”

“Well didn’t you even try to help the poor kid out, Kinney?” Justin complained while changing the subject – barely concealing a certain degree of amusement.

“Yep,” Brian told him. “I got Malcolm to send the same people who got you out over to Brandon’s. They should get him out pretty quick – being kind of experienced and all.”

“I hope so,” Justin relaxed with a smile on his face. “But you know what else, Bri, I never want to see another groundhog in my whole life.”

“Oops,” Brian said. “Well you know what, Honey. When me and Brandon were talking, we decided it would be fun for the four of us to drive up to Punxsutawney on the second and see if Phil, the real groundhog, sees his shadow. It’s only about a fifty mile drive….”

“Brian, Sweetheart,” Justin told him, “I really don’t think me and Jason will want to do that. We have – like – already celebrated Groundhog Day. I know in that movie, Groundhog Day keeps coming day after day but in real life one Groundhog Day is like – enough.”

“OK, Sweetheart,” Brian concurred. “Let’s call over there and see if Jason ever got out of Mr. Groundhog’s head – and we’ll cancel the Punxsutawney trip too – but can I ask you just one question before we do that?”

“Sure, Brian,” Justin agreed – finally seeing the end of the discussion ahead - and cuddling even closer to the big guy in the process, “Anything you want – like – anything …”

“Well I was wondering, Babe,” Brian squeezed the twink just hard enough to convey a message. “When they got that groundhog head off of your beautiful blond head – did you see your shadow?”

Justin did not answer that question in so many words – or any words at all - and Jason and Brandon were not consulted on their problems that evening as planned either – but - there was always tomorrow.
 

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