Declaration of War

It was almost eight o’clock when Debbie and the rest of the Liberty Diner evening shift began arriving to relieve the dinner rush crew. Justin served up his last entrée for the evening before picking up his tips, and giving his area one final look. Everything appeared to be ready for the next shift, except for one nearly empty bottle that needed to be replace. The popular young waiter walked over behind the counter and bent down in search of a new bottle of ketchup. “I’ll take an order of butt steak to go.” a familiar voice said.

Justin retrieved the ketchup from the bottom shelf before standing up. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be at Woody’s” he smiled.

Brian leaned over the counter for a kiss. “I came to walk you home.” he said.

“I have a car, remember?” The young man reminded him.

“Well then I came to walk you to your car.”

Justin’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why?”

“Do I need a reason?” Brian smiled.

“Give me two minutes to clock out.”

Justin hurried to the backroom leaving Brian out front with Debbie as he waited. As had become her new routine she once again took the opportunity to scolded her wayward, unofficial son for his participation in getting Jim Stockwell elected as mayor. “Did you hear about Chandelier? She was attacked last week after the Gay/Lesbian Center benefit show. That asshole mayor of yours is calling it an isolated incident.” Debbie opened fire. “Not only that. The tattoo parlor across the street from Michael’s shop had it’s window smashed, and someone has been spray painting the cars outside of Babylon.”

“Good evening Deborah, it’s good to see you too.” Brian attempted to avoid the conversation.

“We’re organizing a march on city hall. We’re going to demand added police presence on Liberty Avenue.” Debbie raised her fist in defiance.

“That’s kind of like asking the fox to protect the hen house isn’t it?” Brian said mockingly.

“We’re going to demand that they do their jobs!”

“Take it easy Deb. You’re going to make yourself all sweaty before your shift begins.”

“I can’t believe you don’t give a shit! Did you hear how that bitch Elizabeth Dole trashed gay marriage at the republican convention? Did you hear her say that the republican’s are going to keep marriage between a man, and a woman? And what about that Terminator guy calling people who didn’t agree with Bush’s economics “girlie men”? Homophobia, gay trashing, and gay bashing is running rampant across the country, beginning at the white house, and you couldn’t care less! What’s it going to take to light a fire under your ass?” Debbie grandstanded.

“That.” Brian pointed to Justin who was making his way back to the front.

“You blind asshole!” Debbie snatched her apron from underneath the counter.

“What’s the matter Deb?” Justin stopped to ask.

“Don’t pay any attention to her, she’s just forcing her political views AGAIN. Let’s go.” Brian took Justin’s arm, and hauled him out the door.

The two of them stopped just outside the diner entrance long enough for Brian to retrieve a cigarette from his jacket pocket. “I wouldn’t light that if I were you.” Justin warned. “Stockwell is proposing a band on smoking on Liberty Avenue. He says it will cut down on some of the illicit drugs.”

“Is that right?” Brian tossed the cigarette to the ground, and pulled out a joint from the same jacket pocket.

“Brian, you can’t smoke that here!” Justin attempted to keep his voice down.

“Watch me.” Brian said and lit the marijuana cigarette. He took a long drag before passing the joint to Justin.

Justin took a hit before intertwining his fingers with Brian’s, and beginning their stole to the red Toyota Celica. “You’re going to get us thrown in jail.” He said, and passed the joint back to Brian.

“I’ll plead insanity. I’ll tell the officers about my rough day, and how my slave-driver boss Anthony Massey has me working under so much pressure that I was forced into a life of addiction.” Brian took another long drag.

“That should get you 2-3yrs.” Justin said.

“Humm, 2-3yrs of hot prison sex.” Brian smiled. “That doesn’t sound so bad to me. And while I’m incarcerated you’d be free to fuck your boyfriend Tony.”

“Will you stop saying that?” Justin punched Brian’s arm. “You’re my boyfriend!”

“Whatever.” Brian passed the joint.

“If you ask me, Tony’s the one working under pressure. What did you tell Cynthia?” Justin took a drag, and passed the joint back to Brian.

“I didn’t tell her anything.”

“Liar. She’s all over him. Come to think of it ALL of the women at Vanguard are all over him. Why do I believe that you had something to do with that?” Justin exhaled.

“You know how women are, they’re always looking for a rich man to breed with?” Brian took another hit.

“Tony is not a breeder.”

“They don’t know that.”

“You devil, you encouraged them!”

“Moi?” Brian feigned innocence.

“I knew you had something to do with it.” Justin laughed. “Brian you turned the dogs loose on him.”

“He’s a sly old fox. He’ll find a way to outsmart the hounds.” Brian grinned impishly.

“Have I told you lately that I think you’re a genius?” Justin snuggled close to Brian’s arm. “That add campaign that you put together for Tony, and getting an asshole like Stockwell elected was nothing less than brilliant.”

“Did you expect anything less?” Brian smugly turned his nose up, and took a final hit of his joint before passing the remainder to Justin.

“Of course not.” Justin took his last drag, and tossed the roach to the grown.

“I couldn’t have done it all by myself.” Brian said. “I have to give credit to all of the little people who assisted me, including one invaluable intern.” Brian then reached inside his jacket pocket, and handed Justin an envelope.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a little something for a job well done.” Brian said.

Justin stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to open the surprise package. The young man’s fingers trembled as he tore at the sealed edges. “Oh my god, oh my god, thank you Brian!”

Brian laughed as Justin flung his arms around his neck, and pulled him in for a barrage of kisses that landed on his mouth, his cheeks, his neck… “Take it easy tiger. There’ll be plenty of time to thank me properly when we get home.” he said.

“FAGGOTS!”

The shout came from nowhere, followed by an flying bottle. Brian instinctively pulled Justin close to his chest, and spun around so that his back was facing the direction of the attackers. He braced himself for the blow, but luckily the bottle grazed past them. “Hey, what’s going on?” A stunned Justin protested amidst the sound of shattering glass.

“Are you alright?” A passing stranger stopped to asked.

Brian attempted to focus his eyes on the rear license plate of the assailant car as it spread around the corner. “What the fuck was that?”

“It’s Pittsburgh's latest pastime, drive-by gay bashing. ” the stranger said. “There was a guy hit by a flying beer bottle as he was coming out of Babylon the other night. Luckily he only received some minor cuts. There was another drive-by not far from the Liberty Diner last weekend. This time the guy was cut pretty bad. I guess it’s only a matter of time now before the bottles are replaced with bullets. It seems as if the good-old-boys of Pittsburgh have declared war on Liberty Avenue. It’s not safe around here anymore.”

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NEXT WEEK: Finding Theodore

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