High School Reunion

Chapter 10

* * *

Curious eyes followed Brian Kinney and the man whose hand he held, as they walked back across the gymnasium to their table.

“Are you all right, Justin?” Ben asked with concern in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Justin replied. “I think it was a flashback to my prom.”

“Fuck!” Michael whispered. “I remember that night.”

“I wish I did,” Justin said, meaning every word of that. He always wished the memory of his dance with Brian would come back to him one day. It had to be such a wonderful moment, and he was not really a part of it. He was sick of hearing other people talk about that night, or not talk about it for fear of hurting him. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

“No, you don’t,” Brian replied solemnly looking into Justin’s eyes.

“I meant the dance.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry it’s so painful for you, Brian.”

“I’ll never forget…”

Justin stared at Brian. He did want to remember, regardless of the fact that Brian wanted to forget what had happened at the end of that night.

Taking a breath, Justin said, “Whatever happened it’s over now, so let’s enjoy this evening.” He dug into the food that had been placed on the table at his seat while they were outside.

Just then there was a noisy exchange at a table across the gym.

“What’s going on?” Michael asked craning his neck to try to see.

“I’d say Joel Dalrymple has had a little too much to drink,” Brian observed with a sneer.

“That’s Joel Dalrymple?” Justin asked looking over at the rather pudgy, somewhat unkempt man who was trying to push Buck Hansen away. “I thought you said he was good looking.” Justin chuckled as he watched the man.

“He used to be, but time and the bottle have not been kind,” Brian stated, as he watched Buck Hansen trying to reason with the drunken Joel.

“Who’s Joel Dalrymple?” Ben asked.

“He’s one of the jocks who stuck Brian’s head in the toilet in our senior year,” Michael explained.

“It took two of them,” Brian said sarcastically.

“I bet,” Ben chuckled.

“I should have had you around then,” Brian laughed. “We could have wiped the floor with them all.”

“What did you do after they stuck your head in the toilet?” Ben asked with interest. He suspected it would be something inventive.

“He slammed Buck’s fingers in his locker door,” Michael said with evident pride. “Ended Buck’s football season for that year.”

The voices grew louder and closer. Joel was staggering across the gym towards their table. Buck Hansen was trying to block Joel’s progress but without much success. It looked like he would have to flatten Joel to stop him. A woman was tugging on Joel’s arm begging him to sit back down.

“I’m not going to sit over there and watch this table of homos laughing at us!” Joel declared as he drew near. “Fucking Kinney and Novotny! Fucking homos!” he practically yelled slurring his words.

“That would be me,” Brian said standing up. He didn’t want a fight, but he was pretty sure one good shove would send Joel Dalrymple onto his fat ass.

“You’ve got backup, Brian,” Ben declared pushing back his chair and standing just behind Brian.

“Thanks,” Brian mumbled, but he didn’t take his eyes off Joel.

“Fucking pansy piece of shit!” Joel blathered on while Buck and the woman tried to hold him back.

“You better get him out of here, Buck,” Brian warned.

“I’m trying to.” Buck nodded at someone a couple of tables away.

Suddenly two huge men grabbed Joel by the arms and practically lifted him off the floor. They half carried, half dragged him from the gym. All the way out Joel was yelling shit about homos and butt fuckers and traitorous friends.

“I’m sorry, Brian,” Buck said as he hurried out after them to deal with the situation.

“I bet,” Brian said with a grimace. This was exactly the kind of bullshit he had been afraid would happen.

“Brian,” said the woman who had been tugging on Joel’s arm.

“Yeah?” Brian said with a sigh as he turned around.

“Brian, I want to apologize for Joel. He brought a flask with him tonight and he’s been hitting it pretty hard since we got here, to say nothing about all the beer he had this afternoon.”

“He always was piss poor at everything he did, Mary Beth. Don’t tell me you’re still with the fucker?”

“Yeah,” the woman said shaking her head. “But this may be the last straw.”

“Did you marry him?”

Mary Beth nodded her head. “Right after graduation. I was pregnant.”

Brian shook his head. “Sorry to hear that.”

“I should have married you,” Mary Beth said with a crooked smile, and a swipe at a lone tear that had trickled from one eye.

“That wouldn’t have worked for either of us,” Brian said ruefully.

“It couldn’t have been much worse than what I have now,” Mary Beth replied, looking at Justin who had remained seated at the table. With a sad tinge to her voice she said, “I hope you’re happy, Brian.”

“I am, and I wish you were too.”

“Thanks,” Mary Beth sighed. “I guess I better go see what that asshole is up to.” She hustled away, exiting the gym as quickly as she could.

Brian watched her leave wondering why Mary Beth deserved such a miserable life. She was a nice enough girl, and he suspected she had grown into a nice enough woman, if Joel Dalrymple hadn’t warped her world too much. It should have been Brian who was the miserable one in a just world, but the world was hardly just, as Brian knew all too well. He looked down at Justin and reached out his hand to squeeze Justin’s shoulder. Justin smiled up at him with the sparkle of tears in his eyes. He placed his hand on top of Brian’s and held it there, conveying that he understood.

“What a fucking asshole!” Michael said breaking the moment.

“Yeah,” Brian agreed as they all sat down. He reluctantly removed his hand from Justin’s shoulder after a final tender squeeze. “I think we should leave.”

“We haven’t even finished dinner yet,” Michael protested.

“I’ve lost my appetite.”

“I’ll do whatever you want, Brian,” Justin spoke up. “Leave or stay, it doesn’t matter to me.” Joel Dalrymple had taken away any possible enjoyment they might have got out of the reunion.

“Let’s go,” Brian said pushing back his chair.

“Brian, I’m really sorry about that scene,” Buck Hansen said as he rushed over to Brian’s table. “Joel is a very unhappy man.”

“He’s a drunken, homophobic asshole, just like he was in high school,” Brian retorted.

“You’re probably right, but we’re giving him coffee and we’ve confiscated his flask. There won’t be any more trouble.”

“I don’t see how you can guarantee that,” Brian said sharply. “We’re leaving.”

“Don’t go, please. I’m really sorry about all this, and I promise the evening will get better. We’re going to have a DJ set up in about an hour. There’ll be dancing.”

“Fabulous!” Brian replied sarcastically. “And when I dance with Justin, some other homophobe in the crowd will blow a gasket and pull out a Glock or an AK40.”

“We’re not all like Joel,” Buck said sadly.

“Wanna bet?” Brian practically shouted.

“Seriously, Brian, I don’t want you to leave.”

“What the fuck does it matter to you anyway?”

“I told you I wanted to talk to you later, and I still do.”

“Let’s have coffee sometime … in the next millennium,” Brian added derisively as he moved to step around Buck.

“Please, Brian…” Buck continued, placing a hand on Brian’s arm to stop him.

“I seriously suggest you get your fucking hands off me,” Brian warned with his Rage death glare radiating from his eyes.

Buck removed his hand immediately and held up both hands in surrender, and to show Brian that he wouldn’t touch him again.

“Brian,” Justin said softly as he stood in Brian’s way. “Maybe we should stay.”

“You just said…”

“I know what I said,” Justin conceded. “But we don’t want to ruin this for everyone else, and Buck really wants you to stay … and I haven’t eaten my dinner.” He batted his eyelashes at Brian.

“Fuck!” Brian reacted, rubbing his hand across his face. “All right, we’ll stay, but there better not be any more incidents like that one.”

“I promise,” Buck said quickly. “Thank you, JT,” he added reading Justin’s name tag.

“It’s Justin actually, Justin Taylor.”

“Nice to meet you, Justin,” Buck said with a smile as he extended his hand.

Justin shook it. He then said to Buck, “I hope I haven’t made a mistake encouraging Brian to stay.”

“Brian is one of our most successful alumni,” Buck said with apparent sincerity. “It would be a shame for him to be driven away by a loser like Joel Dalrymple.”

“Joel used to be your best bud,” Brian reminded the man.

“I know, but that hasn’t been the case for many years. Our lives went in very different directions.”

Brian drew in a deep breath. “Okay, we’ll stay.” He looked from Michael to Ben to Justin and each nodded in agreement. “I hope I don’t regret this.”

“You won’t,” Buck declared, reaching for Brian’s hand to shake it too. Brian reluctantly allowed that to happen. “I better go get things moving again,” Buck said. He hurried off to the microphone to tell the guests that dinner would continue to be served and that the upsetting incident had been dealt with.

Brian sat down when Justin did. “You sure about this?” he asked his lover.

“N…no,’” Justin admitted with a little grin, “but it seemed right to stay.”

“I hope your intuition isn’t going to lead us astray.”

“Never,” Justin chuckled as he dug into his food.

 

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