Never Tear Us Apart(Queer As Folk)
Chapter One"Lake Harmony twenty-seven miles," Deb sang over her shoulder to Michael.He didn't hear her. He didn't see the Pocono foothills smeared across the window. He hadn't heard most of the conversation between his mother and his uncle Vic. He had tuned out somewhere outside of Pittsburgh. His quiet only made Deb's efforts to get his attention more strident."Virgin."All he could hear was Brian's voice."What?""You are. You're still a virgin."They had been standing at the bar at Babylon, he and his best friend, Brian. The noise and the crush of the place along with the forbidden sour frost of beer on his underaged tongue, and Michael was settling into a pleasant buzz. It was made more of the heady feel of freedom than of the minuscule amount of beer he was able to afford. Brian could always manage to get them drinks for free, but then there was his mom to deal with if he came home too wasted. But worse than Deb's sermonizing was missing out on the complete sense of freedom that he felt inside the walls of Babylon. He wasn't special, wasn't unusual, there was nothing wrong with him here, nothing to hide, no one to be other than Michael Novotny. At Babylon, Michael was just one of the queers.So, when Brian had called him out about his sexual experience or lack thereof, the blow had come especially hard."I am not a virgin," Michael shouted back, more to make himself heard over the music than to be heard by anyone other than Brian. It challenged Michael's right to belong here, the only place where he felt he truly belonged. It was more than the forged ID's and memberships Brian had somehow managed to get for them. It was a tribe, a fraternity, and the only rite of passage, the only gay rite, was sex with another man. Or that's how it seemed to an eighteen-year-old boy in his first gay club with a fake ID and forged membership."Michael," Brian said, draping his arm over Michael's shoulder and giving his left nipple a little playful tweak. "Getting two blow jobs does not break your gay hymen.""So you're an expert?""At least," Brian snorted and took another slug of his beer. Brian liked the beer buzz better than the queer-boy contact high that Michael loved; though he didn't mind that too much either."Okay then, uber-fag, what constitutes a loss of gay virginity?""Oh, come on, Michael, do I have to explain the facts of life to you?""For that matter, what constitutes any man's loss of virginity?""You see that guy, right there, the one with the Duran Duran thing going on with his hair?""The blond, with the blue thing on?""Yeah.""What about him?""Ask him in about an hour.""And how will he know?""I'm getting ready to show him," Brian said as he slid off the bar and laced his way through the crowd toward his target.Why not stay and show me? Michael thought."Stay and show you what?" Deb asked, desperate for any crumb of contact from planet Michael.Silence.Deb sighed. Vic looked up from his copy ofDancer from the Danceand smiled at her across the front seat before he returned to his reading.Michael watched, as much in awe of Brian as jealousy of the Duran Duran guy for stealing Brian's attention away. The truth was, Michael knew what he thought losing his virginity was, what he longed for it to be. He had lived it over and over in his mind ever since that day with Brian. If only his mother hadn't walked in. If only they'd had just a little bit longer."Michael," Deb said, jerking on the emergency brake. "We're here."Michael began to go through the motions of arriving at the rented vacation cabin, almost acknowledging Deb's and Vic's presences. Almost.It had been perfect. He smiled, laughed a little. He could still see it. Brian, closing in on Duranguy, the lone wolf closing in on the stray from the herd, all deadly grace and lethal poetry. And then,wham,it happened. There was suddenly this tall, dark, handsome wall between Brian and his prey. The immovable object put his two hands on Duranguy's shoulders, leaned down, and spoke directly into the boy's ear, so close that his lips brushed the peaks of the channels that wound into the canal. Hot breath and vibrations penetrating him, the boy shivered in the 100-degree heat radiating from sweaty bodies glowing hot around him. His forehead came to rest on The Wall's broad chest, and the Arm &amp; Hammer forearm clamped around the boy's shoulder and upper body as The Wall enclosed him.As Duranguy and The Wall moved toward the whispering, seductive recesses of the back rooms of Babylon, Brian was left standing, mouth partially agape, poised to speak the first word of the litany that would lead him to the inevitable consummation. But that word was never spoken and Brian stood, struck silent, staring directly at Michael. Both boys turned to follow the path of the great Wall. The Wall turned and caught Brian's eye and winked at him over Duranguy's shoulder."What's so funny?" Deb asked as she and Michael dragged the cooler full of God-and-Deb-knew-what-all up the cabin steps."Nothing." Michael spoke the first word since Allen-town.The Wall was amazing, or at least Michael thought so. He had named him The Wall, as neither he nor Brian had ever spoken to the guy. In the few brief weeks since the two had been coming to Babylon, Brian had pretty much had it his own way. He picked out whom he wanted for the night and that was the only decision that counted. Unless The Wall was present. With maddening accuracy, The Wall would pick out the blip on Brian's gaydar screen and sweep him into the clouds before Brian could bring him in for a landing."Who is that guy?" Brian asked as he took up his place beside Michael at the bar.Brian didn't care so much about losing Duranguy or any of them. For him the sport was in knowing that he could have any man at the bar, not in the having of him, though there was certainly something to be said for that part. Still, Brian always threw them back after he caught them."I don't know, but I'd like to." Michael grinned at Brian.Brian scowled and looked away.Michael's smile broadened.Michael had named him The Wall because he obscured everything around him when he was present. Dark unkempt hair, dark sparkling eyes, and a crooked smile that said "I'm the one who lit the cherry bomb." And he was just huge. Not fat, but literally bigger than life. It was as though a normal-sized person had simply been blown up, still in perfect proportion and of seemingly normal scale if there was no one else around. But next to regular mortals, the scale of The Wall became apparent. He was like a real-life version of the superheroes that peopled the pages of the magazines under Michael's bed at home."Let's get out of here," Brian said with a belch as he plunked his empty beer bottle on the bar.That was the other thing that Michael liked about The Wall. The thing he liked best, in fact. All Michael had to do was say anything favorable about him to Brian, and the jealousy was immediate and palpable. So, in a way, The Wall got Michael what he wanted: Brian's attention."Where you want to go?" he asked Brian.Brian shrugged, attention drifting. Michael had only to look in the direction that The Wall had gone, and Brian was standing between Michael's knees. He placed both hands on either side of Michael's barstool as he leaned in to regain 100 percent of Michael's attention for himself. Their foreheads touched. "You want him?" he asked Michael."I don't even know him," Michael answered."What does that have to do with it?""You have no idea.""No?"Brian's hand ran up the inseam of Michael's jeans."What about Patrick Swayze? You don't know him. You seemed to want him that afternoon, we were in your room.""Michael," Deb said, pounding on his door. "Could you go to the store for me?""You mean there's something you didn't pack?" Michael said, startled back to his room overlooking Lake Harmony."Are you talking to me again?" Deb said, coming in and putting her arms around Michael's shoulders from behind."Yeah," Michael said. "Sorry, just remembering. It doesn't seem the same without Brian here.""I know, honey," Deb said, not letting on how much she knew. "I'm sure he's missing you too," she went on, not really sure at all. "But he won that soccer scholarship, and so he's got summer training camp.""Maybe we can come earlier next summer," Michael said hopefully."Sure, baby," Deb rewarded him. "We'll come earlier. But right now I forgot Clabber Girl, and there'll be no biscuits without that or buttermilk.""And that would be the end of civilization as we know it." Michael grinned."Or at least breakfast, mister smart guy," she said, giving his butt a playful pop as she propelled him to the door."So which is it?" Michael called, bounding down the stairs."Which is what?" she answered him."Buttermilk or Clabber Girl?""It's Harmony Bait &amp; Gas," she answered. "I figure it's whichever they've got.""Can I get something for me?" he called up, rifling her purse for her wallet."I doubt they have any comic books," she said, following him down the stairs at a real human pace and volume. "But you can have five dollars' worth of whatever they do have," she concluded, snatching her wallet and counting a few bills out to him. "And keep it down; you don't want to wake Uncle Vic.""He's not out working on his tan?""He's not feeling well," Deb said, trying to sound distracted instead of worried. She wanted to confide in Michael; needed to. But she didn't want to spoil his vacation any more than Vic had wanted when he'd insisted that they come despite his news.She didn't succeed in concealing her concern, but she needn't have worried. The screen door slam was the only answer she got from ...