Running (Part V)

Monday, June 28, 1999 - @ 11:30 AM.


Will, turned to Bart and Todd. and whispered, "Follow my lead." then
to Zack and Shelley, "Hi, my name is Will, and I'm gay. This is my friend,
Bart." Will turns to look at Bart, noticing the looks on Zack and Shelley's
faces.
"Hi, my name is Bart, and I'm gay. This is my friend, TK." Bart
announced. At this Shelley starts, nobody calls Todd , 'TK' except for
family members. Her little brother followed with "Hi, my name is TK, and
I'm gay."
Will took over again, "Well, got any questions?" ...

Zack and Shelley kept looking at each other, and their three
musketteers. Neither knows what to say. Shelley is surprized to find out
that Will, and Bart, Zack's Bart, were both gay. Zack, on the other hand,
couldn't help but feel touched. Two weeks ago, Bart couldn't deal with him,
because he was afraid of him. Zack knows that Todd never would of said that
just now, if Bart hadn't told him it would be all right. As Zack looked at
Todd, he asked, "What did those two do to you?" Then he gave Todd this huge
grin. "Ah ... TK. ... Hi, my name's Zack, and I'm straight. This is my
friend, Shelley" Turning to Shelley, he sees that she is crying small tears
that remind Zack of a fountain dripping, one drop at time.
Shelley knew, for all their joking, this really was an important
moment, the three of them, felt that they could trust her and Zack with
thier biggest secret. ... She had been so worried about Todd. Not having
any friends to relate to. ... When she looked at the three of them, she
knew that none of them would have to wake up to greet the world alone,
again. ... "Hi, my name is Shelley, and I'm straight." She then tried to
get all of them in a big hug. "TK, how did this all happen?"
Zack, gave Bart this bear hug, trying to let him know that Zack felt
this was just as important to him. For a change instead of breaking it off,
Bart held Zack all the tighter, and said quietly, so no one would hear him
but Zack, "I missed you big brother. Please, don't go away again."
Todd turned to Shelley, "Shell, we found out about each this morning.
Will and Bart are actually a couple." Before Todd could say anything, Bart
interrupted, "Shelley, I'm in love with Will." To which Will added, "Yeah,
and I'm in love with Bart." There was a short pause while all five of them
digested the last couple of minutes.
"Here we go." Said Will, "What all this is leading up to is..." Will
and Bart, with Todd ocassionally adding his two cents, proceeded to outline
the plan for the weekend of the 16th without emphasizing some of the 'more
romantic' aspects. Will finishes off with, "To sum, it all up, Bart and me
would like it if we could hitch a ride with y'all to KC when you go to the
blues fest, that Friday night Todd's gonna come with us to the party, and
we all tell everybody that Shelley's getting tickets for me and Bart as
thanks for helping out with TK today." He looks to Shelley and Zack.
Shelley says, "Can Zack and I talk about this for a moment? We'll be right
back." Zack and Shelley go over to the clump of trees, just far enough
where the can talk.
"Zack, what do you think? Do you wanna do it.?"
"I dunno, Shell. If it was just me, I'd say yeah, if for no other
reason than I owe Bart big time. But your ass is going to be on the line
too. What would your ma say?"
Shelley, "If you mean about us telling everybody that Bart and Will
are going to come along with, she'd think it was great. She's always on
Todd's case to get out more, and hang around with more people. ... I think
deep down she knows about Todd, but she's like the army - 'Don't ask, Don't
Tell.' ... She dotes a little on Todd since dad died, cause TK's turning
out to look more and more like him.", after a moment, she coninues, "On the
other hand, if anything got back to her about the party, TK, and our
helping it all out, she'd be really pissed, but she wouldn't be like Will's
parents, Grams wouldn't let her." Shelley, Todd and their mother all lived
with their grandmother in this huge old house just inside of Algo Hermoso,
proper. As far as she's concerned TK could do no wrong. "Zack, if you're
sure you can handle all this, I say do it. I can tell it would mean a lot
to our 'three gay caballeros'. ... Then again, it would also mean that you
and I would have a lot more time 'alone', if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, it's set then lets go tell em." They walk back over to the
pick-up. Where 'the club' is impatiently waiting to find out what's what.
When they're all together again, Zack turns to them, "Let's do it!"
Will, Bart and Todd all erupt. All talking at the sametime. "Jeesuz, that's
great!" "Thanks alot we really really mean that!" "Fuckin A!" "I can't
believe it!" "Holy Shit!" "Thanks, thanks again"
Shelley yells at them, "Take it easy. ... There's still Will's
parents. They got to agree to let him go. Bart's should be no problem what
with Zack going already." This time turning to Will, "What do you think
they're gona say?"
Will's pretty confident that they will go for the story, "They should
buy it. But if Zack and Bart were there, when I ask it would be a lot
harder or them to say no."
"It's settled then." Zack says, "Will, Bart and I'll come over tonight
before my date with Shell. But you're gonna have to call us to tell us what
kind of mood they're in. No sense in starting all this if there're in a
pissy mood. OK, now everybody, we still have to get Todd home, Bart's got
chores, and Will has to sit with his sister. Let's get going."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

on to next chapter

back to "stray e-mail, part one"