Saturday Conversations Evening
Saturday August 14th @ 7:00 PM -
Steve & Mark's Flat.
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Mark and Steve had ridden in silence from the hospital to home.
Mark could tell Steve was lost in thought. Not wanting to disturb his
train of thought, Mark now wishes he hadn't brought Steve with him to
visit Larry. 'Shit, I just wanted to help out a friend and managed to
fuck it up.' he thought. His old boss had always said that 'No good deed
will go unpunished.' He was obviously right.
Mark has decided that enough was enough, it's been over two hours
since they got back, and the most Steve has said was "Excuse me". He
taps Steve on the shoulder to get his attention, as Steve is listening
to a CD using headphones. Steve puts down them, "Yeah?" Mark looks at
him, "Can we talk, please?" "Sure." "Let's grab some chairs and
go sit
on the balcony." They take two of their four kitchen chairs out to the
balcony. The light is beginning to fade in the east.
Mark stares over the tree tops to the corn fields north of the
house. "Steve, look I'm sorry for all that at the hospital." "Wait, when
you asked if I'd like to be your roommate, I was afraid this was gonna
happen. Mark, you never wanted that you're gay out for the whole world
to see. Now you know, as long as you and I are 'roommates' every
pea-brained asshole, is going say you're gay. You might as well tattoo a
big pink triangle on your forehead.. Since there's no way that I can go
on without you, I've been thinking, ... maybe we should leave Algo
Hermoso, there's a big world out there. One where no one knows or even
cares about me and you. We could save enough up in a couple of months to
..."
"Steve, do you just want to let those bastards win? ... If
you
want, I'll go with you wherever you want, I have to. ... But I just
don't like the idea of being driven out of my home, OUR HOME, by
anyone." "But don't ya see, that's the only way you ..." "What? Do you
think I'm worried what 'they' think, whoever the fuck, 'they' are? ...
Well, I don't give two shakes of a rat's ass, for what 'they' think.
... I knew that we'd have to face this someday. Don't you think I went
over this all before I asked you to live with me?" Steve looks into
Mark's eyes, "Mark, any place we're together is home."
"Steve, do you want to leave our family?" "Shit,
my mom and dad
could care less about me." "But that's not who I mean. We have friends
here now. Can you walk up to Virg and say we're giving up? ... I will if
I have to, but I won't like it." Steve looks out over the tops of the
trees, and can barely make out the corn fields in the lengthening dark.
He reaches over and grabs Mark's hand, "OK, we stay. I was just trying
to protect you." "I know."
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