Life in Fusion (6 page)

transformed from awkward teen to full-blown hottie. Suddenly

I was getting all this attention and after we both came out, I

became pretty popular, and he didn’t. I think he was afraid I’d

move on and leave him behind for some new clique of hottie

friends.

My sudden popularity never meant anything to me, other than

I was now getting laid on a routine basis. Gabe was still my family

and the only friend I had that I trusted completely. He knew

where the bodies were buried. And nothing, short of threatening

the destruction of his mint collection of
Star Wars
action figures,

would ever make him talk.

Gabe’s biggest problem was that he couldn’t seem to find a

way to get comfortable in his own skin. He was totally adorable

when he wore his contacts and let me dress him. He simply

couldn’t figure out how to settle his nerves long enough to land

a boyfriend.

Mutual disapprovals aside, he was my best friend—my homo-

38 Ethan Day

brother from another mother. And while I often wondered if we

would’ve become friends at all had we met as adults, I knew he’d

always have my back, just as I had his.

Despite having no recollection of the actual event,

historians—otherwise known as my mother, Dixie—often retold

the story of our first meeting. Knowing the way Dixie liked

to embellish, I’d normally mistrust any information that came

from between her brightly painted red lips. However, the fact

that Roberta had never contradicted my mother, and she most

certainly would have, left me with no alternative than to make like

the
X-files
—still Gabe’s favorite TV show ever—and believe it to

be the truth…which was, most certainly, out there.

It would seem that one fateful late summer morning at the

very mature and ripe old age of five and a half—the half was

very important at the time—I stood, clinging to Dixie’s leg,

desperately unhappy at the idea of being forced through the

doors of Monte Vista Elementary. With its terracotta tiled roof

and Spanish stucco exterior, the building practically gleamed in

the bright sunshine. I always thought the Spanish/Mission revival

architecture was misleading, as it didn’t seem like a school to me

from the outside. Instead, like a Venus flytrap, its beauty drew

you in until it was too late to escape.

I was okay with going in until I realized my mommy wasn’t

coming with me, at which point I turned into a spider monkey,

with a death grip on her leg. I was begging and pleading for Dixie

to take me back home with her, making quite the scene until I was

upstaged by Gabriel, who was apparently giving the performance

of a lifetime. Tears, gnashing teeth and screaming were all part of

his repertoire, while all I had was my death grip and some sorry

ass begging.

Dixie said that I became so enraptured by the tantrum Gabe

was throwing, that before she knew it I had let go of her leg

and wandered over to him. He was down on his knees—this was

usually when I tossed in some sort of crude comment about

foreshadowing. Dixie always enjoyed my added commentary,

something Roberta seemed less enthusiastic about. She inevitably

Life in fusion
39

wound up doing that whole Catholic, kiss your fingers, making

the cross sign from shoulder to shoulder as she muttered things

under her breath while glancing up into the sky. I’d been jealous

of that as a kid, like they had some secret club or handshake I

wasn’t allowed to be part of.

We’d never been a religious family. All my mother ever said

was be nice to people, don’t do anything wrong and I’d get into

Heaven. Having grown up with a gay brother, Dixie had zero

issues with my being gay. Roberta on the other hand hadn’t ever

been much of a cheerleader. To her credit, though, she never

stopped loving Gabe, and she never treated me badly, well unless

I said something she found crude, which let’s face it, happened

frequently. Her favorite comment to me was what a lovely boy I’d

be, if only I wouldn’t speak. Our moms were like night and day,

but they both knew Gabe and I would be there for one another

forever.

It likely had something to do with that very first meeting.

When Gabe was kneeling at his mother’s feet, his tear stained

face covered with his tiny hands. I tapped him on the shoulder

and he lifted his gaze up to me, his black framed glasses (he

apparently wore them even then) sitting slightly crooked on his

face. Gabe took in several deep breaths, as if gulping for oxygen,

then got up on his feet. I removed the bandana from around my

neck, which I wore like a cowboy—even I was surprised to find

out such fetishes began so early on. I wiped the tears off his face

and picked up his backpack, handing it to him as he straightened

out his glasses. Dixie had come over, helping me on with my

backpack, thinking we were about the cutest things she’d ever

set eyes on.

She and Roberta smiled at one another, obviously lost in some

sort of motherly, aw-shucks type of moment, until I took Gabe’s

hand in mine, and he and I began walking toward the doors of

the school together. Mom said Roberta’s face slowly went pale,

and she appeared to be more than a little embarrassed. It’s right

around this time Dixie
always
adds that having been an ex-beauty

queen, she was used to being stared at. My mother never misses

40 Ethan Day

an opportunity to reference her beauty pageant days.

Once Gabe and I were about to cross the threshold into

the school, we both turned—glaring back at the two of them,

wearing the betrayal of our mothers’ deceit on our faces.

It was apparently very melodramatic, and after that day, Dixie

said she no longer harbored any doubts I was queer as a three

dollar bill. My, she did have a way with words, didn’t she? It

took nothing more than a trip to my parents home to remember

exactly where my own lack of tact came from.

q q q

I was holding my breath as Gabe stared blankly back at me

from across the dining room table. I was already getting nervous,

as evidenced by my tapping finger, which I immediately ceased.

Having patiently sat there, listening to the story of how Wade

and I…came together, Gabe’s voice shot up an octave. “But you

just broke up with Phillip!”I’d ignored the condemnation of his

sigh when I told him about Chip and the Irish Coffees. Looked

past the rolling of his eyes as he nodded, frustrated that I woke

up in a strange bed with a strange man I couldn’t remember

fucking—aside from the obvious pain in my ass. Gabe’s shocked

gasp when I mentioned the way I practically molested Wade after

he insulted my lovemaking had me taking a deep breath, letting

him know I was no longer enjoying his judgey body language

and snippy commentary. I made it all the way through that last

week after Phillip dumped me, right up to the point where Wade

had me promising to move to Summit City in six months. Gabe

had listened more intently the further along I got, hanging on

every word. Of course, I skipped over
The Promise,
and ended my

retelling with me driving off in the shuttle.

“Wow,” he said, taking a sip out of his coffee cup, realizing

after the fact that it was empty. “That is just like you, Boone,

jumping from one guy—inadvertently landing onto the next.”

I was doing my best not to be upset by the fact he made me

sound like a blood sucking flea. “Yeah.” I stared at him blankly,

not wanting to give anything else away.

Life in fusion
41

“Wait…you don’t…” Gabe leaned across the dining table to

get a closer look at me. “You actually like him, don’t you?”

I shrugged, trying to play things cool, only failing, I soon

discovered, as a goofy-ass grin spread over Gabe’s face.

He pointed at me. “Holy shit, you do like him! A lot. I’ve

never seen you this quiet before.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’re turning an awfully bright shade of red.” Gabe smiled

as he leaned back in his chair. “Too bad he lives so far away,

though. What a bummer. And he’s a world famous Olympian.

You’re so damn lucky, I hate you! The last time we went on

vacation together the only thing I picked up was salmonella.”

“Um…hello…silver lining.” I shook my head at him. “As far

as things one could pick up on vacation go, salmonella isn’t so

bad. Beats crabs or the clap. Plus you looked so svelte after all

that vomiting.”

“Gah! You are so nasty.” Gabe frowned, getting up from

the table and heading round the corner into the kitchen to pour

himself more coffee.

I smiled, fairly certain I’d dodged the whole relocation bullet

after all.

Gabe called out from the kitchen, “It’s so not fair. I’m

practically pure as the driven snow yet you, the wicked slut from

the Southwest, constantly have hunky men falling for you.”

I slammed my hand onto the table. “Okay, the fact I both

partake in and thoroughly enjoy sex does not make me unworthy

of finding love.”

“R-r-right,” Gabe stammered. “I know that, Booney.”

I smiled, knowing he only called me Booney when he felt he

needed to right some wrong—his way of saying sorry.

“Any chance he’d consider moving here?”

Just drop it, dude!
“No, he’s practically the town mascot. There

are menu items named after him and shit.”

42 Ethan Day

Okay, so I skipped over the way the entire town sort of got

involved in our romance as well, but I wasn’t prepared to drop

the relocation bomb on anyone just yet.

“Right,” Gabe called out as I listened to him open the fridge

door for the cream he’d already forgotten I didn’t have, since I’d

been out of town for two weeks.

I listened to him curse under his breath, remembering he’d

have to settle for the powdery stuff I kept in the cupboard for

emergencies. I closed my eyes and rubbed my stomach, which

now felt queasy.

“I suppose the likely scenario would be for you to…”

I sat up, almost rigid in the chair, hearing Gabe drop what I

presumed was his spoon, having stopped mid-sentence. I turned

and he peered around the corner at me. His eyes widened, nearly

as big and round as his glasses. He was definitely trying to read

the expression on my face as he sort of stumbled around the

corner, never breaking eye contact.

“You’re moving?” He managed to get out in a squeak.

“Well, not right away,” I said in an attempt to go for the

positive. Gabe’s eyes started to well up, which wasn’t something

I’d been prepared for. I shot up out of my chair and stood to face

him. It was as if I’d slapped him, and the sting of this new reality

settled over him.

“But…you can’t go away.” He bit down on his lip which was

beginning to quiver “We won’t see each other anymore.”

I’d only seen him this upset twice before, the first time was

when his mother announced she was getting remarried. The

second was when he discovered Roberta would be giving him a

new baby brother or sister to watch over.

My mother refused to have another child, her figure too

important to ruin by bearing children. My dad, Rocky, enjoyed

saying it was her fault anytime she was mad at me, claiming that

if they’d had a spare they’d be less dependent on the love of one

child. I never knew if he’d been upset by her decision, but he

certainly never lodged any complaints about her figure; he still

Life in fusion
43

pawed all over her like a teenager in heat. It’s what I inherited

from my parents. I was horny like my father and worried entirely

too much about my appearance like my mother.

Roberta wound up having two more children, with Gabe’s

step father, Frank Jones, who was actually a decent guy, despite

Gabe acting as if he was the wicked stepfather out of some

twisted fairytale. Frank had even offered to legally adopt Gabe.

I smiled, remembering the way Gabe had reeled at the thought

of exchanging the beauty of Gabriel De Luca for plain old Gabe

Jones.

“You’re my best friend—my family.” Gabe looked up at me

all big-eyed like Puss-In-Boots from
Shrek
.

My stomach churned again, and I thought I might puke for a

moment. “Colorado isn’t that far away,” I heard myself say, much

the same way that I’d said the opposite to Wade the previous day,

before taking my leave of him.

“I have to go.” Gabe walked around me headed for the front

door.

“Please don’t go, Gabriel,” I said as he all but sprinted for the

exit.

I jumped when the door slammed shut behind him, sinking

slowly back down into the dining room chair while I listened to

him peel out of the driveway.