Michael's lacing up his bowling shoes when Calum arrives in a hurry, all out of breath.
"I got a message to drop everything and come here, we're right in the middle of our Massive Clearance Sale! Do you know how inconvenient this is?!" he asks as he sits down heavily, puffing and panting, next to Michael on lane 3, absently noticing that Michael's wearing his father's classic bowling shirt, complete with 'Daryl' embroidered on the left shoulder.
Michael looks at him calmly, "Here's your shoes. After your touching eulogy I decided to come and pay my respects to Daryl Clifford."
"Where we once made the record for the largest number of gutter balls?" Calum asks, astounded that Michael's chosen to do this.
"Uh huh. So what do you say? You want to roll one for the old fuck?"
The first ball Calum rolls, it's like he's back to being fourteen again. He nearly twists his knee and the ball inevitably ends up in the gutter. Two old guys in the next lane along roar with laughter.
"Hmmm," Michael looks at Calum as he returns to their bench. "Hetero's one, homo's nothing."
"Okay!" Calum says angrily. He knew he'd still be no good at the sport and now he's completely embarrassed himself all over again! "I've bowled one, now can we go?!"
"Hold on..."
Michael gets up, holding onto the same bowling ball that he was cradling in his lap at his father's wake. He concentrates on the weight in his hand and the lane stretching out before him.
Ignoring the men's laughter behind him, he holds the ball to his chin, breathing slowly and then bowls the blue swirled ball down the aisle.
Calum stares in disbelief as Michael gets a strike. One after the other, on every ball he bowls. As sure as Calum's ball go into the gutter, Michael's knock over every single pin until the game is over and the old men seated next to them are silenced.
"That's right! The fucking fairies get strikes! The fucking fairies are jumping up and down! The fucking fairies are going to celebrate!" Michael tells them, quoting his father, as he dips a grinning Calum backwards and kisses him soundly on the lips in front of everyone.
~~~
Luke kisses Chloe on the cheek she offers him as she leans, grinning to see him, over the counter at the record shop that she works at.
"You know the new Pansy Division just came in, you want to hear?!"
"Oh, no thanks, some other time..." Luke would really like to hear their new album but he's here about a different matter, one they really need to talk about.
"You know that's a really cool shirt," Chloe looks him up and down approvingly, nodding. "It goes with your eyes."
"Uh, Chlo, you've seen it like a million times!" Luke looks down at himself, wondering why she's commenting on it now. It's a really old shirt, but comfortable and he likes to wear it when he's just mooching around on a weekend.
"Guess I never noticed...but I do now!" Again Chloe sparkles at him, her eyes and smile are too much, and he wonders how best to approach the subject that he came here to talk about.
"Actually the reason that I'm here...well...I was going to send you an email, but I thought it would be better if I came in person..."
"Well why don't you come over tonight, my parents aren't going to be home!" Again the implication of what she means is too much.
"No!" Luke nearly explodes, then reigns it in when he sees Chloe's face. "I mean, this is fine!"
Chloe face changes, in fact her whole body changes. Luke's instant 'no' and the way he said it, like he was disgusted by her suggestion has her recoiling away from him.
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfiction"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
