"This policeman has lied before..." Maddie states firmly in the courtroom to the State prosecution lawyer as they confer together prior to the Magistrate appearing, whilst Joy, Calum, Sam and Corey all watch on from their seats. "...In at least four separate cases."
"You have proof?"
"I looked up his time with the South Australia Police, in each of these cases he completely lied in his statements, resulting in the Judge declaring a mis-trial or a Magistrate throwing the evidence out," Maddie replies, handing over a stack of folders and documents.
"She's good," Joy observes to Calum, watching the prosecution lawyer's face change as he starts to read the evidence she's putting in front of him.
"She's great!" Calum smiles back at his mum, the odds just seem to have changed in their favour.
"Compared to her I feel so useless!" Corey whinges quietly, watching Maddie intently.
"You are!" Sam assures him, then attempts to placate him when he sees Corey's face. "On the other hand she doesn't have your height, or your ability to wear chartreuse in the day time so I'd say it evens out..."
Calum shushes them both, turning to look at what was happening now.
"This is all very compelling but why would he do this?" the lawyer asks, still reading the files.
"It seems he has a problem with gay people. Look, we can save the court and your staff a lot of time and money. My client's innocent, he was entrapped by this officer just like the other men."
"Is this true?" the lawyer asks Dave who's looking very serious. The evidence he has in his hand that the cop is corrupt is extremely compelling and he needs more time to look at it.
Dave takes a deep breath, willing his voice to not quiver, "I may have done a lot of things in my life Sir, but exposing myself to entice that officer isn't one of them. I may not have much left; my health, my youth, my friends are nearly all gone, but I do still have my name..." Dave turns to look at Corey who's listening in, his chin in his hand, receiving a small encouraging smile back from the flamboyant man who reminds him so much of his own lost youth.
Dave inclines his head slightly, nodding his acknowledgement and thanks to Corey, before turning back to the lawyer. "...and I will fight to defend it."
~~~
"You know what we need? A super, humongous, woolly mammoth sized vat of buttered popcorn!" Calum giggles squeakily to Michael seated next to him.
The two best friends are seated in one of the oldest cinemas in Sydney, one they used to frequent regularly as teenagers and one of the few left that has an upper balcony that still allows smoking. It doesn't matter what's showing, neither of them are watching it anyway, both of them are high and bathing in teenage memories of skipping school and lazy Saturday afternoons when Michael would be doing everything to avoid his parents and Calum would be lonely and bored of sitting in the Diner waiting for his mum to finish her shift.
"One hit and you're high!" Michael turns to look at him, "It's pitiful!"
"I am not high!" Calum turns away, completely unable to suppress a high pitched giggle. "Okay! Maybe I am!"
Michael breathes out a smoke ring, one foot nonchalantly resting on the seat in front of him, looking as cool as he ever did when they were younger. The two of them are up there alone, apart from the guy running the projector of course, and he enjoys the solitude. They both watch the girl running away from a caveman, her black and white movements jerky from the old reel.
"We always used to get told to get our feet down by that old guy do you remember?..." Calum observes, looking around.
Michael laughs at his caution, "Are you kidding? He'll be maggot feed by now!"
"When I think of all those Saturday afternoons we spent here..."
"Yeah, I used to buy a ticket and let you in at that fire exit!" Michael indicates the one below and to the left of them, on the ground floor, as Calum laughs, remembering.
"Never got caught!" Grinning, Calum puts his hand up for a high five which Michael obliges him with.
"This is where we saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom..."
"And Ghostbusters..."
"And The Fly!"
"The Fly!" Calum repeats, remembering how grossed out they were when Jeff Goldblum spewed up on his food and then ate it. "I can't believe they're going to tear it down for a cheesy cineplex!"
"They don't have balconies you can get stoned in..." Michael takes another drag and offers the joint to Calum again.
"When this place is gone, a part of us will be gone too..."
Michael might have known Calum would get like this with his second drag. The first one always makes him giggle, the second makes him sad, the third...well, that's another story. "You're extremely maudlin when you're high," he points out.
"This is probably the last ever time we'll be here together," Calum looks like he's about to burst into tears. "You'll be in Melbourne."
"And you'll be in Perth..." Michael breathes out deeply, "Opposite fucking ends of the country."
"I didn't say I'd go."
"Well you should!"
Calum turns to look at him, "I'm not like you! I can't just wake up one morning and decide, boom, you know, it's time to move on! No looking back, no regrets!"
"There's nothing for you here!"
"It's my home! I've lived here my entire life! It's all I know!"
"Well maybe it's time to know something else Calum!" Michael's getting a bit fed up of people bursting into tears and being sad around him. It was only a move for fucks sake, no-one was dying! "We're not fifteen anymore!"
"I know!"
"Go with Stephen." Michael looks him straight in the eye, "Get the hell out of here!"
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...
