Gimme Pride

by J. Tomas

  Gimme Pride

  By J. Tomas

  Published by Queerteen Press

  Visit queerteen-press.com for more information.

  Copyright 2011 J. Tomas

  ISBN 9781611522228

  Cover Credits: jonathandowney

  Used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

  Cover Design: J.M. Snyder

  All rights reserved.

  WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

  No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published in the United States of America. Queerteen Press is an imprint of JMS Books LLC.

  * * * *

  Gimme Pride

  By J. Tomas

  “I thought you came to help me out,” Shawna Reid complains as she digs another handful of hangers out of a shipping crate. Sexy swimsuits dangle from the hangers—Speedos in bright Spandex, colorful one-pieces with revealing cut-outs, cropped and shredded T-shirts that can serve as cover-ups on the beach or at the pool. Shawna tosses the hangers to her brother, Chip, and glares at him as if the look alone can put him to work. “I only brought you because—”

  “I know, I know.” Eight years her junior, Chip’s still in high school, and this is his first Pride event ever. He was always too young before—his mother didn’t even want him going this year, if she had her way, but Shawna rented a vendor booth she needed help with and she managed to talk some sense into the parentals. It’s a Pride event, not an all-out orgy. Most everyone here is dressed in jeans and T-shirts…except the drag queens, who look absolutely fabulous all dolled up. There’s no exposed flesh, no in-your-face queerness, not here.

  Except, well, for Chip. He wears a pair of cherry red Speedos so tight, they look painted on. Nothing else. And damn, but he’s rocking them today.

  Shawna runs an online store of sexy clothing—intimates, lingerie, swimwear. She started it after college with a couple of handmade designs and quickly realized most of her clientele were gay. She’s cool with that—she was the first person Chip came out to when he turned thirteen and thought it about time to admit to his family he was seeing the boy next door, especially since he needed his mother to drive them to the mall for a date. That was a while ago—when he was what, a freshman? He’s not even interested in that kid any more.

  When Shawna started getting requests for men’s sizes in lacy teddies and rainbow-colored boyshorts, she shifted her attention from traditional marketing and began focusing on Pride events around the state. Richmond’s own Virginia Pride is the first one she agreed to take Chip to, on the sole condition he help her out at the booth.

  How could he say no to an offer like that?

  Only “helping out” isn’t exactly how he wants to spend his day. Pride is hopping—he’s out at school, sure, and he’s seen Queer as Folk so often, he can recite most of the episodes by heart, but this is the first time he’s ever been up close and personal to so many openly gay people in one place. He never knew Richmond had so many queers! He knows he’s staring, but he can’t help it. The couples holding hands are so darn cute, and then there are lesbian mothers with baby carriages, college students walking their dogs, transmen and -women able to embrace their true selves in public for once…it’s like a feast and he doesn’t know what to take in next. The vendor booths run the gamut from banks to insurance companies, local eateries to artists. Rainbows are everywhere, and Chip even saw a bookseller earlier as he helped Shawna lug in her items. Gay books, here, in Richmond! He’s definitely checking that out.

  If Shawna ever gives him a chance to look around.

  He hangs the swimsuits on an empty clothing rack and stands back, hands on his hips, to survey the growing crowd. He doesn’t get a chance to breathe, though, before Shawna’s foisting more clothes into his hands. “Help me out here, will you?” she snaps.

  “I am,” Chip bites back.

  Regardless of how fun Pride will be, he has a feeling it’s going to be a long day.

  * * * *

  Pride officially starts at one in the afternoon. By quarter till, Shawna’s vendor booth is mostly set up. Shipping crates line the back of the booth—each article of clothing Shawna has with her, she brought in every available size, so they’re stored in the crates waiting for customers’ requests. If business goes well, Shawna says she’ll need all the help she can get keeping up with orders.

  As Chip finishes stocking one of the racks near the front of the booth, Shawna peers past him into the crowd. Every time he looks out, she yells at him, but she keeps doing it, too. He knows she isn’t seeing what he sees, though. She’s looking for…”Where’s Jenny already?” she asks, glancing at her watch. “I thought you said she was coming.”

  Jen is Chip’s best friend and a self-proclaimed fag hag, though she once told him she hated the term. “It sounds like I’m old,” she complained. She’s fifteen, too, but two months younger than he is. “I like fruit fly instead.”

  Whatever she calls herself, she’s late. When Chip told her Shawna agreed to take him to this year’s Pride, Jen practically begged Shawna to let her help out, too. For twenty bucks apiece, Shawna’s getting pretty cheap labor. With Chip in one of her sexier suits, modeling to entice the men into the booth, Jen’s supposed to wear a cotton candy pink two-piece, which might be part of the hold up. What if her mother caught her in the bathing suit and refused to bring her to the event?

  She’d call if she wasn’t coming, Chip assures himself. Half the fun will be hanging out with her today. Shawna’s great, really, but she’s much too old to really get Chip. Jen will giggle over the cute gay boys with him, or act silly trying to draw in customers, or dance when the stage across the park starts rocking. Jen is fun, that’s why they’re friends. If she doesn’t come, he’s going to be stuck listening to Shawna bitch about sales and the heat—and worse, his laziness—all damn day.

  When his sister turns back to the small table where she’s set up a register, Chip glances over his shoulder. No sign of Jen. “I’m sure she’s on her way. She should be here soon.”

  Someone claps their hands over his eyes, blinding him. “She’s here now,” Jen croons in a high, sing-song voice. “Party over here!”

  She draws the last word out into two syllables. Now Chip catches a whiff of her sugary perfume, and he spins around to catch her in a tight hug. “Jenny girl! I told you she’d come.”

  From inside the vendor booth, Shawna throws them a disgusted look. “I thought the whole point of inviting you was that you’d wear the pink tankini.”

  For the first time, Chip notices Jen’s jeans and button-down shirt. “Jen!” he cries, more hurt than upset. “Now I’m going to be the only fruitcake prancing around in my undies. You said—”

  “I am,” Jen assures him. Unbuttoning the shirt, she reveals a hot pink tank top beneath it. Her perfect blonde curls tumble over her shoulders as she shrugs off the shirt. “Jeezus, Chip. I said I’d wear it and I did. But if my mom saw me in it, she wouldn’t have let me out of the house.”

  Chip turns away as Jen unzips her jeans, but not before he catches a matching pink bikini bottom through the open fly. “Well, strip already,” he jokes. “We still have a few minutes be
fore Pride starts and I want to see what else they have here before Shawna actually makes us do some real work.”

  “Looking fabulous is real work,” Jen reminds him. She kicks her shed clothing into the back of the booth and takes a moment to adjust the black pumps she wears. Then she gives Chip a once-over, a stern look on her face. “Can I just say you look hot in those bottoms?”

  Chip grins. Coming from a girl like Jen, that means the world. Jen’s popular without even trying—she’s nice without being fake, rich without being snooty, and too damn pretty for her age. Frosted hair, spiral curls, tanned skin, flawless makeup…Jen knows what looks good. And Chip knows he’s had it easy in school because of her.

  Looping his arm through hers, he calls to his sister, “We’ll be back!”

  Before Shawna can answer, the two teenagers prance out of the vendor booth and head down the cobbled walk of Richmond Park to scope out the city’s annual Gay Pride festival.

  * * * *

  Chip met Jen in the seventh grade. He was still a nerdy nobody at that point, but Jen was already on her way to being someone special. Even though he didn’t like girls, he thought she was pretty, in that flashy, diva-esque way all the superstars were, like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga. It was her hair, for starters—Jen had a mountain of curls atop her head, each one perfectly coiled and sprayed into place. The strands framing her heart-shaped face were almost white with frosting, and the rest of her mane blended into golden shades kissed by the sun. Everyone liked Jen, everyone, but no one really liked Chip all that much, so he was surprised and a little bit nervous when the science teacher assigned her as his lab partner.

  The first assignment they had to complete didn’t go so well. Dissection wasn’t something Chip wanted to do, and he stared with disgust at the dead frog lying spread-eagle on their table. He glanced at Jen, saw a similar look of horror on her face, and tried to talk himself into taking the lead. He was the man, wasn’t he? It was only a frog, and besides, it wasn’t like he had to kill it or anything. It was already dead. All he had to do was cut it open…

  He picked up the scalpel and prodded the frog’s white belly with the tip. The give of the flesh was unexpected and nauseating. “Ew,” Chip announced, stepping back.

  Beside him, Jen agreed. “Gross.”

  At the table in front of theirs, JV quarterback Jason Pitt turned around, an ugly sneer marring his Neanderthal features. “What’s the matter, Reid? Scared of the froggie?”

  Chip opened his mouth to say something that would’ve probably gotten his ass kicked after school, but before he managed to get a word out, Jen jumped in. “Just because you get off playing with dead things doesn’t mean we all do.”

  Jason couldn’t touch Jen—he had a fierce crush on her, everyone knew it, and she was a girl, besides. So he glared at Chip instead. When he couldn’t think of anything cutting to say, he resorted to his favorite put-down. “Shut up, you queer.”

  Loudly, Jen announced, “Don’t listen to him, Chip. He’s just mad I turned him down for homecoming.”

  Still, that queer slur stung. After class, Chip buried his head in his locker and tried to disappear. Bad enough the guys teased him in the locker room or P.E. class, but out where everyone could hear them? Where someone like Jen heard? That was low.

  A hand trailed across Chip’s shoulders and he jerked. For a heart-stopping moment, he thought it was Jason come to beat him up anyway. But when he glanced up, he found Jen leaning against the locker next to his. “Hey.”

  He gave her a wry smile. “Hey.”

  “Can I ask you something?” She clutched her books to her chest, her arms crossed defensively. Her eyes were wide and impossibly blue above lips painted a pale pink. “You can say no.”

  “It’s cool,” Chip said, a little too quickly. “What’s up?”

  Jen chewed on her lower lip, which Chip had heard guys liked. It didn’t do anything to him, but he could see where someone might find it cute. He’d have to keep that in mind himself, if he ever got a boyfriend. If he ever met another guy like him. Hell, if he ever got up the nerve to even look.

  Finally, Jen sighed. “Why’d Jason call you that?”

  Because it’s true, Chip thought, but he couldn’t say the words out loud. What if someone overheard him? Or what if Jen told someone else? It’d get around school in no time as the gospel truth and not just a locker room rumor any more. So he shrugged and settled for a half-truth. “I guess it’s because I don’t have a girlfriend like all the other guys seem to.”

  For a long moment, Jen studied him. Chip fished his books for his next class out of his locker and shut the door. As he spun the combination lock, Jen slipped an arm through his.

  He looked at her, surprised. She grinned and, with a quick wink, snuggled closer to him. “You do now.”

  They’d been friends ever since.

  * * * *

  Chip doesn’t worry about bullies any more. High school is worlds different from junior high and, besides, most of the jocks are nice to him only because they’re hoping he puts in a good word for them with Jen. She’s still the prettiest girl in school—even at fifteen, she’s turning the heads of the senior boys. And she’s still Chip’s best friend. They’re inseparable. She was even the first person he came out to when he started the ninth grade, even before he told Shawna or his mom. He’d been so nervous about it, but he knew he had to tell her, just had to. There are no secrets between them. He remembers how nervous he was, sitting on the edge of her bed, holding his breath after the words came tumbling out in a rush. “Jen, I have something to tell you. I’m gay.”

  Jen, being the awesome friend she is, gave him a funny look and simply said, “So?”

  There’s no one else Chip would rather be with today, even if they both have to flounce around half-naked to hawk his sister’s swimsuits. Arms linked, they strut down the cobbled path in front of the vendor booths, squealing over cute boys holding hands, swiping any free swag they can grab. They pick up pens, notepads, backpacks, reusable shopping bags, postcards, stickers, pins…Chip feels like a kid at Christmas. Seeing older men with their arms around each other, obviously very much in love, makes his whole body tingle with pleasure. He needs a boyfriend—he tells Jen often enough. Problem is, he’s the only gay guy at their school.

  “You’re not the only one,” Jen tells him as she catches sight of a booth up ahead selling feather boas. “Oh my God, Chip. We need those!”

  He lets her drag him along. The boas are hot, he has to admit. But her throwaway comment catches him off guard. As they rifle through a rainbow of colors, random feathers fall at their feet. “Who else?” Chip asks.

  Jen plucks a black boa from the rack and wraps it around her neck. “This totally matches my shoes. What do you think?”

  “Who else?” Chip asks again. At the annoyed look that flickers across Jen’s face, he adds, “You look fa-bu, dah-link. Now name me one other gay guy in our school. Peters doesn’t count.”

  “Peters isn’t gay,” Jen scoffs. “He’s just awkward.”

  Paul Peters is a nerdy freshman all the guys rag on in the locker room. Chip knows if it weren’t for Jen, he’d be getting the same treatment. It’s painful to watch, but even though he feels for the guy, he really does, there’s no way in hell he’d ever step in to stop the bullying. Then the jocks would remember Chip is gay, and they might forget about Jen long enough to terrorize him for it.

  “So who?” Chip persists. Why hasn’t she mentioned this before?

  But Jen just shrugs, pulling her hair from under the boa and fluffing it back into place. “I can’t say for sure. If I knew like a hundred percent, I’d tell you.”

  Chip finds a white boa he likes—the red one is just a shade off from the color of his shorts or he’d try it, but he doesn’t want to clash. “Then how do you know?”

  “Gaydar,” Jen says. “I don’t know. Same way I knew you were, I guess. I just think one or two guys at school are gay, all right? I’m not outting anyone wh
o doesn’t want the world to know he likes dick.”

  “I like dick.” Chip pouts at his reflection in a full-size mirror hanging in the back of the booth. The boa looks fierce on him, the white feathers giving his skin a dusky hue. “I’d like it more if I actually got some. If you know of any hot gay guys in our grade I could be dating and I find out you’re holding back on me…”

  “You’ll what?” Jen asks with a laugh. She elbows him aside to stand in the mirror, too.

  Chip can’t think of anything real drastic. “I’ll tell people you came here today with me because you’re a closet lez.”

  Jen laughs harder. “Oh, please. Girls don’t have to be queer to come to a Pride event. Historically, straight girls are a gay guy’s best friend. Hello, Liz Taylor?”

  Swatting Jen with his boa as he flings it over one shoulder, he teases, “Are you saying you’re my Liz?”

  She returns the favor, smacking him in the face with her own boa. A small spray of black and white feathers flutter around them. “What would you do without me? Tell me we’re buying these.”

  “We were born for boas,” Chip assures her. “And champagne, and caviar, and diamonds.”

  Jen pulls a crumpled ten from the bra of her tankini. “We’re too young to drink,” she reminds him, “and you know caviar is fish eggs, right? Like, how gross is that? But diamonds, now. They’re a girl’s best friend.”

  He wraps both arms around one of hers and hugs her to him. “Like me. Thank you for the boa, babe.”

  As she hands the money to the vendor, she points out, “You’re buying lunch.”

  * * * *

  The only food vendor sells hot dogs and hamburgers, which Jen fusses over as if one bite is going to get her fat. She settles for a hot dog and Diet Coke, and Chip gets the same. She isn’t the only one who has to stay slim for the boys. Throw in a bag of Doritos and the whole lunch costs more than the two boas did. “For this?” Chip cries, following Jen back to his sister’s booth. When Shawna asks why he didn’t get her anything to eat, he fumes, “I couldn’t afford it. You haven’t paid me yet, remember?”