"I'm not convinced that Summer of 69 is about this guy realizing he was in love with his high school BFF," Ash said as he loaded the groceries into the trunk of the car. "I was more convinced that One Night Love Affair was about a gay hook up, and I wasn't all that convinced about that."
"Well maybe you'll be convinced by my theory about Run to You!" Max was bouncing with glee.
"I doubt it."
"Stop being so stubborn and just listen! Our dude has hooked up with this guy, and he's looked back on his life and is pretty sure he's gay. But now he's started seeing this girl, or maybe his friends have set him up with a girl or something, and he's torn because this girl is great on paper. She's everything he's supposed to want. But he still wants this guy he had the one night stand with."
"Max, Run To You is about a guy cheating on the good girl he's dating with a bad girl."
"No."
Ash rolled his eyes. "Why did I even think you'd agree?"
"I have no idea," Max said. "But think of it: he never says he's cheating on his girlfriend, and he never says the other person is a woman. In the song, he's talking to someone, saying that there's this girl who loves him, that her love is pure, that she's perfect in every way and he should want to be with her, and yet he doesn't; he wants to be with them instead. It's a classic gay narrative!"
Ash sighed. "It's a classic straight narrative. He's talking to a bad girl who has more adventurous sex with him than his girlfriend. That's it. That's all. It's the straightest story ever told."
"That's not it at all. He's conflicted because he should want to be with this perfect girl but instead keeps thinking about this guy he's hooked up with. It's gayest story ever told!"
"No."
"Yes!"
"You're really doing a great job of reaching."
"There's nothing to reach! It's all right there! He's trying to decide between the girl society wants him to be with and the guy he'd be ostracized for loving. You have to at least admit that a story of forbidden love between two men is way more interesting than some tired bullshit about a guy giving his girlfriend syphilis because he has a bunch of sexual hangups."
YOU ARE READING
The Bryan Adams Cycle
Short StoryMax and Ash are grocery shopping when One Night Love Affair comes on over the grocery store PA system. This launches Max into an infodump about his headcanon about Bryan Adams's Reckless album. Max and Ash's conversation is interspersed with the st...
