Bloom // Peterick

Chapter 4

When I get back to Pete's room, I look around at everyone and have to stifle an audible gasp. Many of them have bright illustrations on their bodies, looking like happy tattoos. All the pictures are hopeful and detailed and specifically for pride. Gee is on the floor kneeling by Andy while drawing a rose in neutral colors with watercolor-esque splashes of lime and purple, for his flags. It's gorgeous. Ashley has sunset-colored diamonds running up her left arm, fading from blue at the bottom to pink at the top. Brendon has a hibiscus of bright yellow, pink, and blue. And the list goes on and on. The images tell everyone's story, not just relating to being lgbt, but the whole thing. The colors of the flags are subtle but bold at the same time, and I'm completely captivated.

"They look great, don't they? Gee's the most talented artist I've ever met," the familiar voice says behind me.

"Oh, uh, yeah. They're... they're incredible."

"You want one? He's almost done with Andy."

Suddenly I can't speak. It's hard to imagine my expanse of pale skin interrupted by all the brightest colors of the rainbow. I've always been too scared to even consider real tattoos, but this is just a paint pen.

I find my voice just enough to say "Yeah. I would."

Gerard puts the finishing touches on the rose on Andy's forearm. He smiles at the finished product and gets up to join us because Pete's waving him over. Frank immediately bends down to inspect Andy's arm. I can tell he's proud of his boyfriend.

"Hey, Patrick," Gee says. "It's been awhile since we talked one-on-one."

"Yeah, I guess it has."

"Anyway, you want one?"

"Could I?" I ask. He just nods and gives me a look like Why would I not let you?.

"So, what sort of thing do you want?" he asks while grabbing at my arm. He inspects it thoroughly, presumably finding a good place to draw the image.

I think for a moment before saying, "Uh, could we maybe do... the word bloom? With the colors of the rainbow sort of fading into each other?"

He smiles and his small teeth sort of shine. "Yeah. Any specific font?"

"You can just kinda scrawl it on the there."

He begins to choose the shades of the colors he's going to use from the package Pete gave him earlier. After a few seconds he asks "So, why 'bloom'?" He doesn't take his eyes off my arm, trying to keep the pens from smudging.

"I guess it's because it's a beginning. It's hopeful. My mom used to buy fresh flowers from a flower cart at the farmer's market every Saturday. The same cart had this sign every week, just the word 'bloom' in messy handwriting."

"This would make a sick real tattoo." All I can do is sort of laugh. The tensity in my arm gives out all at once and I feel another wave of belonging. This crowd is the one I should have spent my time with all along.

-

I can't stop looking at my arm. I can't stop looking at my friends. We're beautiful.

"Alright, gays, let's go. My parents have given me the okay on using the van for the day. Let's go to pride!" Pete yells over the cacophony of our talking. We all yell and start to run down the stairs, grabbing onto each other and laughing.

The van is still parked in the driveway and we all pile in for the second time today. Dallon gets in first and, to my surprise, pulls Brendon in after him. Sin Boy is doing better than I would have given him credit for. We all get situated and wait for Pete to get in the driver's seat after saying bye to his parents. The kid Kellin is on my left and Andy is on my right. Everyone is having separate conversations until Alex clears his throat and slams his hand against one of the tough van windows.

"Jack and I have formulated an ingenious plan for passing the time while Pete sucks up to his parents!"

"What is it, fancypants? I was having a very important conversation about Mormonism with my good friend Dallon, here!" Brendon yells pseudo-angrily.

"Jack and I just thought it would be fun to share some of our first gay experiences with each other. Bonding game." He smirks as he says this, like it's a challenge.

"Sounds like kindergarten show and tell to me, but I'm down," Brendon counters, hands in the air. "Who goes first?"

"Well, who wants to?"

I wring my hands nervously. I know it shouldn't be hard to share things with these people, but a gay moment? I don't even know how many of those I have.

Brendon stretches his arms, effectively blocking the views of everyone within two seats of him. "I could tell you all about the first time I had sex with a guy in the second floor bathroom, but something tells me we're looking for something different. Maybe a little less... explicit?" At this point, Brendon and Alex are openly engaged in some sort of competition.

"The crazier, the better." Alex quirks one of his huge eyebrows and leans back. Jack pats his back and they just sort of sit there for a minute.

"Alright. It was Ryan. Ross? You guys know him?" There are a few nods around the van even though the name seems only vaguely familiar to me. "Yeah, it was about halfway through sophomore year. Mrs. Briggs almost caught us." He smirks and leans back. Dallon looks down at him a bit but I can't read his expression. It's not quite admiration, but it also isn't disgust, which is how I would have reacted.

"Alright. I'd say that's pretty gay. Who's gonna challenge Brednob, take back the throne?"

Joe launches into a story about how he got drunk and a little high at a party one time and kissed a genderfluid kid because people were picking on them. It's a good story, and Joe's a good guy. He tells us about how they were still friends before the kid moved to another school and their mom took their phone because of the involvement in the party scene. "Kids at this school can be brutal," he says after a while. "They had bruises sometimes. They had to use makeup to cover it up." The van grows silent as we think about this.

Suddenly, the driver's side door opens and Pete slides in and beats on the wheel. "Alright, what'd I miss?"

Vic answers "Brendon banged a guy in the bathroom sophomore year. Nothing surprising."

"True," Pete replies. "Okay, my parents say the van has to be back by 7:00, which sucks, but it's only 1:00 right now, so we have some time. We can spend most of it at pride and then if we have any time, we can just chill."

The crowd gets the energy we had earlier back and we begin to slap our knees and clap and high five each other.

-

The drive is about an hour long because the parade is in Chicago and the traffic is pretty congested. It's okay, though, because we talk the whole way and listen to cool music. It's a weird mix of Metallica, blink-182, and Frank Sinatra, but it works. I'm willing to give Pete the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's a better driver when he doesn't have thirteen loud teenagers in the back of his van; or more, I'm hoping he is. People keep pulling out in front of him and cutting him off because the traffic is so bad. He doesn't get angry and beat the wheel like my dad does, though. He's completely calm.

He looks really great in the muscle tee we're all wearing. It showcases the strength in his biceps that's probably normally hidden under a shirt. It's good I'm not driving because I'd be more than a little distracted.