"He wants to take you to Paris?!" Sam exclaims, looking at Calum in both surprise and shock.
"You know you're the luckiest boy in the world! Pass me the syrup. I love Paris!"
"You've never been to Paris!" Sam says, turning to look at Corey next to him.
"Well, I know I'll love it when I get there!"
"So when are you leaving?"
Calum looks at both of them whilst their meals are delivered, "We're not."
"Excuse moi?!" Corey's voice goes up several octaves as he stares at Calum.
"I don't have the money for that kind of a trip!"
"Of course you don't! But Stephen does!" Corey tells him eagerly.
"I told him that he can't pay for me."
"Are you completely mad?! Of course he can!"
"Stephen and I have an arrangement," Calum explains to a horrified Corey. "We only do things we can both afford."
"Au revoir Paris, bonjour Byron Bay!" Sam mutters.
"Okay so I won't get to see the Seine or stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens or any of the other wonderful stuff he had planned but at least..."
"You'll have your pride?" Corey skewers some chicken angrily on his fork. He can't believe that Calum's turning down this amazing opportunity.
"I hear that's what everyone is wearing in Paris this year!" Sam chimes in.
"Stephen already takes me to dinner, he buys our food, he pays all the house expenses..." Calum tries to explain.
Corey looks up from his chicken, "Where do I sign up?"
"It's not right!"
"But if he wants to do it?" Sam asks.
"That's what he says, that it makes him happy..."
"Then stop being so goddamn selfish!" Corey stuffs the chicken into his mouth.
"Selfish?!!"
"I think it's selfish to deny your lover pleasure..."
"Calum, money is my business..." Calum turns his attention to Sam, if only to get away from Corey's anger. "...I've seen it destroy more relationships than sex ever has. Now I know you think you're being fair to Stephen with this false pride thing but it'll only cause frustration and resentment and, quite frankly, you're denying yourself the opportunity to go places that you could never go to and do thing you could never do!"
Corey butts in as Calum's mind goes into a whirlwind of doubt and confusion, "It's like Barbara said so eloquently in Hello Dolly, even though she was years too young for the part..." Sam snorts a little and goes back to his dinner, he knows one of Corey famous imitations is coming.
" 'Money is like manure, it isn't worth a thing unless you spread it around, encouraging things to grow, you know what I mean?' "
Calum laughs as Corey not only perfects the accent, albeit in a much lower tone, but also the hand gestures.
~~~
"There's a meeting after school of the Gay/Straight Student Alliance!" Luke calls as he stands as the corner of one of the main corridors of his school, trying to hand out flyers to people as they walk past. Chloe stands shoulder to shoulder with him, trying to catch people coming the opposite way but no-one's taking any flyers or paying either of them any attention.
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfic"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...
