Queer as Muke

1.19.5 Good Grief!

Luke opens the door to his bedroom, unsure as to why he's being cautious and quiet. Joy is going to be at the diner for hours yet and Dave's busy at the local gay hospice that he helps out at until way after dinner tonight.

"Come on in..."

"Thanks," Chloe replies with a shy smile.

"You can put your backpack over here," Luke swings his down, walking around his bed and places it on the floor near his desk. "Do you want to listen to something?" he asks, turning to look at her and finding her in the exact same spot she was when she walked in. "Chlo?"

"Huh?!" Startled out of her own thoughts, Chloe looks at him surprised, "Oh. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever you want... So, how long to do you think this is going to take?" she asks warily, looking at Luke's back as he puts some music on.

"I don't know, maybe an hour?" Luke shrugs.

"Because I've got to be home at six, I promised my Mum, and my Grandma's coming over for dinner, so..."

Luke looks at her, spreading his palms out, "If you don't want to do this..."

"No. No! I do! Do you have any condoms?" she asks with a scrunched up nose, embarrassed to be asking.

Luke snorts, "Are you kidding?" he asks softly, moving around his room to her.

"Because I brought some in case, and some lubricant and some spermicidal foam!"

"You're really prepared!" Luke looks at Chloe's bag as she pulls everything out and then shrugs his school blazer off and starts unbuttoning the cuffs of his shirt. "I guess we should..."

Chloe looks at him, understanding, but feeling very nervous. She sits down heavily on the edge of the bed, "Yeah, I guess we should. In a way this is your first time too..."

Luke sits down too, toeing off his shoes, realising what she means. First time with a girl. Only time with a girl. He wouldn't do this for anyone but his best friend. "Yeah, we can give it a shot together..." he says, taking off his tie, idly wondering if he's going to be able to get hard, but then remembering Michael's words about rubbing up against a tree. Michael's words. Michael's voice. Michael...he'll just think of Michael.

"Only afterwards Chlo, let's not get weird..." Luke turns to her as he starts unbuttoning his shirt.

"Weird how?"

He shrugs, "I don't know but let's just not..."

"No weirdness," she agrees, smiling at him. He edges closer and kisses her on the lips a couple of times to see how it feels.

A little later, under his sheets, he enters her, propping himself up on his hands as he watches her reaction under him. He wants this to feel good for her, to not be something to hate or feel that it wasn't real sex because it's two best friends. He tries to make it as pain free for her as it was for him, knowing how much it meant when Michael did the same thing for him. How much it still means to him. To that end, Luke kisses her neck, knowing that it had helped distract him from the burn and the stretching, but then again he had Michael kissing him with those ruby red lips of his and when Michael had looked at him, all hooded lids and oozing sexiness, that's when he's started to fall in love with him...

Chloe smiles, relived, as he rocks his hips. She's getting more and more used to the sensation and finds, to her surprise, that she starts to enjoy it, just like Luke said he did.

"Feel good?" he asks as he sees her smile, and he feels good in himself in a friendly sort of way when she nods and starts to move with him, knowing that she wouldn't be doing that if it were still hurting.

"Uh huh," she says, her eyes shining as she pulls him down for another kiss on the mouth.

~~~

"That was the funeral from hell!" Sam laughs as he and Corey walk together in the dark, the funeral having gone on much longer than both of them would have wished.

"I will always remember his cousin screaming 'You shit! You shit!' " Corey imitates the way she was hitting Michael, as he bats at Sam's arm.

"And Father O'Whatshisface carrying his mother up to her room!"

"They didn't come down for like an hour!" Corey giggles, imagining all sorts going on between the priest and Karen. "Do you think it's really true, what Michael said?" he asks Sam in a quieter voice when he calms down.

"You know Michael, always trying to shock everybody, but somehow I believe it."

Corey shakes his head, "Can you imagine growing up in that house? How did he ever survive?"

"Who's to say he did? Hey, these are kind of nice..." Sam says, stopping on the street to look at flowers.

"Yes, they'd make a fabulous centerpiece for your romantic dinner for two..." Corey looks at Sam, remembering the conversation they had just started before it really kicked off at the funeral, annoyed with himself that he's forgotten it until just then.

"It would go well with that china my grandmother left me," Sam completely misses Corey's sarcastic undertone.

"Mmmm perfect, perfect. And the good crystal, I'm sure Jake will appreciate that."

Sam's left in no doubt as to what type of crystal Corey's referring to.

"Fuck you!" he calls to Corey's retreating back.

Corey stops and turns, "Excuse me?"

"I already told you he's not using!"

"Okay!" Corey puts his hand in the air, calling out to passers by, "Can I have a show of hands? How many think the twink is no longer tweaked out? Oh look, no-one!"

Sam glares at Corey. "Yeah, well you're all wrong!" he too calls out to the street.

"No Sammy, you are..." Corey says in a much softer voice, trying to get Sam to understand about leopards and spots. "Believe me, I know."

Sam looks witheringly at him, "You don't know. You're just jealous."

"Jealous?!"

"Jealous that I've actually found someone who cares about me and wants to be with me."

"He's using you Sammy, that's what users do."

Corey can't put it any clearer than that. If Sam chooses not to believe him then there's nothing else he can do, except to be around to pick the pieces up.

"It's not true! You just don't want me to have something because you don't have it!"

Corey looks steadily at Sam, not quite believing that they're having this conversation, until Sam turns to pay for the flowers he's chosen before walking off without a backwards glance, leaving Corey standing on the street, with a frustrated and also sightly perplexed look on his face.