Queer as Muke

1.20.4 The King of Arq

"Hey what's up?" Calum asks Sam, catching up to him after leaving the bar area in a hurry. "What's the problem?"

Sam turns to him furious and upset, "Corey knows some guy for all of fifteen minutes and you're welcoming him in for a drink. But Jake you can barely speak to!"

"Well maybe that's because I don't know what to say! 'So you nearly killed my friend?!' or 'Hey I hear you passed out on the bathroom floor, you want to be buddies?'" Calum explains, giving him some examples of what's been going through his head recently.

"You know I would have thought that if anyone would have given him a chance, it would have been you Calum!" Sam shakes his head sadly, before disappearing through the crowd.

~~~

"Hold on! Jesus! I'm coming!" Maddie says, sprinting down the corridor and into the hall as fast as she can to stop the doorbell from ringing anymore and waking Gus up. "What's the matter?" she gasps, opening the door to Joy who walks in hurriedly, looking frightened to death.

"I've been calling but there's no answer!"

"We turn the phone off at night it wakes Gus up..."

"Look I'm sorry to be coming round so late but Dave's in jail!"

"What?!" Geordie exclaims, hearing the end of Joy sentence, as she arrives in the hall.

"He went to the shopping centre, used the men's room and the next thing he's arrested for indecent exposure!"

"Indecent exposure?!"

"Yeah, he swears he didn't do anything! But he needs a lawyer and I didn't know what to do!"

"It's okay, I'm going to go and get dressed," Maddie tells a tearful Joy.

"If he didn't do anything why did he get arrested?" Geordie wonders out loud.

"Oh it's harassment of gay people, police like playing Capture the Fag," Maddie tells her as she walks past.

"What? You think Dave did something?" Joy asks in a dangerously fierce voice.

"Oh. No, I was just..." Geordie puts her hands up to fend off the backlash she knows is coming.

"Well, I'm telling you I know my own brother and it's crap!!!"

"It's going to be okay, I'm going to go get dressed, but we'd better get a move on. I'll be right back," Maddie tells her, trying to calm Joy down.

~~~

"You said to check back with you in an hour."

Luke arrives at Michael's side with a drink. He peeks over the balcony wondering what Michael's been staring at for the past few minutes.

"I still have eight minutes left."

Luke rolls his eyes at Michael and looks down, following his eyesight. A guy is dancing, looking straight up at Michael, dressed in a white crop top. Luke guesses he's the one...

"He has zits on his ass, a tragic endowment and is just getting over a nasty case of gonorrhea," Luke jokes, trying to distract Michael.

"Uh huh," Michael grunts not really listening, never taking his eyes off the guy.

"Well, if I were you I wouldn't wait too long..." Luke tells him, moving off, knowing that Michael's unable to be distracted when he has that look in his eye. His only hope is that the guy rejects him which he knows is not about to happen, "By then I may have other plans."

~~~

"So what's with you anyway?" Jake's ex-dealer asks him as he's washing his hands after coming out of the cubicle.

"Nothing."

"Who's your friend?" He asks, nodding towards the exit and the dance floor where Jake knows Sam is waiting for him.

Jake doesn't want to give him any information, "Nobody."

"You look pretty tight to me. How come you didn't introduce us?"

Jake looks him in the eye, not wanting to have this conversation anymore than Sam would want him talking to his dealer but here he is. Maybe it was a mistake to come here tonight, he might have known that the King of Arq contest would be a big night for a dealer like this, "He wouldn't like you."

"Maybe he would if I offered him a favour..?"

"Yeah, well, he's not interested in any of your favours."

"It's great stuff..." Getting a little baggy out of his pocket he shows Jake just how good his favours are. "At a great price."

Jake breathes in, shuts his eyes for a second and breathes out again. "I told you, neither am I."

Walking out of the rest room, Jake starts sprinting up the stairs where he knows Sam will be waiting. Sam and normality, a new life, one free of drugs. He's proud that he's walked away but shocked by how much he still wants it. A hand flutters onto his arm half way up the stairs and he looks round, coming to a halt when he sees Sam, dropping a couple of steps back he confronts him, "What are you doing?"

Sam smiles, "Probably just what it looks like, loitering outside the men's room."

"Did you come to check up on me?" Jake demands, instantly annoyed.

"Of course not! Just that I seem to meet the cutest guys here!" Sam pinches Jake's tee between his thumb and forefinger in an unconscious gesture.

"Because I told you I'm fine!"

Of course his dealer has to walk between him and Sam at the express moment, Jake sends him a withering look up the stairs as Sam seeks to reassure him.

"I know you're fine." Leaning forward, Sam means to kiss Jake but Jake pulls back, disgusted with himself for being tempted a minute ago and still annoyed at Sam for having come to check on him, because no matter how much he denies it, Jake knows that's what he was doing.

"Come on, let's join the others..." Jake says, setting off up the stairs again, but Sam catches his hand to stop him.

"Let's not. I'd rather just be with you..."

~~~

"Gentlemen prefer blondes!" shrieks the drag queen, now dressed as Marilyn Monroe, "And this blonde prefers gentlemen in leather, give it up for our next contestant!"

Corey and Jay don't hear a thing as they wander through the club hand in hand, planning their future life together.

"I've always dreamed about living in a little cottage," Corey confides.

"With a garden out the back," adds Jay.

"Where I can grown lavender and jasmine."

"And we'll cook gourmet meals."

"Seasoned with our very own home grown herbs!" Corey coos in delight.

"And then on cold evenings, we'll curl up in front of the fire with big mugs of hot chocolate..."

"And in the Summer, we'll take long lazy walks along the beach..."

"It'll be heaven," confirms Jay.

"Bliss," agrees Corey.

Jay looks down at the dance floor from the balcony they've found themselves on, telling Corey, "I'll be right back, don't go away."

"I'll be waiting."

Corey waves at the back of a retreating Jay, before sighing in happiness, watching as he disappears down the stairs and turns back to watch the contest with a contented smile and a light heart as he waits for the love of his life to return...