Queer as Muke

1.22.4 Full Circle

Corey's eating a donut on a plate for breakfast with a knife and fork and with his pinky finger sticking out, looking like the absolute Queen he is, in the Diner when Sam walks in. "Somebody looks all fucked out!" he observes gleefully, popping another piece of donut in his mouth and chewing as Sam gingerly sits down next to him.

"Somebody is," Sam groans.

"Somebody needs vitamins!" Corey decides, "Coffee! Over here please!"

"Jake and I had sex all night!" Sam confides in a low voice, "I got half an hour's sleep."

Corey grins conspiratorially, "Okay! This is what we call a high end problem!"

"Only it wasn't him I was fucking. It was some drug!" Sam says urgently, needing Corey to understand. "Don't look so goddamned smug. You were right. You happy?" he says sadly, turning his head away.

Corey's immediately indignant, "No Sammy, I'm not happy, I'm sorry!"

Corey kind tone and the way he always tries to support him has Sam in tears, "What the fuck am I going to do?" he asks, shutting his eyes to rub the heels of his palms along his forehead.

"Simple honey, you're going to drink your coffee. Then you're going to go home and change the locks."

Sam turns to see if Corey's serious, "Shut him out like he doesn't exist?!"

"It's either that or you can keep lying to yourself, making excuses for him, living in a state of panic every time he goes out, not knowing if he's alive or dead... and then when he finally shows up a mess, having the supreme joy of putting him back together again,

Sam nearly hyperventilates at the thought of doing what Corey's telling him, "I can't! I can't do that!"

Corey quickly moves to calm him down, "Okay, okay! Then trying doing number two! Rehab! It'll be a good test to see who he loves more; you or crystal..."

~~~

"FAGGOT!!!!"

"Fuck you Raine!" Luke cries out, his books and bag scattering all around him as he turns around to look at the person who sent him flying to the floor with a massive and unprovoked shove in the back.

"Are you okay?! What an arsehole!" Chloe calls, running down the stairs to help Luke up with his things, looking with anger at Isaac Raine's retreating back.

"Thank god I won't have to see him again for the rest of my life!" Luke takes the books Chloe's offering him and stands up, brushing dust off his school trousers.

"Yeah, or anyone else here either..." Chloe says, unable to look at Luke directly. She scuffs her foot along the ground as she waits for him to sling his backpack on one shoulder.

"I wasn't talking about you..."

She glances up at him, pleased they're talking again after everything that's happened between them recently.

"Are you going to prom?" Luke asks, a thought occurring to him.

"Are you kidding?!"

"I know! I wasn't going to go either but Joy said it was this right of passage and if I missed it I would regret it for the rest of my life!" Luke reaches the front doors to school and turns around, opening the door with his back. "So I asked Michael!"

"Nooooooo!!!" Chloe's look of shock almost makes him laugh.

"He turned me down though..."

"Oh shit! Can you imagine! People's heads would've exploded!"

"I know! It would have been the perfect 'fuck you' to Norwest!" Luke breathes out a huge sigh. It's so nice to be able to talk about all this kind of stuff to his best friend again, he'd missed their chats. "I missed you Chlo..."

"I know," Chloe looks at him apologetically, touching his hand. She had missed Luke too, she can't talk to any of her girl friends the way they talk.

"So...how about you and me going together?"

She pulls a face, "Like a date?"

"Like friends. Best friends." Luke starts smiling when Chloe starts smiling at him, "Only...weirdness over?"

"Weirdness definitely over!" she agrees, her eyes twinkling again.

~~~

"Oh! I think that's so adorable that he asked you!" Geordie cries, looking over towards Michael as she tends to Gus in his pram. Michael gives her a withering look as he walks to the next rack of clothes. "Despite the somewhat questionable differences in your ages and the fact that emotionally he's twelve years your senior...!"

"I'm not going. Too old," states Michael, determinedly keeping his eyes on the suits and not on Geordie, who's eyes he can feel boring into his back.

"Oh so you're thirty! I know, it's so traumatic!" She gasps theatrically, clutching at her throat. Michael rolls his eyes, pulling out a tie to look at. "...But it is something we all go through if you're lucky enough to live that long, but to carry on like it's the end of your life?!..."

Geordie is so over Michael's doomsday attitude to his thirtieth birthday.

"It is."

"It's the beginning! A whole new way of thinking about yourself!" She doesn't get why it's such a massive deal to him. Yes, decade birthdays are always thought provoking and needs a little readjustment but to be this...she searches for the right word...traumatised by it, is ridiculous. She decides to appeal to the narcissistic side of his nature, "It's a new sense of entitlement and accomplishment!"

Michael smiles at her smugly, "That's from the Larginesse anti-aging commercial. I wrote that fucking copy!"

Geordie's left looking at the shelf of clothes where Michael had just been standing, gritting her teeth in irritation. She knew it sounded too good to be true.  Turning quickly to look at him, she turns her mistake around, trying again, "Okay! Well, I guess I only quote from the Master! But it's the truth. I want wrinkles, I want grey hair, I want Gus to make me a grandmother! I want to grow old with Maddie..."

Michael shoves his hands in his pockets, "Do you want me to puke? Right here?!"

He starts walking away once again, casting his discerning eye over the accessories section of the shop. "I don't want grey hair or wrinkles. I don't want to be a grandfather! And I definitely don't want to grow old with Maddie! Or anyone else!"

Geordie leaves Gus in his pram, coming around it to get into Michael's face. He's staring at a white silk scarf wrapped artfully around a mannequin's neck. "What do you want?" she asks him, interested to hear his answer.

"This," Michael replies simply. He pulls the scarf off, feeling the material run smoothly through his hands.

"It is beautiful," she acknowledges.

"You know maybe you're right..." Michael flips the scarf around his neck, holding the two ends in his hands, liking how it feels. "Maybe I should celebrate turning thirty and get myself something very special!"

"Now you're talking!" Geordie smiles at him as she helps him arrange the scarf, pleased that finally he's no longer in denial.