"Stephen? Stephen?!"
"What is it?"
"Where's my plaid flannel?" calls Calum. "I want to wear it under my hi-vis vest! It used to be right here!"
"Oh, I packed it!" Stephen says, wiping his freshly shaved face with a towel as he wanders back into the bedroom.
"What am I supposed to wear to Corey's party?"
Stephen throws him a shirt out of his own suitcase, "Here, try that on! You'll look good in that. It's too small on me, you keep it."
"I don't need your hand-me-downs, I need someone who listens to me," Calum grumbles into the wardrobe.
"What?"
Calum pulls his head out of the wardrobe to see Stephen standing right behind him. "Well I need to think about what I'm going to do when we get to Perth! We haven't even discussed it!"
"Okay, well let's discuss it!"
Calum blinks, he's not quite ready to discuss it. "Well..." he stalls, "Um, I thought that maybe I wouldn't work at another K-Mart, that maybe I'd...um...I'd try something totally different. You know...a whole new track...maybe even go to back to TAFE...um..."
"Oh damnit!" Stephen suddenly breaks off from buttoning Calum's shirt up on him, "I told the people who are leasing the house that I'd put the shade sail up ready for Summer before we left..."
"I can do it!" Calum offers quickly, pleased that he no longer has to pretend that he's been thinking about what to do in Perth.
"Oh. No, that's fine, I'll take care of it!"
Calum stares at Stephen's retreating back, with the sudden realisation that somehow his shirt is now buttoned up and he's still not being listened to. "I used to help my Mum to do it every year!" he calls.
"It's okay! I'm good with my hands remember?!"
Calum clenches his jaw in frustration, when is Stephen going to let him help with all this stuff? He thinks for a couple of seconds, coming rapidly to the conclusion that he's starting to feel totally emasculated. And he doesn't like it one bit.
~~~
"Hey honey!" Joy greets Corey with a loud voice and a huge hug as he opens the door to his apartment. "Hi baby!" she calls, seeing Calum over Corey's shoulder as he's giving her a hug.
Joy's eyes go wide as she looks at Corey's apartment, "It looks like a minesite! It even smells like a minesite!" she exclaims, sniffing tentatively as she looks over at Geordie and Maddie in their hi-vis vests. Corey has decorated the apartment with little toy bulldozers and tools or all shapes and sizes. She's not sure this is all Western Australia has to offer but, having never been there, she's not about to rain on Corey's parade.
"It's supposed to be Kalgoorlie Mum, to make me and Stephen feel at home..." Calum offers, knowing exactly what his mum is thinking. He was thinking it too, until Corey explained his 'concept' to him.
"But you're not moving to Kalgoorlie, you're going to Perth!"
Calum shakes his head, sending warning signals to Joy and she quickly walks off in search of a drink, her eyes wide at the lengths Corey has gone to to create a mine site. Why couldn't he have gone down the Indian Ocean, white sand beaches and surf lifesaving route? At least she could have worn her new summer sundress...
"May I say, you two have never looked more butch!" Sam looks appreciatively at Geordie and Maddie, making Maddie splutter.
"Well neither have you!" she retorts, laughing.
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...
