A/N: This is the first of two consecutive chapters that ::gasp:: don't prominently involve the Bash Brothers! What am I thinking?! (I'm thinking that the story needs a little development beyond the happies of our Bashies.) Actually, I'm trying to treat Dwayne more nicely, and get more Luis in the story.
So you know, this chapter happens right after the first section of Chapter Eleven (Friday). Chapter Fourteen happens at the same time as the next section of Chapter Eleven and Chapter Twelve (Saturday). The Bash Brothers' storyline picks up in Chapter Fifteen (Sunday).
****
"Might as Well, Part Thirteen"
["Well, I ain't first-class but I ain't white trash/ I'm wild and a little crazy too/ Some girls don't like boys like me/ Oh, but some girls do/
Well good ole' boys don't get no breaks/ And rich boys think they got what it takes/ But there's someone for each of us they say."
--from "Some Girls Do" by Sawyer Brown]
Dwayne was humming a country song to himself as he held up two button-up shirts and compared them. A very nice girl from gym class had agreed to go out to dinner with him tonight, and he planned on taking her to an outdoor play in the park afterward. The play was called "Little Me," an adaption by Neil Simon that was supposed to be very funny. Dwayne liked Neil Simon; the first play that he had seen was "The Brighton Beach Memoirs."
He heard the door to the room open and close, and he turned around, holding up both shirts and asking, "Luis, which one should I wear on my date tonight?"
"You have a date tonight?" Luis marveled. Dwayne nodded, and motioned with both hands that Luis should chose. "The blue one," Luis said, pointing to it.
"Thanks." Dwayne laid the shirt flat on his bed and carefully smoothed it of the most obvious wrinkles. "Her name's Tara Dixon. She hit me with a tennis ball when we were learnin' tennis in gym."
"What'd you do?"
"Nothin'. It was an accident, on account of she don't play tennis very well." Dwayne glanced at his reflection in the mirror and groaned, grabbed a brush and started attacking his hair. "So anyway, we got to talking and I asked her if she'd like to have dinner with me. She said yes."
"That's it?" Luis demanded incredelously, "You get hit with a tennis ball and start talking, and then you ask her on a date and she says /yes/?"
"Don't mean nothing. She's nice, but maybe I won't like her so much if I know her better." Dwayne shrugged. "Girls up here, they ain't like the ladies back home."
Luis watched Dwayne get ready for his date. Normally, Luis would be the one running around the dorm room on a Friday night, slathering his hair with gel and spritzing cologne, brushing his teeth and gargling a million times, finishing off by chewing a piece of gum and scraping up enough money to buy the girl a few flowers. But having just broken up with one of his cheerleader girlfriends, he was trying to cultivate a sensitive, loving persona by acting heartbroken and jilted for a while. Girls went nuts for the dark, brooding, sensitive type, didn't they? He certainly hoped so.
"Hey, Dwayne, what do you think of Fulton and Portman?"
The Texan froze. "What do you mean?"
Luis decided to leave him dangling for a little bit and made a show of patting his perfect hair as if in an attempt to make it more perfect. He said nonchalantly, "Well, I'm not too thrilled about them myself."
"Oh," Dwayne looked relieved. "Julie says that it's wrong for them to...be the way they are."
"Yeah?" Luis said, interested now. The others had spun theories about Julie using Dwayne, and this seemed to be proof of it. "I dunno...neither of seem to be acting any different. They're decent guys."
"Julie says that if they were decent people, they'd stop. They'd chose not to be like that and stop sinning."
Luis raised an eyebrow. "Do you think that being homosexual is a sin?"
"Well...yeah, 'course it is. God laid down the rules. He made man for woman, and woman for man. He didn't make woman for woman, or man for man." Dwayne looked a little confused by the questions, but also very convinced of his views. "I thought that you didn't like it either, Luis."
"I don't. But they aren't hurting me."
"Yeah, but what if one of 'em gets AIDS, and then they bleed on you or something? That'd hurt you, wouldn't it?" Dwayne argued.
"If I contracted HIV, that'd hurt me, sure. But they don't have AIDS. And if they did, they'd tell us." Luis almost smiled. If his old friends in Miami could hear him now! He'd gone from queer basher to gay rights spokesperson in less than a week... "Besides, you're Christian, aren't you?"
Dwayne nodded, unsure of how this related to the topic. Luis gestured to the crucifix that he'd hung over their door.
"I'm Catholic. And all Christian faiths say that Jesus took everybody's sins onto himself when he died on the cross. Don't you think that that includes Fulton and Portman being boyfriends?"
Dwayne sat down. "That makes sense. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...'"
"'...so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.' John 3:16." Luis finished. He gave into the impulse and smiled. "That's what I'm saying. God still loves Fulton and Portman even if they're gay, so the least I can do is stay friends with them."
"But Julie said that God hates gays." Dwayne protested. "Why would she lie to me?"
"Maybe she doesn't know any better. Anyway, don't worry about it right now. Don't you have a date to get to?"
"Oh, shit!" Dwayne checked his watch and jumped to his feet. "I was supposed to pick Tara up five minutes ago! I gotta go!"
Luis watched his roommate run out of the room and slam the door. His dark gaze traveled up to rest on the carved-wood crucifix. He sighed and said, "¿Es usted feliz, Señor? Defendí a mis amigos.[1]" A hopeful look crossed his face as he thought, 'That /has/ to earn me a nice girlfriend...'
~~To be continued...~~
[1] Are you happy, Lord? I defended my friends.
So you know, this chapter happens right after the first section of Chapter Eleven (Friday). Chapter Fourteen happens at the same time as the next section of Chapter Eleven and Chapter Twelve (Saturday). The Bash Brothers' storyline picks up in Chapter Fifteen (Sunday).
****
"Might as Well, Part Thirteen"
["Well, I ain't first-class but I ain't white trash/ I'm wild and a little crazy too/ Some girls don't like boys like me/ Oh, but some girls do/
Well good ole' boys don't get no breaks/ And rich boys think they got what it takes/ But there's someone for each of us they say."
--from "Some Girls Do" by Sawyer Brown]
Dwayne was humming a country song to himself as he held up two button-up shirts and compared them. A very nice girl from gym class had agreed to go out to dinner with him tonight, and he planned on taking her to an outdoor play in the park afterward. The play was called "Little Me," an adaption by Neil Simon that was supposed to be very funny. Dwayne liked Neil Simon; the first play that he had seen was "The Brighton Beach Memoirs."
He heard the door to the room open and close, and he turned around, holding up both shirts and asking, "Luis, which one should I wear on my date tonight?"
"You have a date tonight?" Luis marveled. Dwayne nodded, and motioned with both hands that Luis should chose. "The blue one," Luis said, pointing to it.
"Thanks." Dwayne laid the shirt flat on his bed and carefully smoothed it of the most obvious wrinkles. "Her name's Tara Dixon. She hit me with a tennis ball when we were learnin' tennis in gym."
"What'd you do?"
"Nothin'. It was an accident, on account of she don't play tennis very well." Dwayne glanced at his reflection in the mirror and groaned, grabbed a brush and started attacking his hair. "So anyway, we got to talking and I asked her if she'd like to have dinner with me. She said yes."
"That's it?" Luis demanded incredelously, "You get hit with a tennis ball and start talking, and then you ask her on a date and she says /yes/?"
"Don't mean nothing. She's nice, but maybe I won't like her so much if I know her better." Dwayne shrugged. "Girls up here, they ain't like the ladies back home."
Luis watched Dwayne get ready for his date. Normally, Luis would be the one running around the dorm room on a Friday night, slathering his hair with gel and spritzing cologne, brushing his teeth and gargling a million times, finishing off by chewing a piece of gum and scraping up enough money to buy the girl a few flowers. But having just broken up with one of his cheerleader girlfriends, he was trying to cultivate a sensitive, loving persona by acting heartbroken and jilted for a while. Girls went nuts for the dark, brooding, sensitive type, didn't they? He certainly hoped so.
"Hey, Dwayne, what do you think of Fulton and Portman?"
The Texan froze. "What do you mean?"
Luis decided to leave him dangling for a little bit and made a show of patting his perfect hair as if in an attempt to make it more perfect. He said nonchalantly, "Well, I'm not too thrilled about them myself."
"Oh," Dwayne looked relieved. "Julie says that it's wrong for them to...be the way they are."
"Yeah?" Luis said, interested now. The others had spun theories about Julie using Dwayne, and this seemed to be proof of it. "I dunno...neither of seem to be acting any different. They're decent guys."
"Julie says that if they were decent people, they'd stop. They'd chose not to be like that and stop sinning."
Luis raised an eyebrow. "Do you think that being homosexual is a sin?"
"Well...yeah, 'course it is. God laid down the rules. He made man for woman, and woman for man. He didn't make woman for woman, or man for man." Dwayne looked a little confused by the questions, but also very convinced of his views. "I thought that you didn't like it either, Luis."
"I don't. But they aren't hurting me."
"Yeah, but what if one of 'em gets AIDS, and then they bleed on you or something? That'd hurt you, wouldn't it?" Dwayne argued.
"If I contracted HIV, that'd hurt me, sure. But they don't have AIDS. And if they did, they'd tell us." Luis almost smiled. If his old friends in Miami could hear him now! He'd gone from queer basher to gay rights spokesperson in less than a week... "Besides, you're Christian, aren't you?"
Dwayne nodded, unsure of how this related to the topic. Luis gestured to the crucifix that he'd hung over their door.
"I'm Catholic. And all Christian faiths say that Jesus took everybody's sins onto himself when he died on the cross. Don't you think that that includes Fulton and Portman being boyfriends?"
Dwayne sat down. "That makes sense. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...'"
"'...so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.' John 3:16." Luis finished. He gave into the impulse and smiled. "That's what I'm saying. God still loves Fulton and Portman even if they're gay, so the least I can do is stay friends with them."
"But Julie said that God hates gays." Dwayne protested. "Why would she lie to me?"
"Maybe she doesn't know any better. Anyway, don't worry about it right now. Don't you have a date to get to?"
"Oh, shit!" Dwayne checked his watch and jumped to his feet. "I was supposed to pick Tara up five minutes ago! I gotta go!"
Luis watched his roommate run out of the room and slam the door. His dark gaze traveled up to rest on the carved-wood crucifix. He sighed and said, "¿Es usted feliz, Señor? Defendí a mis amigos.[1]" A hopeful look crossed his face as he thought, 'That /has/ to earn me a nice girlfriend...'
~~To be continued...~~
[1] Are you happy, Lord? I defended my friends.
