Come Out, Come Out.

Cheryl felt happier than she had done in ages. Things were finally slotting into place.

Her hair had behaved itself, three days in a row now. She had made a start on her New Year's Resolution to get fit, by booking herself into six Zumba classes at Cinergy (yes thank you, she was well aware of the fact that it was March); and Brendan and her were closer than ever.

She felt she ought to say a little prayer. To offer up a rosary in gratitude.

It was true that Brendan and her hadn't had a chance to discuss in detail, what he had revealed to her a few nights ago; but Cheryl was confident that it was only a matter of time, before they would be having a heart to heart again (hot chocolate optional).

If Cheryl's feet were aware of the fact they needed to tread carefully, they had yet to inform her head.

-O-

That evening as Cheryl peeled off her falsies, she reflected on Brendan's heartfelt outpouring to her, and a thought struck her .

Something small but significant was missing.

A name.

A hint of a name even.

Brendan hadn't revealed who exactly it was that he was dating.

Strange.

It was unlike him.

When they were growing up in Belfast, Brendan had often regaled her with tales of his shenanigans.

"Oh Chez, you should see the curves on her. She'd tempt a Saint, sure she would."

Cheryl would always throw her head back and shriek, as she'd shake her curls in mock disbelief.

"You're terrible Bren" she'd respond, whilst looking at him with pure love and affection.

This time however, she hadn't been given the opportunity.

-OOO-

Much later.

Cheryl entered Brendan's bedroom quietly.

She carefully sat down by his right shoulder and gazed at him thoughtfully, before angling his bedside lamp towards his eyes and switching it on.

"Bren, I've been thinking."

"What, wha?! Chez, what the hell d'you think you're playing at?"

"I've been thinking."

"Now? Now's the time you do your thinking? At 2am?"

Brendan rearranged his eye-mask to try to block out as much of the full-on beam as possible.

"You see something's not quite right."

"You are out of your mind Chez, go back to bed. Go away."

"Your girl, your new fancy, why didn't you name her?"

Brendan sat up at this point, removing his mask, more alert than he had been all day.

"What do ye mean?"

"You didn't tell me her name."

"Yeah I did."

"No you didn't Bren.

You usually wax lyrical about your girls. Always telling me which one snorts when she laughs, or who has chipped nail varnish; but on Tuesday, not a word."

Brendan let out a sigh. This was going to be easier to-side-step than he'd thought.

"Do ye not think you ought to get out more Cheryl? Not focus on me so much.

All work and no play, makes for one demented lil' bunny ye know."

"Don't try an' fob me off Brendan Brady, you're hiding something an' I wanna know what. Is she married?"

"No."

"Ugly?"

"No."

"Curvier than public tastes allow?"

Brendan had to smirk at that one.

Cheryl's eyes immediately widened.

"Bigger?

Size of a skip?"

She gasped.

"Not tourist attraction big?"

"No Chez, what do you take me for? Get out of my room and get back to your own bed."

"Not a chance B boy."

Cheryl twisted and shifted herself into a more comfortable position.

"There has to be a reason why you were playing The Pronoun Game."

"The what game? I swear you make these things up."

"The Pronoun Game. You didn't once say she when you were opening up your heart, just the ambiguous they or you simply swallowed when the chance to be specific came up. What's that all about?"

If Brendan had been half-asleep before, he was definitely awake now.

Awake, attentive and afraid.

He had to pull her focus in another direction. His life depended on it.

The Gods were playing Poker. Brendan wanted in, he knew he had the face for it. They had other ideas though. The stakes were higher than he could ever have imagined.

"You need to take this to your therapist Chez, no offence, but you're insane."

"Not so fast Bren, not so fast."

"Look Chezza, I was half-way through watching Lassie round up those damn sheep, so how about I take you out for a slap-up lunch with a side order of shopping thrown in and we can poke around the ashes of my sad pathetic love-life until the cows come home. What d'ye say?"

Cheryl gave every impression of not having heard that last statement.

"No, no, no, this is like that theatrical encounter. In Belfast. You remember don't you? You and the boys must've been about twenty or so."

Brendan froze and looked at Cheryl horrified. Even though she probably hadn't noticed in the partially lit room, Brendan had lightened by several shades.

"How do you know about that?"

"Ah Bren, it was common knowledge."

"No it wasn't," came the instant reply.

"Hate to break it to ye love, but it was."

This conversation had just moved a whole lot nearer the knuckle, than Brendan had ever thought possible.

He needed a Royal Flush if he was to leave this game unscathed with chips to spare.

"Since when did you listen to idle gossip?"

"Since the whole town was talking. Bren it was massive. You were innocent of course but it took Maria O' Callaghan having twins out of wedlock to push you off the No1 gossip hot spot."

Brendan felt sick, faint, flushed and freezing all at once, at the memory.

-OOO-

Belfast Ireland circa 15 years ago.

Cheryl Brady wasn't one to listen to gossip, as a rule; but try as she might she couldn't keep her ears away from what was swirling around her friends, her school, her girl guide troupe.

It was everywhere.

She was a good girl, (usually, unless there was chocolate involved). She followed every rule presented to her, always learn your spellings, learn your catechism by rote, don't smoke ever and family comes first; but loyalty alone wasn't enough to plug her ears against the tide of tales, that were being told about her brother.

-O-

Everyone had been happy, at first.

A new exotic show was coming to town, not that Cheryl would be allowed to go and see it. It was for grown-ups only apparently. Although Brendan and his mates were going, and Cheryl didn't count them as being grown-ups in any way, shape or form.

The Ladyboys of Bangkok were going to be performing their Mile High Tour in the Spiegel tent in the Custom House Square, in the centre of town, twice nightly, for a week. Those who were well travelled (or show-offs as Cheryl liked to call them) said that the act was a regular feature at the Edinburgh Festival and always went down a storm.

Everyone was excited, Belfast was often overlooked when international shows went on tour, London and Paris seemed to be the usual pit-stops; promoters appeared reluctant to look to their left geographically.

Brendan and his gang had managed to acquire some tickets (it was always best to gloss over any details) and a date had been set.

Cheryl's mum, Orla had been pleased that Brendan was keen to immerse himself in a cultural activity for a change. Cheryl turned a deaf ear to her father's thoughts on the matter.

-O-

On the night in question, everyone had had a fantastic time by all accounts, and the boys had followed some girls back to an after party of sorts. Now this is where the story divides into several parts.

Some say that a dare was made to see who could chat up the prettiest girls in the room, others say that "the" most stunningly beautiful girls entered the place and targeted the young men and finally some with bitter tongues and faithless hearts, mentioned money changing hands.

What is known, is that each of the boys managed to "walk a girl home" that night.

Cheryl had to piece the following events together from several sources. According to Kathleen Doyle who's brother worked at the same garage as Pete's friend Paddy, each of the boys arrived home fairly quickly after saying "goodnight" to their dates, rather shaken.

Pete apparently kept rinsing his mouth out with medicated mouthwash for two days. Tom Kirk refused point blank to date any girl he hadn't gone to school with, ever again and Liam Fitzpatrick narrowly escaped an assault charge.

It would seem their dates were more boys than ladies.

-O-

No-one could account for Brendan.

For nearly three hours.

-O-

Now this bit Cheryl could remember with clarity, when Brendan arrived home, he was fine, calm, happy even, certainly not upset or agitated like the others were reported to have been.

This changed however once the others got in contact.

Cheryl watched her brother become the butt of their jokes, as everyone pulled his leg about how slow he was on the uptake. How it took him three hours to realise what was apparent to the others within twenty minutes.

Initially he coped well; but then the story got out.

Rumours started.

Why the delay?

Was there something wrong with him?

Didn't he try it on with "her"? His nickname amongst the local girls was beautifully-behaved Brendan after all.

Why no angry outburst?

This, coupled with the fact that he wasn't "home-grown" marked Brendan's cards. Set him apart.

It was around this time Cheryl noticed that the ticks, twitches and other idiosyncrasies started to appear in

Brendan's behaviour. He started to stutter for a bit, especially when it came to pronouns. He would avoid using them at all costs.

Cheryl noticed things like that.

-O-

An unexpected plus point from this entire episode was that Brendan became her new best friend.

He suddenly had more time for her.

He also dated more ...and never went to the theatre again.

-OOO-

Brendan's bedroom.

Brendan felt he was drowning in the sheen of cold perspiration that was covering his body and beginning to cover his bed.

This time Cheryl noticed.

"Are you alright hun? You're looking a bit peaky. You should've said if you were feeling unwell.

Here's me rabbiting on and on and you look ready to pass out.

It's late, in fact it's early.

I'll go.

Night love.

Get some rest."

Never had Brendan been so glad to see the back of someone.

He slumped exhausted against his damp pillows.

The Gods moved around the table and took their seats again. They dealt themselves another hand.

-OOO-

Despite the hour at which they had finally gone to bed, both Bradys were up early.

Cheryl kicked herself as she realised that she had missed out on using the bathroom first, again.

"Hey Bren, don't use all the hot water d'you hear?"

A deep-throated chuckle was all she heard through the bathroom door in response.

"Oh an' keep your sticky mitts off my peach surprise bath oil too."

An outright laugh was given in reply to this.

"One more thing Bren, are you gay?"

Silence.

Cheryl waited for a reaction. She heard the sound of the taps being turned off.

The Gods actually put down their cards on the table and leaned forward, engaged too.

"What did you just say to me?" Even though Brendan knew he was talking to his own sister, he failed to keep the menace out of his voice.

Cheryl was nervous now, even so she managed to repeat her question.

"Are you gay Bren love?"

Brendan quickly considered his options.

He could explode violently and scare his sister to kingdom come, damaging their relationship in the process.

He could joke his way out of this.

Or he could silently slip under the rapidly cooling water and lay there, forever.

They say nature abhors a vacuum, well Cheryl felt the same way about silence, she just had to rush in.

"It's just that I've been thinking hun, like I said and it's the only thing that makes any sense. I know my brain runs away with itself at times and leads me up blind alleys, but I don't think I'm wrong this time.

Are you..pet?"

Brendan decided on the joke option.

"Gay, Chez? I'm not even happy."

Cheryl smiled, it was just like her brother to try and charm his way out of a difficult situation, but she heard the fear in his voice.

"It doesn't matter to me if you are hun. I'll always love you. You'll always be my big brother."

"Don't, don't say that Chez."

Cheryl moved closer to the door.

"Why not?" She asked gently.

She could feel the anguish in the air.

"It's sick. I'm sick. You shouldn't be anywhere near me."

"I'm not going anywhere Bren. I love you, can't help it."

Cheryl heard the sound of water being disturbed. She felt as though Brendan had stepped up to the door.

She sensed him lean against it.

"Chez you don't understand, it's abnormal, weak, disgusting.

I am not weak I'm not."

Cheryl heard his voice break.

"It's not abnormal, it's a variation on a theme that's all.

It's you."

Cheryl reached out her hand, she stroked where she thought his cheek may be, brushing aside his tears.

"Pretend you don't know Chez - please."

She could hear his sobs now.

"It'll be fine."

"No it won't. You'll look at me differently now, like I'm odd.

You'll view me differently. You won't rely on me any more.

You won't think I'm capable."

"That's nonsense and you know it."

"All I know is that I'll never be a proper man, while I'm like this."

"All I know is that, this was not the bath time you were expecting and you'll get over this.

This will be easier to bear now, that you're not hiding anymore.

Now come out here and give me a hug."

Brendan unlocked the door slowly.

Cheryl flew into his arms. It was like being hit by a bullet of love.

She overlooked the fact he was dressed only in a small towel and was soaking wet.

She pulled back to get a good look at him.

Tears had found homes in both their eyes.

Brendan was trying and failing to keep an apprehensive smile on his face.

"What gave you the first clue?" He asked.

Cheryl bent down and picked up his eye-mask that had fallen on the floor, outside the bathroom.

She handed it to him. They both read the message emblazoned on it and smiled.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Subtle as a brick.

"It was just staring me in the face," Cheryl said.

She kissed him on the cheek.

"So do I get a name now or what?"

Brendan's face threatened to freeze over permanently, but Cheryl held her nerve until he eventually gave in.

"Stephen."

"Stephen who?"

She looked confused , and then she gasped.

"Wee Ste?"

"He's not so wee Cheryl, trust me." Brendan said with a smirk.

"Wow, I knew he was on the other bus, but I didn't know you were sitting there next to him.

Isn't he a bit…?"

"A bit what Chez?"

"Young for you?"

"Cheryl!"

"Ok, okay, I was just a bit surprised that's all, well I never."

"Well I have." Brendan blushed at his comment.

Cheryl laughed, it was good to have her brother back.

"Fancy a cuppa hun?" She offered.

"After the morning I've had, I could do with something stronger, a lot stronger with ice."

Cheryl rolled her eyes as they headed towards the kitchen, best friends forever.

-OOO-

Comments are always appreciated.