The day comes and
we get to meet David. It’s true, he is George Michael in his late 20’s, tight
white tee shirt, cigarette hanging from one lip, tight blue jeans no
imagination needed.
I am immediately jealous of Billy.
I am immediately jealous of Billy.
David walks in
slow motion across the room, extends one hand to me and I hear him say blah,
blah, blah.
His hazel, sometimes green eyes reflect back light that bounce into mine. Billy jumps around behind him and mouths the words “This is the one!” while pointing at David.
His hazel, sometimes green eyes reflect back light that bounce into mine. Billy jumps around behind him and mouths the words “This is the one!” while pointing at David.
Adam jabs me in
the ribs with an elbow after 5 minutes of talking to David. Apparently, I am mumbling
incoherently and blabbing. Billy continues to flit around David.
I am blown away
by David and everything about him. While we talk, he winks I am suddenly in ‘All
about Eve” and Billy’s understudy and I want to go on. It’s been ten minutes
since I’ve met David. Billy now becomes whiny bore.
I have rarely felt
a connection like I have after 30 seconds of being in David’s presence. I want
to be his everything and I want him to want me as well. Adam stops me from
making more of a fool out of myself and drags me away.
The weeks that
follow become all about David. I ask Billy what kind of toothpaste David uses,
how often he sleeps at his house and “Does David always smell so good?” I
secretly seethe when Billy talks about David and how often they bathe together.
My friendship
with Billy is spinning out of control. I am so jealous of everything in his
life and I am beginning to hate him. When Billy talks about how happy he and
David are, Adam grabs my hand and stops me from choking him.
I talk to Adam
and tell him everything. I am a horrible person. I am a pile of shit and I need
to stop. Bill sits on my bed at night
and I imagine that it is David. He has snuck in the house to break up with
Billy and carry me off. It gets me through the day, but I stay far, far away.
Friendship is
very important to me.
David asks via
Billy to have me come to the house and have dinner with them. I am busy until
he dies, I think.
Weeks fly by. I
finally get a job. I am the only man working at The Dora Dee figure salon on
Central Avenue. I am teaching exercise classes to fat housewives who wonder “When
the place became integrated?” Daily, I am ignored by women who wear black
tights, lay around in the exercise room, slip into thinness on the fat rollers
and smoke cigarettes in the parking lot.
It is the 80’s
and Jane Fonda (that bitch, but that’s a future story) is all the rage. I am
the women’s Richard Simmons. Anyone who is gay and in the health field is compared to Richard
Simmons daily.
There is actually
a Dora Dee. She is 4 feet 2 inches, has her hair blown up to Jesus and talks
with a Texas accent. “Suck it in girls and oh yeah..Geoff,” she says as she
slides behind the front desk.
“Steers and Queers,” she says as she looks in my direction but doesn’t explain any more before walking off
To be continued……
Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.
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