I just asked the Irregulars (what, you’re not a member? go join!) what they wanted to see on the blog. The utterly fantastic Lynnette from @MamasDirLilRds asked for a peek of what I’m doing, and this, my friends, is what I’m doing: writing Queers of La Vista like my fingers are falling off.

Meet the lads from One Life to Lose (Queers of La Vista #4). Or at least two of them. This isn’t even a teaser. It’s really just what I have on the page.

Keith: We’re at Club Fred’s. Josh is locked in a weird debate about gun control with a straight couple. (?)

Keith: I shouldn’t say that. One or both of them might be queer and just dating straight.

Keith: Or trans.

Keith: I might be prejudiced against straight people.

Keith: Not prejudiced. But it’s weird to see them in “our” space, if that makes sense.

Keith: Oh my god, are you staring at your phone totally horrified right now? Sorry, I’ll shut up.

I quickly replied.

Cameron: Not at all. Your fingers are much faster than mine.

That sounded dirty, when I read it aloud in my head.

Keith: 🙂 I text kind of a lot.

Keith: Sometimes I text Josh from the office at the center. When he’s like thirty feet away.

Keith: Just for fun.

I wanted to say something else, to keep the conversation going, but I couldn’t think of anything, and my grasp of emojis didn’t leave me confident enough to use one.

Keith: What are you doing right now?

Keith: That wasn’t a come-on. Even though it sort of sounded like it was.

Keith: Or maybe it didn’t and I just made it weird.

Cameron: Just wrapped up sales for the final show of the night. Now I’ll go clean the arcade and help out with concessions.

Keith: When I was a kid I wanted to work at the Rhein. I thought it’d be fun to see movies all the time. I didn’t think that much about the actual work that went into it. 😉

Cameron: It’s not hard. Sometimes I miss the days when I was more of an employee and less of an owner.

Of course, had I been an employee, I likely wouldn’t have been able to justify sitting in the booth texting.

Keith: Was it hard to take over? Or did you feel like you’d kind of been groomed all your life to do it?

I pondered that one, tapping the desk.

Cameron: Both. I’d certainly been groomed. But the circumstances were sudden, and unexpected.

Keith: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t completely think it out before hitting Send.

Cameron: No need to apologize.

After a moment, and because that felt incomplete, I tried again.

Cameron: I feel fortunate to have had two incredible, happy, beautiful parents for twenty-four years. I miss them, of course, but I count myself blessed to have known them in the first place.

All true. No need to mention that sometimes I still cried, bitterly, because they’d been taken from me before I was ready.

Keith: Stop making me teary at Club Fred’s.

Keith: I really like you.

Keith: That’s the beer talking.

Keith: No, it’s not.

Keith: Josh is mocking me so hard right now.