Unrequited
in which dan takes max to a gay bar
This is how it doesn't happen:
Max doesn't wake up one day and decide that he's in love with Josh. It's a slow, melting kind of thing, and Max isn't used to falling in love like this. It's a lot different.
This is how it happens:
Max walks past Josh's half-open bedroom door at 5:23 in the morning on his way to the toilet. He pauses and peers in. Josh is twisted up in the blankets with his arm hanging off the side of the bed. His blinds have been left open so Josh's face is cast in this lucent blue haze, and Max realizes that Josh is perfect. It's the only thing that's sudden. Max lingers a bit, because he kind of wants to stand there watching Josh sleep until the sun leaks in through the blinds, but then he realizes that's creepy and he goes to the loo.
The next day, Hanna arrives for her visit. They go to Hollywood and Max stays "home", watching football and drinking beers and being annoyed by American adverts. Josh and Hanna come home late. They go straight to bed. Max lies awake in his bed listening to Hanna shout over the pounding of Josh's headboard into the wall.
Once Hanna is gone, things kind of go back to normal. Josh watches football with Max sometimes, and when Dan texts Max they go out for lunch, to Chipotle or Del Taco or something. Dan talks about boys. Dan talks about how the California Boys have tans and six packs and hair that's bleached by the sun instead of peroxide. Max thinks it all sounds very glamorous. He can't really see past the smog of Los Angeles. Dan wants to go to a gay bar, and Max decides there isn't any harm in joining him since he might even get a blowjob out of it, so one Friday night Dan takes Max to a club that is named, quite subtly, The Tight Spot.
Max immediately feels far too straight for the place, but he sits at the bar and nurses a beer. He watches Dan dance with the movie star California Boys and a couple guys buy Max drinks because of his accent. Max learns that American Boys like English accents. Max learns that fannies in America aren't the same fannies in England. He learns that Americans pronounce schedule wrong, and that Dan is a good dancer.
Mostly, though, Max learns that he is very much alone.
Max doesn't wake up one day and decide that he's in love with Josh. It's a slow, melting kind of thing, and Max isn't used to falling in love like this. It's a lot different.
This is how it happens:
Max walks past Josh's half-open bedroom door at 5:23 in the morning on his way to the toilet. He pauses and peers in. Josh is twisted up in the blankets with his arm hanging off the side of the bed. His blinds have been left open so Josh's face is cast in this lucent blue haze, and Max realizes that Josh is perfect. It's the only thing that's sudden. Max lingers a bit, because he kind of wants to stand there watching Josh sleep until the sun leaks in through the blinds, but then he realizes that's creepy and he goes to the loo.
The next day, Hanna arrives for her visit. They go to Hollywood and Max stays "home", watching football and drinking beers and being annoyed by American adverts. Josh and Hanna come home late. They go straight to bed. Max lies awake in his bed listening to Hanna shout over the pounding of Josh's headboard into the wall.
Once Hanna is gone, things kind of go back to normal. Josh watches football with Max sometimes, and when Dan texts Max they go out for lunch, to Chipotle or Del Taco or something. Dan talks about boys. Dan talks about how the California Boys have tans and six packs and hair that's bleached by the sun instead of peroxide. Max thinks it all sounds very glamorous. He can't really see past the smog of Los Angeles. Dan wants to go to a gay bar, and Max decides there isn't any harm in joining him since he might even get a blowjob out of it, so one Friday night Dan takes Max to a club that is named, quite subtly, The Tight Spot.
Max immediately feels far too straight for the place, but he sits at the bar and nurses a beer. He watches Dan dance with the movie star California Boys and a couple guys buy Max drinks because of his accent. Max learns that American Boys like English accents. Max learns that fannies in America aren't the same fannies in England. He learns that Americans pronounce schedule wrong, and that Dan is a good dancer.
Mostly, though, Max learns that he is very much alone.