Simply Red

Seth’s Perspective

It was the day before Mardi Gras and Zach was up early working with Petunia outside. Every morning, and most nights, they walked up and down the block training. Petunia started with a leash, moved to a string, and was now heeling next to Zach leash-less… Zach was convinced there was no better dog in the world, and by the way she looked at him and followed him around, she was convinced there was no better human.

I was in my sweats in the courtyard having a cup of coffee, Max and Brody were still asleep in the guest room. We were up late showing them the St Louis nightlife and they stayed up later than we did just relaxing in the hot tub. I had a day of touristy stuff planned for us… it was fun having them on our turf for a change. Zach and I had built a good life for ourselves in St Louis, even though we were just there for grad school and it probably wasn’t our forever home; we were taking advantage of what was in front of us. We had built a great network of friends and had really found our place in the community; Zach was involved in politics and I was working with gay youth. I was dealing with a lot of kids that had shitty starts in life, most of them had parents that didn’t accept them. I grew up with a religious Zealot homophobe of a father, but my brother Brad got me out of there when I was sixteen and he gave me the confidence and freedom to be myself. Volunteering taught me how lucky I truly was, most kids with assholes for parents weren’t lucky enough to have a Brad and Scotty in their lives to save them. Our organization did its best to help those kids, we were usually able to find foster homes for the ones under 18 who needed protection, but there were so many kids who were legally adults, yet not ready to fend for themselves. They needed jobs, housing, help staying in school, and whatever else it takes to live on their own. Laura and Rhonda, Chip and Alec, Brendon, and Aaron, had all taken these young men, women, and sometimes other identifying into their homes at one time or another. We didn’t have a hell of a lot of space, but had opened our home a couple of times for a night or two. We didn’t talk much about it because confidentiality was important.

One of the many reasons I was excited to have Max and Brody here was because I wanted to run an idea past them. Last summer BroMax rented a booth at the Soulard Farmer’s Market and I sold candles for them, it went over fairly well. Rhonda has a friend associated with the market and they offered us a free booth for our organization, we would share it with another not-for-profit and it would be ours every other week. We had talked about what to sell. We talked about trying to grow produce in our own gardens, but we didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off. Laurie and Rhonda had a friend with a flower farm in southern MO, and we brought up BroMax. We were hoping that the two would cut us a good enough deal that we could make a profit with the booth. We could employ a couple of the kids who needed jobs to run the endeavor, and use any other proceeds to help fund other programs. Zach and I each had a couple of shares of the BroMax candle business and had already decided to donate any dividends or profits that came from that. Listen, it’s not that we couldn’t use the money ourselves, we were struggling to pay our way through school and had student debt up the butt (not that Zach’s parents wouldn’t jump in and pay that off if we let them). But the reality was that since I started volunteering, I had thought a lot about what could have been. I saw myself in all these kids and just kept thinking about how I might have ended up if Brad, Scotty, and the village didn’t step in. I have tried to help influence the organization and help build it into… well, into a village for those who don’t have a Brad and Scotty, I guess.

It was about 8:00AM when Max and Brody emerged from the kitchen in their sweats with steaming BroMax Farm coffee mugs in their hands. I truly admired what they had built in such a short time with their business and online presence, I was also impressed with the way that they tried to include their friends and family. “Mornin’ sunshine” Brody said in a gravelly voice with that adorable Southern accent of his. “Where’s Zach?”

“Good morning” I chirped back. “He’s out front working with Petunia.” Brody raised his eyebrows then walked through the gate to see what Zach was up to.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” Max asked me as he sat on the chair next to me and hugged his knees while he sipped his coffee.

“Touristy shit and lots of it” I said cheerfully. “We’re gonna walk to the Soulard Farmers Market so you can see where we were selling your candles, then breakfast. Then we’re going to drive downtown and go up in the Gateway Arch, and then walk around the little area there. There’s also a couple other parts of town we want to show you guys” I said with an excitement in my voice, I loved showing off our town. “We can take a nap before Alec and Chip’s party tonight if you want.”

“Hell” Max said. “You got it all figure out, dontcha’” he grinned. “You guys are really happy here, aren’t you?”

“Surprisingly, yes” I said. We had planned on just keeping our heads down and getting our degrees while we were here, but we got pulled into the community and loved it. “It’s probably not forever, but we DO like it here. We’ve met so many good people.” Max nodded, hell he had met a shitload of them the night before. It seemed like everywhere we went someone came up to us. As we were talking the back gate opened and Petunia ran in with Zach and Brody tagging along.

“Dayum, she is one smart dog” Brody said impressed with what he had seen.

“Let’s get ready and head to the farmers market” I said pushing everyone into the house to shower and get ready. About a half hour later we were walking through the historic streets of Benton Park, then into Soulard. Zach had Petunia on her leash as he walked next to Brody, Max and I were a few steps behind and the four of us were talking and laughing the whole way. The streets were alive with cars and people as they always were and we were enjoying the morning with our best friends. When we got to the market the place was buzzing, and of course Petunia was stopping traffic, everyone stopped to talk to her and pet her. She greeted each of them like the perfect little lady she was, and Zach just beamed with pride at our perfectly behaved little girl. We showed the guys the booth we had for BroMax in the fall, then we got to the space that the Farmers Market had offered us and I told them what I was thinking. After the market we went to a great little brunch place in Soulard and sat outside with Petunia laying at our feet.

Max brought up the booth while we were eating “So, you’re thinking candles and flowers?”

“Yeah, I think it would go over big with that crowd.”

“So how many candles do you think you’ll need?” Max asked. We talked through how many we sold during the fall, and took into consideration that it was only every other week and we narrowing it down to a number. “Well, I’d hafta’ talk to Elliot about the numbers, and Ricky about the extra production, but I think we could give them to you at cost, and throw in any rejects or remnants for free… you could sell those at a discount and at least get something for them.” Max was really thinking through it and didn’t hesitate to help. Brody even offered to design signage for the booth, they were both all over the idea.

brunch we waked back home to drop off Petunia and get the GTI, then drove down to the Arch. We sat through the movie about the history of the Gateway Arch before we took the tram to the top, it was fun watching Brody. He looked out over the city in amazement pointing everything out like a little kid. After our tour we walked around Laclede’s Landing, it’s an old part of town between the Arch and one of the big casinos. The streets are cobblestone and there’s a cool little magic shop, and this old wax museum… it’s like where old wax goes to die. It's this big maze of old wax sculptures; Zach and I love to walk through every couple of months just for the hell of it… it’s kitschy. Brody was freaking loving it… he appreciated stuff like that. The we took them down to the City Museum, it's this weirdly wonderful artist-built playground that’s housed in an old shoe factory. It’s got old airplanes and buses, and weird sculptures you can climb and explore, We all had a great time, but again, it was Brody who was the most fun to watch. He was an artist and anything creative inspired him.

“This city is the SHIT” Brody said out of nowhere making us all laugh “There’s inspiration everywhere!” It was so much freaking fun exploring the city with them. We finally got back to our place around 6PM, just in time to shower and walk over to Chip and Alec’s for their annual rib extravaganza. Their place was just a short walk away and the four of us headed over with Petunia at Zach’s side again (this time leash-free)… Alec and Chip had invited her personally. Their home was beautiful! An old three story brick house built in the 1800’s that they had completely redone from bottom to top. It was alive with music and laughter that could be heard from blocks away… not to mention amazing smells coming from the back yard and wafting through the air.

We walked through the gate and into the tiny yard (all houses in the area had tiny yards), “THE BOYS ARE HERE” yelled Rhonda as soon as we entered. Brendon, Aaron, Laurie, and Rhonda all dropped everything they were doing to greet Max and Brody, they had all met briefly at our wedding. Chip eventually came up to greet them too, and walked them over to Alec who was busy at the grill perfecting his specialty. The place was crowded, Petunia ran off to play with Scotty (god, that dog totally reminded me on my brother in-law. Wall-to-wall muscle and just a happy guy. Scotty was the perfect name). The gate between Alec & Chip’s and Aaron & Brendon’s yards was open, both houses and yards were full of people, I know Max and Brody thought we knew everyone in St Louis… but these guys really did.

“Hey, I didn’t see your names on the float list for tomorrow, you’re riding with us, aren’t you?” Aaron (Chip’s dad) asked.

“We didn’t sign up” Zach said, “We’re gonna hang with Max and Brodes and just watch the parade.”

“Why don’t you all jump on the float with us tomorrow, The theme is marriage equality, we need to fill it with married couples.” Aaron said with an inviting laugh. “And after the parade you can hang out at the Casino’s VIP tent. Free food and drinks” he added. He worked for the casino and was also involved with the same volunteer groups as us and the rest of our St Louis village. Chip brought over a tray of Hurricanes and we all grabbed a drink as the others tried to talk us into riding on the float. Everyone was on board but Brody, I mean c’mon… Jumping onto a float in the middle of a crowd that totals over six figures and being the center of attention isn’t exactly a social anxiety sufferer’s dream. But being the trooper that he was, he finally conceded and agreed to join us. Me and Zach were on the float the year before and had a blast dancing shirtless and throwing beads… I was excited to do it again.

Brendon was excited that we accepted the invite, “awesome, I went to Johnny Brocks dungeon today and picked up all the beads.”

“What in THEE hell is Johnny Brock Dungeon?” Brody asked, his accent going full-on redneck and making everyone laugh out loud.

“It’s a costume warehouse that basically turns into a bead warehouse at Mardi Gras” Brendon said and then went on to talk about the different kinds of beads, and all the stuff they had. The creative artist in Brody got the best of him and he asked a million questions. I wish I would’ve known he’d be so into it, I would’ve added it to our tour, it was so much fun to watch our friends explore our world.

“Ribs are ready” Alec yelled and we all lined up and dug in. The food was amazing, we hung out eating ribs and drinking hurricanes for a couple of hours. The crowd thinned out as their straight friends started to call it a night. As the night went on, I noticed that it was now mostly a gay crowd and there was a LOT of eye candy. There was a group of lesbians hanging out in a corner of Aaron’s backyard, Chip’s boss was flirting with a group of hot younger guys in another corner, I saw several guys disappear into Aaron and Brendon’s house earlier but I didn’t see any of them come back out. Chip was a very sexual guy (I had heard some wild stories from Scotty about their college days) and I know he and Alec played together. I also assumed Aaron and Brendon had a similar relationship as the two of them were flirting with a bear cub over by the bar. The party had gone from a friendly, almost family-style gathering to one that was much more sexually charged with shirts coming off and people hooking up out in the open.

Zach left for a few minutes to go to the bathroom and came back with a huge shit-eating grin on his beautiful, flushed from alcohol face. “Oh my god” he chuckled quietly. “I went in to use the bathroom at Aaron’s and ended up stumbling onto an orgy on the third floor.”

“WHAT?!” Brody yelled out loud with a huge smile, “Holy fuck, y’all. We live in such different worlds.” This kind of stuff didn’t really faze me too much anymore. Yeah, Zach and I were about as vanilla as it gets, but growing up with a bunch of sexually open gay guys around I had gotten used to it, but I know it was all still pretty foreign to my friends (and my husband). Like us, Max and Brody were monogamous, but I admit… we all enjoyed a free show now and then, so we decided to take a stroll through Aaron and Brandon’s house to check out The action. We walked into the living room, there were three couples there, all making out passionately, still dressed, but the clothing seemed to be slowly coming off.

We followed Zach up the creaky old steps to the second floor where there were two bedrooms, both occupied with the doors wide open welcoming all comers. All I can say is damn! Like I said, this kind of stuff didn’t really faze me, but this was a whole other level. There were naked, tangled bodies everywhere. There were three guys going at it in the corner of the master bedroom, all three were completely naked. There was a light-skinned black guy sitting in an armchair with a young white twink sucking him off. Meanwhile, another slightly older, very hot light skinned black guy was fucking the twink from behind. I had met the two black guys before; it was Chip’s boss Kirk and his boyfriend Rickey. They were both stunning. Kirk (the one fucking the twink) looked over at us with his piercing green eyes and winked as he slowly moved his huge tool in and out of the boy in front of him. The four of us looked on with our jaws dropped to the ground, I thought I had seen it all growing up with a village of gay guys, but this was hardcore. Meanwhile on the king sized bed just a few feet away from the threesome action there were two couples, both going at it sixty-nine. The light was dim and I couldn’t make out the faces from the angle we were at, but their bodies were all amazing, the sights, the sounds, and the unmistakable smells of man-sex filled the room.

We backed out of the master bedroom and moved to the other bedroom to take a peek. There was a threesome on the bed. We watched for a moment, then moved up the skinny steps leading to the third floor loft, Zach was right. There were mattresses on the floor and a bunch of bodies inter-twined and writhing, with the sounds of kissing, sucking, and slurping filling the room. We watched for a minute, one of the guys motioned for us to join them. That was it for Brody and Zach, the two of them were totally out of their comfort zone and turned around and headed down the steps. Max and I watched a little longer out of curiosity, then turned around and joined our husbands. 

When the four of us got back out to the yard, Rhonda and Laurie were talking to Aaron and Brendon and called us over… they were oblivious (or maybe not) to what was going on inside the house. “So, are you guys gonna join us on the float tomorrow?” Rhonda asked.

I looked at the others who all just kind of just shrugged. “Sure, why not” I said looking at everyone waiting for them to object. No one said anything, so Rhonda told us when and where to meet.

Chip and Alec came up and joined the rest of us. “Did you guys have fun?” Alec asked with a knowing grin.

“Yeah, we’re just a little wiped out from exploring the city” I answered, then all four of us thanked them for inviting us and showered him with compliments on the food.

“I think We’re going to head back to our place” Zach chimed in. “We hit The Grove last night and were out late.”

“Then we did a lot of touristy shit” Max said. They peppered us with questions about our day and the four of us told them everything we did. Aaron left for a few minutes, then came back with four V.I.P. passed for the Casino tent and we all agreed on where to meet. Alec and Chip gave us fresh hurricanes in to-go cups for the walk home, then Zach yelled for Petunia, we said our goodnights and left.

We walked in silence for a few blocks with Petunia following dutifully at Zach’s side, then Brody laughed out loud and said, “we just saw a gotdamn orgy.” The four of us all bust our loud in nervous laughter.

“Oh my, god!!!!” Zach laughed. “They were all goin’ at it like rabbits, and Rhonda, Laurie and their lesbian friends were just hanging out chatting without a clue.”

We kept walking, talking, and laughing until we got home. I poured us all another drink and Zach got the hot tub going again. We all stripped and got in. Once we were naked and in the water, we started talking about the party again; what we saw, what turned us on, what kind of freaked us out, etc. Zach and I were fondling each other under the bubbles the entire time, and I’m sure Brody and Max were doing the same… we had caught them red-handed the night before. Our conversation evolved to discussing our sex lives and our personal experiences. The four of us were so comfortable with each other that we could talk about anything. Damn, me and Zach were so inexperienced, even shy, former-hermit Brody had done more than we had. Max was definitely the most experienced and adventurous of the four of us. He had been in a throuple relationship with Cam and Eric in college, and they experimented a lot. Brody had been with a few guys before Max, and I know that he gave the throuple a massage that ended up… let’s say ‘happily’ and I’m guessing that wasn’t the only happy ending he ever gave. Whereas Zach and I were both virgins when we met, yeah, I had seen a lot living with Brad and Scotty and surrounded by sexually open gay men, but never participated in anything; I just observed from a safe distance. Frankly, it all excited me but Zach was all I wanted.

We had a fun, sexually charged night that ended with a very awkward moment when the four of us got out of the hot tub with raging hardons. We laughed it off and all went to bed. Zach fucked me hard that night, and we could here Brody doing the same to Max in the next room. I slept like a baby.

The next morning, we put Petunia in her crate and walked down to Soulard. We had breakfast at this hole-in-the wall greasy spoon we discovered when we first moved there. It was kind of gross but served an awesome breakfast for cheap. After that, we met at the float. Rhonda and Laurie greeted us and put us to work loading cases of beads onto the float. It was decorated in the theme of marriage equality, had big speakers and a couple of platforms. The float for my youth center was right behind it and they were all getting ready to board the “Be Yourself, Be Accepted” themed float… it was an extremely diverse group. I knew all the kids… well “kids” isn’t an accurate term; they were all between fifteen and twenty. Many of them over 18 and struggling with life on their own because their parents disowned them or tossed them out. They came to us for fellowship and stability and we did our best to help them with whatever they needed; love, understanding, money, housing, food, guidance, acceptance… like I said, we were the village for teenagers that didn’t have a Brad and Scotty. I felt good about my work there and lucky as hell to have the family I did.

It was 11AM and the parade started to roll right on time. It was organized as hell and I give total credit to whoever was running the show. One of the rules was that every float needed spotters… someone walking in front of the vehicle on either side watching to ensure the path was clear and no one got hit, Alec and Chip were ours. It was about a half hour into it and we were all shirtless, dancing, enthusiastically throwing beads and having an awesome time being the center of attention (even Brody) when suddenly, someone jumped out of the crowd and onto the youth float behind us. A man’s voice bellowed loudly, “no son of mine is gonna parade around with a bunch of goddamn homos.” The man grabbed one of the guys from the float and literally threw him over the side. He landed with a blood curdling thud, then just lie motionless on the ground. His head was bleeding, but not horribly so. Everything came to a halt and Alec came running from in front of our float, jumped onto the youth float and restrained the guy. Rhonda, Laurie, and I jumped off the float and ran to help Craig (the kid that got thrown from the float). Max and Brody jumped down and held back the onlookers and tried to keep the other kids on the float calm while Zach hailed down the cops and paramedics who were stationed along the route. We went from party-mode to crisis-mode in zero-to-three seconds.

I knew Craig. He had just turned 18 a few months before and came out to his parents on his birthday. His dad went into a rage when he heard the news, made physical threats against him, and kicked him out. Craig moved in with one of his buddies that day and then came to us looking for help. We helped him find a job and stay in high school, he was a good kid. His father found out where he was living and working and had caused some issues… I knew that his boss had to call the cops at least twice because his father showed up looking for him and threatening violence if he didn’t “produce his son immediately.” The community rallied and we were all looking out for Craig, but it had been a good two weeks since his father had bothered him, and we thought the worst of it was past. We were wrong. I guess he was at the parade, saw his son on the float and lost it. The cops and paramedics surrounded us within a minute or two. Craig’s father rode off in the back of a squad car, and Craig rode off in the back of an ambulance; still unconscious. Thank god they let me ride with him to the hospital, but for us, Mardi Gras came to an abrupt end; the float moved on without me.

Craig gained consciousness on the way to the hospital (thank gd), I stayed with him for the rest of the day. Zach brought Max and Brody by the hospital on the way to the airport to say goodbye. It was a sad goodbye; this wasn’t how any of us thought our weekend would end.

Max’s Perspective

Brody and I flew back to Wilmington, holding hands in silence. My mind was reeling with a million different thoughts. Our trip to St Louis had been a roller coaster! It started as a great reunion with our best friends, then moved to amazing blowjobs in the hot tub, then it was a kitschy romp through all the tourist traps, then a family-style barbeque that turned into an orgy, and finally a fun, wild parade opened my eyes to the hideous welcome that so many young gay people endure when they come out.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that trip would be transformative for BroMax… and me.

 

To be continued…