Jem must have seen something on Tean’s face because he said, “What?”
Tean opened his mouth to say they needed to be careful—the slapping game was the latest version of the ongoing game-slash-competition between Jem and Daniel.Until recently, they’d been focused on doing some sort of move where they trapped the other one’s arm and tried to flip him.But instead, Tean forced himself to say, “You can’t tell my dad?”
“Come on.If you had a dad like Ammon, would you talk to him about your pronouns?”
Tean hesitated.And then he said, “I guess we should get our seats.”
Rainbow House was exactly what the name implied: a house.It was abighouse, for sure—a sprawling pseudo-Victorian, chopped up inside into a lot of rooms.Tean and Jem had been here plenty of times before, either bringing Daniel or picking him up or coming to an event like the one tonight.Tean had never been to an all-ages drag show before, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.He also wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotten into the strange situation of having what felt like partial custody of a child who, until a few months before, had been more like a distant nephew than anything else.
But whether he understood it or not, partial custody was exactly what it felt like.Are we picking up Daniel tonight, or are Ammon and Lucy?What time is Daniel getting dropped off for dinner?Who’s getting the snacks for Rainbow House this week?Does Daniel have piano lessons before or after his therapist?
Not that Tean was directly involved in hammering out the logistics.He’d worked hard to carve Ammon out of his life, and he wasn’t going to let him back in that easily.When Daniel had first started reaching out, calling Tean, wanting someone to talk to who wasn’t his dad and who might understand, a little, what it was like to be gay and Mormon and, even if he never said the word, frightened, Tean had resisted.Daniel had seemed like one stepping stone away from Ammon.
Maybe, in the end, it had been a lapse in judgment that had made Tean lower his defenses.Maybe it had been emotional turbulence—around Christmas, Tean and Jem had found themselves snowed in at a ski lodge with a pack of killers.Maybe it had simply been the fact that, whether Tean liked it or not, he understood what Daniel was going through, and he wanted to help, even if he wasn’t sure most days how much he was helping.
If Tean were being honest, he’d have to admit that Jem was part of it too.In some ways—maybe in the ways that counted most—Jem was closer to Daniel.He certainly seemed to understand him better than Tean.Although why that understanding manifested as slapping and throwing each other on the ground and trying to break each other’s thumbs—
“Oh my God,” Jem said with a laugh as he scratched Tean’s back through his coat.“Stop thinking about it.”
“I just don’t understand why you two think it’s so funny to try to smack each other in the face.”
“Because it’s hilarious.”
“What if someone gets hurt?”
That only made Jem laugh more, for some reason.
Their route took them downstairs to Rainbow House’s entry hall, where signs on the walls and posters on easels promoted that night’s drag show.As they followed a hallway toward the back of the house, tense voices filtered out from behind a partially closed door.
“—not going to do anything,” a woman was saying.Tean recognized her voice—it was Nasha, the woman who ran Rainbow House.“We’re going to have a pleasant evening, and we’re going to have fun, and that’s all, because he hasn’tdoneanything.”
“Hasn’t done anything?”The voice was high—fem, yes, but also with emotion.“He was at the Glitter Hole two weeks ago, and he had a kid who was barely legal on his lap.”
“Key word: legal.He’s not breaking the law.”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
Jem tapped on the door, and it inched open.
“Excuse me, we’re in the middle—” Nasha began.But she stopped when she saw them.“What’s up?”
“Everything okay?”Jem asked.
“We’re fine—” Nasha began.
“We’re not fine,” the other speaker said over her.It was the drag queen in the velveteen suit, and beneath the black-and-white makeup, her face was flat with anger.“Unless you call having a pedophile prowl around Rainbow House ‘fine.’”
Nasha made a face, but it vanished a moment later.“That’s not what’s happening,” she said.“Wendell isn’t a pedophile.”
The drag queen snorted.“And I don’t have a dick tucked up my crack.You should have seen him when those boys walked into the room.His weenie looked like a homing missile.”
“Who is this?”Tean asked.
“His name’s Wendell, and everybody knows him.”With a dirty look at Nasha, the drag queen added, “Everybody knows what he likes, too.”
“He’s lonely,” Nasha said.“That’s all.”
“And he writes you a big check every year.”To Jem and Tean, she added, “He’s a pervert.And that’s coming from me.”
