Gimme Pride
By J. Tomas
Published by Queerteen Press at Smashwords
An imprint of JMS Books LLC
Visit queerteen-press.com for more information.
Copyright 2011 J. Tomas
ISBN 9781611522228
For more titles by J. Tomas at Smashwords visit https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jtomas
* * * *
Cover Credits: jonathandowney
Used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.
Cover Design: J.M. Snyder
All rights reserved.
WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published in the United States of America. Queerteen Press is an imprint of JMS Books LLC.
* * * *
Gimme Pride
By J. Tomas
“I thought you came to help me out,” Shawna Reid complains as she digs another handful of hangers out of a shipping crate. Sexy swimsuits dangle from the hangers—Speedos in bright Spandex, colorful one-pieces with revealing cut-outs, cropped and shredded T-shirts that can serve as cover-ups on the beach or at the pool. Shawna tosses the hangers to her brother, Chip, and glares at him as if the look alone can put him to work. “I only brought you because—”
“I know, I know.” Eight years her junior, Chip’s still in high school, and this is his first Pride event ever. He was always too young before—his mother didn’t even want him going this year, if she had her way, but Shawna rented a vendor booth she needed help with and she managed to talk some sense into the parentals. It’s a Pride event, not an all-out orgy. Most everyone here is dressed in jeans and T-shirts…except the drag queens, who look absolutely fabulous all dolled up. There’s no exposed flesh, no in-your-face queerness, not here.
Except, well, for Chip. He wears a pair of cherry red Speedos so tight, they look painted on. Nothing else. And damn, but he’s rocking them today.
Shawna runs an online store of sexy clothing—intimates, lingerie, swimwear. She started it after college with a couple of handmade designs and quickly realized most of her clientele were gay. She’s cool with that—she was the first person Chip came out to when he turned thirteen and thought it about time to admit to his family he was seeing the boy next door, especially since he needed his mother to drive them to the mall for a date. That was a while ago—when he was what, a freshman? He’s not even interested in that kid any more.
When Shawna started getting requests for men’s sizes in lacy teddies and rainbow-colored boyshorts, she shifted her attention from traditional marketing and began focusing on Pride events around the state. Richmond’s own Virginia Pride is the first one she agreed to take Chip to, on the sole condition he help her out at the booth.
How could he say no to an offer like that?
Only “helping out” isn’t exactly how he wants to spend his day. Pride is hopping—he’s out at school, sure, and he’s seen Queer as Folk so often, he can recite most of the episodes by heart, but this is the first time he’s ever been up close and personal to so many openly gay people in one place. He never knew Richmond had so many queers! He knows he’s staring, but he can’t help it. The couples holding hands are so darn cute, and then there are lesbian mothers with baby carriages, college students walking their dogs, transmen and -women able to embrace their true selves in public for once…it’s like a feast and he doesn’t know what to take in next. The vendor booths run the gamut from banks to insurance companies, local eateries to artists. Rainbows are everywhere, and Chip even saw a bookseller earlier as he helped Shawna lug in her items. Gay books, here, in Richmond! He’s definitely checking that out.
If Shawna ever gives him a chance to look around.
He hangs the swimsuits on an empty clothing rack and stands back, hands on his hips, to survey the growing crowd. He doesn’t get a chance to breathe, though, before Shawna’s foisting more clothes into his hands. “Help me out here, will you?” she snaps.
“I am,” Chip bites back.
Regardless of how fun Pride will be, he has a feeling it’s going to be a long day.
* * * *
Pride officially starts at one in the afternoon. By quarter till, Shawna’s vendor booth is mostly set up. Shipping crates line the back of the booth—each article of clothing Shawna has with her, she brought in every available size, so they’re stored in the crates waiting for customers’ requests. If business goes well, Shawna says she’ll need all the help she can get keeping up with orders.
As Chip finishes stocking one of the racks near the front of the booth, Shawna peers past him into the crowd. Every time he looks out, she yells at him, but she keeps doing it, too. He knows she isn’t seeing what he sees, though. She’s looking for…”Where’s Jenny already?” she asks, glancing at her watch. “I thought you said she was coming.”
Jen is Chip’s best friend and a self-proclaimed fag hag, though she once told him she hated the term. “It sounds like I’m old,” she complained. She’s fifteen, too, but two months younger than he is. “I like fruit fly instead.”
Whatever she calls herself, she’s late. When Chip told her Shawna agreed to take him to this year’s Pride, Jen practically begged Shawna to let her help out, too. For twenty bucks apiece, Shawna’s getting pretty cheap labor. With Chip in one of her sexier suits, modeling to entice the men into the booth, Jen’s supposed to wear a cotton candy pink two-piece, which might be part of the hold up. What if her mother caught her in the bathing suit and refused to bring her to the event?
She’d call if she wasn’t coming, Chip assures himself. Half the fun will be hanging out with her today. Shawna’s great, really, but she’s much too old to really get Chip. Jen will giggle over the cute gay boys with him, or act silly trying to draw in customers, or dance when the stage across the park starts rocking. Jen is fun, that’s why they’re friends. If she doesn’t come, he’s going to be stuck listening to Shawna bitch about sales and the heat—and worse, his laziness—all damn day.