by HJ Welch
“Oh oh oohh! Oh oh oohh! Oh oh oohh!”
The crowd sang their catchiest-ever hook along with them, deliriously happy. Before Reyse knew it, they’d flown through the next verse and chorus, taking them into the interlude where Blake took center stage for a breathtaking dance solo.
At this point, they were joined by a group of female dancers who would be performing with them throughout their set. It had taken Reyse some time to track down every single girl from that shitty misogynistic video he’d done before he’d flown home to see his family. He wasn’t sure what their availability would be, but as an apology he’d wanted to offer them all a chance to come back and perform with him without being treated like meat puppets. It just so happened that the stars aligned and every one of them had made it there that evening, one of them even flying back from Mexico to make it. He’d let them have final say in the design of their own costumes, too.
That was the sense of community Reyse wanted for today and the future of his label. Everyone pulling together to make something truly magical happen.
Once Blake and the girls were done dancing, TJ and Raiden took the vocal solo that Reyse normally sang, ramping up for the final double chorus and end of the song. Pyrotechnics exploded behind them as they hit the final pose, and the stadium erupted in tumultuous applause.
But they were only just getting started.
For the next song, the girls tapped out and Below Zero was joined by five truly gorgeous guys, all of whom identified as queer and weren’t wearing much at all. There was a distinctly bass-level cheer that went up at the sight of them. Reyse felt dizzy at what they were about to do and wondered briefly how many networks were about to cut their feed. But if they wanted an LGBT show, they were going to have to put up with some actual queerness, like it or not.
They performed ‘In the Clouds,’ one of their most suggestive numbers, as far as Sun City had been concerned. “Babe, you’re so sweet,” they sang, “Up in the clouds or between the sheets.” As they did, each band member paired off with a dancer for some pretty raunchy choreography. It was no more than they’d done with girls on stage in the past. But Reyse saw this as the litmus test as to who really supported them and who would draw the line at such a display.
The crowd ate it up, screaming and cheering and wolf-whistling their hearts out. Reyse felt giddy with daring, his partner feeding off his energy as they danced up a storm.
Seeing as they’d only had a limited amount of rehearsal time, none of which had been together, they had split the set up into various segments between the Below Zero songs. Joey sang his solo song that Raiden had written and he’d produced with Storm Sailor. Blake danced to an old disco number they’d gotten permission to use with Nessa and Karyn from his dance studio show. Reyse had worked with young Karyn in one of his own early videos, catapulting her into the limelight where she’d thrived ever since as an exceptional dancer. TJ did an acoustic version of one of Below Zero’s ballads with a British singer-songwriter called Fynn Dumashie and his guitar.
While Reyse couldn’t sing anything he had produced as part of Below Zero or his solo career, that didn’t stop him from singing other people’s songs. He stunned the hell out of the crowd (again) by bringing out Lolita Charisma, the pint-sized pop princess with a belter of a voice and signature long ponytail. Reyse swore he spied grown men weeping as one of the biggest gay icons of their time joined him on stage and they duetted her tracks ‘Heaven’ and ‘Gimme What You Got.’
As evening turned into night, the band took a breather, singing a couple of their slower songs like Cherish. They sat on tall stools, and like any respectable boy band, stood up at the key change. Then they segued into Out in the Cold.
“Without your love, you left me out in the cold,” Reyse sang with his brothers. “I broke your heart, you broke my soul. Can we ever make this right?” It had been an album track on their first release, and not a song they’d really ever performed much. But Reyse had insisted. As he poured his emotion into the words, he thought only of Corey, sitting by his side at his family’s piano. This is for you, baby, he thought, looking out over the crowd.
If anyone noticed the single tear that ran down his check, they didn’t react.
Then it was back to more of their bigger dance hits, building up to the finale where the guys would perform a medley of Reyse’s biggest solo songs. It was kind of crazy, hearing his lyrics come out of their mouths as he danced along with them. But it was also immensely touching. They were here, just when he needed them.
He vowed never to shut them out again.
They ended on an epic version of ‘Deny Me’ with all their dancers, finally coming to the end of the show to close the whole of the first, but definitely not last, Iridescence Festival. Reyse couldn’t believe it as he and the guys held hands, taking a couple of bows while the crowd cheered and cheered for them.
They’d done it. They’d really pulled this whole thing off.
Except…
The stage lights were supposed to go dark and they were all meant to file off the stage. But Reyse realized Joey and Raiden weren’t letting go of his hands and the lights were still up. Panic flashed through his chest. Did they have another number that he’d forgotten about? They couldn’t have. They’d pretty much sang all of Reyse and Below Zero’s hits between them.
“Thank you, everyone, thank you,” Blake said. He was still holding Joey’s hand on Reyse’s right, and TJ was on Raiden’s other side to the left. Their dancers were standing in rows behind them to create a semi-circle of bodies. “It’s been a long journey for all of us to reach this point, and we haven’t done it alone. But for a time, Reyse was alone. It broke our hearts seeing him struggle. I think now he’s realizing just how many people have his back. How many people love him.”
Blake and Joey looked down the line at Reyse as a lump rose in his throat. Glancing right, Reyse saw Raiden and TJ’s smiles as well. “Thank you,” Reyse said, his words swallowed up before the crowd could hear them by their own cheering. But he hoped Blake heard him through his earpieces.
“Did you guys know some special people from Reyse’s life are here?” Blake asked. The crowd cheered.
Blake had obviously been nominated spokesperson for this little stunt of theirs. Reyse’s heart swelled. He was so touched that they would do this surprise for him, but it wasn’t really necessary. Agreeing to perform was enough for him by a long shot.
But Blake continued addressing the rapt crowd, who didn’t look to be dispersing, despite the fact they’d finished singing. They were probably waiting for some big surprise. Reyse hoped they wouldn’t be disappointed with whatever the guys had planned. If it was just a bit of chat, they could probably have done that themselves after the show.
Blake nodded to the wings on his left but Reyse couldn’t see into the darkness there any more thanks to all the people standing in front of it. He didn’t need to, though. He knew what Blake was going to say.
“Reyse’s family came out to support him,” Blake said out to the tens of thousands listening to him. “We all know what it’s like to have people tell you you’re not good enough for who you were born as. But Reyse’s parents and his aunt are behind him, as is the lovely Bella Dalton. We all love her, right?” The audience screamed, Bella’s reputation having been fully restored after Reyse’s confession. “Yeah, let’s give those guys a cheer. Cheer for all the awesome people in your lives who stick a finger up to homophobic assholes like Sun City.”
“Blake!” Reyse hissed in horror.
Blake covered his mic and grinned at Reyse. “What?” he asked. Reyse could hear him through his earpieces, which meant they had been able to hear him before. Good. “My dad’s a lawyer, let them come for me.”
“Reyse, they have this coming,” Joey said, also with his mic covered. “They screwed us then they screwed you, now it’s finally time to screw them back.”
“Eww,” Raiden said, making Reyse look left. “I am not fucking Kevin, thank you very m
uch.”
TJ waggled his eyebrows. “I wouldn’t say no to financial ruin, though,” he added.
As the cheers died down, they uncovered their mics and faced the crowd again. “The trouble is,” Blake said in all seriousness to them, “when people tell you you’re not worthy of love, you start to believe it. Sometimes, it takes finding that special someone to make you truly understand how worthy you are.”
The crowd gave him a big ‘awww.’ Reyse smiled. He assumed Blake was talking about his husband, Elion. In fact, he could have been talking about any of their husbands – Gabe, Levi or Ashby. His brothers were so lucky to have found their soulmates, who were all here supporting them today.
So when Blake and Joey both looked off to the left, Reyse copied them, realizing everyone on stage was currently turning their gaze toward the wings. As expected he saw there was a throng of supporters all standing there, looking eagerly back at them.
Then Reyse froze, all the blood seemingly draining from his body. Sheer habit and professionalism were all that kept him upright, because his brain ground to a halt.
Because there, in the middle of Elion, Gabe, Levi and Ashby, stood another man, their hands all resting on his shoulders as he looked out onto the stage in pure terror.
Reyse stopped breathing.
That man was Corey.
30
Corey – One Month Prior
“All right, you lot,” Hamish cried as he walked into the office. One arm cradled several Speedy Pete’s boxes (much to Corey’s dismay), his laptop perched on top. He used the other arm to make a lasso motion. “Meeting, now, drop whatever you’re doing.”
“Oh, shit,” Corey said, his fingers pausing above his keyboard.
But Ellie Mae shook her head. “No, it’s okay. He’s excited, not mad.” She pointed at Hamish as he shouldered his way into the meeting room. “If he was mad, there would be no pizza.”
Corey wasn’t quite sure he believed her, but he followed everyone into the room regardless. He was going to have to get over this pizza issue soon. He’d told the guys in the office he was on a diet, which was no fun at all.
Being so new still, he didn’t feel confident taking one of the chairs, so he stood at the back with several other staff members. Ellie Mae took a chair, then inexplicably jumped up and stood by Corey. He frowned at her but she just grinned back and twirled her green pigtail.
“Can’t have you all by your lonesome, can we?” she said.
Corey blinked. Was she making sure he didn’t feel left out? He swallowed. That was so nice of her.
Sure enough, when everyone piled in, Hamish grinned at them. He didn’t sit at the end of the table. Instead, he stood with his fingertips resting on the table top. “So, you know how we’re all in love with Reyse Hickson now?”
Corey’s stomach flipped. In the week he’d been here, he still wasn’t used to people continuously casually dropping his former lover’s name. But he was Reyse Hickson. This would probably happen for the rest of his life. But right now, it was still so raw and he struggled to hold on to his poker face.
The room sighed and groaned in appreciation. “He’s my hero,” Jack said, clutching his heart.
Lucas scoffed. “He’s been gay for a whole week now and he still hasn’t called me.” He folded his arms. “Daddy’s not impressed.”
“Like you’re anyone’s daddy,” Orchid shot back with a laugh.
Hamish rapped his knuckles on the table and arched an eyebrow over his glasses. “I have dirt. Are you going to be good boys and girls and enbies, or do I have to get the naughty stick out?”
Lucas definitely opened his mouth to ask for the naughty stick. Jack slapped him upside his head. The rest of the room fell very quiet, but no more so than Corey. He felt like he stopped breathing.
“I have a reasonably long email,” Hamish said, gesturing toward his laptop. “When I’ve dissected it some more, I’ll give you the CliffsNotes. But here’s the skinny. Reyse Hickson is responding to his dispute with Sun City by setting up his own LGBT Plus record label. To launch this label, he is hosting a one-day LGBT Plus music festival, right here in LA at Exposition Park. He has selected six LGBT Plus charities to benefit from this concert. Can you guess who one of those charities are?”
Ellie Mae screamed, right in Corey’s ear, scaring the shit out of him. “Oh my lord, oh sweet baby Jesus. It’s us! He’s picked us, hasn’t he?”
Hamish grinned as the fifteen or so people all packed into the room suddenly became animated with excitement.
All, that was, apart from Corey, who was too stunned to react.
His first thought was that Reyse had discovered where he worked and done some grand gesture. But that didn’t make sense. Corey had been very careful that the company hadn’t made his hiring public and as he’d deleted what little social media presence he had, people hadn’t been tagging him in anything.
Besides, that wasn’t Reyse’s style. If he’d found out where Corey was, he might have done something dumb like come to find him.
The truth was, Corey kept coming back to the idea that maybe it might be okay for him to reach out to Reyse again. He’d even driven past his apartment building a couple of times. But he’d never had the courage to go inside. Last time, they’d happened to meet outside. But Corey couldn’t exactly go in there and ask if Reyse was in. What if his security team recognized him as the random pizza delivery guy and called the cops or the press? Corey wasn’t sure which might be worse.
Still, there was a part of him that had clung to life, hoping that now Reyse was out the universe might let their paths cross again. And sure enough, here they were. Corey didn’t know whether to be cautiously excited or scared. He was regretting the way he’d treated Reyse, cutting him out like he had. He had thought it was for the best, but now he wasn’t so sure…
“We’re going to have a stall at the festival,” Hamish continued, “where we’ll be handing out information leaflets, selling merch, making friends, the works. I’ll need people to cover it all day, but if we do it in teams-”
“I’ll do it!”
Corey realized with a small amount of horror that had been his voice that had blurted out. His hand was also stretched in the air, like an overeager schoolchild answering teacher’s question in class. Sheepishly, he slowly retracted it.
But Hamish wasn’t mad at him for interrupting. He didn’t even look at him funny for his enthusiasm. He just nodded. “Excellent. That’s our first volunteer.” He opened the boxes of pizza and pushed them to the center of the table. “Help yourselves. Right, who else? Let’s get this schedule sorted.”
People came forward and put their names down, asking about times and how much they would see of the festival. Corey didn’t care about any of that. He’d stay there from dawn until dusk. The chances of him running into Reyse were minuscule. But, as much as he tried not to be superstitious, it was difficult not to take this as a sign.
He looked down at the various pizzas. For the first time in a long time, they actually smelled kind of good. Carefully, he reached down to the pepperoni jalapeño and took a slice.
He groaned as he took a bite. He was sure it had never tasted this good before.
Was it wrong to allow that little, cautious part of him that had never lost hope he and Reyse might meet again to grow?
He didn’t think so.
Corey had never really been to LA Pride before. He’d been around a couple of times when the parade happened to be on, but he’d never made an effort to go specifically and he’d certainly never gotten involved. Now, looking around him at Iridescence, he was beginning to understand what he’d been missing out on all these years.
It was tricky when you were bi. You didn’t always feel welcome in queer spaces. But Corey had never had any friends or dated any queer people to encourage him to participate. After spending most of the day at Reyse’s festival, though, he was feeling so connected to everyone. People just kept hugging him and talking to him and smiling his w
ay.
So many of them had volunteered to work at the stall from Rainbow Roofs, Corey had only been given a couple of hour-long slots to fill. The rest of the time he was free to go and enjoy the festival. But he’d not done many of those, either. The kind of festivals where you had to camp there cost a lot of money, so he’d never bothered. Besides, without any friends it wasn’t like he’d felt the need to go to any local ones. So he’d been tempted to just hang around the stall with the rest of the RRT guys.
But, unsurprisingly, Ellie Mae had other ideas. She swung it so they were working the same slots. If she hadn’t been very open about how much of a total lesbian she was, he might have wondered if she had a crush on him. Now, he was starting to suspect he was her new-pet project. He didn’t mind. In fact, he really enjoyed her company. So he allowed himself to be dragged from the stall along with a few of the other guys to go gallivanting over the park.
Corey hadn’t really bothered going to see any concerts. He always figured why bother seeing as he had all the music he liked on CDs, then streaming as he got older. But there was something invigorating about seeing songs performed live he soon discovered, even if it was only one-hit wonders from the eighties. But they saw pop acts, rock bands, drag queens and kings, comedians, Broadway stars, so called ‘freak shows,’ and even a magician that managed to make his show really cool and not lame. They danced their asses off in the nineties tent and bought hot dogs and drank warm beer while Ellie Mae and Lucas got their faces painted.
In all honesty, it was undeniably one of the most fun days Corey had ever experienced in his whole life. But every now and again, he would catch himself with a rush of melancholy. He was here because of Reyse. But he might never see Reyse again.
Every time he managed to pick his mood up again. He kept assuring himself that everywhere they went, there was a chance he could run into Reyse. But this wasn’t a movie. There were apparently sixty thousand people in attendance at the festival. He was never going to bump into Reyse by chance.