Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 09:32:43 -0500 From: music teacher <musicteacher2002@hotmail.com> Subject: "This is the Night" chapter 1 Disclaimer: I have an overactive imagination, the result of which is this story. I do not know Clay Aiken or any other celebrities mentioned in this story, and I do not intend to imply anything about their true sexualities. Simply file this in the "Wouldn't it be nice..?" portion of your mind. Also, if you are under legal age to be reading this sort of stuff (18 in most areas), then leave now. All the rest of you who ARE of age, please enjoy my little mind trip away from the land of reality. *** To put it mildly, I was NOT in a good mood. To start off with, the weather was crappy. It was the beginning of June, and the temperature was only 53 degrees! What kind of crap is that?! And the rain - it had been raining nonstop for almost a week (save for the previous day, which had been beautifully sunny). I'll stop bitching for a moment and introduce myself. My name is Randy. I'm 26 years old, 6 feet tall, 165 pounds. I have brown hair and hazel eyes. I'm not model-gorgeous or anything, but I don't do too badly for myself. And oh yeah, I'm gay. Anyway, back to the story... Needless to say, I was reluctant to leave my nice comfy apartment, even if I do have a great job teaching wonderful children. All of this was not helped by the fact that when I got to my car that morning, I discovered that I had left my windows cracked open the previous night. So I drove to school, wet butt and all. That particular morning, I had a lot of stuff to carry in with me, so I set my keys next to me on the car seat so I could get everything into my hands and not have to make multiple trips. Re-read that last sentence and see if you can't tell where this is going. To make a long story short, a kind co-worker ended up taking me to the locksmith, and I finally got my keys out of my car after school. Finally, I thought, I can go home and relax! My cell phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket and checked the caller ID. It was my friend Lee. "Hey, man, what's happening?" I greeted him. "Where are you? You were supposed to meet me at the furniture store 20 minutes ago!" Shit. This day just keeps getting better. "Crap, I completely forgot! You would not believe the day I had!" I told him, hoping he would here the sincerity in my voice. "Yeah, you sound like you're on edge," he replied. "I really am. Any chance we could do this tomorrow? I just don't feel like going anywhere except home right now," I said. "It's cool - I've been checking things out, and I think there's a few that I like. You can help me make the final decision. 4:00 tomorrow then?" Lee asked. "Sounds great - and I promise to remember this time," I said. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lee said sarcastically. "Bye." "Bye." I arrived home, checked my mailbox (nothing, thank God), sat down on the couch, and stayed there the rest of the night. The next day, after a great day at school (I really do have the best students in the world), I went to meet Lee at the furniture store. Lee was in search of an actual bed to replace the futon he'd been using since our college days. When I found him in the store, he was laying, eyes closed, on what I guessed was one of the beds he was considering. Sensing an opportunity, I snuck up on Lee and began tickling him all over. "What the...woohoo...oh my...STOP!!!!" Lee could barely breathe - much less form a coherent sentence - through his giggling. "I'm here," I announced. "I noticed," Lee said flatly before grinning widely at me. We looked at the four beds that Lee had narrowed his decision down to. One of the options was a king sized bed that I immediately ruled out. There was no way that thing would fit in his bedroom! We decided the double bed was a bit too small, so this "Goldilocks" method of bed selection, as we jokingly referred to it, left us with two queen-sized options. We asked the salesman for his opinion. "Well," he told us, "I would go for the four-poster, because that gentleman right over there is on his way to purchase the other one." Lee and I looked where the man was pointing. No way. It couldn't have been. Could it? It was! Standing by the register, waiting patiently to make his purchase, was none other than American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken! Lee and I looked at each other. He knew how big a fan I was. I had cleared my calendar so that I could watch every single episode. When I had to be out of town for the finale, I had set my VCR to record it. Lee had been the one to console me when I discovered my VCR had not recorded it. "What are you waiting for? Go up and talk to him!" Lee was excited that I had this chance. So, with shaking knees and hands, I made my way over to the register. Clay glanced up as I approached. I opened my mouth to speak, but right as I did, he did two things that stopped me dead in my tracks. He smiled and winked at me. "Uh...um..." is what I brilliantly led off with. Smiling that gorgeous smile of his, he came to my rescue. "Let me start. I'm Clay." Grinning sheepishly, I replied, "Hi, sorry about that. I'm Randy." "Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet you, Randy. I see you and your friend are looking for a bed also?" Clay said. "As a matter of fact, you are buying one of the ones we had our eye on," I told him. He got a worried look on his face and immediately started apologizing. "I'm so sorry," he said, "Do you want to buy it? I'll gladly go buy another bed..." "Whoa, whoa, calm down Clay," I said, reassuring him. "There is another bed we liked just as much. You're just lucky you caught me today instead of yesterday, or else I would have fought you tooth and nail." "Whoa, that doesn't sound good - bad day at work yesterday?" Clay asked, genuinely concerned. "Actually," I replied, "Work was what saved me. I love my job." "Really? What do you do?" "I teach music to kindergarten through sixth grades," I answered. "Wow, that is really cool. You know, I work with special ed kids," he said. "I, uh...I know," I said, slightly embarrassed that I might seem like an obsessed fan. "Yeah," he said, not noticing my embarrassment, "I used to, anyway, before all of this American Idol stuff came up. Don't get me wrong, I love this, but I miss working with children." "I bet you're wonderful with kids," I said without thinking. "Thanks," he said, with a grin and...was that a slight blush? "Hey, I need to get going. I've got a meet and greet in about a half hour. It never ends!" "Well, it was really nice meeting you," I said. Then, feeling really bold for some reason, I said, "Maybe we can meet up for lunch sometime tomorrow? I'd love to hear more about your work with special ed kids." Clay got a huge grin on his face. "I'd love to," he said. He then wrote down his phone number on a slip of paper and handed it to me. "Call me tomorrow and we'll arrange a time. See ya!" "Bye!" I said. As I walked back over to Lee, it hit me. I had just made a date with Clay Aiken. *** That's all for this chapter, folks! I'd love to hear any feedback you have. Send all comments/suggestions to musicteacher2002@hotmail.com A *huge* thank you to Lee for encouraging me to write this story (I'm so grateful that I named a character after him!), and for editing the story. You're awesome! Also, I'm interested in writing in a hook-up/love interest for Lee in the story. My top choices are Simon, Jim from Season 1, and Ryan Seacrest. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide. Send your vote (along with whether it should be a one-time hookup or a lasting relationship) to musicteacher2002@hotmail.com I look forward to hearing what you think!