Fan-Tastic (3 page)

By the end of Deke’s speech, Blake was so hard and breathless that he was sure he was about to pass out. He swallowed a couple of times before saying, “I think that sounds like a good plan. I should warn you though, I talk in my sleep.”

“That’s okay. It won’t bother me.”

“Are you sure? I have some freaky, strange dreams, so I say some pretty insane shit.”

Deke chuckled. “Somehow, that doesn’t come as a surprise to me.”

Their food arrived and Blake was saved from having to reply. He attacked his steak like a man starved, because that's exactly what he was. The half of a sandwich he’d eaten earlier hadn’t made a dent in his hunger. It wasn’t until he was halfway through the meal that he remembered his manners.

“Okay, I’ll stay with you, but you have to promise that you’ll let me pay you back someday,” Blake conceded.

Once he got home, he’d pick up his old job at the coffee house and work double shifts if he had to.

“How about you promise to do a painting for me some day,” Deke offered.

“A painting from a nobody like me won’t even get you five bucks at a garage sale.”

“That doesn’t matter because I would never imagine selling it. To me, it would be priceless.”

Okay, if Deke was trying to sweet talk his way into Blake’s pants, he was doing a good job of it. Because, self-esteem or not, Blake was two seconds from throwing himself at the other guy and yelling, “Take me now!”

Clearing his throat, Blake said, “I still talk to your dad all the time when I go to the grocery store.”

“I can’t believe he still insists on working there. I know he’s the owner, but he makes enough money to hire a manager.”

Blake gave a half-shrug. “Your dad has always been a people person. He loves to socialise. By working at the store, he gets to talk to all his friends and catch up on the gossip."

“I guess you have a point there. What does he say about me?”

“That he’s damn proud of you, even if your show is too violent for his taste. He also mentioned how you were the grand marshal for a gay pride event. He’s so proud of you. Your mom is, too.”

Deke studied him for a moment. “How about your parents? Do they know you’re gay?”

“I think the Taylor Lautner posters in my room were a huge tip-off, but yeah, they know.”

“Did they take it well?”

If that wasn’t a loaded question.

“My mom was great about it. She even stood by me when my dad left because he didn’t want to be under the same roof as a woman who could continue to love an abomination.”

Deke placed a kiss on the back of Blake’s knuckles. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It was one of the reasons I had to leave college. After he was gone, we couldn’t afford it anymore. I lost my apartment and then I was forced to move back home. I couldn’t get my old room back, because my mom had rented it out to make some money, but the basement isn’t too bad. It’s big and I have a ton of privacy.”

Actually, it was crowded, dusty, smelly, and he had no privacy at all. His bed sat next to the washer, so his mother and the elderly lady who rented his room were always down there doing their laundry.

Blake plastered on a smile. “Hey, but don’t they say to be a good artist you have to suffer some and live life the rough way first?”

“Yeah, but that still doesn’t mean that you can’t experience some good, too.”

Thinking back through the day—how Blake had nearly sold out of all his comics, plus the fact that he was actually eating dinner with Deke—proved this. When Blake had left home for this trip, he’d never imagined in his wildest dreams that things would turn out half as good.

Smiling, he replied, “I guess you have a point there.”

“You know what, I've decided that you need a little Julia treatment after all.”

Perplexed, Blake frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to spoil you for the rest of the week.”

When Blake began to protest, Deke held up a hand. “Remember, this isn’t on my dime. A lot of the other cast members brought along a guest, so there is no reason why I can’t do the same thing. I think that you deserve to have a week where you’re treated as the great person you are.”

“But, no strings attached?” Blake reiterated.

Only this time he wasn’t sure if it was Deke or himself who he was trying to convince. For every second that Blake spent with Deke he felt himself falling just a little bit harder.

Chapter Three

After they had gathered up Blake’s stuff and cancelled the rest of his reservation, it’d grown very late. As they rode the elevator up to the floor that held the nicer room, Blake couldn’t stifle his yawn.

When he noticed Deke staring at him, Blake ducked his head. “Sorry, it’s been a long day.”

Deke leaned against the wall of the elevator. “Don’t worry, we’ll be in bed soon and yes, like I promised earlier there are two queens in my rooms, so your virtue will remain in place.”

Blake gave a sly smile. “That’s been gone since that day I went into Tommy’s garage to help him fix his motorcycle.”

That earned him an arched brow. “Tommy Danielson? Since when is he gay?”

“Since he bent me over his bike and took my virginity.”

While Blake was acting all blasé about the incident, in actuality it had been pretty traumatising. It had hurt like hell and Tommy hadn’t even bothered to so much as kiss Blake. Then, once they were done, he’d barely given Blake time to do his pants up before kicking him out. That was after warning Blake that if he ever spoke of the incident, Tommy would kill him. A threat Blake had taken seriously. With good reason, too, since Tommy was currently serving life in Jackson prison for murder.

Deke frowned. “Tommy was a bastard. Did he hurt you?”

Blake forced himself to shrug. “I’ve always been able to handle myself.”

“Why do I have a feeling that you’re not telling me everything?”

A pulse of fear went through Blake as he remembered the smell of grease, the way Tommy’s hot breath had felt against the back of his neck, the utter humiliation that had come over Blake as he’d walked home.

“It’s no big deal. I’ll bet most first times aren't exactly the best,” Blake replied.

“I would have made sure you'd loved it,” Deke breathed.

A sense of bitterness and regret washed over Blake. “You would've had to notice I was alive in the first place. Not that I blame you for not knowing who I was. I barely had any friends and I never spoke up or anything. In fact, I made it a point not to get noticed while I was in school. It made things so much easier that way.”

Until his father had left, it had been much the same way at home, too. While it had hurt him in so many ways, in another way it was a small blessing. It had caused Blake to take refuge in his drawing and in the end it had made him a better artist.

The elevator doors opened, ending whatever further conversation may have taken place. Blake hoisted up his backpack, which happened to be his only piece of luggage, and walked out. The boxes of his merchandise would hopefully be waiting at the front desk for him in the morning.

He followed Deke down the long, heavily carpeted hallway. All the while he tried hard not to gape at the nice furniture in the lounge area and the high-priced artwork on the wall. It sure as hell beat the plain vanilla décor on Blake’s floor.

When Deke opened the door, Blake wasn’t overly surprised to find himself entering a huge, upscale suite. It still didn’t mean that Blake wasn’t impressed. He even reached out to touch the marble countertop of the kitchenette. His heart skipped in excitement when he spotted a huge whirlpool tub.

Damn, he’d give his left nut to spend an hour in that thing. His back had always been prone to muscle spasms and after standing for most of the day, he was hurting.

As if sensing his thoughts, Deke ran a hand over Blake’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take a long soak? I have some calls to make, so it’s not like you’ll be ignoring me or anything.”

It was all Blake could do not to dance on the balls of his feet in excitement. “You sure you don’t mind?”

Even as he asked that, he was already opening his bag to take out his sleeping pants. He was so geeky he didn’t even care that they had cartoon pictures of The Muppets all over them.

Deke waved him away and Blake retreated to the bathroom. He filled the tub up and got in, the muscles in his body instantly relaxing. He let out a sigh of relief as he sank deeper into the hot water.

Okay, he must have died, because this was heaven. There could be no other explanation. As he closed his eyes, he allowed himself to drift halfway to sleep. The muted sound of Deke’s voice came through the door.

Blake would have liked to have stayed in there all night, but once he started to prune up, he knew that it was time to get out. He dried off, brushed his teeth and walked out, suddenly feeling shy.

As promised, there were two queen beds and the covers were pulled down on both of them. The slutty part of Blake felt disappointed about that, but the sensible part screamed he wanted to prove he had some morals. So he climbed into the empty bed.

“Thanks for letting me crash here,” Blake said, again.

Deke pulled his own covers up. “Like I said earlier, you’re actually doing me a favour. It gets kind of lonely on these road trips. It’ll be nice to have a friendly face around for once.”

“I feel the same way. I was really nervous about coming here. Before now, I’ve never even left Michigan, so it was kind of daunting coming all the way to Atlanta to attend the biggest comic book convention in the industry.”

“Yet, you managed to do it. And you didn’t even know that I was going to be here,” Deke praised.

Turning so that his face was hidden, Blake confessed, “Actually, the main reason I came was in hopes of seeing you. I just thought I was going to get a glimpse of you or maybe an autograph at the most. I never imagined that I would end up your roommate.”

“It’s funny how things work out sometimes.”

Blake smiled to himself. “Yeah, it is.”

“Because, I know I haven’t told you this yet, but you came at the time I needed you the most.”

Shocked, Blake turned around. “Why in the hell would you need me? You’re rich, famous and great looking.”

“I’m so sick of being surrounded by fake people. They only like me because they want me to introduce them to my cast mates, or because I have money. Until you, nobody has ever wanted me for just being me.”

“You’ll always be Eric, the hot senior with the most incredible smile I’ve ever seen.”

Before Blake could become embarrassed by that, Deke grinned. “I think that’s the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me.”

“If that’s the case, then you’re hanging out with the wrong people.”

“Maybe before, but not right now.”

Then Deke turned off the light, ending the conversation.

Deke let out a sigh before he massaged his fingers over his aching temples. It was only noon, but he was already sick of the damn interviews.

What he really wanted was to grab Blake and take him out for some real sightseeing. Deke could vividly recall the look of awe on Blake’s face as he’d entered the suite last night, and Deke would do almost anything to see it again.

He let out another sigh. It just wasn’t meant to be though. Even if Deke had managed to get away, Blake’s stand had been surrounded all morning. Which was great, since the guy obviously needed the sales, but it sucked that he probably wouldn’t be free until the end of the day.

When the assistants came around with the food, Deke made sure Blake got some, too. From what little he’d seen of his friend’s body last night, Blake was way too thin. It was one thing to be a starving artist, but a walking skeleton was quite another.

Deke saw that a lot of the people talking and hanging out at Blake’s stand were younger guys and girls. While he knew he had no right, a burst of jealousy went through him. Deke wanted to be the one on the receiving end of those charming comments and that sweet smile. Not some wannabe fanboys or girls.

“Wow, I never thought I would see the day,” Linda leaned over and whispered in Deke’s ear.

“What are you talking about?”

“Where you actually took your nose out of a script long enough to look at anybody. Now you’re all but drooling over some comic book geek.”

“He’s not a geek,” he snapped.

The triumphant smile on Linda’s face showed that he’d given her the exact reaction she was looking for. “So, what’s his name?”

“Blake. We went to the same high school.”

“Were you friends back then?” she pressed.

“No, because I was too stupid to look around and see that I had something great standing right in front of me.”

“So, what are you going to do about it now?”

“Try and prove to him that I’m worth a second chance.”

She tapped her fingers on the table. “I noticed he stayed the night with you last night.”

“Damn, you’re nosier than the paparazzi,” he teased. “Yes, he stayed with me, but he slept in the other bed. I was only trying to help him save some money.”

“I guess the comic book business isn’t very lucrative?”

“Not for somebody who’s just starting out like him. I thought I would give him some guidance.”

She smiled. “Like when you made that big announcement to the news that you’re gay and a certain has-been eighties television star better shut his homophobic mouth before you sicked some of our zombies on them?”

Deke grunted. “It probably would have ended up giving the zombies food poisoning.”

She tilted her head to the side. “What was he like in high school?”

“Who? The has-been actor or Blake?”

She gave him a playful tap on the arm. “Blake.”

“Quiet. That’s why it took me a while to remember him. He was always in some corner, all by himself, drawing in a ratty sketchbook His fingers were always smudged with paint and charcoal and he had the worst haircut. I think his parents took him to one of those cheap salon chains that were always having $7.99 specials. Poor guy.”

They glanced over at Blake. While he may not have much more money, he was way more fashionable. He still had those red and black streaks running through his hair and they went well with his black jeans and stylishly aged T-shirt—the colour of which had faded from red to nearly pink.