Desserts

[Brackie]

Ryan Duhm had been waiting all week to watch the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, only to have it spoiled for him by a Facebook message on the way to their late viewing party.

All of his friends who were going to appear there had sworn not to tell each other if they found out what happened, and the messenger group chats were pretty much Jonestown because of it. He'd stayed off Twitter and Instagram, even unfollowing pretty much every queen he'd followed since the start of the season, just to keep himself fresh. But as he headed through the light rain towards Madison Park, where Ken was probably preparing bottomless zinfandel and pretty much every food under the sun that paired well with brie, his sister messaged him out of the blue and there on his phone screen was Charity asking how he felt about Miz Cracker not being in the Top Four. A few angry digital spits later and Ryan was fuming, his mood not worsened by meeting Jose on the way to Ken's, to the point where Jose actually had to ask if Ryan was okay. He wasn't, but he said he was, because they weren't that kind of friend yet, since Ryan had only been to Ken's viewing parties this season while Jose had been following the show back when Manila Luzon was on it for the first time.

Ryan met Ken and Justin at Purr one night when Ryan had been ditched by his friends for a sex party in Capitol Hill, and he was left to wander the streets like someone who needed to be rounded up by ICE. Eventually he spoke with a guy on Grindr who told him about an event happening at Purr, which turned out to be something extremely boring and non-Drag Race related so he was about to leave when someone behind him who turned out to be Justin accidentally ended up spilling their mimosa down the back of his shirt. Several horrified apologies later and Ryan was attending Justin and Ken's second anniversary party where he made out with a mutual friend and later ended up Facebook friends with five guys he'd never met before. Three months later, Season 10 of RuPaul's Drag Race was releasing its teasers and Ryan was suddenly in a group chat started by Ken and Justin for planning viewing parties, which later turned out to be nearly three separate group chats (that Ryan knew of) for different purposes and layers of exclusion but the core premise still the same across all of them. Unfortunately, Ken and Justin weren't exactly the best at timing, so the viewing parties themselves would vary from being live as it aired to having to wait until Tuesday night like they were Canadian or something.

So as it was, Sunday night was relatively early for their group, and what a group it was. There was Ken and Justin, of course, nearly ten years older and married two years after being together for five, both urban planners for some city council contractors and having watched the show since the second season. Jose worked in Development over near Northwest who met them for university coursework back in the early 10's and ended up getting hooked on the show after it came up in conversation. There was Will, Ash, and Dan, but most of them hadn't actually checked the groupchats in weeks so they didn't really count right now. Max and Sam were both personal trainers who pretty much exclusively partied at The Cuff Complex and had an OnlyFans page they were hoping to get off the ground, which to hear them tell it was fairly popular already although in Ryan's opinion they were both so deeply boring it wouldn't matter if they could fit three fists in their asses at once. There was also Dmitry Phillips and his boyfriend, in clothing design and real estate respectively, who'd just recently joined even after Ryan had, who rumour had it kept getting uninvited from boardgame nights for being drunken boors, but from what Ryan had seen just liked to have a good time.

Sometimes Ryan felt inadequate, being only an assistant buyer at lululemon's Seattle branch, but they liked him. Ryan wanted them to like him, because that meant he could hang out with people he felt he deserved to, rather than the people who always congregated at public viewings, who always had such terrible opinions, like thinking The Vixen was anything but evil, rooting for Asia O'Hara, or not thinking Kameron or Aquaria or Cracker deserved to win. It's like they didn't actually care about who would make a good winner and just wanted to root for people based on forced diversity or political correctness, and so any avenue away from these people was one into a better social circle. He was entitled to this either way.

He'd made small talk with Jose as they rounded the corner and approached Ken and Justin's house, and it could have been so easy to spoil everything for Jose, but the rules of the groupchat also applied in real life, so he stayed as quiet as he could.

*

"Now I still can't fucking believe that, what a bunch of bullshit."

The episode had finished only half an hour ago, and there were currently eight incensed homosexual men sitting around a translucent glass table on the deck of Ken and Justin's house downing a seemingly endless supply of zinfandel glasses while one of them occasionally burst into talking about how much they hated the result that night, the sounds of Taylor Swift's 1989 wafting through from the kitchen. The latest one had been Justin, and soon to follow was Sam.

"I'm still not over Asia being in the top four, I mean who looks at that ghetto bitch and thinks Drag Superstar? Fucking political correctness."

"I know, right? You just know it could have been worse though, imagine The Vixen? She'd probably blame getting eliminated on the race card."

Jose snorted.

"She probably did anyway, as if anyone cares. It's 2018, bitch, get over it."

Max was giggling, having had a bit too much, while guest appearance Dan nodded and Dmitry sitting next to him checked his phone. Ken pulled his chair out and got up, the path to the kitchen clear.

"Alright, who wants refills? Only offering once."

Ryan raised his glass and it was quickly snatched from the air, alongside Sam, Max, and Dmitry's, before Ken swanned away to find another bottle. Ryan cleared his throat and began his own screed.

"Who do you think's going to win though? Like, if Asia won it'd be fucking awful, but is it Aquaria or what?"

"Oh yeah it has to be Aquaria, like who else is it going to be? I mean I'd be fine with Kameron winning, but if Eureka wins I'm gonna vomit. Or Asia," Justin announced, with Dmitry nodding while not really looking up from his phone.

"I mean it should have been Cracker, whatever, she'll win Miss Congeniality."

"Come on, Fan Favourite!"

A round of laughs erupted from the table as they all remembered the reunion show from last year's season.

"But do you think-"

Ryan's pocket suddenly buzzed as a mostly unrecognized sound echoed from his phone's speakers, and he interrupted himself to be as anti-social as Dmitry. Speaking of, Dmitry'd said something when he arrived about his boyfriend not being able to come tonight, having been kept late at the office, but he didn't sound sure of himself so he wasn't sure what that was about. Ryan looked down at his phone as the conversation suddenly swept away into talks of who they'd ignored Grindr conversations with in Georgetown or Roxhill, and he saw it was his news app, having picked up something apparently worth Ryan's attention.

He fingerprinted the home key and opened the app itself, and suddenly, a painful reminder of a local tragedy was sprung upon him.

Having ignored social media for the past several days, Ryan hadn't realized that there was currently a missing fleet of schoolbuses somewhere on the opposite coast, but now he was well aware. He scrolled through the haphazardly curated article itself and the details were pretty much the same as the attack on Seattle itself back when Ryan was a junior. He wasn't in the class that got kidnapped, of course, since he was still here, but it was still such a black mark on the city, and pretty much cemented in Ryan's parents minds that their liberal pussy president hadn't done enough to stop it, which they ranted about every dinner for the next few weeks at the table. Ryan had to agree with them - why hadn't McAllister stopped the people who'd struck a blow against their freedoms? Nothing the liberals on campus at the university Ryan went to could answer, so that was that. Canon was at least a step in the right direction, or at least had thought so until he'd read that another group of schoolkids had been abducted from American soil.

"Hey Ryan, you know it's rude to be on Grindr at a party?"

Another round of laughter erupted, and Ryan looked up from his phone to laugh with them, slightly mortified when he didn't have to be but also not entirely sure whether he should bring it up. Everyone was having fun again, despite the unjust elimination on Drag Race, which suddenly didn't feel so unjust anymore, at least compared to the fact he'd known people in his own graduating class who had friends in that part of town who were probably going through the whole thing again.

Ryan slipped his phone back into his pocket, just as Ken swanned back onto the deck with their glasses, and he took one from his hand.

"Thanks darl, don't make me do all the work!" Ken shrilled before laughing at nothing in particular. He walked over and passed another drink to Dmitry, whose phone suddenly began to ring.

"So anyway, what are you all doing for the rest of the month? Pride's the best month of the year, so many parties."

"Well me and Max are actually hosting an event at Cuff soon, and we'd hope you could all come, but we totally get if it's not any of your scenes."

"Hun?"

Dmitry suddenly stood up from the table, startling the rest of the group momentarily, before they headed back into their conversation. Ryan's focus was momentarily taken by the bitchy fashionista's face of droll feigned boredom having suddenly morphed into concern.

"Honey slow down, what's-"

Dmitry took a look around at the table of sudden strangers, before making a beeline for the stairs down to the garden, with Ryan doing his best to follow what was going on. However, the shrieks of laughter from his drunken friends drowned out the follow up to the last line Ryan heard before the conversation became truly private.

"Jasper, honey, talk to me, what's going on? You're not making any sense."