A Fine Set of Gams

by Mike Mayak

Billy Turner was sitting where he figured he’d sat a million times before, on the edge of Matt’s bed in his bedroom, legs dangling over the side in the blue shorts with their High School logo on them.

“Hey, schweetheart,” Matt Cobb said doing his terrible Humphrey Bogart imitation. “You got a fine set of gams, you know that?”

Billy laughed. “I think gams are women’s legs,” he said.

“Yeah, well yours are pale enough to be women’s legs!” Matt laughed, plopping down beside him.

“Har-har,” Billy said sarcastically. “They’ve been covered up for winter. And I’m in college now. My legs spend their time studying.”

“And they’re smart,” Matt said. “They’re saving money living at your folks’ house.”

“Yeah,” Billy laughed, just a little ruefully. “We used to sit here after school and wrestle and watch reruns of I Dream of Jeannie.”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “Long time.” He stood up looking serious. He glanced at the closed door. “Look, Billy, we’ve been best friends since Grade school, right?”

“Yeah,” Billy said.

“I gotta tell you. I mean, it’s not because of your legs but…I’m Gay.”

Billy stared at him for a second. “Yeah, I know.”

Matt’s jaw dropped. “You know? How could you know? I’m not that obvious, am I?”

Billy grinned. “You told me.”

“Told you?” Matt said. “When the hell did I tell you? I’d remember if I told you! I sweated about telling you for years.”

Billy stood up and walked over to his friend.

“Remember when we used to go camping? When we were kids?”

“Yeah,” Matt said.” It seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Remember late one summer? We were out at the campground by the lake and we ducked into that little tent because it started pouring?”

“At least we stayed dry.” Matt said.

“Uh huh,” Billy said. “And we had candy bars for dinner, we listened to that little radio and then we started talking until we curled up in our sleeping bags and we kept on talking.”

“And then you started snoring,” Matt said slowly.

“And you kept on talking,” Billy said. “And you told me, or rather you said it to me. I heard it over my snoring.”

“I remember now…” Matt breathed. “And you weren’t really asleep…”

“I was to start with but when I woke up I faked the snoring to see if I could fool you.” Billy shrugged. “I guess I did.”

“Oh my gosh…” Matt said. “And I never knew! I’d almost forgotten I’d said anything. And you never said anything!”

“You’re my best friend,” Billy said. “I didn’t want you to know I’d fooled you like that. Besides, it didn’t matter to me. What, we were in Junior High and it was about 1976? I had to look up what Gay meant in the library.”

The two of them laughed, both of them with relief.

“Just be careful,” Billy said. “There’s a lot of weird people out there.”

“So far all I’ve done is kiss a couple of guys.” Matt said.

“Same here, except with girls,” Billy said.

“Not a lot of people know…about me.” Matt said.

“Yeah, well my love life may as well be a deep secret for all the good it does!” Billy said.

“Wow!” Matt breathed after they sat back on the bed. “How long’s it been since we were both first up here?”

“I dunno,” Billy said. ‘How long’s it been since we first did this…”

He jumped up, quickly had Matt in a half-nelson which he broke out of, laughing. They both grabbed each other, rolled around on the bed and fell off onto the floor still laughing, still wrestling.

“Shoulda tried out for the team at school,” Matt said.

“You or me?” Billy asked laughing.

The door opened and Billy’s Mom stepped into the room.

“Honestly! You two boys still wrestling on the floor like nine-year-olds!” Billy’s Mom said. “Billy, you’re in College now! And Matt, what would they say at the technical school if they saw you on the floor like that? Well, if you’re acting that juvenile you won’t say no when I tell you I have cookies and ice cream downstairs. Store bought, of course. It’s faster to make.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Matt said.

“Thanks, Mom!” Billy said, as they both rushed down the stairs.

Some things never changed.

—end—

AUTHORS NOTE: Yeah, the “coming out” story is more than a cliché but what inspired this story was the idea of somebody (Matt) forgetting he’d done something important years before. That and the prompt pic (and those are my legs by the way!)