Voice by Sean Ian O'Meidhir

Author:Sean Ian O'Meidhir
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA+, pride, parade, bears, action/adventure, drag queens, vampires, shifters, magic, mind control, urban fiction, plus sized
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2021-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Theo

I was supremely appreciative for the suggestion of staying in the city the night before, especially since I wasn’t quite sure what time we had fallen into our respective beds, but was damned unimpressed with the 8:00 a.m. wake-up reminder from my phone, insisting that we needed to get to the parade route.

Robbie was ridiculous in his constitution, springing out of bed as if he hadn’t been just as snookered as I was the night before. After a quick shower he raced out to get me some java while I pulled my hungover ass together. He and Abi came in (after he made sure I was decent), all bubbly and talkative. I groaned their way, snatching the joe from him.

“That was the best party ever!” Abi grinned. “And Charleen and the rest of the girls all agreed to come to the wedding.”

“Umm, Abs. Don’t you think you should maybe clear it with Jason before you invite a bunch of drag queens to crash your wedding?” I asked, reveling in the jolt of caffeine.

“Drag queens?” Abi hesitated. Her perplexed look left me breathless from laughter.

Once I collected myself, I asked, “Abs, we gotta go. You going to be cool here?”

“Nah, I’m going to go check out the city a little, then hang on the parade route. Robbie told me you guys generally come back for a nap, so maybe we can all meet up at, what? Six o’clock to get some dinner before we hit the club?”

Her energy was obnoxious.

★

The cool morning air tickled across my face as I completed setting up the sound board. I pulled the brown faux-fur coat around myself and snorted at the image I must have been striking. Glancing up from my sunken area in the middle of the float, I noted that it really was like I was in a manmade bear cave surrounded by a fake forest. There was even a bed of soft green shag carpet that served as grass and little papier-mâché wildflowers sprinkled throughout. Chuck had gone out of his way this year, having designed the float to have four huge trees where the “bear cubs” were going to perch and represent Grizzly’s, the oldest gay bar in San Francisco. Chuck and Bob gave thousands each year to LGBTQ centers throughout the city and had marched with the likes of Milk back in the day. Chuck was on several activist committees and as such enjoyed the ability to have an annual float in the parade, and for it to be as garish as he wanted.

My eyes came to rest on an unamused Robbie, who was standing between two of the trees, paws on his hips, with a headband that was askew holding two slightly lopsided soft brown ears sticking out of his hair. I tilted my head to realize that the stuffed bear paws were attached on top of gloves and took in the skintight brown jockstrap and boots that had paws affixed to them.

“I don’t want to do it,” he complained quietly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.