He wanted to educate those teetering on the line of indifference, to bully bigots who deserved zero empathy, but he didn’t want to sound like a pretentious twat stroking his own ego.
And that was the main reason some of the Pride members made it impossible for him to enjoy the club.
“Remind me to properly thank you later,” Dylan said quite suggestively before they entered the meeting.
“Oh, I most certainly will,” Rus whispered, slowly trailing behind his boyfriend.
Rus had found himself slipping away from campus activities. Partly because he was three years into his degree and wanted to graduate, and partly because most of his free time revolved around Dylan and Kaiden. While he had no intention of dropping time with his boyfriends, especially since Kaiden had already gotten busier with his part-time job over the holidays, he did want to make some effort in merging his worlds, so to speak.
Daysha was the only person on campus Rus actively missed, so he made time to hang out with her and Dylan—and hoped to plan some time for Kaiden to join in on a future coffee date. He wanted the three of them to kick it off well. After the Pride meeting, Daysha and Dylan babbled faster than Rus could follow, and it seemed they clicked.
“Well, right now, I’m organizing a winter fundraiser for our queer youth home,” Dylan said, explaining how they try to hold a few charities a year and work with other organizations to raise funds. “Sort of our way of helping each other when we can. It’s a community collective across the state. Some queer based, some not, but all great causes.”
“That’s amazing,” Daysha said. “Reminds me of beer church.”
“What?” Dylan scrunched his face in surprise.
“A bunch of bars back where I’m from would get together and host a monthly beer church charity. They’d have bar specials—usually some local brew donating samples and such—that went toward a different cause every single month. I don’t know howthey picked their charity or whatnot, but talk about boozing it up for a good reason.”
“There’s always a good reason to booze it up,” Dylan said with a sultry, sly attitude.
To which Rus snorted because Dylan never drank.
“Do you guys have everything set up for your upcoming fundraiser?”
“Almost,” Dylan said while fighting a grimace. “Some of our entertainment has fallen through, but some of our more theatrical teens are offering to put something together. If only they could decide on what to put together, we’d have a full show.”
“Oh, that sounds stressful.”
“It is, but this really is the best time to bring in donations, so I’ll suck it up,” Dylan explained. “Folks feel their most charitable over the holidays, whether from guilt, kindness, or strategy.”
“Strategy?”
“Tax write-offs are worth as much as positive PR.” Dylan chuckled.
“Well, I don’t know about any of that.” Daysha tapped her fingers together like some evil genius. “But I do think fate has brought us together.”
“My name’s not actually fate,” Rus said to himself, knowing the pair were lost in their plotting. “But quite the compliment.”
“Pride Club is always looking for outreach opportunities,” Daysha said. “I think I could easily convince them this is a great chance to give back to our community before heading home for winter break.”
“That would be amazing,” Dylan gasped.
Kaiden had warned Rus that Dylan was a networking extrovert, but Rus didn’t really grasp the meaning until he witnessed Daysha and Dylan coordinate in this weird gibberish half-speak as they lost themselves to the details. Suddenly, he realized Daysha was also a networking extrovert, and Rus had no idea how he surrounded himself with such people.
Next thing Rus knew, he was stuck in the meeting hall for the next hour as Daysha and Dylan brainstormed ideas to no avail. Daysha texted Pride members while Dylan contacted the teens at Dorothy’s Home. So much for grabbing coffee.
“If you’re thinking music, we’d probably need to find band members,” Dylan said, typing away on his phone. “I could probably reach out to our current band, see if they can add your performance to their set.”
“No need. Like half the Pride members have taken band all through high school,” Daysha replied with a dismissive wave. “Gays and the arts, I swear.”
“Nice,” Dylan said. “So, maybe we do go with a song? Seems the easiest. Probably two because that’ll help fill our time slot.”
“We need something that won’t be too much to choreograph or prepare for but will also offer the most engagement with the audience,” Daysha added. “But obviously not one of those annoying go out into the audience and sing to them like some little cunt. Sorry.”
“No, absolutely agree,” Dylan replied with a smirk. “Also, something Christmasy without being too Jesusy. Half our donors want to feel the power of Christ compel them to give, while the other half would prefer not to see crucifixes vomited all over the winter fundraiser.”
“Hmmm.” Daysha’s stiletto-pointed acrylic nails clicked loudly as she strummed the table deep in thought.
