Get Into James Shorts - 42. If You Came Up Then You Would Understand

"If one more idiot asks me if I'm a top or a bottom, I swear, I'm going to deck them!"

"Easy, easy champ."

"It's none of their damned business. There's no way I'm going to play hide the salami with a perfect stranger."

"Dude, it's not the eighties anymore."

"Thank God. If you came up then, you would understand."

"If I'd come up then, I would have probably been a causality or a basket-case. What was it like?"

"It was like some malevolent thing was stalking you and everyone you cared about. At the time, being out often ostracized gay people and the community was all they had. People read the paper back then. Every day you would look at the obituaries and hope you didn't recognize a name."

"Jesus."

"There was a guy who was part of a group that ran a few record stores around the area. I saw him at the store pretty regular. Then he wasn't there one day. A week later he was on the obituary page. If you were lucky, it was like that. It just nipped at your acquaintances. If it got someone close to you, and you were faithful and stuck around, you got to see what a real nightmare looked like."

Rocky put his hand on the older man's arm and said, "You sound like you are speaking from experience."

"Yeah. AIDS was an epic shit show. Nobody got out of that without scars."