Moonlight Becomes You

Chapter 1Kyle Winchester had a knack for languages. He’d taken every one his high school offered, even American Sign Language, and not to brag, but he’d aced every class. He and his teachers had seen a bright future for him as a translator, maybe at the UN, maybe in a government agency. However, he never had any interest in Braille, in learning to read and write it. Why would he, when he was a sighted person who knew absolutely no one who was blind? That changed shortly after the start of the fall semester of his sophomore year at Diego Vega High in Hollywood Hills…. He entered homeroom and went to his seat in the far-left corner. The students were seated in alphabetical order, and as the only kid whose last name began with W, he pretty much had that part of the room to himself. He pulled out his notebook and began studying the list of supplies the teacher for his next period class wanted them to have. Cherrie, his sister, wouldn’t mind if he held onto some of his pay to cover the graph paper, compass, and protractor, but the jerk she’d recently married would definitely give him a hard time. “Mr. Winchester.” The homeroom teacher called for his attention. Kyle looked up to see a kid standing next to Mr. Post. The kid wore sunglasses; it was an overcast day, and Kyle wondered why until he noticed the dog beside him. Sitting quietly and wearing a harness was the most beautiful German Shepherd Kyle had ever seen. It dawned on him the guy must be blind. He tore his gaze away so he wouldn’t appear rude. “Yes, sir?” “If you’d stay after the bell? I have a favor to ask of you. And don’t worry about your next class. I’ll give you a note for Ms. Barrow.” “Sure thing, Mr. Post.” His teacher got the kid seated, took attendance, then began to read out the day’s announcements. Fifteen minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the start of the academic day. Kyle swung his backpack over a shoulder and made his way to the front of the room. Mr. Post was seated at his desk, and he looked up at Kyle, then turned his gaze to the blind boy. “Brady, this is Kyle Winchester. He’ll be showing you how to get around Diego Vega. Kyle, this is Brady Wales.” “Hi, Brady.” “Hello, Kyle.” “Brady will be seated beside you during homeroom.” That made sense, since both their last names began with W. “You share a number of classes, so escorting him to them won’t be an issue. However, the ones you don’t share—you’ll be permitted to arrive late to class and to leave early.” He handed Kyle a sheet of paper with Brady’s schedule, and a quick glance showed they were split evenly—half they’d have together, including homeroom and lunch, and half apart. “Okay.” Kyle’s grades were good enough that he could afford to miss five minutes here and there. “Geometry is our next class.” He took the note that would explain their lateness to Ms. Barrow. “Come on, let’s go.” * * * * As it turned out, Brady Wales was a nice guy, and they did become friends. He taught Kyle how to read Braille and use a writer. It was thanks to Brady that Kyle’s horizons were expanded when his friend asked him to acquire and transcribe gay porn. “Wait, you’re gay?” “I am.” Brady stiffened, and Buddy, his guide dog, rose and pressed himself against his master’s leg. “Have you got a problem with that?” “No. I just had no idea. Uh…I also don’t have any idea where to find porn, gay or straight.” Brady burst into laughter and relaxed. “They’re actually romances, but everyone laughed at me for that, so now I tell them it’s porn, and they think I’m cool. Come to the next Gay-Straight Alliance meeting with me. They’ll tell you where you can find fanzines.” “Huh?” “People write about Spock and Kirk—” “From Star Trek?” “Yeah. In a relationship.” “Spock and Kirk?” “Yeah.” Brady grinned, obviously amused by Kyle’s reaction. Sometimes it was hard to remember the stinker was blind. “They print up the stories and pass them around at fan conventions.” “Uh…okay.” “Wait, haven’t you ever been to a convention?” “My sister needs help around the house.” It was more that his brother-in-law flat out refused to allow him to go anywhere, saying he couldn’t afford to give Kyle money for any extraneous nonsense, even though Kyle had had a job once he got his working papers at fourteen and had contributed to the household expenses ever since. “Dude.” Brady reached out, and Buddy brought him close enough to pat Kyle’s shoulder. “We have got to broaden your knowledge base.” “Okay. But not just yet. I have to get to work.” “Not a problem, bro. Maybe Easton and I will stop by later for some pizza.” “Excellent idea. I’ll make sure you get a discount.” Kyle had met Brady’s boyfriend and hadn’t thought much of him, but it wasn’t his business, and he kept his mouth shut. “You’re an amazing friend.” “I try.” “You do a damn good job of it.” Kyle blushed and headed home to change into his uniform. Hopefully, his brother-in-law wouldn’t be home from his shift yet. Sonny always gave Kyle a hard time about being friends with Brady—he’d nearly had a s**t fit when he overheard Kyle talking to Cherrie about the blind kid he was helping out in school. “You don’t need that s**t,” Sonny had snarled. “Being taken advantage of by a disabled, entitled brat.” “Brady’s not a brat, and he’s not entitled. He’s a good guy.” Fortunately, Kyle hadn’t said anything about Brady being gay. “Bullshit. He ain’t coming in my house.” “This is our house, Cherrie’s and mine, bought with the money selling our parents’ house brought us.” The next thing he knew, he was flying across the room, his cheek feeling as if it had been broken from the force of Sonny’s blow. “That was your sister’s house, and since I’m married to her, what’s hers is mine now. What I say goes, you got that, you little cocksucker.” “Is that why you married her?” Sonny fisted his hands and took a threatening step toward Kyle, but Cherrie walked in just then, her arms filled with grocery bags. Kyle ducked into his room and locked the door. Oh God, this was a nightmare. And he knew trying to talk to his sister about it would be useless. He crawled into bed and pulled the blankets over his head. He could never ask Brady over; knowing Sonny, he’d not only throw Brady out, he’d kick Buddy down the front walk as well. Kyle couldn’t leave home, couldn’t leave Cherrie with that bastard. He’d just have to suck it up. Of course, Mr. Post asked about the bruise on his cheek. Kyle knew no one would believe he’d walked into a door, so he said he’d gotten into a fight at work. Mr. Post shook his head, disappointed, but he let it drop. * * * * Kyle went to the GSA meetings, and not only did he learn where to find the stories, he understood their attraction for Brady. Some were freaking hot—who would have expected Captain Kirk to be a bottom?—and while he was never tempted to have some guy shove his c**k up Kyle’s ass, he did enjoy the genre. That was where Brady had met his boyfriend, and for a while Kyle stayed in the background, since Easton objected to Brady having a straight friend. That relationship didn’t last too long, not once Brady realized Easton was using him to score points with classmates in order to become class president. Brady dumped his sorry ass the month before the election—which, as it turned out, Easton lost—and Kyle was pleased to have his best friend back again. The next time Brady fell in love, the guy had no objection to Kyle being in his boyfriend’s life. Not only that, but Buddy loved him. Kyle didn’t mind that he mostly saw Brady only during classes now, because Hal treated Brady like a prince, and that was the most important thing to him. * * * * “We’ve got to find you a girl, bro,” Brady often told him. He’d tried dating, most recently a girl named Dafne, but it never lasted because of the hours he had to put in at the Pizza π, where he worked as a busboy, partly to help with the bills, but for the most part so he wouldn’t be home when his brother-in-law was there. “You know I don’t have any luck with the ladies.” “You’re not likely to with that attitude. Now, I know a girl…” As it turned out, Brady did. That was at the start of their junior year, and Kyle fell fast and hard. Her name was Julie, she had wavy auburn hair and hazel eyes, and she was also blind. Kyle used the Braille he’d learned to write her notes that she could read but were indecipherable to anyone else, and they could be as silly and romantic as he chose. Julie’s notes to him—and there had been a stack of them—had been charming, and he’d kept them until they unfortunately “got lost” when he left home. She was someone else he couldn’t bring to the house where he lived, not because his brother-in-law would be mean to her but because he’d be too nice. Sonny might be thirty years old and married, he might be a cop whose motto was To Protect and To Serve but there were times he didn’t act it. And Julie really was gorgeous. Sometimes Kyle thought he’d been so lucky to have her as his girlfriend because she couldn’t see what he looked like. God knew Sonny told him often enough he was nothing but a mutt. He and Julie were a couple until graduation, after which she and Rinny, her Seeing Eye dog, went on to Princeton, where she studied law, and Kyle…didn’t. His grades should have been good enough for a full-ride scholarship to Princeton, but he never heard back from any of the Ivy League universities he’d applied to, so his backup plan was to attend Los Angeles Community College and from there go to UCLA. Before that could happen, everything fell apart; Kyle’s miserable brother-in-law threw him out for being gay, even though he wasn’t. For some reason, Sonny went searching through his room, probably looking for pot, and found some s***h Kyle hadn’t gotten around to giving Brady before he headed off to Cal State Fullerton. What broke Kyle’s heart was Cherrie made no effort to stick up for him. The result was Kyle chose not to attend college at all, even though his first year at LACC would have been free—LA was an expensive town to live in and he’d never be able to afford the second year, so what was the point? Thanks to Enrico, the owner of the Pizza π, Kyle was at least able to find an affordable apartment in Cudahy, a small town in southeastern LA County. In spite of the “fun” experience courtesy of his brother-in-law, Kyle managed to stay in touch with Brady and Julie—although his sister not so much—writing long letters in Braille, sending them off in tubes so the dots wouldn’t be flattened, and enjoying their responses. Long distance relationships were difficult to maintain and unlikely to last, however, so he wasn’t really surprised when Julie wrote that she’d met someone—he’d come to the conclusion they’d been madly in like. He was happy for her, although a little hurt when the letters began petering out and finally stopping because she no longer had time to write. At least he had Brady’s letters to look forward to.