A Visit to a Fan Ch. 01

When his fax machine whirred into action, Gale Harold didn't even blink. He was so tired. He held the cigarette to his lips and sucked occasionally, blinking through the thick smoke but nothing else on his long, lanky body moved. He was so tired that he was beginning to wonder why he'd chosen to be an actor. After Queer As Folk and a quick jaunt to New York for a role in another movie, then a couple of quest spots, he was exhausted. And lonely.

As always, his friends provided him with their much needed support and no doubt that was one of them faxing him now. Ever since he'd become a star, they would scour the internet, looking for interesting items concerning him. They'd all laughed at the proliferation of rumors swirling around his sexuality and had found several sites that had fan fiction that involved him and Randy but once he'd made his sexuality clear, things had sort of ... dried up. There were plenty of Brian Kinney stories, but not many Gale Harold stories.

"They like you gay, they don't like you gay." He reached over, grabbed his vodka and tonic and drained the last of the contents. He shrugged, sighing in pseudo-acceptance of his situation and hauled himself up, heading over to the desk. A single sheet of paper lay in the basket and he bypassed it for the moment, pouring himself a fresh drink, then retrieved it on the way back to the leather sofa.

It was from one of his friends.Hey, Gale, I've been cyber surfing again and I found something interesting. Check out a site called Literotica.com.Do a search on your name. I think you'll like what you find. Gale dropped the paper on the table and took a long slug on his drink, dropping the crushed stub in the ashtray.I think you'll like what you find. Those were never good words. Weary, he pulled himself up, switched on his Apple laptop and impatiently waited for the machine to boot up.

"Come on. Come on!" He tapped out another cig and lit it, taking another drink until the Internet page came up and he typedwww.literotica.com in the address space and clicked the Enter button. The blue-and-white page flickered onscreen and he perused the items on the page, wondering what the hell this was all about. He kept scrolling down until he found the Search The Site heading.Do a search on your name. He selected Search Stories and typed his name in the Search Text box.

Several stories came up right away but none of them had anything to do with him. Except one called Gale Force. He chuckled at that, remembering that it was the name of an article he did in 2001 and clicked on the first chapter. It was an easy read and he found himself amazed at the author's depth of knowledge about him. It was as if she'd personally known him and knew his feelings on that first day of shooting. He was definitely intrigued.

The intercom buzzed and he tore himself away from the computer to answer it. Jenny and couple of her friends had come by, bearing bottles of Grey Goose and Jack Daniels. He forgot that he'd invited them over to celebrate Jenny's latest project. More people came by and within an hour, his apartment was filled to the brim. He usually tolerated parties but Jenny was such a good friend that he didn't mind this one but he found himself having an interesting conversation with someone and not really paying attention because he was thinking about the website.

Jenny flopped down on the couch next to him, her eyes bright with booze and gave him a playful punch in the arm. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing. You enjoying the party?"

"Of course! Nothing better than one of your good friends giving you a party and then mentally checking out."

Gale rubbed his forehead, finishing his drink. "Sorry."

"So, what's going on?"

"Promise you won't laugh?" Jenny nodded. "Let's get some drinks first, then come with me."

Two fresh drinks later, Gale unlocked his bedroom door and ushered Jenny inside, pulling the chair out at the desk and gesturing for her to take a seat. He rubbed the touch pad and sent the screen saver away and stood back as Jenny digested what she was seeing.

"What the hell is this?"

"A literary porn website. People write stories and submit them here."

Jenny laughed. "I didn't know that there was such a thing asliterary porn." He stepped in front of her and clicked on something he'd saved in Favorites. "VelvetPie? Who has a name like VelvetPie?" He scrolled down to the first chapter of the celebrity story she'd written for him and clicked it open. Jenny began to read and slowly, her jaw hung lower and lower until it was completely open. "This is about you?"

"Yeah."

Gale sat down on the bed and sipped his drink as she read the story. She was done in a few minutes and she turned to him. "Wow, that was nice. I mean, really sweet. Romantic."

"Now you know what's going on."

Jenny laughed again. "And I thought only Brian Kinney would be interested in internet porn."

"This isn't the same, Jenny. Someone, this VelvetPie person, took a lot of time to find things out about me and to write a story for me."

"For you?" Jenny stood, moving toward the door. "I'm sure she never thought that you'd everreally read it."

"Maybe not." Gale pressed the laptop's lid down. "But it was still very nice."

Jenny shrugged. "Well, come on. You threw this party for me and I insist that you come get drunk. Get your mind fuck later."

Gale reluctantly let Jenny drag him out to the party but not without giving his dark laptop a parting glance and wondering what the next chapters would hold.