Who: Justin Taylor and Gaz Membrane What: 4/20 Celebrations and painting When: Saturday, April 20th. Early Evening Where: Gaz’ Place Rating: PG-13 for smoking pot and conversations about sex Status: Complete
Justin hadn’t actually told Gaz that he smoked pot on occasion, so the fact that she’d assumed amused him. Most people, who didn’t know him, wouldn’t have assumed that about him, thinking he was far too innocent looking to be an occasional pothead, but in actuality, Justin not only smoked pot every now and then, but he’d also done a number of other club drugs at various times in various clubs. Justin was far from innocent, but as long as his youthfulness remained, he would continue looking like an angel. Not that he minded of course.
After the texts from Gaz, Justin had headed over to her place, looking forward to seeing his friend as well as her mural. Ever since the day they’d met in Michaels and she mentioned the mural, Justin had been anxious to see it. Reaching Gaz’s place, he rang the bell and waited.
Gaz had assumed mostly because he was a painter. Most of the artist types she hung out with wouldn’t have turned down a joint, or at least a drink. And hanging out with him was nice too. He was a nice guy - but not too nice. He was also good to bounce ideas off of. When he came over, she had on jeans and an old Slayer t-shirt, her hair up in a loose ponytail. She’d been in a much better mood since painting Erik, and she’d kept up the theme in her mural.
Opening the door to let Justin in, Gaz smiled. “Come on in.”
Justin smiled and greeted Gaz as he stepped inside, “Hey. Figured it wasn’t nice to come empty handed,” He held up his hand which held a six pack of beer. It had been between beer or some sort of snacks, but girls could be weird when it came to food and he hadn’t wanted to offend Gaz, so he’d gone for the beer instead, because if they got the munchies, they could always order a pizza or something.
“Thanks,” Gaz smiled, taking the beer and moving to put it in the fridge. “You want one right now?” She figured he could look at the mural while he waited. It was all over the walls of her room, a sprawling, Renaissance style mural of angels and demons in gladiatorial combat.
“Yeah, I think I’ll have one now.” Justin said, running a hand through his light blond hair. He was thinking that he should have brought over one of his sketch pads to show Gaz his stuff, but since he hadn’t that just meant that he could invite her over next time or something. He enjoyed having friends who were also artists.
She handed one over before putting the remaining four into the fridge. One she took for herself, unscrewing the cap and taking a generous swig. She was only eighteen, she wasn’t really supposed to drink, but the rules were a bit more fuzzy when you had a lot of money.
Sitting down on her bed, she folded her legs underneath herself as she pulled out a tin container and opened it to reveal a baggie inside. She had a pipe in there and started to pack it down. “How’s it going?”
Justin twisted the cap off and took a swig as he watched Gaz, “It’s going pretty well. The season is almost over, so I’ve got to find something to do during Black Widows’ hiatus.” Justin wasn’t exactly hurting for money, but it wasn’t always easy to find jobs in the art world. “How about you?” He watched as Gaz started packing the pipe and took another swig of his beer.
“Good, good.” She lit the pipe, starting to take the first hit, smiling to herself. “You could always teach in your off time, or tutor.” She handed the pipe over, smiling to herself.
Justin shook his head and took the pipe from her, “I don’t make a good teacher.” He took a hit and held the smoke in for a moment before letting it out. “That’s good stuff.” He handed her the pipe back, “I get too critical when I try to teach art. It’s something that just comes naturally to me, so when other people struggle with it, I get annoyed.” He shrugged and sat down on the bed across from Gaz.
“One of the perks of being rich,” she smirked, leaning back as she inhaled. She toed her shoes off, sprawling out and handing the pipe back over. “There’s not much, but there’s a few.” Gaz understood his point though, she was the same way. “Could just try to get commissions.”
“Well, we can’t all be rich.” Growing up in Beverly Hills, Justin’s family had always been well off, but he didn’t like to ask his parents for money, because he wanted to prove that art wasn’t the waste of time that they used to think it was when he had gone to art school, “I’ve thought of that. I would see about trying to get one the art team of a movie or something, but stuff like that is hard when you work on a TV show.” He took the pipe back and took a hit.
“It’s not really something I worry about too often.” She closed her eyes, smiling to herself. She lived in an apartment, she used her money to pay for school, but rent and food and things were paid for with her work. “I could probably get you in with some game houses, if you want.”
“Like storyboarding for games?” Justin asked, quirking a brow. It wouldn’t be that much different from what he was doing now. He took a swig from his bottle, realizing that it was getting lighter, but not making a move to get another just yet. There was still enough that he could get by for a little while longer.
Gaz nodded. “I’m sure that with your experience they’d take you on. I’ll call some guys and drop your name.” She smiled at him, shrugging. “I only have like, two friends, it’s the least I can do.”
“That’d be great. Thanks.” Justin grinned then laughed, “I mean, it’s either that or get a part time job as a go-go dancer at a gay club. Or go into porn.” He wasn’t really serious of course...or he was half serious. He knew that he looked good and he was no prude, so if it got to that point, Justin wouldn’t be opposed to doing either. He just wouldn’t tell him parents.
“You’d be a good dancer. I mean, I’ve never been to a gay club. Well, for guys.” She chuckled, the pot already mellowing her out. “The ones for girls are so damn serious.” Gaz didn’t prefer women, but she didn’t turn them down, either.
Justin laughed and took the pipe for another pull, “I should take you to one sometime. There’s one I go to a lot and it’s anything but serious. I think you’d have a good time.” Justin had never been with a girl and had no desire to either, but a lot of his close friends were girls.
“Do they play that crappy dance music?” Gaz laughed when she realized how old and cranky she sounded. “Wow, me and my ... whatever we are, the guy I’m in love with, we’re kind of two of a kind.”
“Of course they do. What else would a gay club play? Lots of techno too. It’s fun though. Have a drink or two and you don’t even notice what they’re playing.” Justin laughed and finished off his beer, “The whole point is the eye candy anyway. And the backroom, but I don’t think you’d wind up back there.” That was another thing people who just met him wouldn’t think he’d do either; have sex in a semi public place, “So, would that make him your boyfriend or are you just in love with him and he doesn’t know it?”
Gaz wrinkled her nose. “I guess that’s better than the lesbian clubs I’ve been to. Techno, then the Indigo Girls then techno then Melissa Etheridge.” She was a bit of a music snob, but she knew it. “Nah, no back room for me. Erik would sulk.” She figured most people would have sex in semi-public; she just assumed that of people. “I told him. I guess that makes him my boyfriend?”
“He’d have no reason to sulk if all the guys back there were only interested in each other.” Talking about having sex in the clubs or just sex in general reminded Justin of just how long it had been since he’d actually had sex and he made a mental note to go clubbing soon. There were very few times that he’d gone clubbing by himself and not wound up in the backroom. “What’s he like?”
“Older. Gorgeous. Funny.” Gaz smiled lopsidedly and curled a leg to her chest. She couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of him. “He makes me feel... normal. Which I’ve never had.” She took another toke, smiling and closing her eyes.
"Older, huh? How much older?" While Justin liked guys close to his own age there was something about older guys. Not extremely older guys, Justin usually drew the line under forty, because he didn't want to have absolutely nothing in common with them, but thirties were usually alright. He smiled as Gaz talked about this guy and it was pretty clear that she was smitten.
“He’s uh, in his fifties, I think.” She smiled, pulling her legs to her chest, looking her age for once. She was only eighteen, but usually because of her dour expression, she usually passed as older. “He thinks I’ll get sick of him, but I won’t.”
Justin’s brows rose and he took another pull off the pipe so as not to have to respond right away. When he finally did, he was so relaxed from the pot that he couldn’t keep it in, “Fifties, huh? Too old for me. Wouldn’t that make him old enough to be your father?” The last thing Justin wanted to think about, when he was with a guy, was his father, which was one reason for where he drew the line when it came to guys.
“My dad’s dead,” Gaz shrugged. “He also used to beat the shit out of me, so yeah, Erik could be old enough, but he’s not.” She shrugged, reaching out to grab a sketchpad. Roughly sketching while high was one of her more obscure life skills.
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” Sometimes Justin had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth and now seemed to be one of those times. He set the pipe aside, thinking that he might have had enough. At least for now.
“Eh, it’s fine, I was young. And Erik’s hot.” She smiled and patted Justin’s hand. “Don’t worry about it. “Okay, so what do you dig in a guy, just in case I meet one who’s your type?”
Justin was relieved that she wasn’t angry at him and he smiled at her as he thought, “Honestly, I’m not that picky. I mean, I do draw the line at fourtyish, but other than that, if he’s hot and hung then I’m happy.” His smile turned into a grin, which lit up his whole face. “So, what’ve you got in there?” He gestured towards her sketchpad in her lap.
“I’ll be sure to ask strangers if they’re packing. Erik and I haven’t yet, so I don’t know. I kind of hope he is, though.” She giggled, the pot going to her head, handing over her sketchpad.
It was all portraits, mostly people who’d come over to hang out. Erik was in there, so was Grantaire, so was Kitty. She sprawled out a bit further, taking the last hit that finished up the pipe and letting her leg dangle over the edge of the bed.
Justin laughed as he took the sketchpad from her, “I’m sure that won’t seem strange at all.” Grinning, he started flipping through the sketchpad, “Wow. These are really good. Can you do them from memory or do you have to have them in front of you?” In Justin’s case, if he’d drawn someone enough times, he was able to do it from memory after awhile.
She mimicked a British person. “Hullo, good suuuuh, do you have a huge penis?” Then she blinked. “Wait, how big is big? Like, sevenish?” She sat up a bit, shrugging to herself. “I have a pretty good memory, only after a few minutes or so, I’m good.” She shrugged, terrible at taking compliments.
“Are we talking flaccid or erect?” Justin grinned again, waggling his eyebrows a bit then went back to flipping through the sketchpad. “I’ll have to bring one of mine over sometime.” He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought to bring one this time, considering he usually had one with him at most times in case inspiration hit.
“Erect, obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “A flaccid penis is like an unsharpened pencil.” Useless.
Justin laughed, nodding, “Yes. Yes, it is. Although, a seven inch flaccid penis would be pretty impressive erect. And probably painful.” Justin had seen some pornos where the actors were just completely unrealistic. Since he’d started having sex, he had never met a man with a penis that big.
“Unless it’s a show-er.” Gaz stretched her arms over her head. “Most guys suck at sex anyway.” She reclaimed her sketch pad once Justin was done with it, resumed looking over her sketch of Justin and resumed working on sketching his mouth.
“Hey! As a guy, I resent that.” Justin had never gotten any complaints from anyone anyway, “I definitely don’t suck at sex.”
“You would with a girl,” Gaz replied, not looking up, still shading.
Justin opened his mouth to respond then closed it, frowning slightly. He’d never really wondered what sex with a girl would be like, because he always assumed the mechanics were more or less the same with a couple of differences, “How difficult can it be?”
Gaz just looked up at him, arched an eyebrow, and returned to sketching.
“Alright. Alright. So, I probably wouldn’t be as good with a girl as I am with guys, but I don’t think I’d be awful.” Justin was smirking, which showed that he wasn’t the least bit offended and instead was quite amused.
“Girls are a bit more complicated. Guys can start and stop and think of gross things and still fuck. To get a girl off, you have to figure out the one thing that works and then do it until she tells you to stop. Most guys just don’t give a shit is what it boils down to.” She smiled right back at him.
“I guess you’re right. Is that one of those things I should learn about you? That you’re always right?” Justin teased her, still smirking before leaning over to see what she was sketching, “What’re you doing?”
“Better you get used to it now than later.” She grinned at him, showing the sketch she was working on of him.
“Wow, That’s really good.” Justin was rarely the subject of someone else’s sketches or projects, although he had helped out a classmate or two when he was in art school and posed for them. “I don’t remember the last time someone actually drew me. At least with my knowledge.”
“I’m sure everyone thinks that. You’re in art school, you’re getting drawn,” she smirked.
Justin shook his head, “I’m not in art school anymore. I graduated in 2011. Since then I haven’t modeled for anyone.” He was usually far too busy for that with the long hours he spent on the storyboards for Black Widow.
“You’re around artists.” She continued to draw, tongue peeping from her lips.
Justin shrugged, “Maybe. Now I’m going to be looking around the studio, wondering if anyone is sketching my ass.” He smirked and waggled his eyebrows a little.
“Just for that, I’m sketching it next time I see you.” She laughed at the waggle, giving him a playful shove.
“I might have to model for you so that you get it perfect.” Justin was quite proud of his ass. As far as he was concerned, he had a perfect bubble butt and he knew that it was one of his best features next to his hair and lips. “And don’t shove me. I’m high and might fall.”
“You’re not that high,” Gaz chuckled. “You only had half a bowl.” She was pleasantly buzzed herself, just happily coasting.
“Technicalities.” Justin scoffed before his lips turned up into a grin.
“Here, hand me some more,” she motioned. Grinning, she took her baggie from him and packed the bowl again. “I’m being a shitty hostess.”
Justin laughed as he handed over the baggie and watched her pack the pipe again, “So, why don’t you give me a tour of your mural.” He’d seen a little of it when he’d come in, but hadn’t really gotten a good look at the whole thing.
“Not really much to tour, it’s the battle of good and evil.” Angels and cherubs were fighting every sort of monster - Greek, modern movie monsters - there was even a tiny cherub stabbing E.T. with a bow. All of it was done in a classic romantic style, covering the walls and parts of the ceiling.
“Well, I’m going to go take a look.” Justin slid off the bed, intending to also get another beer while he was up, “Want another drink?” He asked as he reached the bedroom door and glanced back over at Gaz briefly before leaving the room to take a look at the entirety of the mural.
“Yeah, sure.” She watched him carefully, trying to get a hang of the shadow on his jawline. It was nice having an art friend, really, someone she could talk about things with.
Justin went to the kitchen first and grabbed the two beers then he took his time, wandering around and looking at each part of the mural as if he were in an art museum. If he’d been impressed by her sketches, he was even more impressed by the details in the mural. When he finally made his way back around to the bedroom, he sat down and handed the beer to her, “That’s really fucking impressive. Where did you get the inspiration for that?”
“My boyfriend. I painted him like that the first time I saw him. It’s just ... what he makes me think of.” She pointed out the man fighting a kraken - the archangel Michael. “That’s what Erik looks like.” The man’s face was heavily scarred, but she’d painted him to look handsome and noble.
“Wow. I just can’t get over all of this. I can definitely feel the video game influence a little.” Justin said, smirking as he took a sip from his beer, “Also kind of reminds me of storyboards, but complete.” There had been so many storyboards that Justin had wanted to complete. To turn into more than just lines and the basic idea of a scene and there were a few that he had. After work. When they weren’t needed anymore.
She smiled at him, taking a long pull from her fresh beer. “I sort of do it in starts and stops, so it’s kind of disjointed in terms of influence. But I like playing with style, you know? I don’t ever want to be really good at just one thing.”
“Makes sense.” Justin really enjoyed talking art and doing it while high made it even more interesting. “That’s kind of why I like to use different mediums at random. But for me it’s cause I don’t want to get rusty.”
“I like paint best myself, but I just like being good at everything. It’s why I compete in game tourneys for games I hate.” She thought DDR was mindless at best, but she still competed.
Justin chuckled, “Really? So, you compete just so that no one else can be the best?” He asked, extremely amused. He could only imagine the other players’ reactions when she won and then announced that she hated the game.
“Of course I do.” She chuckled and looked down. “I’m kind of super competitive that way. I get really pissed when someone’s better at me on the circuit. I even compete in the stupid girlie games.” There’d been a competition to see who was best at a certain Japanese dating sim - who could woo the girl the fastest. She’d been mad when she’d lost.
“That’s pretty fucking funny,” Justin took another pull on his beer then took the pipe once it was ready and took a drag off it, “They must hate it when they see you coming.” Justin really wanted to see Gaz in a competition now just to see how the other players reacted.
“Yeah, nobody really likes me on the circuit, but that’s okay.” She didn’t have many friends, and she wasn’t about to change who she was just to acquire more.
“I say fuck em. They’re just jealous.” Justin had known a few people like that over the years; ones who were jealous of his talent or homophobic assholes and he usually tried to just let it roll off him, because if he let every person who didn’t like him, for whatever reason, get to him then he wouldn’t be the person he was today.
She smirked lopsidedly. “You’re like me. I knew we had shit in common besides art.” She shook her head. “I am who I am, full stop. I don’t change for other people. I’ve let more people in lately, and I’m learning how to trust, but that’s because ... I don’t know, maybe I’m ready?”
“You can’t be true to yourself if you change for other people.” There had been plenty of times in his life where Justin could have changed for other people, one example being when he’d realized he was gay, but he’d only be lying to himself and everyone else if he’d done that. “Makes sense. It can be scary, trusting other people.”
“Yeah, other people suck.” She blew a smoke ring, then grinned. “Holy shit, never been able to do that before!
“They really fucking suck,” Blue eyes widened slightly as he watched the smoke ring, “And that was fucking awesome.” He’d never been able to do that either and always wondered how people did it.
“Just ... I don’t know. I haven’t ever had good luck with people. Probably ‘cause I hate my parents and they fucked me up?” She wrinkled her nose. And the only guy she’d ever really liked before Erik never liked her back. “Now I’ve got like... three friends.” That was a lot for her.
For Justin’ part, he’d never really had problems with his parents; both of them being very supportive when he’d come out to them and they’d always trusted that he would find a way to make this dream of being an artist work one way or another. “Three friends is better than none. And I’m glad to be one of them. At least, I hope I am.” Justin smirked at her.
She stuck out her tongue. “Of course you are, dork.” She liked Justin; always had. He was pretty easy to like, though. He barely counted.
Justin grinned, “Oh good. I was afraid you were just using me as a model.” He laughed and took another drag off the pipe. He held it in as long as he could before letting it out and watched as the smoke dissipated,
“Yes. I’m using you as a model and a burn buddy.” She wrinkled her nose at him, rolling her eyes. “Dumbass.”
Justin laughed again and stuck his tongue out at her. Why yes, they were adults, thank you very much. “At least you’ve got one extremely attractive model, if I do say so myself.”
“I guess.” She grinned and shook her head, glad she had a friend.