Ride the Wreck (Stonewall Investigations Blue Creek 2)

“It’s not corny at all.”

“Baby, you just came in my ass and spilled your entire heart to me. You can tell me the truth.”

“All right, it’s as corny as the cornfields across the way.” Ryan gave me a wink and more laughter, his cheeks still wearing a pink glow.

“There we go,” I said, lying on my back and resting my head on Ryan’s biceps. I wanted to look up at the same sky he was so I could imagine us diving headfirst into it together.

“Sunshine Divine is going to have to make another outing,” Ryan said. “I really loved bringing out my inner drag queen.”

“And you rocked it. Maybe her and Blue can have a night out together. I think they’d take over the town.”

“I think so, too.” Ryan tilted his head, eyes turning to me. “How’d you come up with Blue Divine, anyway? The name suits you perfectly.”

I smiled. Anytime drag was involved, I felt myself light up a few notches. The spark I’d lost a few months ago was never actually lost, only momentarily dimmed. If something truly was your passion—your blood and oxygen—then nothing in life could ever crush it. No amount of pain or betrayal or misfortune could permanently destroy that drive, whether it be writing, painting, lip-syncing, dancing, coding, whatever it was—it could never be broken.

“My drag name,” I began, ready to dive into my drag family’s history. It wasn’t the most riveting story, but it was still a pretty fun one, and it gave Ryan a little more insight into the way my brain ticked.

Little did I know how big of a Pandora’s box I was opening with this conversation. I wasn’t talking about the drag queen, Pandora Boxx, either. My world was about to experience a colossal shift, and all the peace and happiness I had managed to acquire was about to be put to the ultimate test.

27

Ryan Diaz

Today was perfect. No other way to describe it, really. I woke up with Elijah next to me—which always put a smile on my face—and I crossed over the bridge of “making it official, meeting the parents, and saying I love you” all in one go. Like ripping off a pink heart–covered bandage. To cement it all, we shared the absolute best fuck of my life. Elijah might have thought the orgasm was about to take him out, but I had felt that with every thrust I gave. Taking Elijah in the middle of a field, underneath the bright sun, it was a (wet) dream come true.

And now we were just lying there, naked and together, the only way I ever wanted to be with Elijah. I wasn’t worried about my dad stumbling down the path either since he had mentioned he was running errands in town before we left the farmhouse. I didn’t want to rush this or ruin the moment with silly things like clothes.

“Blue Divine,” Elijah began, his voice as soft as the clouds that started to slowly cross the sky above. “Well, my drag mom is Asstral Divine—she’s the first person to ever put me in drag. So taking her last name made sense. Blue hit me because one, it’s my favorite color. I just identify with it. It’s so serene and beautiful but could also be pretty depressing and cold. Two complete opposite sides that come together to create something stunning. The next reason was because of Blue Creek. I’d been born and raised here, and this place means a lot to me. Creek Divine just didn’t have the same ring to it, so Blue Divine was born.”

“I love it,” I said.

“Thank you, Sunshine.”

I smiled up at the sky, remembering that first night Elijah put me in drag. I had barely known him back then, and still, it felt like a night spent with my best friend. How did I get this lucky? The number of shitty men I’d gone through had seemed insurmountable. Being ghosted sucked, but being ghosted by five guys in a row was just brutal.

Now, though? I was glad all those Caspers had made their unceremonious exits. It left room for Elijah to strut down the catwalk and straight into my heart.

A question popped into my head. “So does that make Asstral Divine my drag grandmother?”

“Oh no,” Elijah said, laughing with a hand falling on my chest. “I think she’d have a stroke if she heard that. Have you even met her? She’s clinging to her youth harder than a witch with a dozen virgins caged in her basement.”

“I’ve met her a few times. Once as Asstral and another as Billie. Really great-seeming person.”

“Billie is. He really took me under his wing after Majora Drive passed. I felt like getting in drag made me closer to Majora, and Billie helped me with that. I owe him a lot. At first I was kind of jealous at how great of a drag queen Asstral is. I swear, anytime someone sees her, their first thoughts are ‘You’re perfect, you’re beautiful, you look like Linda Evangelista. You’re a model, everything about you is perfect.’”