They Were You

Hi, my name is Jeremy.

BEN:  Does anybody want to say anything?

We were having a private good-bye to Joey at a park on the East Side overlooking Providence.  His body was sent back to his home and Florida, and none of us were going to be able to afford to fly down there for the funeral.

The toxicology reports had shown that whatever drug Joey was given messed with an undiagnosed heart condition, causing him to go into cardiac arrest.

It had been over a month since all that happened, but it wasn't until yesterday that anybody thought to do something with just the nine of us.

Strike that, the ten of us.

RITCHIE:  I don't know what to say.

Ritchie came back from New Hampshire when he heard what happened.  Nobody had been able to get in touch with Bart though, and Cal was still missing.

CARTER:  Maybe somebody should sing.

JACKSON:  For the love of God, do you people always have to sing?

HANK:  Joey loved musicals.  It would be appropriate.

DAVIS:  I'm not singing.  I'll hum, but I'm not singing.

BILLY:  Davis, c'mon.

DAVIS:  It wouldn't be remembering Joey's memory.  Me singing would sound like slaughtering a cow.

RITCHIE:  He's not kidding.  I've done karaoke with him.

I had pretty much let my fight with Davis and Billy drop.  We'd all forgotten about whatever was bothering us before...all this.

NATHAN:  I think singing something would be nice.

BEN:  What should we sing?

ME:  Would anyone have any objections to 'They Were You?'

Nobody said anything.

ME:  Go ahead, Billy.

He looked at me, smiled, then began.

BILLY:  When the moon was young, when the month was May...

Later on, when we were walking back to our cars, I yelled--

ME:  Stop!

Everyone turned and looked at me.

ME:  I lied.  I lied when I went to New York.  All I did was lie.

HANK:  Lie about what?

ME:  I told everyone there...It's so hard.  It's so hard, and you don't realize it until you're surrounded by people asking you about yourself.  And they're all so fantastic.  They're all so impressive.  And you're not impressive at all.  You haven't done anything, but fall in love with people who don't love you back, but then they do, but...uh...

I could see that I just had to come out and say it.

ME:  I told them your stories.  All your stories.

BEN:  What stories?

ME:  Sex on the washing machine.

RITCHIE:  Oh, that story.

DAVIS:  You did what?

ME:  Oh, and the futon story.

CARTER:  That was me.

ME:  The threeway story minus the futon.

CARTER:  That was me, too.

RITCHIE:  And me.

ME:  All of the stories.  But I made them about me.

I just substituted the names.  All the New York boys thought everything I said was hysterical and fascinating.  I couldn't believe that they would care as much if they knew all that stuff had just happened to my friends.

ME:  Then Ray went and googled 'Providence' and 'gays' and he found Wilde's website.  He found some of the stories, and he saw that they didn't happen to me.  He liked me, despite the lying, so he was going to blackmail me into staying in New York and being his--whatever.  It was late August by then, so I didn't wait for him to expose me.  I just came home.

Nobody could look at me.

ME:  I'm so sorry.

ELI:  Are you really?  Or is that just another lie?

ME:  Eli--

NATHAN:  Let's just go.

CARTER:  Leave it to Jeremy to make it all about him.

ME:  That's not what--

DAVIS:  Just stop, Jeremy.  Okay?  Just stop.

BILLY:  I want to go home.

JACKSON:  That's a great idea.

HANK:  Can I ride with you guys?  I don't feel like riding with Mr. Big Apple.

They all took off.  Ritchie was the only one to stay behind.

ME:  You're not going to abandon me?

RITCHIE:  They're all just hurt.  They'll get over it.

ME:  I didn't even think it was that bad.  I just thought it was humiliating.

RITCHIE:  Jeremy, you all have a pretty sick little circle going here.  But at least you stay inside the circle.  What you did...It was a breach of trust.

ME:  Because I spilled some secrets?

RITCHIE:  They weren't yours to spill, let alone take on as identity.

He started walking towards his car.  I took the phone out of my pocket--the one Joey had on him the night he died.  The doctor had given it to Eli, who gave it to me.  He thought it would have Joey's Mom's number in it.

Nobody had asked for it since.

I didn't know what to do with it, so I was just going to toss it into some of the bushes in the park, when I felt a hand grab my arm.

RITCHIE:  Look, just because I was harsh with you doesn't mean you have to destroy a perfectly good phone.

ME:  It's Joey's.  You want it?  Take it.

I gave it to him and started to walk off.

RITCHIE:  Hey Jeremy!

I turned around.  He was holding the phone.  It was open, and he looked like he was reading something--maybe a text message.

ME:  What?

RITCHIE:  Um, never mind.  I'll just...I'll handle this myself.

ME:  Okay.

I turned around and kept walking.