Dear Rich (again),
I'm not putting this behind a cut this time, because I don't think I need to. What I needed to say that would warrant a cut, I wrote by hand, in a book that no one will ever read, last night. It helped. And tonight was cool, because we mostly skipped Stuff That Would Warrant A Cut.
It was a weird day today. My mum ended up in hospital, and then I found a half-starved cat under my kitchen floorboards. End of my day was meant to be going for a drink with my dad. Except going for a drink with him of a Wednesday, he'll buy me a pint, but he's busy talking to John. That's cool; I go for my fag breaks and you're there and I talk to you. It works. Me and Dad catch up every forty minutes or so and one buys the other a drink. I get time to talk to you, and I wanted to do that. I've not been out since Friday, and I missed you. I missed your face, I missed your voice, I missed the way you listen to me when I speak. I missed the way you smile. Except tonight you weren't there.
I spent about two hours drinking free beer (no complaints there), listening to conversation that barely interested me, and thinking about you. Not even thinking anything particularly schmoopy and weird, just wishing you were there for me to talk to outside. I planned out in my head what email I'd send you ("You given up on Wednesdays or what? Tone was wandering round like a lost puppy without you...") when I got home. I'd pretty much written off the evening.
And then I went for my last fag and you were there.
And it was ace. We talked. Like normal people, we talked. I saw your face, I saw your smile. But one of the things we talked about was the stuff I write, and you said it all seems very homoerotic, and I tried to explain the whole "slash fic" thing to you, and you sort of got it, sort of didn't. Throughout our talking and your explaining and my explaining of the concepts involved, you kept saying you weren't counting me as one of "those people" (whatever these people who write slash fic are). I'll refrain from going over details here because you were there and I was there and we know what each other said. But I'm not sure quite what box you were putting me in there. You seemed to be veering between "you've had sex so you know better" and "you don't do sex so I'm clearly not talking about your proclivities", with an emphasis on the latter.
What makes you think I don't do sex?
Sure, I said I was celibate. It was half truth, half trying to patch up a situation that'd got very weird very rapidly, and half a very complicated answer that's not worth giving right now. I don't do it because I've too many issues. I can be helped past these issues. I hope to one day be helped in such a way. Hell, why'd you think I latched onto you the way I did? I'd love it if you were the one to help. You won't be, though. That much is clear. And that's okay, really. It'll be hard for me, because it always is when my brain gets these ideas about people and what they could be, but I'll cope. I just wish you hadn't seemed so much more at ease when equipped with the knowledge that I don't do sex and so cannot want you. Because the latter half of that sentence? It's a lie. It's bollocks and it's complicated, but it's a lie.
Just because I don't do sex doesn't mean I don't want you. It just means I want you in really complicated, lengthy and roundabout ways.
And there's no way I could ever tell you that without it all being about me and my head and how my brain's weird.
I can pretty much tell from the way you are with me, but I'd like to hear it straight, what you want.
Yours &c.