Beautiful blues

"Mine!"

It’s just a joke, Jonnie, for god’s sake. Get a hold of yourself.

Everything had started— well, actually, Jonnie wasn’t entirely sure who had started it. He hadn’t been present when the idea was conceived. All he knew was that somebody had thought that it might be funny to see Big Jimmy in drag as a joke at the end-of-year party before graduation. They had rented a whole bar with a stage to themselves— why not use it?

Jonnie learned of the idea the day after, when Jimmy was over at Jonnie’s place to finish up a project. That’s what he’d told his parents, anyway.

“Why’d I say yes, Jonnie?” Jimmy asked for the fourth time, pacing back and forth. Jonnie was sitting on his bed, watching his friend fret with a smile on his lips.

“It’s just a joke, Jimmy, you’ll survive,” He said. “It’s not like we’re ever going to see the lads again after graduation anyway.”

Jimmy sunk onto the bed next to him. 

“No, I guess not..."

Now Jonnie was regretting not talking Jimmy out of it. Because, well, look at him. How was he meant to recover from this? The dress was his mom’s. The makeup— that is to say, the shoddily-applied lipstick on Jimmy’s face— had been stolen from one of the lad’s sisters. Jonnie wasn’t a writer, but in that moment he felt sure that there wasn’t a single writer that could have adequately described how he felt looking at Big Jimmy there on that stage.