One Voice 02 - Here Without You by Mia Kerick Page A

think about my answer a little bit more. “Well, to be what we want to be—as you call it, a ‘throuple’—we need to have rights, as gay men and as sexually liberated adults. And if I don’t take One Voice seriously, then it hurts our chances to reach those goals. Equal rights are not gonna just drop in our laps, Casey. Somebody has to fight for them.”
    Casey got up from his chair and came over to my bed. He sat down delicately beside the books and focused his gaze on mine. “One Voice is important.” He didn’t look away. “But we—your family—are more important.”
    It’s funny how a single sentence of brief, to-the-point words can hit home way better than a long lecture ever could. I felt his words like an arrow to my heart. The fight I waged for One Voice is vital to me because it’s personal. It’s because of the three of us. I want to make a life with these two guys. I just want the life I make with them to be accepted and respected by the community. Casey had a point.
    “You’re right.” I said it and meant it.
    Casey’s nose wrinkled when he smiled and it was so frigging cute. “I know.” Then he broke into a grin. “Let’s surprise Nate, okay?”
    I nodded and took Casey into my arms. “I love you guys.” When we say we love each other and Nate isn’t there, we always tack the word guys to the end. We never let ourselves forget there are three of us.
    “And I adore you guys, so let’s make plans for how we can shock our sweet Nate on Friday night.”
    “Casey, we don’t have to get back here Sunday night for the One Voice meeting either. I’ll e-mail everybody and cancel it.” Some things are more important.
    But Casey surprised me. “There’s no need to do that, Zander. We’ll leave school right after class on Friday and plan to return on Sunday afternoon. Nate wouldn’t want you to cancel the meeting. One Voice is part of what he loves about you. And part of why I’m emotionally strong today.”
    Dan, I know you are my sole audience member at this point. Plus I talk to you on the phone every other day, but I still want to point out what works so well in this relationship of mine, what validates its right to exist as much as anyone else’s relationship. The three of us balance each other so perfectly. When I’m going overboard in a certain direction, then Casey brings me back. When Casey needs a feeling of physical strength beside him, he turns to Nate. When Nate needs to logically work out a problem with his sister or uncle or boss, he turns to me. And when we need to feel valuable and loved, we all turn to each other.
    We are three. We are three guys. And we work together. We fit like puzzle pieces. I will not lose this precious love as I struggle to make society accept and embrace it.
    I won’t.

7
    N ATE ’ S D IARY
     
     
    September 2
     
    G OTTA HAND it to ’em, and Cindy too. They shocked the shit outta me. But in a good way.
    I wasn’t what you’d call pissed off at the world or nothin’, but I was sure down and out. I was gonna have to spend my weekend alone here at home and not makin’ love to my boyfriends. Shit. Maybe I was a little bit pissed off, but not at Cindy, more at the world. So on Friday at work, I was keepin’ mostly to myself. Not hangin’ in the garage ’tween customers to talk to the mechanics. Not chattin’ with Missy, who works days at the minimart. Just coolin’ my jets in the little hut ’tween the pumps.
    So, at a quarter to six—when I was about to get off for the weekend—a black Volvo pulled up to the pumps. It was chock full of kids. When I took a closer look, Zander was drivin’, and my little sister was in the passenger seat.
    What the fuck?
    I checked out the backseat, and there was Casey, sardined ’tween his twin sisters, Sarah and Lola. Three little blondies in a row. Super cute.
    “Hi, Natey-Nate,” Lola shouted out the open window.
    “Fill her up, Mister Gas Station Man.” Sarah had been coached. I could