Rue shoved his hands into his pocket as he listened to his friends argue. It was the same old story really, just different words. Jace always seemed to be talking them into doing something wild, on edge, and usually really stupid.

“It’s just a bar, Liam,” Jace said. “They can’t keep us out.”

Rue wasn’t so sure. They’d been kicked out of bars before. If they were lucky they got away unharmed. More often than not, they ended up being roughed up a bit before they got sent on their way.

“You think not?” Liam laughed, sounding very nervously. “We’re in redneck hell, Jace. Not only can they keep us out, they can tar and feather us. That is what they do in these backwater towns, isn’t it? Tar and feather people?”

Bay snorted. “Normal people, maybe. Queers like us?” Bay shook his head. “They string us up, and like, throw lawn darts at us or something.”

Lawn darts? Rue smothered a laugh behind his hand.

“Oh please,” Jace replied. “This is a public place. We have as much right to be here as anyone else.”

“Honey, I hate to break this to you but we’re not anyone else,” Bay chuckled. “We’re loud, flaming, flamboyant queens. Hell, the eyeliner on Rue’s face alone could get our asses kicked.”

Rue blushed as Jace frowned at him. He liked to wear a little eyeliner. So the fuck what? It enhanced his pale features and made his deep dark mocha-brown eyes stand out. Rue personally thought his eyes were one of his best features.

“Jace, honey, if someone looked up gay in the dictionary,” Bay said as he waved a hand between them all, “they’d find a picture of us.”

“We’re not that bad,” Jace insisted.

Yes, we are! Rue nodded his agreement. They did scream gay, or at least what people saw as the stereotypical gay man…right down to the sequined purse under Liam’s arm.

“Jace, what color is my shirt?” Bay asked as he plucked at the silky material with his fingers.

“Azure blue, why?”

“And Liam’s?” Bay continued.

“Chartreuse.”

“Uh-huh,” Bay said, “and what type of piercing does Rue have?”

Jace glanced back at Rue, grinning. “Guiche.”

Rue felt his face flush again. While he liked the paleness of his skin because it made his eyes shine, there were times he hated it. Every single little embarrassed blush could be seen for miles around.

“Honey, face it, we’re gay!”

Jace laughed “Okay, so we’re gay. So what? That doesn’t mean we don’t have as much right to be here as anyone else,” Jace said as grabbed the door handle to the bar. “Besides, maybe we can teach those hicks a things or two about fashion and makeup.”

Rue could hear Jace laughing as he opened the door and walked inside the countryside tavern. He quickly scanned the parking lot to make sure no one was giving them the stink eye and then followed in behind the others…plowing right into Bay when the man stopped.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

Rue looked past to his friends to try and see what had stopped Jace. He gulped past the lump in his throat. Oh boy, they were in such deep shit.

Rue had been inside of his fair share of bars but he tended to avoid the ones filled with rough, muscle-bound, jean-clad, cowboy-boot-wearing, beer-drinking rednecks. He tended to lie longer that way. Country boys didn’t seem to take to his kind very well.

He preferred to think his kind was the one that had brain cells but he knew the truth. Rednecks and gothic gay subs didn’t blend well and this place basically looked like every backwoods bar that Jace had ever dragged him to…pool tables, beer and peanuts, country music, and rednecks. And there didn’t seem to be a gay man in the bunch.

“Come on in, boys.” Jace giggled “There’s eye candy as far as the mascara-lined eye can see.”