Rainbow Road by Alex Sanchez Page B

been concentrating on his game, not on hooking up. Besides, he didn’t imagine any of them were gay.
    In the middle of the waitress bringing their order, Nelson asked Jason, “So what’s it like spending so much time with guys in the locker room? Don’t you get totaly horny?”
    The waitress nearly dropped Jason’s barbecue sandwich onto his lap. “Sorry. Anything else you need?” Yeah, Jason wanted to say. Some tape for his mouth .
    “Nelson!” Kyle hissed as the waitress walked away.
    “Wel, I’m curious,” Nelson insisted and glanced back at Jason. “Have you ever gotten a woody in the locker room showers?”
    “Dude, we’re eating!” Jason chomped into his sandwich, hoping Nelson would shut up.
    “So?” Nelson persisted. “How do you keep from popping a boner with al those naked guys around?” Jason heaved a sigh and put his sandwich down. “They’re my team. They’re like family.”
    “Oh,” Nelson said and bit into his sandwich, his brow furrowed in thought. “Wel, I don’t think that would stop me.”
    “Can we please change the subject?” Kyle asked. Al three of them became quiet til Kyle asked Jason, “Have you thought about your speech?”
    “Yeah,” Jason said, but he neglected to add that every time the thought came into his head, he pushed it out again. He’d played bal and even kissed his boyfriend in front of thousands of spectators, but the thought of getting up to speak in front of total strangers stressed him too much to think about it.
    He had no idea what on earth someone like him could possibly have to say at the opening of a gay and lesbian high school.
    “I’l help you with it,” Kyle offered. But Jason told him, “Maybe later.”
    And once again, he put it out of his mind.

chapter 18
    Nelson lay down in the car’s backseat as they left Nashvile and continued west on I-40. He stil felt tired from dancing around the Faerie fire the night before and wanted to take a nap so he’d arrive wide-awake to experience the ful glory of Graceland. Besides, the road toward Memphis didn’t have much to see: mostly a bunch of boring mountains covered with green stuff.
    But as Nelson closed his eyes to sleep, Jason began reading mileage signs: “Memphis, 163 miles.” Then “Memphis, 148 miles.” And “Memphis, 128 miles.”
    “Dude!” Nelson sat up. “Could you please stop that?”
    Thank God Jason shut up. When Nelson woke again, they’d reached the Memphis outskirts.
    Elvis Presley Boulevard took them through a dumpy area of car washes, pawnshops, and used car lots.
    “You sure this is the right way?” Nelson asked. It seemed like a pretty sleazy neighborhood for the King to have lived in.
    But amazingly enough, the Graceland Shops appeared on their right, advertising free parking. The boys puled into a space, jumped from the car, and raced next door to the Graceland admission counter, just in time for the last tour.
    They al agreed to splurge on platinum tickets, which got them into everything, beginning with the “mansion.” It actualy wasn’t much bigger than Nelson’s house, but it was definitely weirder.
    For some reason, the TV room had mirrors on the ceiling. The Jungle Room had green shag carpeting on both the floor and ceiling. And the kitchen stil smeled like bacon grease, even though it hadn’t been used for thirty years.
    Nelson sighed as he stared at the white fake fur bed. “Poor straight Elvis could’ve definitely used a queer makeover. Oh yeah. Uh-huh. Real bad.” But he thought the exhibits after the house were kind of cool, especialy Elvis’s colection of signature jumpsuits. “I’d kil for that gold lamé one.”
    “Isn’t it weird,” Kyle commented, “that this entire exhibit doesn’t make a single mention of his drug use?”
    “Kyle, stop being such a downer.” Nelson strode away to look at Elvis’s grave. At first he thought it was tacky how parents were taking photos of their kids in front of the gravestone, but then he