Dumb as Rocks

Dumb as Rocks by J W Smith, in the current issue, is a story about lifelong best friends. It's touching and heart-warming. You'll like it.

Here's an excerpt:

Tom’s known I’m gay for years. Hell, since we were in high school. It never made any difference to him. He remained my best friend. I never had any difficulty talking to Tooley about anything … well, except how I felt about him.

“Oh, it’s silly. Damn, at thirty-eight you’d think I'd know better.” I commenced to tell him the whole story. Our food came and as we ate I finished the story and ended up feeling sorry for myself all over again because I couldn’t tell him what really had me feeling down.

Tooley spooned up the last bit of the red chili sauce on his plate and pushed it away. He finished off the second beer that he’d had with his meal, set the bottle next to his plate and leaned forward. “Shay?”

I looked up at my old friend. He reached across the table and took my hand. I stared at our hands. “Can I ask you something?”

I looked back up at him and shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

“Why do you keep doing it? I mean I’ve been watching you ever since that damn Lee left you - what? - ten years ago? You keep meeting these guys and you keep trying to form a relationship out of a toss in the sack. Every one of them leaves you high and dry. Why, Shay? Why do you do it?”