7:26 PM, Friday, October 31st, 1952

Murray pushed Kevin off of him, staring wide-eyed at him.

“What the hell?!” he shouted.

Kevin blushed. “You said you liked me.”

“And?!”

“Oh God,” Kevin groaned into his hands. “I messed up, didn’t I?”

The door suddenly opened.

“What are you two doing in here?” asked Fred.

Murray bolted up and pushed past Fred.

“Hey, where are you going?” Fred said.

Murray didn’t answer and just kept going.

He went out to the backyard, opening the gate to the path that strung most of the houses in north France together, and turned left to go to his house.

After Murray had been walking for a while, Fred finally caught up to him.

“HEY!” Fred shouted. “What happened?”

Murray stopped and turned to face Fred.

“We were playing ‘truth or dare,’ and James dared Kevin to get into a closet for five minutes.”

Fred gave him a weird look.

“I don’t know,” Murray continued, “he said ‘get in here for five minutes with someone.’ We thought he’d pick a girl, so as a joke he pulled me in there and locked us in. Well, after everyone left, it didn’t start out too bad, but after a while, we were talking, and out of nowhere…”

Murray seethes.

“Out of nowhere,” he continued, “he kissed me!”

Fred could feel his face turning red as well.

How dare he? he thought. How dare Kevin do this to me?!

“Fred, say something,” Murray said.

“Kevin?” Fred said. “I don’t believe you.”

Justin suddenly appeared, having followed them from the party. Kevin followed close behind.

“Guys!” Justin shouted. “Kevin told me what happened!”

“Murray told me what happened,” said Fred.

“Well, hear him out.”

“Justin,” said Murray, “get lost. I don’t see how this is your place.”

“Shut up, Murray.”

Everyone turned, wide-eyed, toward Justin. He was usually pretty nice.

“Kevin?” Justin started.

“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, Murray,” said Kevin. “I just… I like you. I think you’re cute. And pretty great.”

“I don’t believe this,” snapped Murray. “You’re a freaking homo!”

Murray stepped toward Kevin, but Justin blocked him.

“Watch your language, you little punk,” Justin warned.

“Oh what, are you one, too?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I am. And I think you’re out of place. Of course I don’t think Kevin should’ve jumped on you, but you, sir, are overreacting.”

“Overreacting? OVERREACTING?!”

Fred suddenly grabbed Murray’s face, squeezing his mouth shut.

“Yes, Murray,” said Fred. “We’ll take care of Kevin later, but right now, why don’t you go home?”

Murray pulled away. “Me? What does this…”

Murray looked between Kevin, Justin, and Fred.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. “All three of you? You’re all…”

They didn’t answer, but Murray could see it in their eyes.

Murray turned around without saying anything. he continued to walk towards his house.

“Murray, wait!” Fred shouted.

Murray stopped but didn’t look back, or say anything.

“I don’t care if you’re shunning us, or whatever,” said Fred. “Just please don’t tell anyone.”

Murray stood in silence for what felt like a long time before responding: “Fine.”

…and with that, he kept walking.

10:34 PM

The party cleared out after a while, and Kevin and Bianca’s parents arrived home. When he was done cleaning up, they let him go over to Fred’s for the night.

Everyone was out of costume now, wearing pajamas, with Fred’s Mad Hatter, Justin’s Cheshire, and Kevin’s firefighter now lying in a heap on the floor of Fred’s bedroom.

Justin made hot cocoa for himself and the present company gathered around the Stavridis breakfast table.

“So…” Justin began. “Let’s start of with this: why did you tell me about the kiss?”

“Um, well…” Kevin began. “You seemed… I mean, people at school assume you’re a…”

“It’s not a dirty word. Yes, I’m a homophile^2.”

“…so I assumed that you, of all people, wouldn’t judge me.”

“Well, I’m judging a little. You just out and sprang a kiss on Murray, without warning.”

“Yeah what was going through your head?” said Fred, earning a side-glare from Justin.

“I like him,” Kevin stated. “Well, I did until he called me a homo.”

“How long have you known you’re a homophile?”

“I’ve tried to deny it, but I don’t think it was until maybe last year I came to terms with it. But I haven’t told anyone.”

“Of course not. As much as it pains me to say, you don’t know who you can trust.”

Kevin sniffed and looked up at Justin. “What about you? When did you know?”

“Me? Oh… I’m not exactly sure. I was maybe twelve or thirteen. I always knew I wasn’t the other boys. But it was around that age I started noticing my attraction to other guys.”

“Wow. Have you and Fred ever…”

“Oh, no,” said Justin. “We’re not attracted to each other.”

“You answered that pretty fast,” said Fred.

Kevin looked over at Fred. “What about you, Fred?” he asked. “When did you know?”

Fred leaned forward. “Remember, two years ago, when the team went to my family’s restaurant to celebrate? That night, when Murray came over to my place to sleepover, I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. When I came out, I saw him sleeping there, and I just thought, ‘I want Murray.’ I had been jealous earlier when he was talking about Hannah, but I didn’t know why. But seeing him curled up in that blanket, all I could think about was how cute he was.”

Kevin blushed. “You like Murray, too?”

“Yes.” He put his hand over Kevin’s. “I’m sorry. When I heard that you kissed Murray, I couldn’t help but get angry at you.”

“Well, know we know not to get our hopes up. Murray probably never wants to speak to us again.”

Justin got up suddenly and wrapped his arms around Kevin and Fred.

“I think you two have made some real progress tonight,” he said. “You guys need to move past Murray.”

An hour later, Justin had fallen asleep in Fred’s room, but Fred couldn’t fall asleep. He was too wired from everything that had happened that night.

He decided to get out of bed and pace around the living room. He left the lights off so as not to wake his friends up. There was plenty of moonlight to suffice, anyway.

He twiddled with his hands as he paced between the couch and the television. He couldn’t stop obsessing over Murray. He knew their relationship would never be the same after what happened that night. Fred, for the first time, had to deal with the possibility that he might lose Murray. He may no longer have even a friendship with the younger boy.

He heard the floor creak and snapped his attention towards the hallway.

“It’s just me,” said Kevin.

“Oh. Hi.”

Kevin came in and plopped down on the couch.

“I got to hand it to you, Kev,” said Fred. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“What?”

“You. As long as I’ve known you, you and James were pretty girl crazy.”

“Yeah, I put on a pretty good show. It was easy for James: he actually likes girls. Me? I just played along. But you? I probably should’ve seen that coming. You’ve never shown any interest in boys, BUT you never showed any interest in girls, either!”

“Okay, I donned a pretty good mask, but maybe I let some clues slip through.”

“Now that I think about it, you were pretty protective of Murray.”

“Well, he has my first friend when I came to France. And he’s so… small and young.”

“Compared to us, you mean. He has gotten somewhat beefy lately.”

“Maybe that’s why I’m so attached to him. I found a rock, and clung.”

They chuckled.

“So, you like Murray, as well?”

“I mean, he’s cute… but I don’t know. I like other guys, too. I’m still figuring things out.”

“Then why did you kiss him?”

“Either the party got to my head, or this I just got excited when he said he liked me- boy did I misread that!”

Fred laughed. “Well, you’re still getting used to this.”

Kevin chuckled. Fred sat down next to Kevin and put an arm around his neck.

“So…” Fred began. “You sleep shirtless, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s better this way, honestly. I don’t like having a shirt tugging at my neck when I‘m trying to get comfy.”

“Makes sense.”

Fred smiled at Kevin, who blushed when he noticed.

“What?” Kevin asked.

“You have a very nice body.”

Kevin blushed even deeper this time. “Thanks.”

Fred pulled himself even closer to Kevin. Their breathing got even deeper.

“Do you know what I think?” asked Fred.

“What?”

“I think we both need to get our minds off what happened tonight.”

He slowly started sliding his hand down Kevin’s arm.

“I agree,” said Kevin. “What should we do?”

Kevin leaned in, raising a hand to tug at Fred’s shirt.

“Maybe I should let you have a redo,” Fred answered. “A real first kiss.”

Fred and Justin shifted, facing each other on the couch, and wrapping their arms around one another. They looked each other in the eye.

“Yeah,” said Kevin. “A real first kiss.”

They leaned in, and Fred laid a gentle kiss on Kevin. At first, it was soft and slow, but Kevin eventually opened his mouth, inviting Fred to put his tongue in. Kevin’s hands traveled down Fred’s shirt and went under the hem as the kissing got deeper. Finally, Fred pulled away and lifted his arms as Kevin removed his shirt.

“Kevin…”

“Yes?”

“Kiss me again.”

Kevin did, leaning more into Fred this time until Fred was lying down on the couch.

Fred gasped as Justin started trailing kisses down his cheek and neck.

Fred grabbed Justin and flipped them over, with Fred now on top. He started trialing pecks down Justin’s body now. Starting at his cheek, to his jaw, down his neck… and lower.

“Oh, Fred…”

As the night went on, they both forgot about Murray. About what had happened at Kevin’s party. All that mattered at that moment was two men, spending the night in each other’s arms, away from the prying, judging eyes of the outside world.