I was staying over at my friend Martin's house on the weekend. I was going to stay all weekend, and his tenth birthday party was on Saturday. I went over on Friday night. We were alone that night and had a good time.
On Saturday, his guests arrived around noon and the party was at one. There were tons of guests. Boys and girls from our neighborhood and from school. It was a good party and he got some good gifts. I gave him a red Ferrari model. He liked building models, so did I. We sometimes built them together, and sometimes built the same one at the same time together.
After the party, some of our friends stayed over Saturday night. It was fun. We stayed up late and watched movies. Good times!
On Sunday, the guys had gone home by two or so, and it was just Martin and me. And his parents, who left us alone for the most part. They went outside in the back and had drinks on the patio, and me and Martin kept playing inside.
There was something different about Martin. I noticed because he sat in the window and looked outside and stopped talking or wanting to play. I asked him if something was wrong.
"Miss my brother," he said really sadly.
His brother was away at school. He'd been gone almost a year now, just coming home for holidays. He was seventeen, maybe eighteen. Mark was pretty neat. Always nice and a lot of fun. I sort of missed him too, so I said so. Martin turned his head to me and looked at me for a minute.
"He likes you," he said after a few seconds.
"I like him. He's neat."
"We used to..."
I saw something important was on his mind. I didn't know how, but I could tell.
I asked, "What?"
"He just, for my last birthday..."
"What?"
"I want to show you something."
"What?"
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure. You know I can. How many do I know and never told?"
"Yeah. But this is a big one. Top secret."
I sat up, getting really interested.
"You have to promise to keep it. Never tell anyone. Promise."
"I do."
He got up and sat down on the floor in front of me. He sort of stared at me for a little while. I felt sort of nervous.
"There's something really big I want to tell you. About Mark. About something we like to do."
"What?"
"It's totally secret."
"You said that. I promise to keep it secret."
He got up and looked out the window. I could tell he was checking that his parents were still outside on the patio. He came back and sat down in front of me again. He leaned up close to me. He sort of whispered.
"Mark is a queer-boy."
He looked so serious. I thought maybe he was joking, but not when I saw his expression. I was shocked.
"Mark don't like girls?" I asked.
"Nope. He likes..." he looked around like someone might hear him, then said, "he likes to do it with boys."
