“All yours now, Kevie.”

Kevin just stared at Andy and then at the boy they were holding down. “You-you want me,” He swallowed loudly before continuing, “to beat him up?”

“Well, yeah ofcourse Kevie, I mean he's a freak, he deserves to be used as a punching bag. That's just how it is and I sincerely hope you're not a punching bag, I'm just beginning to like you,” Andy said with a smile on his face.
Kevin didn't know what to do, he recognized the boy from a birthday party that he and Kim had attended: Joshua Springer. He looked towards his best friend.

Kim was also staring at Andy, but when he noticed Kevin looking, he cleared his throat and spoke up, “Andy what's the deal? Beating an innocent guy up? Yeah he's gay, it's weird, but he never did anything to us! This is going to far man, I can understand beating up other gang members that our annoying us, but this shit is way outta line!”

Andy scowled at him, “Shut up, Kim! I don't want any fags in my gang, so if you want you friend over there to join us, he has to proof himself. And this is my offer, either he beats up this queer or we'll beat him up, and then we'll just see what we do with your faggot friend.”

Andy didn't just say it, he'd make it a fact, something that was bound to happen one way or the other. Kim just looked at Kevin defeatedly.

Kevin swallowed hard and walked towards Joshua. “Please don't, please I beg you!” he cried out, “We're friends right? You came to my party, both of you...” He sobbed while looking at Kim.

“Shut the hell up, freak! You get what you deserve!” Andy practically yelled at him, before kicking him in his side, which made him yelp out of pain.

Kevin cringed when he saw that. He knew he could never hit another person, even if he was as bad as Andy. At that moment he took a decision he thought he would never dare to make, especially against a bodybuilder. He stepped back, took a deep breath and said, “No.”

Andy just stared at him, surprise showing in his eyes, “What did you say?”

“I said no, I'm not gonna beat him up. And you're not either.” Kevin said taking out his cellphone. He put in a number and looked up at Andy, “Now I have entered the police's number. You can either just walk away and we'll all pretend this never happened, or I call the police and let them figure out what happened here.”

Andy became red from anger. “Take away his phone, Kim!” Kim shook his head. His best friend was doing the right thing here, and he would back him up all the way. He walked over to Kevin and put a hand on his shoulder to confirm what he meant. “Oh let me guess, you're a fag too?!”

Kim calmly said, “I don't give a rat's ass what you think Andy, this time, you've gone too far.” He looked over at Mickey, “Micheal, walk away now and we'll pretend you weren't here, right kev?” Kevin nodded, “And Joshua will do the same, right?”

Joshua was still sobbing a little but managed to croak out a yes.

Mickey just stared from one person to another, finally fixing his gaze on Andy. “If you walk out on me, I'm gonna make you regret it, I'll drag you down with me and you know I keep true to my words!” Andy nearly shouted.

Mickey kept his grip on joshua and said, “Sorry Kim, but I'm sticking with Andy on this.” Kim knew Mickey was regretting bringing the boy here, but was too scared of going against Andy.

Suddenly they heard sirens from far away.

“You little fuckhead!” Andy yelled, “You've already called them! Now you're gonna get it!” Andy let go of Joshua and pulled up his sleeves showing off his muscular arms.

“No! No, I didn't call them they must've heard us or seen us entering or something!” Kevin said hoping this would bring Andy back to his senses. But the guy just leapt right at him. Kevin closed his eyes, tensing all his muscles waiting for impact.

“Ow fuck!” he heard Andy say.

Kevin was confused. He didn't feel any blow, any pain. He carefully opened his eyes to see Andy bending over with his hands on his nose and Kim standing in front of him shaking his right hand. “Damn, that hurt more than I thought it would,” Kim said to no one in particular. Then he turned around and grabbed Kevin's hand and pulled him towards the door. “We need to get out of here now, before muscleboy over there recovers!”

Kevin was a bit bewildered by Kim grabbing his hand and before he knew it, they were already outside the building heading towards the gate, “Wait my stuff is still there!” He said to kim.

“Forget about it, we'll come back for it later!”

Kevin tried to stop and pull his hand lose, which made Kim stop and whisper loudly, “Listen to me, Kevin! Beating someone up, even just the intention to do it, can get you into juvie! And knowing Andy he'll try to drag us both down with him, so we can't be here if we want to get in college one day.”

Kevin still tried to keep his ground. “But what about Joshua?! They're going to beat him up!”

“He'll be fine, Andy and Mickey will want to get out of here too A.S.A.P.! So even if they'd beat him, it won't be that bad, he'll survive! Believe me!”

Kevin was still reluctant but he really didn't want to go to jail. They both crawled through the fence and ran down the street, Kim still pulling Kevin along.

When they reached Kevin's house they went to the back where Kevin left his window to his room open.
Kevin looked like he was about to cry.

“Hey don't worry,” Kim said, “He'll be okay, We'll check up on him tomorrow and apologize, OK? There's no need to cry.” Kevin has always been very emotional and Kim knew he needed to be assured that everything was going to be okay. “Listen, I'll drop by first thing tommorow and we'll go together, how does that sound?”

Kevin was sobbing a little, but managed to say something that sounded like, “OK...”

He tried to wipe his tears away but noticed Kim's hand went up with him. They we're still holding hands. Kevin looked up and saw Kim staring straight into his eyes, which made Kevin's face turn slightly red out of embarrasment. It suddenly went silent, you could only here the trees waving their leaves in the wind. Just when Kevin tried to avert his eyes, Kim stepped forward and bend his head over a little to kiss him on the lips. It was a very short and soft kiss. Kim looked closely in Kevin's eyes, “You were really brave out there, standing up to Andy.” Kim said softly.

At that moment Kevin stepped closer grabbing Kim's other hand and kissed him on the lips, but this time the kiss was stronger and lasted for what seemed like eternity, but even that wouldn't have been long enough for them. They both wanted to cherrish this feeling for as long as possible, whatever it might cause later.

Eventually Kim let Kevin go, knowing they'd both need some sleep if they wanted to go apologize to Joshua in the morning. Kevin reluctantly let kim's hands out of his, while finally able to look away from him. He went to the wall leading to his bedroom window and started to climb. After crawling clumsely through his window he turned around to close, but first he looked outside once more and saw that kim was still watching him. Kim smiled at him before turning around and walking quietly away towards the street.

Kevin was speechless, but that didn't really matter, he was alone now anyway. He laid himself down on his bed looking at the sealing, trying to make sense of what all happened this night and soon fell asleep from exhaustion.

To Be Continued...