They had been a rather interesting sight. Lips, tongues, and limbs contorted in ways that I never thought were possible. My parents had told me that attending a summer art program would help me to become more open minded. Though I don’t think they meant my views on homosexuals.

Their names were Draco and Ethan, the first gay couple that I had met. Actually, they were the first homosexuals that I had ever met. With normal heights and boyish looks, you really couldn’t tell they were gay. Of course, seeing them outside of the boy’s bathroom glued together and devouring each other’s faces was a dead give away.

I don’t think that they would have ever known that someone had discovered their little tryst, but falling flat on my face due to my new platforms had definitely gotten rid of the tiny bit of stealth I actually had. One would think that after disturbing such an intimate moment between lovers, there would be an immediate feeling of disdain between us. As it turns out, what was deemed as ‘the epic espionage fail’ (thanks for that Ethan), led to an odd but winsome friendship.

At the time I was by no means a person who had a definite opinion of homosexuals. My family had raised me as Catholic, and even though I had decided to become an Atheist, I still followed the morals taught by the Christian faith. The parental units had instilled in me at an early age that homosexuality was immoral and that anyone who lived that lifestyle would surely corrupt me precious developing mind. And, being the naïve child that I was, I accepted my parents’ every word without so much as a question.

It was in the beginning of my freshman year of high school that my views on homosexuality began to change. My best friend of eight years had introduced me to a type of literature called yaoi, the Japanese term for boy on boy love. Turns out that yaoi would become one of my secret addictions. The romantic and mushy writing made my closet romanticist scream in delight.

Still on shaky ground with my own beliefs, I began to spend time with Draco and Ethan. Due to their sexual preferences, the two were ostracized from the other members of the art program, and I for being a friendly acutance with them. The stereotypes one gays really didn’t help the situation any. But the more and more time I spent with them, I began to realize that they were just two regular people attracted to their own sex, nothing more and nothing less. And I was okay with that.

My parents may still hate the fact that I keep in contact with them, but I don’t really care about their opinions. Draco and Ethan had become my precious friends, and I couldn’t be happier knowing that it was because I decided to take a step out of the secure bubble that was my life.