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would say that was probably the beginning.”
    She had known she was different from other girls. That sounded familiar.
    “Do your parents know?”
    “They do now.”
    “And they’re okay with it?” He wished he hadn’t said that. “I mean...”
    “I know what you mean. It’s okay. At first, they thought—like a lot of other people do—that I needed to get treated for it. It took time to convince them it was no longer considered a mental illness. Probably the worst few months of my life. But I have very loving parents. Eventually, they accepted it and me for who I am. My mother has even attended a few PFLAG meetings.”
    “PFLAG?”
    “Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. I think if my parents had their druthers, I wouldn’t be this way. ’Course, if I had my druthers, I wouldn’t be this way either.”
    “You don’t have a choice?”
    “Not the way I look at it.”
    “So do you have a...uh, a girlfriend?”
    “No, not at the moment. Last year I dated someone for almost ten months until I discovered she was cheating on me...with a man of all things. So we broke up. God, I felt betrayed.” She didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I really loved her. I haven’t dated anyone since.” She paused. “Okay, so now you know way more about me than I do you. What’s your story, Lee? Do you have a girlfriend?”
    Since Robin had talked about herself so openly, Lee thought he should do the same, even though he didn’t have that much to tell. Still, he worried about what she would think of him if he told her everything.
    “No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I’ve never had a girlfriend. In fact, I’ve only been on one date in my whole life, and that was a disaster.”
    “How come?”
    Lee shook his head. “Long story.”
    “I would think girls would find you cute.”
    Lee blushed. “I don’t know about that.”
    “Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
    “I have two older brothers who are...well, normal.”
    “Like you’re not?”
    “That’s a long story too.”
    “Well, you seem perfectly normal to me.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek—his first kiss, and from a homosexual.
    “Hey, why don’t we go out one night. You can take me to a regular bar for a drink, and then I’ll take you to one of my hangouts. It’ll be fun!”
    “I don’t know...”
    “C’mon. I haven’t been out in weeks, and something tells me you need to get out more too. Just for a couple of drinks. Friday, after we finish up here.”
    “Well...okay.”
    After thinking it through, Lee decided his plan with Robin wasn’t such a good idea, and over the course of the next two days, he practiced a few different ways to tell her he wasn’t going to go through with it. But the more he thought about it, the more he found he wanted to support someone who had also suffered the consequences of being different. And what harm could there be in it?
    On Friday, they wrapped up their work in the lab by six o’clock and drove in separate cars to Champaign. Not being familiar with the town, Lee relied on Robin to pick both bars. Their first stop was The Flyin’ Frog, not too far from the U of I campus, on a busy street with many other bars. Hundreds of college students roamed the sidewalks and streets, laughing, talking, and obviously having a good time.
    Inside the Flyin’ Frog, twenty or so people Lee and Robin’s age sat at the bar or at one of the tiny tables that surrounded the empty dance floor. He approached the bar and ordered two beers while Robin stood on the periphery. Beers in hand, he walked across the dance floor and handed one to Robin.
    He glanced around the room. “Not very lively, is it?” he asked Robin.
    “Pretty early. Most kids don’t even come out on a Friday night until ten or so.”
    They drank their beers and watched two couples slow-dance to In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.
    A half hour later, it was time to move on.
    Rosco’s, one of Robin’s frequent haunts, was in