it was winter.
it was a beautiful eighty two degrees on december twenty fourth, nineteen sixty four in southern california.
it was christmas eve, and eighteen year old college student finn could not be more depressed.
he went to college in los angeles because he wanted to be an artist. he wanted to fall in love in the city of stars and sell his paintings for millions.
instead, he throws out his third notice bill for the third time on the third day of his shitty, shitty winter vacation.
it wasn't because he was lonely, broke, depressed, or tired.
just kidding. it was because he was lonely, broke, depressed, and tired. he just liked pretending it wasn't.
there was one thing that made staying in los angeles during his winter break not so bad. his neighbor, poe.
i mean, god damn.
finn admired his neighbor, the muscled boy that lived next door. he sung a lot, mostly during the evening hours, his mellow voice lulling finn to sleep like a lullaby.
but finn wasn't gay.
no, finn grew up straight like every human on earth, being homosexual was a sin after all, everyone knew that. his parents seemed to be the experts on sin, knowing every sin of the planet, and knowing that finn was a frequent flier of the confession booth at his old church in dallas, texas.
he moved to southern california because he wanted to go to college to be an artist, but he also moved to southern california because he wanted to be himself. he wanted to breathe the independent air.
but according to his mother, los angeles was a "faggot city", and if finn ever "caught the homo", he wouldn't be allowed back home.
so he steered clear of his neighbor, poe, quite a lot.
but, it was christmas, and it seemed his conveniently attractive neighbor was staying in los angeles for the holiday as well as finn.
this was going to be one hell of a boring winter vacation for finn.