Ren and Jimmy joined the guys at the camp restaurant only half an hour later, after Ren had helped Jimmy recompose. Ren felt sorry for him. He wanted to engulf Jimmy in his arms and never let go. But that would scare Jimmy to death, so Ren resolved to being there, present, for him.

The guys were already halfway through their lunch and the two boys sat with a plate of moussaka each and a refreshing Greek salad to share. The restaurant was empty other than a group of university students whom Ren was sure he had seen around campus but didn’t know them personally. The guys waited for Ren and Jimmy to finish, and they all grabbed an ice cream as they headed back to their tents.

The sun was still bright and hot, so they changed into their swim suits and went to the beach for a dive.

The water was the lightest blue Ren had ever seen, and the beach was covered in golden sand and seaweed. The colour was so clear you could see the very bottom, but it was extremely cold. His whole body pimpled with shivers as Antonis, Markos, and Stelios dived in and swam farther inside the sea. Katerina and Ren held hands, taking deep breaths between shallow steps and hoping the water would grow on them. Jimmy was a couple feet away from them, laughing.

‘Shut up!’ Katerina said in her best accent yet. She had managed to achieve the deep ‘sh’ sound that didn’t exist in the Greek language.

‘It’s not like you’ve gone in yet,’ Ren told Jimmy.

Jimmy shrugged and dove in, splashing them with water as he swam away.

‘Asshole,’ Katerina shouted at him with the same accent.

When he emerged, Jimmy brushed his hair back and wiped his face off the water. ‘Come on. Don’t overthink it. Just dive. You know it’s the only way, Katerina.’

‘But it’s so cold,’ she whined.

Ren turned around to face Katerina and so did she. ‘Okay, Kat, we can do this. I believe in you and I hope you believe in me. Let’s show this wanker we’re not chickens.’

Katerina’s eyes gleamed, and she pursed her lips in determination. Ren counted to three, and they both jumped forward, soaking in the ice-cold water. They met with Jimmy, who was clapping and cheering them on.

Ren pushed him away and Jimmy gave him a dirty look, a furrow with the most discreet of smiles that made Ren want to grab him and French-kiss him in front of everyone. Thankfully they were all in water and no one could witness Ren’s growing boner.

It turned out Ren didn’t know how to swim, so he became content walking around the water waving his hands around him, pretending he was. It also turned out being in the water with a setting sun in the middle of spring wasn’t the smartest thing in the world, so less than fifteen minutes later, they all came out and dried off.

On the way back, they passed by a tent with lots of guys and girls having drinks, listening to music blasting from an iPod.

They said something in Greek, and Jimmy immediately turned around to explain to Ren as they continued their walk back to the tents. ‘They invited us over for drinks and games.’

Ren nodded. ‘Are we going?’

‘Of course,’ Antonis said. ‘Free booze.’

Ren laughed. Antonis had a point.

It only took them a few minutes to change and make it back to the ‘social’ tent. It was dark by that point, and mosquito-repellent lanterns were lit around camp. There were four guys and six girls who all looked to be in their early twenties and all spoke competent English, except for one who was an English literature student Ren had never seen before, and after a quick chat he found out she was a final year student. They had a cool box packed with cans of beer called Mythos, a Greek brew of lager, which turned out to be enjoyable.

Halfway through the night, the party turned up a notch when one of the guys, a six-foot giant god, suggested they play spin the bottle, or boukala as it was called in Greek. While everyone looked hesitant, they all took a seat around the circle.

The first player was a nineteen-year-old girl with dyed blonde hair and sunglasses resting on her head. She kissed one of her friends with a giggle. Next to her was another girl, who ended up kissing Markos. Katerina and Antonis hoorayed. Markos slapped Antonis in the back when he sat down. There were two more people who ended up kissing their friends, and it was Jimmy’s turn. He spun the bottle, not really looking at anyone or anything other than the spinning bottle, and only when it stopped did he hesitantly look up to meet Ren’s gaze.

Ren didn’t know what was supposed to happen. Any time students played in his halls of residence they would kiss anyone the bottle pointed at, man or woman, young or old. The bottle didn’t discriminate. Half of Ren expected him to do it, and the other half thought he was going to run away. Neither happened.

Ren’s friends looked from one to the other for a split second before one of the other people in the group exclaimed, ‘Eh, again, again.’

A breath of relief washed through Jimmy and he loosened up, his eyes returning to the bottle as his hand gave it another spin. Ren’s eyes remained on him. Jimmy stole a glance at Ren’s direction, then back down to the bottle to find it was aiming at one of the girls, the first one to have spun. She laughed and crawled forward, ready for the kiss. A moment later, Jimmy got on his fours and crawled to the centre of the circle. His eyes gave Ren a pass before pecking her on the lips. It only lasted a second, but it was a second too long. It looked wrong, his lips attached to hers, a stranger who didn’t care about him and didn’t even know his name. Ren’s stomach clenched, but only seconds later Jimmy returned to his seat.

The girl opened her eyes, still in the middle and looked at Jimmy who was back in his place.

‘Oh, okay,’ she mumbled and took back her spot. Ren rolled his eyes as Markos spun the bottle. A phone ring interrupted the round, and the girl the bottle landed on had to take it. Markos was hesitant to spin again, staring at the girl who had excused herself and was pacing around a few feet away. When the girl took longer than a minute, he spun again. It stopped on Ren. Ren laughed as Markos sent him a kiss, which he caught in his hand. Katerina laughed and a couple of the other guys grumbled. If they reacted like that to an imaginary kiss, God knew how they were going to react to Jimmy and Ren kissing. Ren couldn’t blame the poor man for feeling so scared. Not that they didn’t have these kinds of people in London, homophobes, only they called them by their name and everyone knew they were in the wrong. The lines were not so clearly drawn in Greece.

‘And that’s my cue to go,’ Ren said and stood up. ‘I’m beat.’

‘See you back, sweetie,’ Katerina said, taking hold of Ren’s hand and giving it an extra squeeze.

Ren winked at her and headed away from the circle.

The path got darker in places, and Ren had to use his phone torch to navigate. A rustling behind him made him turn and illuminate Jimmy, who shielded his eyes from the blinding light.

Ren lowered his phone and Jimmy did the same with his hands.

‘Hey. What’s up?’

‘I was tired too. Plus, I couldn’t stand those idiots.’

They walked side by side, and when they reached their tent Jimmy unzipped it and hid inside.

Ren took his shoes off and put them next to the entrance and crawled in. Jimmy was supporting himself on his elbow, following Ren’s every movement.

‘What?’ Ren asked.

‘I owe you a kiss,’ he said and smiled.

Ren winced. ‘Are you sure?’

Jimmy didn’t respond. Instead, he pushed up, grabbed Ren by the back of his neck, and pulled him down, his mouth connecting with Ren’s, wetting it with his tongue. When Jimmy was lying down, he placed both hands on either side of Ren’s face and guided Ren on top of him. Jimmy was warm and his crotch was bulging. Ren could feel his throbbing cock under his own balls.

‘What are you doing?’ Ren whispered.

Jimmy looked at Ren and at the open tent. He crawled to it and zipped it shut. ‘I’m not scared. Not when I’m with you.’