Brian was a Mormon. He was the first Mormon friend I have ever had. There were a lot of Mormons in the school in Colorado. I have never even seen Mormons in Chicago. The only thing I knew about them is that Donny and Marie Osmond were in that group.

We discussed religion back and forth with each other. I was trying to convert him and he was trying to convert me. The one thing that was significant about our friendship, we really liked each other. He was like a little brother to me. I was like his big sister. He was the first guy I have ever been with where at times I forgot he was of the opposite sex. There was absolutely no thought of a romantic relationship between us. It was purely plutonic. I felt very safe with him. The big plus, both of our religions were very strict about sex before marriage and only with our own kind.

From what he told me, he had a hard childhood. His parents were killed in a plane accident. He and his seven other siblings were split up and put with different family members and at times in foster homes. He was currently living with his oldest brother and sister-in-law. He had just moved in a month before school ended.

His brother decided to take him in after he was abused in a foster home. As Brian got to trust me more, he told me how mean his brother was to him. His brother would yell at him and tell him he was no good. His brother was paranoid that he was after his wife. His brother made him do all of the work around the house. The list went on.

Writing and editing the script was a source of relief for him. We had a project to create a new scene. It was due in a week. We did this project together at my aunt's apartment, in my bedroom. We have had this arrangement for about four days, until my aunt caught us in bed working on our script. She yelled at me and told me good girls don't have boys come into their bedrooms and they especially don't get into the same bed with them.

That really threw me for a loop. Nothing of a sexual nature ever happened. It didn't even occur to either one of us that we were doing anything wrong. We were just finding the most comfortable place to bounce ideas off of each other. Brian was surprised and also thought this was funny. He said he knew of a really comfortable private place we could work. He told me to be up at 11 pm and wait for him at my bedroom window.

I was really curious, but I had total trust in him. I stayed up and waited. He came by and tapped on my window. I climbed out. My aunt was already asleep and she saw me go to bed a few hours earlier. I went with him to a construction site where they were building a new apartment complex. There was one unit that wasn't really finished. It had floors and walls and a ceiling. There was also a mattress on the floor and Brian had an oil lamp. This was our new meeting place to finish our script.

He said he found this place a few weeks ago. This was where he ran away. He confided in me that he had not been back to his brother's house since he couldn't stand the way he was treated. His brother had started to beat on him. He asked me to keep his secret. He didn't want to go back to a foster home and didn't want to go back to his brother's house. I agreed. I also asked him how he planned on living. He hoped I could help him out. I fed him and made sure he had clean clothes. I suggested he go to someone from his church to see if they could help. He did.

Granted, many people see the Mormons as a dangerous cult. You must, however, respect the fact that they will try to take care of their own. They tried to act as a mediator between his brother and him and offered to get them counseling. They helped his brother out with financial and food aid since this was part of the problem stressing him out. They helped Brian come back into his brother's home hoping they would work things out like a family should.

About the same time he was given counsel from his group, I received a similar lecture he was getting. We had to quit the movie. The topic of the movie, a horror film. There were vampires and the living dead, animal sacrifices, murder, and lots of blood. This film was demonic. We handed in our script since they did depend on us, but we quit and insisted they didn't mention us in the credits.

I knew I would have to go off to college soon, but I told him if he ever needed me to give me a call. He told me if only I were a Mormon, he would ask me to marry him. I told him if he were a Jehovah's Witness, I would ask him to marry me. I wanted so much to protect him, but was in no position to do so. I could only hope he would be okay.