Brianna
Autumn ripened well, growing from green to pale yellow to vivid orange, and falling from the stem just as was perfectly befitting – like a dry leaf, or a fat, round pumpkin. Our little college town was all piles of colorful leaves and naked, foreboding tree branches reaching for the hunter's moon, and by the later part of the month the jack-o-lanterns began to emerge – glow and grin and eager for All Hallow's Eve.
By Halloween night, perhaps buoyed by the twisting ethereal energy of the oncoming holiday, or by our voltaic affection for one another, we had all agreed on a plan of action that felt like maybe a step, a hair outside the comfort zone for all three of us. Abby had somehow managed to convince Michael and I, quiet and reserved and about as built for partying as a sieve for sailing, to go to some big house party she had heard about. Likewise, somehow I had managed to convince them both to go along with my nerdy-ass throuple costume idea.
The sun was just starting to near the horizon on the night in question, and we were getting ready – Michael in his bedroom, me in one bathroom and Abby in the other – all of us with the doors open, listening to Donovan and Muse and whatever else came up on the Halloween Party playlist Abby had found on Spotify, and shooting the shit back and forth, from room to room to room.
"It's just weird that we're all guys, is all," Abby was saying. "Aren't there any famous MFF trios we could dress up as?"
"Honestly?" I called back, "I couldn't think of any – I tried. I've been thinking about this for like a month. It's . . . it's weirdly uncommon? You see a lot more guy, guy, girl trios. Like Luke, Han and Leia from Star Wars, or Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Harry Potter . . ."
"Oh, or Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane from Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Abby chimed in.
"Or Ash, Misty, and Brock from Pokémon," Michael added.
"And Fiona, Donkey, and Shrek!" Abby tossed back.
"Even Sarah Connor and John Connor and the Terminator in T2," Michael noted.
"Oh shit," Abby said – "Even the throuple from The Dreamers is MMF. That's like the Ménage à Trois in media."
". . . Yeah," I said with a giggle, "You get the idea. Or, other than that, they're all like . . . all the same gender. That's probably even more common."
"Like the powerpuiff girls!" Abby called out.
"Or Huey, Duey, and Louie," said Michael.
"And Charlie's Angels!"
"Ed, Edd, & Edy!"
"Oh! Oh! Alex, Sam, and Clover from Totally Spies!"
I laughed – that one felt like a pretty deep cut.
Michael pressed on. "The three musketeers?"
"The three stooges!" Abby shot back. "Alvin and the chipmunks! And the chipettes!"
"The ghostbusters?"
I shook my head. "There were four ghostbusters."
"Oh. Yeah. True. But still, all dudes."
"Yeah," I said, "Now name one iconic girl, girl, guy trio."
There was a moment of silence as they both thought. Then another.
"I . . . I can't," Michael admitted with a laugh. "Is this . . . are we doing something that's, like, not allowed?"
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Abby shouted, "I got one! Sam, Carly, and Freddy from iCarly!"
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Equilateral Love
RomanceImagine you were in college, and over the course of about a year you met two new people, and ended up falling for both of them. Complicating things further, say all three of you moved in together, and then, not long after, things escalated to a stea...
