Page 38 of String Boys

Kelly nodded and grunted, still thoughtful.

“What’s wrong?” His mom was so very good about knowing when something was wrong. She hadn’t said a word to him about Matty, or the way they’d stopped talking and barely acknowledged they were together when walking home. But she didn’t let Matty or even Isela talk shit about gay people or poor people oranyof the people Isela’s church seemed to hate so much.

“He needs to commit to that school,” he said.

“Bridgford?”

“Yeah. Mom, have you heard him play?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “That’s… it’s an amazing talent, you know that.”

“He can go anywhere. He could have apartments in New York and Paris.” Kelly had read about Paris and its art galleries and artists. Part of him wanted to go to LA, where the street artists were, but a whole other part wanted to see theMona Lisa, even though he knew it was only the size of a postage stamp and fifty-thousand people saw it every day. “He could play for a million people who would all walk away thinking, ‘That’s the sound of God crying,’ and it would make their hearts better.”

He didn’t realizehewas so close to crying until his voice cracked.

“You would miss him,” she said. Well, who couldn’t see that?

“But what sort of”—boyfriend—“friend would I be if I didn’t make him go? If I just kept him in our neighborhood. It’s not fair, Mom, but it would be even less fair if he didn’t do what he’s supposed to do.”

“Have you stopped to think about what Seth would want?” Linda asked gently. She seemed to know something Kelly didn’t about that—but Kelly knew a lot of thingsshedidn’t know too. He knew that Seth didn’t want to leave his father because he was afraid Craig would start drinking again. He knew Seth was also afraid that the peace they had, the peace where Seth was loved and cared for and wanted, would go away. He knew that Seth tried really hard to keep his head in the here and now so he could do things like get to school on time and do his homework on time. Kelly had seen his phone. It was full of reminders like “Get up early to write paper,” and “Brush teeth every day,” and “Scruballthe placessuper goodTuesday night.” Kelly was especially fond of that last one.

He knew what Seth looked like right after he’d come, and he was vulnerable and dreamy and he said sweet things that no boy said if he wasn’t in love.

And he knew that Seth wouldn’t admit to wanting to go to Bridgford because it might hurt his dad or Kelly or even Agnes and Lily and Lulu—but Kelly didn’t want to say that because it would mean saying too much about himself.

And that would hurt.

“I know he needs to go,” Kelly said simply, for once not talking about all the thousands of things in his head all at the same time.

“Well,mijo, I think if he listens to anybody, he’ll listen to you.”

Kelly rolled his eyes at his own mother. “Sure,” he said sullenly. “Here, watch this.” He sat up straighter. “Get out of the water, dumbass! Your teeth are chattering!”

“L-let m-m-me c-c-atch the tw-twins first!” Seth chattered back, and Kelly looked at his mother pointedly.

His mother raised her eyebrows. “Javi, honey?” she said sweetly, and Kelly’s dad looked up from the fishing pole he was trying to set up, because he promised Matty there would be fishing, even though Xavier Cruz had never fished a day in his life.

“Yeah?”

“Get Seth out of the water, would you? He’s freezing.”

Dad set the fishing pole down, made sure the hooks were in the tackle box and sealed it, then waded out into the late afternoon waters of Lake Sugarpine like he was marching to his doom. “Holy God, Seth. Get your ass in to shore and warm up before dinner. Jesus, kid, if we bring you home like a giant popsicle, your dad will never forgive us.”

“Daddy!” Lily called, standing on the granite rock with her hands on the rope swing. “Daddy, Seth was gonna catch us!”

“No, he wasn’t!” Xavier called back. “He was going to get you to dump your fuzzy butt out here and then try not to get dropped on. I can do that just as well. Now come on, you three. One last jump with the rope for all of you, and then go up on shore. Seth, go.”

“Ok-k-k-k-k-ay.” Seth chattered his way to shore, walking stiffly in his water shoes, probably because his joints had frozen up. Linda stood with a big brightly colored towel and wrapped it around his shoulders, and Kelly tried hard not to be mesmerized by the way Seth’s dark brown nipples drew up into teeny little bullets in the cold.

“You, go sit in the sun next to Kelly,” she ordered. “I’m going to go see if the chili’s almost ready and start the hot dogs. When you can actually move again, you two can come up and set the table, since we can’t trust you to have the good sense not to freeze to death.” Then she stood and pitched her voice across the lake. “Javi! When you get the girls out of the water, come make a fire! It’s going to be chilly tonight!”

“I hear you.” Dad frowned. “Where’s Matty and that gi—I mean Isela. He needs to help too!”

Kelly’s mother rolled her eyes. “They’re off taking anature walk,” she said, insinuation dripping from her voice.

“A nature walk? They went to go find out about the birds and the bees is more like it!” Dad laughed. “Augh! Lily! Warn me!”

Kelly’s sister swung out of nowhere and dropped on his head. They went down in the water, floundering, and Kelly took the moment of privacy to make sure Seth was warming up.