Page 62 of String Boys

Kelly let out a bark of laughter and buried his face against Seth’s chest. “No!”

“Yeah. That’s how he knew about us.”

“Well, that and the place probably smelled like come.”

Seth chuckled. “Well, yeah. But you can pretend that’s something else if you don’t see your kid naked on the couch, you know?”

Kelly nodded again. “He never said anything.”

Seth just kept holding him, thinking that he needed to eat more, but that Seth had been drained dry by their absence too. This moment, here, was like drinking a big glass of water after he’d been practicing for hours.

“Why’d you come?” Kelly murmured after another moment.

“You needed me.”

“The investigation’s not over.” Kelly let out a big sigh. “Castor Durant’s dad is all over the news still, yelling about who killed his little boy.” He pulled back and feathered a touch over Seth’s jaw. “Why didn’t you tell me? All those emails and texts. You didn’t mention it once.”

Seth shrugged. “I wanted you to get better. Had to make sure you weren’t scared. That’s all.”

Kelly gave a short bark of laughter, but it wasn’t a joyous sound. “That’s all? Seth, you can’t go outside while you’re here. You can’t let my parents see you, or my brother. Dad lied to the policeman who came to my room—and he was the nice one. But he got shot, and this other guy is all hard and shit, and he comes pounding on my dad’s door and starts yelling at him to get with the program!”

“What’s the program?” Seth asked, thinking about music. Was he supposed to play something?

“Telling them what we know about Castor Durant’s death!”

Seth blinked at him.A big bag full of slimy wet cement.“What do you know?” Did Kelly know he was a killer? Oh God. He had to go. He couldn’t be here if Kelly thought he was—

“I know you got beat up,” Kelly said, touching his face. “I know someone else was there—”

“All I know is that I got beat up,” Seth told him, pulling reluctantly out of his arms. “And that Castor Durant was dead. I don’t know anything about someone else, though. Do you need me to go now? I… if you think—”

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare!” Kelly said thickly, holding on to him so tight he couldn’t breathe.

For a moment Seth was soaring, flying so high in an attempt to get away from this conversation, from what it would do to him if Kelly told him to go away.

“Seth,mijo, stay with me.”

From far away, Seth said, “What did your dad say?”

“Dad didn’t say anything to the second cop, like he didn’t say anything to the first cop. But if Matty had been there—”

Seth frowned. “Matty?”

“He’d have told on you.”

Seth nodded, unsurprised, coming back to earth again a little. “Well, then, I’ll just stay in here until it’s time to catch my train.”

Kelly shook his head, and his red puffy eyes filled up again. “That’s it? That’s all you got?”

“You needed me,” he said again, his throat aching. He wiped away one of Kelly’s tears with his thumb. “I can’t be here all the time, but as long as you want me, I can be here when you need me.”

Kelly closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay. It was a hard day. Not gonna lie.”

Seth dropped all his stuff at his practice corner, thinking sadly that it was probably lonely without him, and then kicked off his shoes. “C’mon. Can we snuggle? I want to sit on the couch with you, and you can tell me all about it.”

Kelly nodded and wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do that. Your dad’ll be here in a while. You want pizza? I’ll text him. He told me to do that—let him know if I was here and wanted anything.”

Seth bit his lip, wondering if this was the first time Kelly had really asked. “Yeah. Yeah. Tell him to bring pizza.”