Page 63 of String Boys

After fumbling with his phone a little, Kelly stuck it back in his pocket, and they settled themselves on the couch.

“What?” Kelly asked. “What was that grunt?”

“This couch is… broke. I never noticed that before.”

Kelly grunted too. “Yeah, well, don’t expect new furniture anytime soon. Your dad made like it was no big deal to buy me that tablet and the phone, but that shit’s expensive.”

“I’m trying not to spend much,” Seth confessed. “I… extra food’s pricey.”

Kelly cocked his head. “You keep sending me stuffies!” he protested.

“But Amara showed me how to do that so it doesn’t cost a zillion dollars.” Seth grinned. “You like them?” Kelly told him so, often, but Seth wasn’t above needing praise.

“Oh yeah. I keep most of them upstairs, and the girls play with them. Mom got me a shoebox, right? And they decorated it super cute, and it’s the Seth’s Friends Home. It’s got glitter and rainbows and shit. And Matty glares at it, but he can’t yell about it because Mom threatened to send him to her mom’s house to finish school if he did that. It’s all the way in West Sac—he’d have to go to a way worse school than ours, and he wouldn’t see his skinny-assed girlfriend there. So he’s mostly just taken to glaring at stuffed animals. It’s sort of funny.”

They both sighed because it wasn’t funny at all. Seth had lost his friend. Kelly had lost a brother. It was like Matty was dead to them and this angry stranger had taken his place.

“You need to take pictures,” Seth told him, ignoring the pain in the ass that was Matty for the moment. “Like, with the girls and stuff. I can print them out and put them on my wall.”

Kelly stroked his chin again, and then laughed. “Mijo! Your chin grew fuzz! When did that happen?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Seth mumbled, although he’d mostly been ignoring the phenomenon because he was pretty sure once he started shaving, that would be it. He’d be stuck on that hamster wheel forever.

“Yeah, well, I wish I didn’t. I’ve got to shave every day now. It’s bogus. Dad bought me an electric thingie so I don’t have to spend as much time in the bathroom with puke face.”

“Mm.” Seth was so done with Matty. He was tired from the trip and from worrying and just so happy to have Kelly in his arms, chest to chest. It was funny that Kelly thought he’d start going at the sex thing as soon as he shut the curtains. He wanted the joy of getting used to having Kelly in his arms again. “Why’d today suck?”

Kelly let out a sigh. “Do I have to say?”

Seth rolled his eyes. “No, but if you tell me now, you don’t have to talk about it for the rest of the weekend, and we can just pretend, you know? That it’s… it’s last year. And I don’t have to go anywhere Sunday afternoon.”

Kelly sighed and sagged against him. “Okay. That’s a good offer. I can pretend that. I’m all about pretending it’s last year. And I can do this with you every day.”

Seth’s own eyes burned. “I’d love to do this with you every day. Now talk.”

Kelly rambled—that was a given—but this ramble was worse than the others, ranging from Jimmy Durreson touching his shoulder in second period and Kelly freaking out, to how he hadn’t had anyone to eat lunch with because Seth and Amara were gone, to how the rape counselor would not shut up about the rape, to about how his sisters were just so loud and just so shrill, to how the things he used to love, like his sisters and like school and art, all had scary sharp edges to… to….

Seth had no words at first, but as Kelly came to a halt, panting on his chest, Seth realized he was humming.

“What’s that?” Kelly asked after a moment.

“It’s the theme from that movie—you know, the one about people’s dreams?”

Kelly laughed softly, some of his manic emotion seemingly drained just by telling Seth about it live, in person, where they could touch. “Seth? That’s about most of the movies out there.”

Seth smiled, but he kept humming, changing the song.

“The Little Mermaid?Are you kidding me?” But Kelly was relaxing even more. The skin under his eyes was dark and bruised, and he seemed to melt against Seth’s chest like he hadn’t slept in months.

Three months. More.

He hadn’t slept in three and a half months.

Oh God. They hadn’t touched like this in almost four months.

Seth changed the song, and if his voice wobbled a little, Kelly was too relaxed to hear it.

“Shrek,” Kelly murmured. “I know that song too. This is nice. It’s like my little sister’s music, and they make me happy.”