Page 71 of String Boys

He didn’t have a brother anymore. This foul-mouthed, bitter stranger was part of the reason Kelly didn’t sleep much at night. He kept dreaming Matty would sneak up behind him and strangle him, or slit his throat as he slept, or suffocate him with a pillow.

Terrible, violent dreams left Kelly soaked in sweat, and left him spending the next two or three nights in Seth’s bed, until he could look at his brother again and not imagine Matty’s hands around his throat instead of Castor Durant’s.

So Matty storming in wasn’t anything new, and the way he disrespected Dad wasn’t fun either, but as he swept by Kelly’s stuff on the coffee table, the pictures of Seth swirled off and Matty stopped mid rant.

“Him? You’re drawing pictures ofhim?”

“Yeah! So?”

“That fucking faggot—”

“Matty, stop!” Dad snarled. “Or the next thing you hear is going to be the door slamming behind you!”

“You don’t know, Dad! All this shit you’re giving me, and you don’t even know you have a faggot living under your roof, where he can get to the girls! You should haveseenhim and that other fag, kissing on the fucking camping trip, kissing like perverts in the woods—”

Kelly gaped and then pulled himself up and stood. “As opposed toyou, assfucking your girlfriend over a log? Becausethatwas fucking classy, Mateo—thatwas something you should have told Mom and Dad about!”

The back of Matty’s hand caught Kelly’s mouth just right, and he flew backward into the wall.

He lay there, stunned, sliding onto the couch. When he came to, Matty was in a three-point restraint.

Holy God.

His father had his knee in Matty’s back and an elbow between his shoulders as he restrained his son’s wrists behind his back.

“Call Craig,” Dad said to Mom, his voice choked. “I’m going to need his help getting our son to your mother’s house.”

“Daddy!” Matty wailed. “No!”

“You want to come back home?” Xavier Cruz grunted. “Youreallywant to come back home? Then you come back as my son.Myson doesn’t just beat his little brother in the face for no reason.Myson doesn’t hate his brother for no good reason.Myson doesn’t hate his brother’s boyfriend for no other reason than he’s your brother’s boyfriend. You want to know what I wish? I’ll tell you what I wish! I wish you’d been attacked that night. I wish you’d had to learn what being beat up on was like. I wish you’d learned humility and kindness the way your brother seems to always have known. So yes. We’re sending you away. Because it’s easier for us to love you from far away when you’re not being a monster to us here.”

“But, Daddy,” Matty cried, actual tears on his face. “I… I can’t leave. Isela’s pregnant, and I don’t know what I’m going to do!”

“Holy God,” Mom muttered. “You’re still not our son.Myson would have taken the condoms I put in his room every month for a year andusedthem!”

Dad stared at his wife. “You’ve been giving him condoms? Jesus Christ, so have I!” He let go of Matty’s arms and smacked Matty on the head. “What in the fuck, son? Were yousellingthem?”

Matty pulled painfully to a sitting position, looking at his father with wounded defensiveness.

“She said she was on the pill,” he mumbled. “And then this week, she said she lied. We have to get married right after graduation.”

“Fuck!” Xavier Cruz rocked back on his heels. “Jesus fucking Christ. Mateo, you’re not even fit to parent adogat this point. I want to take you to your grandmother’s because I’m afraid of having you around yoursisters.What in the hell?”

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Matty said, and Kelly hated him more in that moment than ever, because he sounded sincere. And heartbroken. And confused.

Kelly stood up and headed for his bedroom.

“Wait—Kelly—” his dad called, but fuck it.

“No, no, I get it,” Kelly snapped. “You’ve got to worry about your grandbaby and your number one son. What the hell. I’m just the gay one. I’m gonna befine—”

His mother was the one who caught up to him as he started throwing clothes in his backpack for school. “Going downstairs?” she asked softly.

“Apparently for the rest of my life,” he replied, hating Matty for that most of all. He’d been happy, listening to his sisters, smelling sugar cookies, enjoying his home.

“No,” she said, stopping his hands as he tried to strangle a pair of socks. “No. Your brother, he’s going to live somewhere else, even if we have to wait for graduation to get rid of him. Your dad’s right. I don’t want that shit in my house.” She squeezed his hands. “You, I still want. And Seth. And the two of you together.”

Kelly grunted. “I… I just wanted to tell you my own way,” he muttered.