Page 73 of String Boys

His dad sputtered. “Look, you little dickhead, I’ll pay for your ticket there and back, just get in the damned car!”

Well, shit.On the one hand, it meant he had to come back. On the other, it meant he’d have more money for food if he went with the living-in-Seth’s-dorm option.

“Coffee on the way?” he bargained, and his dad laughed.

“Sure.”

He got in the car, and Dad threw him a hat—something his grandma had knit for… well, anyone in the family who would wear it. It was made with big chunky yarn and had flecks of something pink in it.

“Really?” Kelly asked, eyeing the hat.

“Did you bring one of your own?” Dad asked pointedly.

“No.”

“It’s cold outside. You forget your own hat, I provide. Also, are you insane?”

Kelly grunted. “Seth does it sometimes.”

“Yes. This is true. But Seth didn’t walk out the door one night and almost not come back!”

“He did too,” Kelly said. “He did too, and you know it. And this time, I needed to be somewhere with him where we can walk outside for a change. I….” He let out a little grunt. “It’s not fair.”

“I know.”

“I’ve been looking at JC’s, you know, near Northridge or San Francisco. So we can….” This sounded so grown-up. “So we can live together and go to school.”

“We’d miss you,” his dad said, sighing. “I’m not ready yet. Definitely not ready for Matty to be grown-up. Seriously not ready for you to grow up either. You’re only sixteen.”

“Well….” Kelly looked out the window into the foggy streets. “I’ll be seventeen when I graduate. If we were rich and shit, you’d be sending me away to a college, never to see me again.”

“Screwthat,” his dad muttered. “There’s, like, noway!”

Kelly laughed then, with all his heart, because his dad sounded about sixteen himself.

“Well, you know. Bridgford isn’t that far away. Maybe you can visit—isn’t the train station over there?” Because his dad had passed up the old brick building in the pocket behind Old Sacramento and was zooming toward the freeway.

“The way I figure, I’ll get you there in about two hours,” his dad said. “Look around—nobody out. We can stop for coffee in Vacaville.”

Kelly swallowed. “Don’t you got things to do today? Matty and—” He tried so hard not to say “skanky whoring bitch.” “—Isela?”

It was his dad’s turn to laugh, and he didn’t slow down. “Tell me how youreallyfeel, Kelly.”

“He’s stupid,” Kelly muttered. “I mean, I’m not gonna argue he’s stupid. And he’s mean. And he’s an asshole. But… but trapping him? That wasn’t right. He was just dumb, being led around by his peter that way.”

“Yeah.” Dad took a deep breath. “I can’t argue. Not today. And I’m pissed at him. He doesn’t deserve my time like you do. But we’re having a good conversation. Even if all we do the rest of the way down is argue over music and sports, I’d rather spend my morning driving you to Bridgford and coming home than dealing with your brother’s bullshit.”

Kelly smiled, a thing that had gone cold in his chest the night before warming again. “I mean, she’s gonna be pregnant until what? August?”

“That’s the plan so far,” his dad said.

“Yeah, well, they can frickin’ wait. I’ll even let you pick the music.”

“How aboutyoupick the music. I know Seth sends you practice videos. Let’s hear what he’s doing.”

Kelly’s chest got tight. He remembered when Seth said just talking about Kelly to his roommate made him feel better. This was his dad’s way of making up for the fact that nobody talked about Seth in his house anymore. Everybody was too afraid of Matty or Isela, of somebody telling Seth’s terrible secret and getting him into trouble.

Kelly never got to talk about one of the things he was a complete expert on, and Dad was giving him a chance to do that.