For one dizzy moment, he didn’t have anything.Then he latched onto the night’s events, began to flip through them like a deck of cards: that girl, Tilar, and her story about her dad and Daniel, and then the conversation with Kazen, and how fucked-up it had been, and then finding the wallet.
Brennon’s wallet changed everything.How did Kazen have it?And why?And what did it mean?
For starters, it meant that Kazen was lying about something.At the bare minimum, he was lying about not having seen Brennon in over a year.Maybe he was lying about more—about how they’d ended things, or about how he felt about Brennon having a new boy to fall in love with.The idea hit Jem like a jolt.Was that what this was?Jealousy?Kazen certainly hadn’t been happy about how Brennon had been out, catting around, while Kazen had to stay home and be a good little boy.Had Brennon tossed Kazen aside when Kazen started looking too much like an adult?And Kazen had stewed about it, getting angrier and angrier, until he learned about Ammon attacking Brennon?Maybe that had been the trigger, knowing Brennon had someone new?The phrasesomeone youngermade Jem want to be sick.
Jem wasn’t sure he bought that version, though.Better than anyone, he knew that people could lie, trick, manipulate, and deceive.And true, his bullshit meter had dinged a couple of times during Kazen’s story.But for the most part, Kazen’s account had rung true to Jem.A lot of guys, gay and straight, wanted to grow up as fast as they could.Sex was one of the ways they tried to prove it to themselves.And Jem thought Kazen’s mom might have been on to something; whatever Kazen told himself, sex with an older man—at such a young age—had a distinct whiff of daddy issues.There had been details, like how Brennon had used Kazen’s name for his password, that made the story believable.
But if all of that was true, then what had happened?And why had Kazen lied to them?
He grabbed the laptop they shared—Tean called it Jem’s laptop, because Tean usually used his work one, but this one belonged to both of them—and headed for the bedroom.After tapping on the door, he eased it open and whispered, “Tean, babe, you awake?”
Scipio raised his head; his eyes gleamed in the dark.Tean was a shapeless stretch of darkness.“Yes.”
“What’s Daniel’s birthday?”
Several seconds passed.“Why?”
“I just had an idea.”
Scipio sprawled out on his side, in case Jem was in the mood to give belly rubs.
“It’s in May,” Tean finally said.“It’s in my phone.”
“Do you know what year?”
“He’s fifteen, so two thousand and four.”
“Can I check?”
“Of course.”
Jem unlocked Tean’s phone—the wallpaper was a picture of them sitting on an outcrop of gray stone, trees coming to life around them, the sky a painted blue.Back when it seemed like things had been getting better.The whole world was getting better.He found the calendar, scrolled back to May, and found it—the tenth.
“Thanks, babe.”
“Do you need help?”
“No, I’m just checking something.”Jem began to shut the door.Then he said, “Do you need anything?”
“No.”
“You know those cops were just trying to jam us up.You know that, right?”
“I don’t know.I don’t know what they want.”
It took Jem longer to build up the courage to ask, “Are you okay?”
“I’m just tired.”
“I’ll let you get some sleep.Goodnight.I love you.”
“I love you too” floated back out of the dark.
Jem shut the door and hurried back to the front of the house.On his phone, he searchedfind my device iphone.The iCloud website came up first, withFind Devicesas one of the options.He clicked on this.When he went to sign in, he entered Brennon’s cell number, the one Kazen had given them.The site accepted it and asked for a password.
Okay.So.
Daniel, capital D.Because passwords usually had a capital letter.And because it made sense—the first letter of a name was supposed to be capitalized.
