“He knows you’re here, Aleks. Who do you think told us about your Mama and Papa being mad at you and not wanting you anymore?”
“No… no, he… he wouldn’t do that. He… he loves me.”
“Well, maybe he does. How about you come stay with me for a while and if he wants to come see you, he will?”
“You’ll tell him where I am?”
“I will, I promise. But if you want me to do something for you, you have to do something for me.”
“Wh… what?”
“You just have to behave, Aleks. That’s all. Just do what I tell you. And you can stay with me until Dante can convince your Mama and Papa to give you another chance.”
“Um…”
“You trust your brother, right? Then he should be able to come get you real soon. But my house is much nicer than this place. You can have your own room and watch TV and eat whatever you want. As long as you behave.”
“Okay… but I can go when Dante comes?”
“Of course. But until then, we’ll be the best of special friends, how does that sound?”
“Okay.”
“My name’s Brian, Aleks. Let’s go home, okay?”
“No… no!”
“Aleks, wake up, you’re dreaming!”
“No, I don’t want to go with you!”
“Aleks, damn it, wake up!”
I jerked awake at the voice that was too deep and desperate to be Brian’s. Brian never got angry. He punished, he manipulated, he threatened, but he never raised his voice to do it. There was a slight pressure on my upper arms as I tried to get my eyes to open, but between the pounding in my head and chest and the way my eyesfelt stuck together because they were dry, I couldn’t escape that moment when I’d naïvely put my hand in Brian’s and let him lead me from the dark, empty room with just the one mattress on the floor. I began to cry because I couldn’t even tell my young self to run.
Just run.
I’d never run.
I’d never even tried.
“Just behave, Aleks, and your brother will come soon.”
“And you’ll tell him I was good?”
“I’ll tell him you were the best.”
Meu melhor…
My best…
“Dante,” I whispered as I forced my eyes open. “Meu melhor,” I gasped as I sat up.
I waited for him to play the game with me. The first time I’d called him my best, he’d started making up ridiculous guesses to finish the statement and it had become our thing. Even now, we still did it and it was how I knew I was okay… that everything was finally okay.
But it wasn’t Dante’s gentle expression that met mine when I managed to focus. And it wasn’t his big hands on my upper arms.
“Vaughn,” I breathed in relief.
