Page 82 of Risking it All

“But no more basement tonight for you,” Dad said.

“Understood.” Loud and clear.

“Lev can’t stay the night,” Rachel said. “At least not tonight. We only have an emergency order. Mrs. Collins and his social worker are working on something more permanent, but right now we need to avoid anything out of the box.”

It sucked, but I understood. “Do you want me to get him?”

“In a minute,” Isaiah said. “We have two more favors.”

“Sure.”

“We already talked to Seth,” Rachel said. “And he said Lev can take any clothes he needs. We’ll take Lev shopping tomorrow, but for tonight, he doesn’t have anything. We think Lev will be more apt to take something from Seth if you go with him.”

My mind raced with that—could I imagine starting over with strangers, with nothing?

“Makes sense. Just to let you know, Lev wears whatever he feels like. Boy clothes. Girl clothes. Honestly, he does this chic interlacing between masculinity and femininity. He sometimes wears makeup and applies it better than I do. And he wears shark suits. To therapy. Not to work. I banned shark suits from work.”

Isaiah crossed his arms over his chest, highlighting his sleeve of tattoos. “Do I look like someone who gives two fucks what anyone looks like?”

“Nope,” I said with pride.

“Right answer.” He leaned forward. “And for the second favor, Lev might feel safer if you walked him to our house and showed him the place. My house belongs to you as much as it does Ariel, so you know where everything is.”

“Isaiah and I will be in the kitchen,” Rachel added. “In case he has any questions or concerns. We won’t go to bed until he’s been asleep for a while, just in case he needs us.”

Isaiah spent most of his life in the foster care system, so I respected his suggestions, and Rachel had a heart the size of the galaxy. “I can do that.”

I stood, but paused before leaving, looking at my nonblood aunt and uncle. “Thank you for taking Lev in. You are the most amazing people in the world.” I had never understood until now what a big deal it was that they gave teens a home when they needed it the most.

Rachel glanced down with a shy smile, and Isaiah pulled at his ears covered in earrings, a typical response from him when he didn’t have words, which sometimes happened. Actions were his comfort spot.

I left the kitchen to wake Lev.

***

“Isaiah and Rachel will take you shopping tomorrow,” I explained. “But they want you to have something to wear tonight and tomorrow.”

Quiet and trudging up the stairs like he was exhausted, Lev trailed behind. Wanting Lev to know he had options, I brought him to my room, turned on the light, opened my closet, and took a step back. “We’ll hit my brother Seth’s room next. Warning: he has a ton of athletic pants and shirts. It’s sort of like Nike and Adidas were rabbits and had a ton of babies.”

Lev stared at me, dumbfounded. “What do you want me to do?”

“Whatever you want. If you want any clothes from my closet, great. If you don’t, that’s also great. If you’d prefer something from Seth’s room, I might slightly judge you, but I’ll accept it.” I paused. “I noticed you seem happier when wearing skirts, and I have a few of those.”

“I like letting the boys breathe,” he said as he took in in my closet.

“I could have lived my whole life without knowing that.”

For the first time today, he gave a ghost of a smirk.

“What will Isaiah and Rachel say?” he asked in a small voice. “My father lost his mind when I wore a skirt, so I had to change after I left the house and before I went home.”

“They don’t care.”

Lev looked straight into my eyes. “I’m bi. Are they going to be okay with that?”

“Isaiah and Rachel are very open minded.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, “people say they’re open minded, but then—”

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