Page 52 of Street of Dreams
“A water pipe burst at his school, and he called me since it was my day to pick him up,” Henry explained. “Ben ran inside as soon as we got home, while me and Danny hung around outside. We had no idea what was going on until we heard the shots. When we got inside the house, the place was trashed, you were on the floor, and Mac and Ben were acting as a shield between you and the old man.”
“We didn’t know what the fuck was going on,” Danny continued. “You were all busted up. Mac was bleeding. Bruce was waving a gun around with a crazy look in his eyes, madder than I’ve ever seen him. We got in front of him and told him he’d have to kill all of us in order to get to you.”
No one had ever protected Jake before. He was always the one trying to protect everyone else. He couldn’t believe the courage and guts it took for them to go against someone like Bruce King. He had so much love and respect for everyone in this room right now. Especially Ben, who proved to be the bravest of all. He loved that kid so fucking much. He loved them all so fucking much. And it was clear that they loved him in return. Tears filled his eyes, and he inhaled sharply in order to hold them back. As if it wasn’t bad enough that his brothers had to see him beaten and broken, he didn’t want them to see him cry.
“Um. There was one more thing.” Danny glanced at Henry with apprehension, then down at the floor as he spoke. “You and Mac were totally naked.”
Heat cover Jake’s neck and face, and he hated the humiliation that washed over him. He had nothing to be ashamed of but still feared the twins’ reaction to the knowledge that he was gay. They were here, which meant something, but he didn’t know if they accepted him or felt differently about him now. He had tried to unteach the bigotry that Bruce brought into the house, but he didn’t know if it was enough. “You know why we were naked, right?”
The twins looked at one another with unease and shifted awkwardly on their feet. It took a moment before either one of them said anything. It was Henry who broke the silence. “You’re banging Mackenzie?” His face scrunched up with confusion. Or was it repulsion? “You’re a queer?”
“Don’t fucking say that word like that,” Jake snapped. A sharp pain shot up to his left eye from the sudden movement of his jaw, and his lip pulsed. “That goes for all of you.” He looked pointedly at each of his brothers, including Ben. “Don’t you know that Bruce is full of shit with the hate he’s got for everyone? Haven’t I always told you that?”
The twins glanced at one another, still uncomfortable with the conversation. “Yeah, but—”
“But nothing.” This time, the force of Jake’s words made his chest hurt. “I’m your fucking brother. I’m your fucking family. Not him. What’d he ever do for you? I take care of you.”
“We know,” Henry said. The twins glanced at one another again. “But two guys? Isn’t that—”
“What?” Jake cut him off. “Disgusting? Wrong? How the fuck is it wrong to love somebody?” He glanced at Mac. “I love Mac. And he loves me. He’s the only person who’s ever given a fuck about me. He makes me happy. How many people in this world have ever made me happy? How is that fucking wrong?”
Mac took Jake’s hand. “Calm down. Stop getting yourself all worked up.” His eyes shifted to the monitor behind Jake’s head. “Your heartrate just skyrocketed. Take it easy.”
Jake didn’t care that his heart was beating so hard it made his ribs hurt. He needed to get through to his brothers. “You have no right to hate someone because of who they love. You hear me? You don’t judge people like that.” He looked at Ben, the innocent one of the bunch. “You get what I’m saying, right?”
Ben nodded. “I like Mac. He’s nice. I know he makes you happy because you smile more since he’s been coming over. I like it when you smile.”
Anger and frustration fled in an instant at the simplicity of Ben’s answer. It made Jake’s eyes water, and it was hard to find his voice. “Thanks, Ben. You did good. Standing up to the old man for me. You probably saved my life. I’m really proud of you. But I don’t want you to ever touch a fucking gun again. You hear me?”
“But he was hurting you. And Mac.”
“I don’t care. Guns aren’t the answer. I always told you that. I hate that they’re in the house. You know you’re not supposed to touch them. Promise me you won’t touch any of them ever again.”
Ben nodded. “I promise.”
Exhaustion made Jake’s head fall back onto the pillow. As hard as he tried to fight the tears, one slipped out the corner of his eye and fell into his hairline.
Mac gently wiped it away. “Hey. It’s OK.”
“Is it?” Jake picked his head up and looked at Henry, then at Danny. “Are you two OK with me and Mac being together?”
Both twins nodded. “It’s cool,” Danny said. “You never explained it like that before.” He looked off to the side in thought. “So, it was Mackenzie, not some chick, that you were spending time with? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Jake exhaled. He should have trusted his brothers. “I was afraid.” It was the first time he ever admitted fear or uncertainty to anyone besides Mac, and it brought a layer of relief. “I didn’t know if . . . I don’t know what I thought.”
“You’re our brother. No matter what,” Henry said, adamantly. “But you’re wrong. Mac isn’t the only one who’s ever given a fuck about you. We do too.” Henry swallowed and his cheeks flushed. “I don’t know what we’d do without you. You take care of us. You always have. For as long as I can remember.”
“We love you,” Ben added.
Jake squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back the emotion that threatened to overtake him. The left side of his face throbbed. His eye was probably the size of a baseball and burned like hell, but he still tried to hold it together. His mouth and cheeks contorted with the last bit of self-control before he collapsed altogether and sobbed.
Mac was the first to wrap his arms around Jake, then each one of his brothers joined the embrace. He never felt so completely loved. He clung to them, pulling at the sleeves of their shirts, even though his body protested from the pressure, and wept for a long time before he fell back to sleep from exhaustion.
Two days later, Jake was released from the hospital. As he sat on a bench at the curb with Mac and waited for his brothers to pull the car up to the front of the hospital, he prepared himself for a much-needed talk. “I know you don’t understand why I’m going back to that house,” he began. “But I have to. I don’t know what’s going to happen—”
“Please don’t do anything crazy,” Mac pleaded.
Jake went over his options. Things could go down a bunch of different ways, and he couldn’t see a favorable outcome from any of them. He stared into Mac’s sea green eyes and sighed. The sun shone down on both of them, even though there was a chill in the air, and it glimmered off Mac’s garnet hair. The wind blew the long locks off Mac’s shoulders and deposited a strand across his face. Jake brushed it away, and worry stared back at him.
