Games Boys Play Read Online Free PDF Page A

my dad’s trucks.”
    “And take it where?”
    “There’s a Morage Storage not far from my place. The more I think of it, the more I like that idea. Better than sitting here till four in the morning making trash and keep piles. Just shove it in a storage unit, and let someone else deal with it after I’m gone.”
    “Need help?”
    “Nah. I’m making it sound worse than it is.”
    “If you change your mind…”
    “Sure. Well, I’ll let—”
    “Hey,” Brian said.
    “Yeah?”
    He chewed his lip.
    “What is it?” Dylan asked.
    “Yeah. I was just…I was wondering what you were thinking we could do. Regarding, you know, what we talked about.”
    Patty’s voice cut in—not close enough to make out what she was saying but close enough to recognize.
    Dylan, his voice angled away from the phone, said, “No, Brian says he’ll take them.” Patty’s voice came again. Then Dylan: “Yeah, burgers are fine. I’m on the phone now, okay?”
    To Brian he said, “This isn’t really the time to get into that.”
    “No, it doesn’t sound like it.” What it did sound like, through the phone’s speaker, was heavy boots galumphing down wooden steps.
    Dylan said, “Listen, I’ve got half a basement of crap to go through.”
    “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.” Brian set the phone on the kitchen counter and went back to the door to wrestle his keys out. As he tugged on them, his brain played out the idea of someone yanking his arms behind him and tying his wrists together, forcing him to his knees. To the floor. Holding him down with a boot. It didn’t make it any easier to get the keys free.
    “Goddamn it.” He gripped the edge of the door and jiggled the keys again.
    “Someone” had never really had a face—it was just hands, fists, gruff orders, hard knees that pinned him down. His brain tried to put Dylan’s face there, cigarette jutting from the corner of his mouth, one eye squinting against the smoke as he arranged and knotted rope. How’s that? Too tight? I can loosen it if you want.
    Brian put the sandwich in the fridge and grabbed the last of the beers, put a record on, and slouched down on his couch.
    All right—how’s that? Can you wiggle out? No? So, what’s next? Do I just go sit and watch TV for a while?
    He imagined Dylan with his arm stretched across the back of the couch, glancing over at him every few minutes. Still doing okay? That’s not too tight, is it? Hey, this morning, I showed up at the job site. You remember Kai, right? Big guy with a knocked-out tooth?
    Brian sank lower on the couch.
    He couldn’t do this with Dylan. And then get up onstage with him? Show his face at the family Fourth of July party? Have a normal, casual conversation with him ever again. After that? With it always at the back of his mind? It was bad enough Dylan knew about it.
    Night settled in. Brian didn’t bother turning on lights, didn’t bother trying to push the darkness back to the corners. The empty beer bottle sat on the coffee table by his knee.
    He could not do this with Dylan.
    The thought made him green around the gills.
    The last song faded out. When it went quiet, the tone arm lifted and returned to its rest. The platter slowed to a stop.
    The night seemed even deeper for the silence.
    He could not fucking do this with Dylan.

Chapter Five
    At first Brian was worried that the past week—being discovered, Dylan’s knowing what went on, Dylan’s offer—would make him too self-conscious to enjoy time with himself for…who knew how long. A year? Years? Maybe he’d dip his toe back in when he was thirty-two?
    And in the meantime, what?
    All the more reason to climb back onto the proverbial horse now, before it galloped out of reach.
    It was a Friday, eleven in the morning. Dylan would be working a job for his dad. Brian jammed a chair under the knob of the apartment’s front door anyway, just to be safe. The last thing he needed was for Kelsey—Dylan’s half sister and the band’s