Kieran & Drew Read Online Free PDF Page B

narrowed his eyes suspiciously before asking: “Who was on the phone?”
     
His dad stood up a little straighter, shrugged slightly. “Just restaurant business, why?”
    Kieran swallowed the disappointment he felt and headed into the kitchen. “I’ll just make myself a sandwich.” He opened the fridge, using it as an excuse to hide the letdown he felt and that was surely written all over his face. He missed the worried expression on his father’s face.
“Well, if you’re sure….”
     
“It’s fine. Go,” he said without even turning around as he put a sandwich together.
    “Okay, well… I’ll probably be back late.”
“Like every night,” Kieran muttered.
“ Kier …,” his dad said softly.
    Suddenly feeling just a little too overwhelmed by the world of hurt sitting on his shoulders, Kieran took his hastily made sandwich, snagged up his backpack, and headed toward his room. “Night, Dad.”
    He couldn’t eat his sandwich. He could only sit on his bed and take deep breaths, trying not to cry like the little faggot he felt like as he listened to his dad’s car come to life and reverse off the driveway.
Alone again.
    He swiped angrily at his eyes with the heels of his hands. What was wrong with him? What was so terrible about him that nobody wanted to be around him? He toed off his sneakers and then lay down on his back, looking up at the ceiling. His dad didn’t care. He didn’t know where the fuck his mother was—in fact, he only knew what she looked like because he found a few old photographs once in his dad’s office. She must have seen it in him from the beginning. She must have seen something was not right with him and decided he wasn’t worth the time, so she just took off.
    Well, it’d be his turn soon enough. He’d already applied for colleges as far away as Michigan, California, and Washington. He hadn’t told his dad yet, but seeing as his father hadn’t yet asked about his plans when it was already halfway through his senior year, he figured that, as usual, his dad didn’t care.
    And what was up with the secret girlfriend? Still ? He couldn’t figure out why his dad would think he’d be pissed at him for actually moving on finally and finding himself a girlfriend, so he could only conclude that he just didn’t want Kieran involved with that part of his life. It fucking hurt. It’d been two years since he last felt properly connected to his dad, like he belonged with him. And a whole year had gone by where his dad had pretended he wasn’t dating one of the waitresses at the restaurant. Like he hadn’t heard him whispering on the phone, all smiles and flirty.
    He reached under the bed and pulled out a Hellboy , volume one, “Seed of Destruction.” There was a reason he loved comic books and other general geek paraphernalia so much. All the downtrodden, unnoticeable, unpopular protagonists had the most exciting alter egos. He decided that he really ought to get himself one.
    T
RUE to his word, Drew had made Matt wait outside the store while he picked up the odds and ends his mother needed. Though he still couldn’t help but fidget uncomfortably at the checkout when the clerk rang up his mother’s tampons and incense sticks.
    Then at home, he helped Matt through some of the trickier math shit that even tripped him up from time to time. Now he was more or less letting Matt get on with it, just flicking through his English Lit textbook and offering input when asked for it, but for the most part, his mind kept wandering back to his conversation with Kieran in the storeroom.
    He went there intending to reassure Kieran, but felt that he had only made things worse, somehow. He was torn between just letting it go and pretending it never happened, or approaching Kieran again. The former seemed the sensible idea, but left him feeling dissatisfied, and the latter ran the risk of embarrassing Kieran further.
    He cut a quick glance to Matt, who was frowning in concentration. What he really