AS THE STORY GOES

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Okay, so are we gonna talk about what just happened?!" Jon was overexcited as he and his brother rode back to Camden at the end of the night. Justin was smiling with no words to express himself in the moment. "So, Jus. Tell me how you and her mom became close."

"The group home I grew up in. She was the psychologist, but she ended up being, like, the mom there. I was her favorite. She used to bring me comic books and she took me—and some of the other guys—out to restaurants or the aquarium."

"How do you know you were her favorite?" Jon asked with a smile.

"Because I just knew I was her favorite." Justin smiled knowingly as he glanced at his brother.

"So, if you and Lourdes really are a thing, how cool is it that she lives across the street from your mom?" Jon asked.

Justin nodded, waiting for Jon to say what Justin knew he was thinking.

"Their house is nice. They even have Amaya's brother's room still set up like a bedroom. Like, a guest bedroom, but Amaya said nobody ever sleeps in it. You know what would be crazy, Jus?"

"What?" Justin knew it was coming.

"Wouldn't it be cool if your mom was my mom, too? We'd be like brothers—squared." Jon laughed at his own dumb joke.

"That would be very cool." Justin nodded in agreement, having already thought of it.

"Would that be weird if she wanted to adopt me or something? You think that would be weird?" Jon was only being contained by the seatbelt across his chest, his excitement visible.

"Why would that be weird?" Justin asked.

"Because me and you are a team, right?"

"How would we not be a team anymore if we have the same mom?" Justin asked quizzically. Jon silently thought for a moment. "But, you should remember what she just said—that our biological mom—Nelly—wouldn't give me to her. Nelly might not give you to her, either." Justin didn't want him to get his hopes up.

"Man, I'd go to Nelly, like, 'Woman, I don't even know you. Stop playin' games and let me have this mom'," Jon said firmly in a mocking tough-guy voice.

"Yeah?" Justin laughed.

"I'm not here for the bull, you know?" Jon crossed his arms over his chest dramatically.

"But don't bring it up or anything right now. I feel like the timing of things has to be right," Justin said.

"Are you kidding? Nothing that just happened was on a timer. Who could have predicted or planned any of that?" Justin said nothing to Jon's logic. "I mean, just like you met Lourdes and you knew something was right in the air about you guys, maybe that's what just happened for me."

Justin glanced at his brother with a grin. "You make fun of me for how I think, but now you want to give some credibility to things happening on a level above us?"

"First of all, I don't make fun of you, I just say that some things are more coincidence than you make them out to be. Secondly, I believe in something else past us, too. I mean, I don't know what I think it is, but I don't just think we exist and then we never exist anymore in any way. Third," Jon paused, feeling a little embarrassed at that last moment.

"What's third?"

Jon sighed. "I liked it there. And them—Amaya and Jimmy and Marisol. And it felt nice. And we're moving to Mount Laurel anyway." He shrugged as if it all made perfect sense.

Justin felt his own surprising surge of emotion wash over him. There was a long pause, Jon knowing Justin wanted to say something, but not quite having the words. "I, um—" Justin had to clear his throat when he was finally able to speak, "—I had always known that when I turned eighteen, that I would do whatever it took to get you—and our sister, Bianca," Justin spoke a name he rarely said aloud. The name of his younger sister who took her own life just four months short of the date Justin would have taken custody of her. She hadn't been so lucky as to land in a living situation like Jon's or Justin's. Bianca had been terribly abused—before, when they were all still with their mother, and during her years in the system—both sexually and physically. "But, I always knew that I could never be the equivalent of a parent. I mean, no matter how hard I could try, I know I don't know enough about the world to be a dad to a kid who was already eight and hella smart. Sometimes, I think of how I try my best to give you everything else because I can't give you the most important thing a kid needs—parents." Justin was thankful for the darkness to cover the emotion in his eyes. He had cried more in that night than in the past ten years.