Page 32 of On Fire

“Because he’s gay,” Luke says. “The guy was like, you get rid of her and prove you’re a man.” The laptop pings another email notification and Luke scoots back to his original position, his sandy brown head bent down toward the screen.

“Oh,” I say, trying to stop my heart from thrumming in my chest. I don’t know why my adrenaline is going. It must be a cascade effect of having Keller sitting right next to me, Luke casually outing him to me, the pressure Keller must have felt to force a high school girl off a team.

“Now listen here,” Keller says suddenly inflated with irritation. “We’ve talked about this.”

Luke glances up and it’s clear he won’t be cowed by his big brother.

“You can’t just talk about me like that, it’s my story to tell, my life—”

“But you don’t. You don’t tell anyone. End of story.” There’s more than irritation in Luke’s voice. I can hear it without even seeing him. There’s frustration with the person you love making decisions you know will ultimately hurt them.

There’s a very awkward silence in the car as the Lexus zips down a fairly empty freeway. Fifteen years separate the brothers and there’s an ocean of social and cultural change between them.

“You can get mad at me all you want, you know I’m right,” Luke says. He gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Tell him not to be so worried all the time. No one’s going to disown him.”

“This is not going any further than this car, right? Not the boys at the station—” Keller sounds dead serious.

“Devon would love that—”

“You know what I mean.” Keller means business.

“No—I get it. Of course not.” Then quite lightly he adds, “I knew Nic would understand.”