“Do you want me to stay?” Rory asked.
“I…I’d like to be with my brother alone if that’s okay.”
“Anything you need.” Rory leaned in and kissed him.
“I’m going to take the boys home,” Camila said. “Take all the time you need. We’ll see you there.”
Camila kissed Emilio and walked off with Rory and the boys.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Bernard said.
“Why didn’t he listen to us?” Emilio yelled.
“Emilio, it’s not his fault.”
“Yes, it is,” he said. “We told him to listen to his doctor and stop drinking and smoking. He didn’t listen. Now he’s gone.”
“I…” Bernard couldn’t answer.
His father went through two packs of cigarettes a day and drank far too much. He’d been that way Bernard’s entire life. His beer drinking started when Bernard’s mom died twenty years ago. Bernard was only sixteen. Emilio was fourteen. They had to get jobs to help support the family. Their father took on extra work to earn the money to give them what they needed. He worked twelve to sixteen hours a day.
Emilio put his arms around himself and fell to his knees.
“Why?” He choked back tears.
Bernard knelt beside his brother and wrapped his arms around him. His size engulfed Emilio’s compact frame. Emilio laid his head against Bernard’s chest. His brother convulsed with sobs in his arm.
“Shh,” Bernard said, “we’ll be okay. It’s going to be okay.”
“He didn’t get to see you walk down the aisle,” Emilio said. “He would’ve loved to see you in a suit getting married. It was all he talked about.”
It wasn’t legal for same-sex couples to marry. A ceremony would be something he and Rory could do. His father would’ve been there, so proud of his son, supporting and cheering him on.
They sat on the ground. Brothers bound by birth and held together by sorrow. They were opposites, but they loved each other just the same. Bernard knew his brother’s pain just as his brother knew his.
The funeral reception was a blur. They held it at Emilio’s house. He ran into family members he hadn’t seen in years. They gave their condolences and brought food. He wasn’t hungry.
“I think I’m going to go home,” he told his friends.
They’d all come. Rory, Sarah, John, Kelly, and even Sean made it. It warmed his heart that all his friends were here for him.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Rory asked.
“I think I need to be alone.”
“I love you, sweetheart.” Rory wrapped his arms around him and kissed him. “I’ll always be there for you.”
“Thank you, sweetie. I love you too.”
“If you need anything, call us,” Sarah said.
“We’ll be here for you,” John said.
“Thank you, everyone.”
Bernard got in his car and drove home.
He didn’t remember the drive but found himself outside his house.
