Katt was headed toward the stairs, but paused when Franco spoke. He didn’t turn around. “Why are you here?” Katt asked, his voice low and thick.
“I… I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Franco murmured, his Italian accent somehow softening his tone. Katt realized just now that he had come to love the sound of Franco’s voice. One of those things he hadn’t been previously aware of.Franco walked forward slowly, with an air of caution. “You sounded upset on the phone. You wouldn’t talk to me. I was… worried about you.”
“How did you know where I was?” Katt whispered, refusing to turn and look at him.
Franco let out a deep breath. “Todd.”
“He just…toldyou?” Katt asked doubtfully.
“Iinsisted.”
Katt sniffed as his throat grew tight and his eyes burned. “Whatdid he tell you?”
“Just what he told you. Thelieabout the initiation.” A tightness entered his voice. “Noneof the brothers fucked amanas initiation. That was total bullshit.”
“Yeah,” Katt rasped. “I got the memo.” He wanted to ask if Todd saidwhyhe had done this, but then realized it didn’t matter anymore. There was no “acceptable” reason for what he did.
“Katt…” Franco closed the distance between them. “About what happened upstairs—”
Katt turned on him. “It’s none of your business,” he snapped. “Go back to school and tell everyone I’m afag,I don’t give a fuck. I’m not coming back there anyway.” Katt spun back around toward the stairs, but Franco caught hold of his arm.
“Katt,wait.”
“Why?”Katt jerked loose of his grip and stepped back. His jaw clenched, causing his face to ache and his eyes to water. “What do youwant?You saw what I did. Why are you still here?”
“I wasn’t going tocondemnyou,” Franco replied sharply before his tone softened. “I just… I don’t know… I just wanted to know why you went through with it when you knew Todd had lied.”
Katt just stared at him, eyes swimming, a fear he couldn’t account for coiling in his gut.
“Are you… gay?”
Katt swallowed. “What if I am?” he asked with a note of defensiveness. “What? You don’t want to be friends with me anymore? I don’t care.”
A shadow of hurt drifted behind Franco’s eyes. “You don’t care?”
Katt licked his lips, his throat straining. “Why would I care? I mean, if you stopped being my friend for…thatreason.”
“A real friend wouldn’t do that,” Franco whispered.
Katt looked at him in silence.
Franco nodded, something unreadable moving behind his eyes. “You’re wondering what kind of friendIam.” He pushed a hand through his dark hair, and that was when Katt noticed it—the scuffed, slightly swollen knuckles, the bruise already spreading across the back of his hand.
“What… What happened to your hand?”
Lowering his arm, Franco looked at his discolored knuckles, then at Katt. “Todd’sface.”
“You did what?!” Franco straightened, his fists clenching. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“I thought he might be fag. I needed to know.”
Franco shook his head. “Why did you think he was gay?”
Todd left the chair and moved out from behind the desk. “I knew him when we were kids. There were… signs… back then. There are no fags in the brotherhood, and I didn’t want one to slip in.”
“What?” Franco glared at him. “You invited him to join. If you thought he was gay, why invite him?”
“I have my reasons.”
