“Okay,” I said easily. “You were saying people can be dicks?”
He was once again refusing to look at me. “Yeah. It’s better now because it’s summer, but….”
“At your school?”
He nodded tightly. “It’s just… Kai, you know?”
Ah. There it was. “Kai’s all right, I guess.”
He shook his head. “More than all right. Kai’s the best. Like, you have no idea.”
I really didn’t. Kai was the most standoffish out of everyone who came to Phoenix House, more likely to be looking down at their phone than up at anyone. They only seemed to talk with Diego and Marina, though I thought they were warming up to Jeremy. “You been together long?”
He shrugged awkwardly. “Really long time. Since just after Christmas.”
Really long time. Jesus Christ. “Kai’s in foster care, right?”
He nodded.
“And it’s all good there?”
He nodded again. “They don’t really… care? I mean, they do but they don’t, you know?”
I did. I said as much. “They like you okay?”
“Their foster mom does. Foster dad works nights, so he’s not really around when I am.”
“And your parents?”
That was a mistake. I played my hand too early. “What about them?” he snapped, glaring at me fiercely.
“Just wanted to see if they were okay with Kai,” I told him. “Nothing more, man. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay with me.”
He had a stubborn jut to his jaw. He was challenging me. “My mom’s illegal. I’m a Dreamer. I qualify under DACA.”
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. That was what Marina was probably going to say before she stopped herself on the first day after introducing us. I got why. It wasn’t her business to tell me unless I absolutely needed to know.
“Hey,” I said. “That’s great. I bet your mom works hard.”
He didn’t look like he believed me. “She does. It’s just us, but she does a lot. She cleans houses. Does a real good job. When she gets really busy, I go and help her sometimes.”
“That’s great.”
His brow furrowed. “She doesn’t know about me. She knows Kai, but… she doesn’t speak English very good. And I don’t—it would be hard for her to understand.”
“I get that,” I said quietly.
“You told your parents? About being trans?” He recoiled sharply. “I mean, uh… being… what was it called?”
“Bigender.”
He nodded. “I try and get that stuff right. It’s important. I messed up a lot when I first started talking to Kai about stuff. Getting the pronouns all wrong. I’m sorry.”
I waved him away. “You don’t need to apologize. I know what you meant. But thank you for trying. Some people won’t even do that.” I took a deep breath, wanting to keep things a little vague but to give just enough for him to know I wasn’t full of shit. “No, my parents don’t know. But that’s only because I don’t know who they are. I was raised in foster care like Kai.”
His eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”