Page 53 of Stand By Me

"How do you know that?" Ben demanded.

Mario sighed. "I overheard her once, by accident."

It had been years ago, when he'd been leaving Ben's house late one night and walked carefully in order not to wake Ben's mom up. She wasn't asleep, though. She was on the phone with Clay, arguing with him about the money.

She noticed Mario right away, because he was too surprised to be careful, but it was already too late for him to unlearn this. And so she'd told him the rest—that Clay had been largely responsible for Ben's college fund but made her swear to never mention it to Ben.

Only now did Mario realize that maybe she'd shared it with him so willingly, because she thought he would be the one to tell Ben about it.

Well, he told him now.

The silence stretched for a long time, and then, Ben turned to the door.

"I need to go."

Mario stood up at that. "Wait—"

"I can't." Ben shook his head and barely glanced at Mario as he passed him. "I can't talk to you right now. I need to go."

And so Mario watched him leave, not knowing what else to do.

What could he hope for, now? That it wasn't the end? That the truth wasn't what messed this whole thing up beyond fixing? That—

He swallowed hard, pressing his hands against his eyes.

All he could hope for was a miracle, really.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

After calling Mario to let him know Ben was likely on his way to him, Clay didn't give himself time to think.

Mario was about to face the music for them both, so the least Clay could do was to go talk to his mother.

As he finally reentered the house, he found her in the kitchen, cleaning after dinner.

She shook her head when he offered to help.

"Sit down and talk to me, how about that?" She glanced over her shoulder. "And start from the beginning."

So he did. He told her about meeting Mario at the museum and reconnecting with him. He admitted it was turning into something serious, since she always worried about him being alone.

"You sure?" she asked, by then sitting on the opposite side of the table, two steaming mugs between them. "Because this is a hell of a risk to take for a maybe."

Clay stared at his tea for a long moment before meeting her gaze again.

"As sure as I can be, at this point. It's not like I'm picking out rings or anything, we're just getting started. But we both want to make it work, so I hope it turns out okay. After the dust settles, at least," he added, gesturing towards the window to indicate Ben storming off.

"You should've told him."

Clay nodded. "Mario was supposed to do that tomorrow. We didn't expect… this."

"Of course you didn't," she muttered. "Listen, if this works out, I'll be very happy for you. I've wanted you to find someone wonderful, and Lord knows Mario's high up there with the best of the best. But you need to be careful, because Ben and Mario? These two are like…" She sighed. “These two are thick as thieves, willing to go to bat for each other, no matter what. Coming between them—"

"I'm not coming between them," Clay protested, ignoring how that slight pause in her speech hit him right in the stomach.Like brothers. That was what she was about to say, he'd bet money on it. "I'm not trying to put a wedge between them, I'm not asking anyone to choose, or whatever you think is going on. I fell for the guy, I can't undo it because it might inconvenience my brother."

She watched him with her head tilted to the side, in that particular way of hers when she was trying to figure something out.

Finally, she nodded.

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