way.
When I reached the store it was dark, and the grate was pulled down and locked securely. Javi owns the store and his wife, Rosa, helps him run it, but there was no sign of either of them. Peter’s beat-up old car was out front, but it was empty.
I peered through the store window, but it was impossible to tell if anyone was inside. I knocked on the grate, feeling ridiculous. “Peter? Are you there?”
No answer.
I stepped back, trying to think. The store had a back door, but all the shops and restaurants on this block were connected. I’d have to go all the way to the next street over and behind the commercial strip, along the narrow row of Dumpsters. I was lucky I hadn’t spotted any rats yet tonight, but God only knew what was crawling around back there.
Besides…it was deserted in this part of town at night. At least back by our house, someone would probably hear me if I screamed.
My hands had just started to shake all over again when I heard the hissing.
I whipped around. That had definitely sounded like a person, but I didn’t see anyone. Maybe I’d imagined it.
Another muffled hiss came, closer than the first.
I should run. I knew I should run, but my feet were frozen to the sidewalk, my limbs shut down by panic.
Then the hissing turned to laughter, and I almost cried in relief. I knew that laugh. “What the heck, Peter?”
I clenched my hands into fists as my brother stepped out from the shadows with a grin on his face. I shoved him hard in the shoulder, and he reached up to block my hand before I could push him again.
“Lay off.” He chuckled. “It’s not my fault you’re such a ’fraidy cat.”
“Oh, thanks.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s what I get for sneaking out to find you in the middle of the night?”
“You snuck out?” Peter raised his eyebrows. “I’m impressed. This isn’t the middle of the night, though—it’s barely nine. Our boring neighborhood shuts down early.”
“Well, you were supposed to come straight home as soon as you closed up. What are you doing out here by yourself? Did you…did you hear about Miami?”
Peter nodded slowly. “It was on the radio. I already knew it would happen, though.”
“What do you mean, you already knew?”
“It was obvious.” He shrugged, then stepped in front of the store and slid down with his back against the grate until he was sitting in a patch of darkness on the sidewalk. “Anita won by a landslide. It was the only thing that was ever going to happen.”
“How’d you know?” I lowered myself next to him.
“As soon as she got them to hold that vote, it was done.” He ran his free hand over his curly dark hair. “She got tired of singing about orange juice on TV and heard there was a law that gave gay people permission to exist, so she rallied all the other Stepford wives into an army, and now we’re all screwed. There was no chance the straight people would’ve voted any other way.”
I flinched, the way I always did when someone cursed. Usually Peter teased me about that, too, but not tonight. “Well, I’m straight, and I would’ve.”
He didn’t answer. It wasn’t like him to be this quiet.
“Are you…?” I didn’t know what to say. “You know…sad?”
“No.” Peter gazed at a car turning at the end of the block. One of its headlights was busted out, and the other drew a faint, slow circle across the empty street. “I’m not sad.”
“Oh. Okay.” For the first time in our lives, I had no idea what to say to my brother. I knew he was lying, but I couldn’t think of a single way to make him feel any better. “Well, let’s go home.”
“Mom’ll come down. She always does when I get home.” Peter kept refusing to meet my eyes. “She’ll see you, and she’ll ground you for sneaking out.”
“Maybe not,” I said, but he