Chapter 48

“You fucking leave, Luca.” Hearing Jack actually say his name was a shock. “You fucking leave, or I’ll fucking make you. I’m not doing it again. I’m not having some sicko perv on me again.”

“Again?” Luca echoed, trying to pitch his voice low. Like Paolo did when he was coaxing an answer out of Angelo in a snit.

“I’m not doing it,” Jack continued, like he’d not heard Luca. “So you can fuck off and be a bender with your boyfriend all you fucking like, but you don’t come to swimming and you don’t come near me at school. I’m not doing it again. I’m not.”

The pieces were falling into place, and Luca didn’t like them. Bigotry was one thing. Jack was an easy kid to hate, after things he’d said. But this was something else. This was something big—huge—and Luca didn’t like what he was hearing. At all. He didn’t want to pity Jack. He didn’t want to think there was anything there to pity at all.