Question Mark
Ryan is the only one who thinks to ask her if he's done it before; she thinks that maybe this indicates something, but it's something she already knew. She can remember Ryan and Trey coming to school with black eyes, smudges of blood around their noses, swollen lips: she can remember the time Trey fell down the basement stairs and broke his wrist, the time Ryan cracked three ribs playing football in the park. Unlikely injuries, and unlikelier stories to explain them. There were times when Ryan and Trey spent weeks at her house, not just after school and on the weekends but nights, too, sleeping on the floor in Arturo's room. They were almost like brothers to her then. Looking back she realizes that her mother must have known, that she'd done her best to protect them when she could. She loves her mother for this.