At breakfast, Nick announced he was dropping out of school and getting a job. That’s stupid, why would you do that? Because I’m sick and tired of hearing you bitch about how you pay for everything. I don’t do that. Yes, you do, whenever you’re pissed off at me. That’s not true. Fuck you, Bill, don’t you ever listen to yourself? And it had escalated to that moment when Nick pushed his chair back and got into Bill’s face and Bill instinctively shoved him against the sink. Nick’s eyes went dark with rage and for a moment Bill thought he was going to take a swing at him. Instead, he ran out of the apartment. Bill’s heart was pumping and his hands were shaking. He couldn’t believe he had laid hands on Nick. His remorse was immediate and all-consuming. He had sat down at the kitchen table and wept.

He poured a third drink. I’ve gone home. Bill picked up the phone and dialed Mrs. Trejo’s number.

“Hola,” came her familiar voice.

He took a deep breath. “Dolly, it’s Bill. Is Nick there?”

There was a heavy pause and she replied, with sadness rather than anger, “Yeah, Bill, he’s here, but I don’t think he wants to talk to you right now.”

“Please,” Bill said, his voice nearly breaking. “Please. I need to talk to him. I need to tell him I love him and that I’m sorry.”

Another hesitation and then a sigh. “Okay, let me talk to him.”

A moment later, Nick said, in his most sullen adolescent tone, “What.”

“Nicky, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Please come home.”

“I am home,” Nick said flatly.

“To our home.”

“You mean your home,” he replied bitterly. “That place and everything in it belongs to you. When I’m there, you treat me like I belong to you too. But I don’t. I don’t belong to you, Bill. I’m not,” and here he spat out the words, “your boy.”

“I know that. God, I swear I know that. Look, what can I do to make this right? We could start over. Move out of here and find a place together.”

“That you would pay for.”

Bill had no answer to that.

After a moment’s silence, Nick said, “See what I mean? We’re not equals as long as I’m a student and you’re paying all the bills. That’s why I want to drop out and get a job. I need to pay my own way.”

“Do you really want to leave school?”

“No,” Nick admitted, adding in a voice full of confusion, “but I don’t know what else to do to make you happy.”

“You do make me happy, happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”

“Then how come we fight all the time?”