They started out being friends when they were little kids. Their mothers were both in a gardening club, and became good friends between their Latin heritage and taste in flowers and food. So Manuel and Antonio both ended up being dragged along to such a lady thing, and stuck as the only two four-year old young men, thank you, not boys, they bonded together. This is what young kids do- They find someone stuck in the same dull, bland, and absolutely drop-dead boring situation as them, and as they're young, become great friends.
Manuel and Antonio, mighty and invincible gods! They ruled over the snails and ants and roly-poly bugs, and especially the worms. Oh, how the worms were favored. They'd find sticks, as smooth as they could get, and they'd stick them in the ground. When they'd done that, they would wiggle the stick until worms started to come close, drawn to the vibrations. Antonio was usually the one who ran inside to get the Glad container from dear old Mrs. Martinez, and Manuel would pick up the slimy little critters and drop them in the container. They tried to keep them, take them home sometimes, but they never survived. So they waited for girls to show up, then scared the girls with the worms.
Manuel and Antonio, mighty and terrifying cootie-scare-away-ers! This was the best thing ever, but then, every Tuesday was the best thing ever.
Time passed. Antonio turned four, and then became the higher mighty and powerful god, since he was older anyway. Manuel became the follower, always going with Antonio's plans, and Antonio was a good god, going along with Manuel's less-frequently voiced plans, but they were great plans. Very few things ever went wrong with Manuel's plans, whereas Antonio's tended to fall flat about halfway through as one or both lost interest.
That year, Manuel's father fell ill, so he got to see Antonio less. But they still had grand times when they were together, becoming friends with Manuel's papa's doctor and nurses, all of which enjoyed the bright personality of the two boys. The nurses began to think the two, with their messy brown hair and shining eyes and tendency to be on the same page absolutely all the time, were brothers. The boys took it to heart, and started to call each other hermano. Of course, Antonio did have a brother, but he was only a baby and no fun to play with at all. All Ricardo did was cry and poop and eat and sleep, and where was the fun in that? Nowhere, that's where.
Around September, Manuel's mamma became very sad, and they had to go to a church service. Manuel was confused, because there was a lot less people than usual, and besides, this was Tuesday. He was very sure this was Tuesday, but Manuel couldn't persuade his mother that they were supposed to go to the garden club. Maybe she had quit, but that didn't explain why Papa was in the wooden box up in the front and why people were crying. He wanted to talk to Papa, but nobody would let him, so he began to cry, too. He liked Papa, and nobody would let him talk to his own Papa. Even his mother wouldn't, and when they went home later in the day, she just held Manuel close and cried, not willing to let him go.
So Manuel didn't fight it, trying to keep his mama from crying.
Manuel and his mother moved away, to a different house, later that week. It was much smaller, and they shared it with his grandparents. He liked living with his grandparents, and spent a lot of time with his grandpapa. He was a funny old man, and took Manuel out to the beach a lot. He told stories to Manuel of a long time ago, when he was the age of the younger, himself. His favorite thing to say was "When I was a young little man like you, I had a lady on both arms and all my friends followed me around. Why don't you have a lady yet, pequeño?" And then he would laugh, this loud, soulful laugh, and Manuel would have to grin brilliantly, climbing into his grandpapa's lap for a story.
The house was a nice place, and it was still near where they lived before. Mama spent time with Abuelita, but they still had Tuesdays. Soon after they moved in, they started walking to garden club, and Antonio and Manuel spent time together again, as brothers. Manuel and Antonio started to have sleepovers, and Antonio's papa would call him hijo. It wasn't the same as his own Papa calling him hijo, but a man who was shipped to Heaven in a box without a stamp couldn't really call him hijo very well at all, now could he?
Years passed.
Antonio and Manuel, the mighty and powerful cootie-chase-away-ers, became Antonio and Manuel, the mighty and powerful ladies' men through elementary and middle school. Manuel came to understand that his father had died, not been shipped off to Timbuktu, wherever that was, anyways. Did people really know? That, he wasn't sure of still. But it didn't matter.
Antonio and Manuel, the ladies' men, soccer-playing, talented, competitive brothers from different mothers. They practiced after school, all summer, moving from team to competitive team.
And then high school happened.