Brandon walked slowly back over to Kyle and the remains of the pizza. Somewhere in his mind, a part of him was screeching that getting Kyle to talk to his dad was a terrible idea. Even deeper in his mind, a much younger voice started taking over.

'You can do this. Help him. You gotta help him.'

Brandon shook his head- a half-hearted attempt at getting his thoughts in order. He knew there was no way Kyle would just admit something was wrong... No, it would be a talk full of give without a lot of take. He took a large bite of pizza, swallowed heavily, and followed up with a deep breath.

'This is going to be a disaster, why not start off by offending him?'

The smaller boy did not look at his tormenter, but he didn't need to be looking to realised that Kyle would be angered if not defensive and unwilling to discuss what all is wrong.

"Hey, Kyle," he started, "that guy... was he your dad?"

The other boy froze with a slice of pizza halfway to his mouth. "It's none of your business."

Brandon took a breath. "He kinda reminded me of my father."

"No way. Your dad's awesome." Kyle resumed eating, but Brandon wouldn't be deterred.

"You're right. My dad's awesome; I wasn't always part of this family though."

"You were adopted? When?"

"When I was ten. Before that I lived in a children's village, and before that I lived with my mother and father."

"I didn't know that." He finished eating the slice in his hand. After a few minutes though, Kyle nudged Brandon a bit.

"What were you living in a... 'children's village'... for?"

"It was safer than home was." Brandon took a shuddering breath. "That phone call... it was the hardest thing I'd ever done."

Kyle's eyes closed and he seemed to be thinking about what he'd just learned.

"Did he hurt you?"

The question was whispered and Brandon took a minute of his own to figure out how to respond. The simple answer was 'yes', but there was a chance that giving such a simple answer would just make the other boy back off.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

Kyle looked him straight in the eyes and nodded solemnly.

Brandon dropped his own eyes and when he finally continued it was barely above a whisper. "I think he was planning to kill me that night. It felt worse than getting buried alive."

"You serious? That's... that's just wrong."

"Yeah." Brandon looked up again. "Kyle, that guy I saw yell at you... You don't deserve to be treated that way. Nobody does."

For the longest time after that neither boy spoke. It was as though they reached the silent conclusion that it was best not to dwell too long in the dark thoughts.

"Hey, Brandon... say you were right... what the hell am I supposed to do about it?"

"You could talk to my dad. Believe it or not, he'd help you in a minute if you told him you wanted help from him."

Kyle nodded. His expression was a bit off, but it looked as though he was giving the younger boy's words some serious consideration. Minutes later a small spark crept into his eyes- a small hint of life that hadn't been there before- and in that moment Kyle realised there was hope for him to live freely.

"Know what, dweeb? You're not half bad."

Brandon smiled to himself, letting the words sink into his mind where another boy was listening the whole time.

'I think he's gonna be okay, Jacob.'
'Me too, Brandon.'